James W. Rouse day of service this Saturday

This coming Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9 am-4 pm, the 9th Annual James W. Rouse Community Service Day is coming to Sowebo, and one of the projects will be taking place right here at the Boyd Street garden.

This event will bring not only volunteers from outside the community, but also tools and resources to get a bunch of things done. These are some of the things on the agenda: cleanup/winterization, landscaping, installation of rain barrels, building raised beds and pavement removal for creation of new beds.

This is an exciting opportunity for our community, and if you read this, please come out and help. It would be great to have folks from the neighborhood, not just from elsewhere, pitching in and improving one of our shared treasures. All you have to do is show up, and someone will hand you a shovel, a pair of gloves, or a rake.

Baltimore Green Map

Check out the Baltimore Regional Green Map to find resources, gardens and any location that encourages environmentally sustainability. The Boyd Street Garden is on there, and so far, is the only community garden listed in our area, including Union Square and Hollins-Roundhouse. If anyone knows of other gardens in the area, please add them to the map; it's open-source.

A new season at the Boyd Street community garden

A few regulars have already begun preparing the soil and growing some veggies. Bulbs are starting to bloom, too. And as is the case every year around this time, there is work to be done. Saturday, April 16, 2011 is the Mayor's spring clean-up. Besides other neighborhood cleanup events, we will be hosting a garden work day on the 16th (exact time, TBA). Some of the projects include painting flower boxes, building raised beds, rebuilding brick planters, weeding and more.

And if you are interested in reserving a plot in the garden for yourself, just send an email to sowebogardening [at] gmail [dot ] com.

Urb Ag Gala Tonight

Tonight (Friday April 17 2009) marks the first annual Urb Ag Gala, hosted by the Baltimore Urban Agricultural Task Force. It's at St. John's Church (2640 St. Paul Street, 7 pm-10 pm).


The event is pitched as a chance for Baltimore's gardeners to share gardening stories, tricks and songs, and to get silly and excited about the growing season. I can't attend, but if anyone from Hollins Market does, you should mark the Boyd Alley garden on their large map of Baltimore gardens. For more info, visit the Baltimore Urban Agricultural Task Force's website.

And remember... tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm we're having a Boyd Alley garden clean-up/weed fest. Bring your gloves!

Spring cleanup day this Saturday

This Saturday, April 18, at 2:00 PM, there will be a special Earth Day volunteer garden cleanup at the Boyd Alley Community Garden. Whether you are interested in signing up for a plot, or want to help out with weeding and other tasks, or want to meet some neighbors, this is a great opportunity for all of the above.

Yes, there will be plenty of weeding to do, but also some trash pickup, and possibly some soil preparation and planting. There will be informational materials on gardening tips, as well as info on signing up for a plot of your own.

Boyd Alley Garden layout

This afternoon, I sketched a map of the Boyd Alley Community Garden. Nothing is to scale, of course, especially considering my tape measure fell apart halfway through my attempt. It's also only a rough estimation of where the actual plots exist-- some of these individual plots could probably be two or three, in reality. In some cases, plots that look very small are actually quite large. At the moment, a number of these plots are being used, but there are some available for this season. Stay tuned for more details about signing up for a plot of your own.

Spring is here

The Boyd Alley Community Garden has been hibernating all winter, but it's coming back to life, as you can plainly see.

Tulips are in bloom, as are the tree blossoms.

Some very diligent gardeners already have their soil tilled, and we may see some seedlings coming up soon, getting ready for a summer harvest. Here in Maryland, we're lucky to have such a long growing season that one can reap a good harvest well into the fall.

Looks great, no?

Of course, with new life comes... new life. Weeds abound, and too many for any one person to handle (many kudos to Edwin for all his work over the years cultivating and caring for this garden- he and Billy have done great things with this space). Stay tuned for details on a big spring garden cleanup. More info coming soon.