A summer school garden grows in NE Washington
August 5, 2014 | Washington Post
Washington, DC (August 5, 2014) – Summer days can stretch long for many young students in the District whose families don’t have thousands of extra dollars for camps and enrichment programs.
But a group of children in a subsidized housing development in the Parkside-Kenilworth neighborhood has been busy for the past month planting a new garden as part of a free summer program.
On a recent morning, children from the Paradise at Parkside Apartments showed a group of visitors what they had planted so far in their new wood-framed garden beds. They pointed out a long vine with a small flower that will eventually become a cantaloupe, some leafy plants bearing hot peppers and tiny new shoots of mustard greens or collard greens.
They said they are learning how to care for their growing garden.
“You give it love and care like you would a baby,” said Jamiah Cunningham, 10, a rising sixth grader. “You feed it and water it.”