EVENTreport

By Jamie Oberg and Tori Vandergriff

On Saturday, June 25, Rooting DC’s 15th annual event brought together urban farmers and gardeners for free workshops, networking events, and discussions about mid-Atlantic gardening and food production. The event was held virtually this year through the Whova app. The Whova app allowed attendees to remotely join each session based on a schedule released before the event. Speakers were given designated time slots so people could tune in to whichever sessions they were most interested in. Some sessions were recorded, so attendees could listen to the talks after the event had ended. This aspect made the event more inclusive of attendees’ busy schedules and enabled people to go back and listen to a session over again. Rooting DC is made possible by DC Greens, City Blossoms, and a rotating selection of nonprofit partners and government exhibitors. According to DC Greens, it garners about 1,200 attendees. Rooting DC was originally held in 2008, by a group of volunteer organizers hoping to share resources with gardeners in the DC area while building relationships. It has since grown and the event has hosted more than 700 free workshops over the years. Expecting 25 attendees at its first event, the 125 who lined up foreshadowed the growth that was to come. In 2009, 600 attendees arrived, with the number growing steadily each year. By 2017, every ward of Washington, DC, alongside its Virginia and Maryland neighbors, was represented. This year’s event included six workshops and four round tables “meant to facilitate connection and conversation.” Josh Singer, DC Parks and Rec community garden specialist, gave a virtual tour of Lederer Gardens during his session at Rooting DC 2022. Lederer Gardens is located in northeast DC and was started in the 1970s. It has seen difficulties in the past decade due to flooding, according to Singer, but has seen a recent upturn. Lederer Garden was restored and transformed into a communal farm where people can get hands-on gardening experience and the garden staff even does a weekly vegetable giveaway to members of the community. Lederer Gardens strives to alleviate food insecurity specifically in DC’s senior population, which is why their biggest veggie giveaways are during the weekdays. Singer brought the tour to one of the gardens’ greenhouses, where he conducted a workshop about propagating berries. He highlighted fresh raspberries and strawberries as easily propagated plants. He also gave tips for pruning sweet basil, tilling for better drainage in a garden, harvesting collard plants, and trellising tomatoes. Singer’s tour was highly informative and captivating because he was physically in the garden demonstrating all of his tips and tricks. This session was recorded, allowing attendees to fast-forward, rewind, and rewatch Singer’s tour based on their needs. Singer’s tour was an effective session used to introduce people to Lederer Gardens and provide advice for at-home gardening. Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of the Washington Gardener Magazine, gave a talk entitled “A Local Obsession: Growing Tomatoes.” Her talk was lecture-esque because she provided informative slides for each talking point. She provided the basic ground rules for growing tomatoes, including soil testing, raised beds, and providing the plant with full sun. She also gave planting tips

emphasizing the importance of burying the plant deep up the stem and/or on its side in a trench while placing supports at the same time as the seedling plants. Jentz discussed pruning, fertilizers, watering, and harvesting tips, and even trouble-shooting tomato plants that might not look the way you want. She displayed all of her knowledge and time-tested wisdom about growing tomatoes in this enlightening session. Jentz even provided her top 12 favorite tomato varieties and all of their best uses, from snacking to canning. Carly Mercer is the director of garden programming at Love & Carrots, a company that creates and maintains vegetable gardens in Maryland and Virginia. They have designed and installed more than 1,000 gardens and maintain about 150 on a biweekly basis. For Rooting DC, Mercer addressed common spacial setbacks gardeners have and how to work around them, especially in this area. “Gardening in Challenging Spaces” focused primarily on how to work with smaller and/or shadier areas. Mercer showed examples of vegetable gardens growing in a variety of spaces, from porches to a barely 2-feet wide box. In this area, soil amendments and compost are a must due to the prominence of heavy clay soil. Mercer said the easiest way to do amendments is through raised beds, which give plants more ability to create root systems. Raised beds also assist with drainage and overall have lower maintenance requirements than planting in the ground. Mercer also recommends pots or containers for space efficiency. The important thing to remember with pots is the bigger the better. Larger pots circumvent roots becoming bound and hold moisture better than smaller planters. Moisture is important, given this area can be very dry in the summer for weeks at a time, making irrigation a great investment. Still, hand-watering is possible as long as it is done consistently. When it came to actual plants, Mercer recommended a variety of crops to address different space challenges. Continual harvest plants, like tomatoes and herbs, are much better for small spaces than low-yield plants. Vertical gardening also uses space optimally, making crops like pole beans, climbing cucumbers, and malabar spinach great choices. Mercer recommended increasing production in these small spaces through consistent thinning and undersowing. For shady spaces, Mercer recommended different crops based on how shady your space actually is, making a site evaluation necessary. With five to six hours of sun, smaller fruiting plants work well. For four to five hours, crops with edible leaves are ideal. In the three to four-hour range, plants will grow slower and smaller, but greens and herbs are still possible with some dedication. Mercer rounded out her discussion with an overview of the most common pests gardeners struggle with. She suggested fixes for slugs, cabbage worms, and aphids to help with maintenance of the small or shady garden along with creating it. With ideas for the layout of gardens in challenging spaces, lists of workable crops for each condition, and tips for how to get the most out of your harvest, Mercer’s presentation greatly increased the accessibility of growing edible plants with Mid-Atlantic gardeners in mind. Whether you have a large backyard that the sun doesn’t hit or just a small balcony, Mercer provided the information needed to grow your own food. Felice Hodge Denison spoke about growing plants for personal care in a panel called “Growing Good Looks.” Denison is the CEO of the plant-based hair and skin care company Primo Noir Botanicals. She is a native Washingtonian with decades of gardening experience who became a Maryland Master Gardener this year. “‘Growing Good Looks,’ for me, is about identifying plants and the opportunities they offer for us to maximize our experience as humans,” Denison said. Denison made sure to keep things accessible, highlighting different lowcost ways of obtaining seeds, such as collecting them from food you eat and participating in seed exchanges. She made sure beginner gardeners were not left behind, discussing fundamentals like soil quality, water sources, and equipment and apparel she recommends. She even went over gardening options for those with lower physical activity abilities. Denison stressed the importance of creating a harvest plan ahead of time due to the wide range of temperatures experienced in the Washington metropolitan area. She suggested researching the requirements and typical harvest times, whether with the internet or from the back of seed packets, for each plant you want to grow. The planning didn’t stop at harvesting times. Denison explained the necessity of having uses for plants in mind before growing them through an anecdote about having “more mint than [she] knew what to do with.” Predetermined uses for each plant help decide how much of each is needed before any are planted, reducing wasted plants and growing space. “You want to plan for success,” she said.Some of the potential uses that Denison went over for plants included health functions such as purifying air and water, increasing energy levels and stamina, detoxifying the bloodstream, increasing or decreasing metabolism, and improving cell repair. There are also ample beauty functions such as aiding in hair growth, eliminating scars, and improving cellulite and skin elasticity. For concrete examples, Denison listed her top 10 plants for hair, body, and health benefits. She called spearmint the “ultimate toner,” recommended lemon peels for cuticles, and praised the many health benefits of melons. With many gardeners and gardening resources focused on growing either edible or ornamental plants, Denison’s presentation was a unique look into what else can be done with plants. o

Jamie Amadea Oberg is a rising senior at the University of Maryland (UMD) and an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener.

Victoria Vandergriff is finishing up her senior year at the University of Maryland as a journalism major with a history minor. She is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener