Category: working in the garden

Life in gardens: sowing

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Gardeners at the 1936 White Hse., Library of Congress“Grounds workers at White House, Washington, D.C.,” March 1936, by Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it.)

The National Park Service has maintained the White House gardens since 1933.

. . . [W]hile lawns are cultural (in the sense that they are meaning-laden), they are not the product of some pre-existing “culture,” and are instead the meaningful expression of political and economic forces. . . . Lawns are propelled into the landscape both by economic imperatives (e.g., real estate growth) and also by intentional and thoughtful efforts to produce certain kinds of subjects. Lawns are a strategy, therefore, both for capital accumulation and making docile and responsible citizens.

— Paul Robbins, from Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are (p. 32)

Vintage landscape: great deal

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Victory garden poster, National Archives“Victory Garden Plots Free For Employees ca. 1942 – ca. 1943” poster, created by the Office of Emergency Management, War Production Board, via U.S. National Archives Commons on flicker.

The location is Brierly’s Lane near the intersection with Duquesne Road (Bull Run Road).  I think this is in Munhall, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Vintage landscape: preparation

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Starting seeds 2, 1943, L. Rosskam, Library of Congress“Washington, D.C. Victory gardening in the Northwest section. [Tomato s]eedlings in paper cups that will be transplanted in the victory garden,” 1943, by Louise Rosskam, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (Another view here.)

Bloom Day in December

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I have done relatively little work in the garden since October, when we returned from our home leave in the U.S. — so finding these bird of paradise or Strelitzia reginae blooms this morning was a nice surprise.

I will keep this post quite short because our internet speed has taken a nosedive today (descending to brink-of-tears level), and I just need to get on and off and go decorate the tree.

This is my last Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day report from Rwanda.  Next month, we are moving to Stuttgart, Germany. We are very excited about living in Europe for the first time. Please stay tuned. . . . and send me recommendations of German gardens to visit.

To see what’s blooming today for other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

And have a wonderful holiday season!

Garden classroom, Washington, D.C.

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Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., October 2014, enclos*ure
In October, during our trip to the U.S., I poked fun at a Bradford pear tree (happily?) missing from the grounds of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) building on the National Mall.

But I did like all the other American specimen trees there — and the demonstration vegetable and flower garden on the corner of 12th Street and Jefferson Drive, S.W., (across from the Smithsonian Metro stop).

Outdoor classroom, USDA

I particularly liked the seating in what appeared to be an outdoor classroom.

Outdoor classroom, Oct. 2014, USDA

Earlier this year, an interesting 15-year plan was announced to turn all the green space (and parking lots) surrounding the USDA building into a “People’s Garden,” focusing on sustainable cultivation. You can read more about it here.