Gardening at the Old Soldiers’ Home

Earlier this year I announced that there was a community gardening opportunity at the Old Soldiers’ Home. I’m happy to report that there was a good response to this opportunity — in which community members are paired with AFRH residents to work garden plots side-by-side.

Thus far, I’ve observed two things (even though the season has just begun) … 1) Working with and getting to know the AFRH residents is both rewarding and interesting; and, 2) Even though the garden is just a few yards inside the fence from Rock Creek Church Road and Park Place, there is definitely a very rural feeling on the other side of the fence. It is very easy to forget you are in the heart of D.C. when you are gardening there.

Below are a couple of photographs taken while AFRH residents and the outside community put up fencing to protect the gardens from the deer.

This entry was posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:01 am and is filed under Armed Forces Retirement Home, Community Involvement. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: AFRH, community gardens, Friends of the Soldiers' Home

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6 Comments on “Gardening at the Old Soldiers’ Home”

Ross Says:

May 15, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Kent- I reached out to AFRH after your original post and never heard back. I’m still interested in getting involved. Any way I can? Thanks, Ross

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John H. Says:

May 15, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Ross, AFRH stopped taking applicants for this year after they got more than enough volunteers to pair with residents. There are lots of other ways to volunteer though through Friends of the Soldiers Home.

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Morning Links: Restoration - Housing Complex Says:

May 16, 2012 at 5:36 am
[…] Old Soldiers get a garden. [ParkViewDC] […]

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District Line Daily: Are The Fojol Bros. Racist? - City Desk Says:

May 16, 2012 at 10:17 am
[…] Old Soldiers get a garden. [ParkViewDC] […]

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Does Your Garden Grow More Than You Need? « Park View, D.C. Says:

July 19, 2012 at 7:03 am
[…] your food budget. With the Wangari Gardens, the community gardens at the Bruce-Monroe Park, and the gardening opportunity at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, residents in Park View have a lot more options to grow their own food than they did even a year […]

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Time to Sign Up for AFRH’s Second Season of the Community-Resident Garden Project | Park View, D.C. Says:

March 21, 2013 at 7:03 am
[…] Last year’s gardening experience was unbelievable. Not only was working with the retired soldiers rewarding, but being on the grounds of the AFRH was very Zen-like. It was very easy to forget that one was still in the middle of a major urban environment. […]

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