A VISIT TO THE FARM...

Walking onto Common Good City Farm is remarkably akin to stepping into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Room, a World of Pure Imagination. Workers are scattered about like Oompa Loompas- digging, watering, wheelbarrowing around the small tract of land. They toil quietly and diligently, while we visitors watch in silent wonder, so as not to break their concentration.

In addition to these industrious Oompa-Loompa types, looking around we realize that everything we see-- and everything that we don’t see yet, but will inevitably sprout within the next several weeks-- EVERYTHING is edible! And while the trees here probably won’t grow jelly apples, the bushes likely won’t sprout lollipops, and the mushrooms certainly won’t be spurting whipped cream any time soon- the creations dotting the outfield of the Common Good Farm are fairly remarkable.

Common Good City Farm is self-defined as “an urban farm and education center, growing food for low-income residents in Washington, DC and providing educational opportunities for all people.” They offer classes of all types and sizes with the goal of mixing expert gardeners with low income urbanites.

So some of these Adventuring Container Gardeners ventured to the farm, located in the baseball field of a recently closed elementary school, for what else- a course in Container Gardening! We learned a myriad of tricky container tactics, from constructing our own raised beds to utilizing ‘grow bags’ that claim to be 100% portable. The day was a great success, and future visits to this edible world are certainly in order.