Current GNDC Projects include:

DC’s TOOL LIBRARY!!

Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) Garden Toolshare – OPENING MARCH 1st!

1390 Taylor ST NW

Tools are checked out via appointment, please see rough schedule below.

In 2021, we began a collaboration with DC’s DPR to help manage DC’s Garden Tool Share, which is way more than garden tools, including miter saws, power drills, cutoff tools, paper shredders and more.

And we created and launched the DPR Garden Tool Share site!

We began supporting DPR’s previously little known Garden Tool Share Program, for use by Dc residents only, to make it far more known and more broadly useful.  They actually have a ton of garden tools: rakes, weedwhackers, hedge trimmers, shovels, bee equipment, a composters.  They also have solar ovens, a shop vac, test compost bins, a camping stove, miter saws, keyhole saw, tarps, greenhouse benders, and much more.  A cider press you can use on site!

Plus some bonus items they are giving away.  Bat houses, for instance!  And some “Junior Master Gardener” books for kids!

To view online and reserve from the list of 152 different types of tools, please email GREENNEIGHBORSDC@GMAIL.COM, so we can create a user account for you. We will need:

Name, email, phone, and DC DL# to show that you are a DC resident.

AFTER MARCH 1st, you can make an appointment with us to come by and see the library first-hand and/or check out tools. The library is inside the Twin Oaks Community Garden’s buildings, 1380 Taylor St NW, and we run entirely on volunteers, so an appointment is needed.

Schedule:

For August 8 – 14th – email us. (This is subject to change a couple times a week, as volunteers input times.)

• Monday, August 8th, 4 – 5 pm
• Tuesday – to be determined (middays open)
• Wednesday – 4 – 5:30 pm.
• Thursday – 5 – 5:30 pm.
• Friday evening – as needed, email us.
• Saturday, the 13th, from 10:30 am – 12 pm
• Sunday, 4-5 pm

If you need another time, please send the suggested date/time to us and we’ll see if one our backup volunteers is available.

Do give us 24 hrs notice please.

First, though, we’ll register you in the system, and you will get a verification email from “AssetTiger” (The system underneath is based on AssetTiger software, with our logo.) Click on it, set up your password, and you are good to reserve a tool.

For a Step-by-Step Guide see the handy new document window, just below:

Please email us if you have any questions in the meantime, greenneighborsdc@gmail.com.

Reservations are limited for a one-week period.

Please suggest any new potential projects via our Contact Us page! 

Or join a Green Neighbors meeting!  Usually the 3rd Sunday of every month, but this month we have postponed it at least a week.

 

Issues in which we’re involved

Local to global issues that directly affect our neighborhood.

Climate Change.   Our world is changing very rapidly with greenhouse gases, urban heat island effects, and motorized vehicles everywhere – yielding higher global temperatures every year.   Though our specific neighborhoods are ~200 feet above the Chesapeake Bay, much of DC will be affected, as the world is affected.  Lower portions of  DC will be flooded at high tide, water supplies will change, and more snow is forecast in winter while even higher temperatures are anticipated for the summer (affecting our utility prices), and even plant, insect, wildlife cycles will change, as will diseases.  As one of us was bitten by a mosquito in January of last year – this is not good!  GN is involved locally in efforts to help prevent climate change – from helping neighbors pursue renewable energy, to promoting the planting of trees to prevent the urban heat island effect.  Many of us also join in regional, national, and international initiatives. We plan to be a clearinghouse for local action.

Wildlife Protection and Safety.  Even though we are urban dwellers, wildlife exists in DC, and interacts with folks.  From snowy owl sightings, to raccoons, possums, and squirrels raiding our trash cans (and the night creature that shall remain nameless),

there are many creatures that still live in the environment we keep changing.  Migratory birds fly overhead, and stop in our parks.  Songbirds now sing much earlier due to streetlights, and wear themselves out.  How do we interact with them, and help protect them?  Keep watch for a quarterly post about some of our furrier green neighbors.  And we’re looking for resources and great stories!

And many thanks to two GN members who wrote up this handout on creating bee-friendly gardens.

Create-a-bee-friendly-urban-garden

More to come…

• Resource Sustainability
• Greenery

For more information, see some of our factsheets,and great links under Resources.

Independent Initiatives!

Click on the photos to learn about some of the initiatives neighbors have done on their own to help make DC Green!