Current GNDC Projects include:

DC’s TOOL LIBRARY!!

Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) Tool Library – now open year-round

1380 Taylor ST NW

WE ARE OPEN AGAIN!!

(see 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, as it includes miter saws, power drills, cutoff tools, paper shredders and more.

First, we created and launched the DPR Tool Library site here online, and we inventoried all the tools , photographed, and put them in an online system (see below)!

Second, we refurbished the building (just finished another round), and made it much more community friendly, showing a little history of the site as a former youth garden as well.

Third – We started taking in tool donations, too, and we are making the library far more known and more broadly useful.  We actually have a ton of garden tools: rakes, weedwhackers, hedge trimmers, shovels, bee equipment, a composters.  We 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 we are giving away.  Some “Junior Master Gardener” books for kids, for instance!

And now we are aiming for monthly workshops, such as our successful Cider Press and Woodworking Workshop this November!

AND this spring we’ll create a second branch of the tool library at Lederer Gardens in Ward 7!

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# or other proof of residency to show that you are a DC resident.

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 February 2nd – 8th. If checking ouot or return tools, please email us (24 hrs notice please) to confirm one of the below times. (This is subject to change a couple times a week, as volunteers input times.)

• Thursday – not available
• Friday, – tbd
• Saturday — Deb and Yuri, 11-11:50 am
• Sunday — Eric, 4-5 pm
• Monday — Meg, 6-7 pm
• Tuesday — tbd
• Wednesday — tbd
• Thursday – tbd
• Friday, – tbd

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

Do give us 24 hrs notice please.

USING OUR SYSTEM

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 sometimes we vary it. Contact us at http://www.greenneighborsdc.org. Cool.

 

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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!