Blog Archives
How Green Does Your Garden Grow?
There are some exciting happenings around gardening this spring with resources, events, and news that you can use as you start to plant in your vegetable and flower growing spaces.
First, if you had a chance to attend Rooting DC in February there was a wealth of urban gardening knowledge being shared. If you could not attend the events, you can still access presentations on their forum website. The presentations cover everything from starting growing nutritious microgreens to small space garden design to use of compost in your garden and pickling vegetables to preserve them.
Second, the Trinidad annual garden tour is coming up! As spring weather continues flowers will be blooming earlier and edible plants will soon start producing. This is the perfect time to think about what you want to plant in your yard or window boxes or what you want to show your neighbors during the garden tour, which will focus on edible plants this year. If you haven’t been on one of the garden tours, it is a wonderful way to get gardening ideas, meet neighbors, and show off what you are producing. The contact for the garden tour is Laura Casperson. You can reach her at casperson.laura@gmail.com if you have questions or are willing to show off your garden during the neighborhood tour. Watch this space for details on the Garden Tour date, time, and route
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(Photos of the 2015 Garden Tour)
Finally, Cultivate the City has teamed up with W. S. Jenks Hardware on Bladensburg Road and will be opening a nursery on site. They are constructing a green house on the roof for their H Street Garden project (yes, we know it is not on H Street but it is very conveniently located in Trinidad). They already have a few plants for sale in the store and W. S. Jenks has seasonal gardening items in stock. There will be a seedling Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and a vegetable CSA program coming to the site. Cultivate the City is also holding a photography contest with prizes for selected photos leading up to the opening of the garden center and completion of the rooftop farm. 
Jimmy Valentine’s 6th Annual Fundraiser for Youth: Thursday, October 3
For the past 5 years, local business Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club has raised funds to support Webb-Wheatley’s after school programs. The funds raised have made it possible to engage our youth in positive and productive activities and projects, like a play adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, a Halloween party with MPD, the creation of a yearbook by and for the students, kites for “high-flying kite day,” fashion and talent shows with prizes, field trips, and a host of other art and craft supplies that create teaching and learning opportunities.
This year’s fundraiser will benefit youth activities throughout the community, and it is scheduled for Thursday, October 3, 6:00-9:00 pm at Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club, 1103 Bladensburg Rd. NE. Jimmy V’s will offer 3 free drink tickets to each person donating $20 or more.
We’ll be able to accept cash and checks (and, we hope, credit cards) at the door. Checks can be made payable to Trinidad Neighborhood Association, with “JVLHC Fundraiser 6” in the memo.
For those unable to attend, please consider donating via TNA’s dedicated PayPal link. For those who prefer to donate by credit card in advance of the fundraiser, you can donate via PayPal and bring your receipt to the door: 
TNA serves as the fiduciary agent for the fundraiser – by raising funds through TNA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Jimmy Valentine’s and TNA are able to buy and directly donate items as and when needed. This means 100% of the money raised benefits the kids in our neighborhood.
5th Annual Webb-Wheatley After School Fundraiser: September 20
Photo by Jaime S. Fearer
For the past 4 years, local business Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club has raised funds to support Webb-Wheatley’s after school programs. The after school programming serves over 200 students, grades K through 6, and is run by Catrice Simpson.
The funds raised make it possible to engage our youth in positive and productive activities and projects, like a play adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, a Halloween party with MPD, the creation of a yearbook by and for the students, kites for “high-flying kite day,” fashion and talent shows with prizes, field trips, and a host of other art and craft supplies that create teaching and learning opportunities for the kids in Ms. Simpson’s program.
This year’s fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, September 20, 6:00-9:00 pm at Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club, 1103 Bladensburg Rd. NE. Jimmy V’s will offer 3 free drink tickets to each person donating $20 or more.
For those unable to attend, please consider donating via TNA’s dedicated PayPal link. For those who prefer to donate by credit card in advance of the fundraiser, you can donate via PayPal and bring your receipt to the door:
(TNA serves as the fiduciary agent for the fundraiser – by raising funds through TNA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Jimmy Valentine’s and TNA are able to buy and directly donate items as and when needed by Ms. Simpson. This means 100% of the money raised goes to the after school programming.)
New group for Trinidad-area parents
Photo by Robert Mann-Thompson
A Trinidad parents’ group is now up and running on Google groups: Tots of Trinidad DC (“ToT” DC) – it’s meant to be a resource for parents and children in Trinidad and beyond, and all are invited and welcome to participate.
Here’s the group link: http://groups.google.com/group/tots-of-trinidad-dc
Here’s the email address: tots-of-trinidad-dc@googlegroups.com
You can join the group through the link above, or by sending an email to vrunoroberts@gmail.com
Trinidad Neighborhood Association 