The Washington Youth Garden will be  holding two more dates in July for volunteers who haven’t been out to the WYG to get oriented. So come on out on Saturday, July 10 or Saturday, July 17. All volunteers need to fill out some paperwork before starting and will get an overview of garden protocol. Please arrive at 9am – we’ll have a short orientation till around 10am, then volunteer in the garden from 10am to 12pm.

After that, we have regular volunteer hours every Tuesday and Saturday morning until mid October.

If you plan on coming on the 10th or 17th, please email our volunteer coordinator Emily Roberts to let her know you’re coming:
emilyroberts@gmail.com

Also, save the date for our friends and family fun day. This will be a celebratory day out in the garden with food, live music, and gardening activities for children. We’ll be opening up a new section of the garden called a Nature Explore Classroom and will also have our beekeeper on hand to give a show and tell of our two new beehives. It’s Saturday, July 24th from 12pm to 4pm. I’ll be asking for volunteers to help out soon, but for now just mark your calendars because we’d love to have a fun day out in the garden with all you wonderful volunteers. No weeding, we promise!

NEW GARDENING RESOURCE—The Climate-Friendly Gardener

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is pleased to announce the release of The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground Up . This science-based but accessible guide explains how home gardeners can avoid contributing to climate change by using certain techniques and tools that are more climate-friendly than others. We hope you will consider sharing this guide widely with other interested members of the general public with whom you interact. For more information, or if you would like to request free printed copies of the guide to share, please contact Jennifer Palembas at jpalembas@ucsusa.org or 202-331-5435.

As part of the national conference hosted by Campus Progress, you are invited to join the Force of Food panel, discussing food access, health and environmental as well as cultural impacts. The panel is part of a day full of great panels and speakers for young progressives all over the country. It is FREE, and  in DC at the Omni Shoreham in Woodley Park on July 7th from 9-5. You can check out more info here http://www.campusprogress.org/conference/5350/2010-national-conference-agenda

4th Annual National Pollinator Week, June 21-27
This week is dedicated to raising awareness of the value of those hard-working pollinators that account for every third bite of food we eat. Governors of more that 30 states have designated the last week in June as “National Pollinator Week.” 
And it is being celebrated in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and around the globe as more and more people are realizing the value of pollinators as part of our food web

For more information and to get involved, see HERE

On May 6th Mayor Fenty named Christoph Tulou Director of the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE). On June 24th at noon, the DC Environmental Network and Earthjustice would like to invite you to a brown-bag luncheon to welcome Director Tulou to the District.

Although many of us have already met with the Director to talk about energy and clean water this informal brown-bag will be an opportunity to discuss more broadly the health and special needs of the District’s fragile urban environment. It would be great to have leaders who work on healthy food issues (farm to school, community gardens, etc.) participate in this discussion.

The event will feature a brief overview of some of the key environmental campaigns that local environmentalists are engaged in and will be followed by an opportunity for Director Tulou to tell us a little about himself and what he sees in DDOE’s future. Space is limited so RSVP Today!

Chris Weiss, Director, DC Environmental Network

Skilled volunteers needed!
We’re looking for a few good volunteers to help us out with some projects. If you or anyone you know has some special skills, send us an email: neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com. We’re looking for:

* A videographer with his/her own equipment: We’d like to document the progress of our summer youth crews, but we need someone to shoot the footage!
* A graphic designer: We’ve got some exciting events coming up and we’d love help designing a flyer to get the word out
* Chefs: We’ve already got some stellar cooking presentations lined up for our summer youth program, but we’d love some more!

Field Day!
We’re celebrating summer with a workshop/workday/potluck on July 10 from 10-2. NFI Intern and soil science extraordinaire Tommy Pyne will lead a compost Q&A, followed by an extra special compost sorting session. We’ll join the rest of the community garden in general garden cleanup, then we’ll potluck!

Wanna help out? We’re meeting on June 30 at 6:30pm. Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com for more details!

Save the Date: NFI Movie Screening and Dinner
We’ll host a screening of the short film Corner Plot and a very special harvest dinner on August 12 at Letelier Theater. More details to come, but mark your calendars now!

Maintaining a small local farm in an increasingly developed area of the DC suburbs is a difficult endeavor.  Eco Farms is one of DC’s last truly local farms and is in need of volunteers like you to increase its capacity.  Every Sunday, a small core group of volunteers who believe in supporting our local farms, getting outside in the sun and getting their hands dirty for a good cause come together to help Mike, the farmer, to plant, water, weed, and harvest.  With the help of this group of volunteers, this weekly effort will allow for the farm to be fully cultivated during the summer months.

Volunteers enjoy the educational component of farming, as well as the camaraderie.  Especially for individuals who are living in a city and working at desk jobs, getting outside and learning about the principles of bio-intensive agriculture, such as companion planting, etc., has significantly grown our interest in gardening back at home and in advocating for more local community gardens throughout the city.  We also have fun together!  We stick around to enjoy food together for a little bit afterwards, and to talk about things other than farming.

Wear closed toed shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty; long pants helps avoid ticks but is not mandatory.  We will be meeting at 12.30, and we will work rain or shine.  We arrive at the farm at 1 pm, put on sunblock, etc., then volunteer until about 4.  Then we gather for a small meal and talk together until 5 or 5.30, and then head out back to the city, returning around 6 if by car or slightly later if we take the metro back.

There is parking available at the farm, but carpooling or taking metro is encouraged! If you plan to take metro, go to the New Carrollton stop and exit on the Kiss&Ride side (not toward Rte. 50).  We’ll pick up volunteers at the metro at 1 pm; those driving to the farm directly should plan to arrive at 1 pm as well.

All those interested in volunteering should email laura.g.toscano@gmail.com, and indicate whether they’ll need to be picked up at the metro (include your cell phone #!) or will be driving directly.