NFI's Seedling Sale

Buy your seedlings from a local store and support a local non-profit! NFI will be selling seedlings at Community Forklift every Saturday from April 27 - May 25 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm. Support local communities! 

Community Forklift is located at 4671 Tanglewood Dr  Edmonston, MD 20781

Do you have a community garden that would like to put in a large order? We can deliver for a small fee. Contact us at info@neighborhoodfarminitiative.org for more information about scheduling an order. 

See varieties below!  

Kale ($2.00)

Red Russian Kale

Tomatoes ($3.50) 

Grape Red (cherry tomato)

Sungold (cherry tomato)

Yellow Pear (cherry tomato)

Better boy 

Amana Orange 

Bush Early Girl 

Patio Princess 

Eggplant ($3.50)

Millionaire Eggplant 

Santana Eggplant

Peppers ($2.50)

Sweet Banana (hot!)

Cayenne Thin (hot!)

Jalapeno (sweet)

Golden Bell/Yellow Bell (sweet)

Herbs ($1.50)

Genovese Basil 

Dark Opal Basil 

Sweet Thai Basil

Herbs ($2.00)

Garden Sage 

Summer Thyme 

Strawberries ($3.00)

Sweet Potato Slips (arriving in early May) 50 cents/slip or 10 for $4.00

Want some free seedlings? Volunteer at one of our Seedling Sales. Email Millie (mknowlton8@gmail.com) for more details. 


Our seedlings were grown from NFI, Three Part Harmony Farms, and Sharp's at Waterford Farm

Delicious & Decorative Edible Gardens

There's no better way to celebrate National Garden Month than planting your very own edible garden. But just because it's edible doesn't mean it can't be aesthetically appealing or must be monochromatic green. This spring, become the caretaker of your personal garden for a spiritually stimulating way to reconnect with nature.

Mulching

For your edible garden to bring you visual and gustatory delight, you'll need to care for it properly. One of the best ways to sustain life in your garden is to use the proper mulch. If you have a lawn, you already own all the mulch you'll ever need. Gardeners can use lawn mowers to create the ideal mulch to enhance soil and inhibit weeds. Freshly cut and dry grass clippings can be applied in thin layers over the your garden, according to GrowVeg.com. Clippings are rich with nitrogen and potassium for sufficient fertilization.

Edible & Ornamental Plants

Basil – Basil is an annual herb, best grown in well-drained soil and under full sun, according to Better Homes and Gardens. If you desire an edible plant of a different color, certain basil cultivars such as “Purple Ruffles” and “Round Midnight” grow purple leaves. Use basil leaves to create your very own pesto sauce for Italian dishes.
Strawberries – Sunset.com asserts that strawberries are the ideal fruit to grow, rather than buying pesticide-

packed commercial varieties. They recommend “Quinault,” “Seascape” and “Sequoia” cultivars. Find out your location's hardiness zone to grow the best strawberries.
Artichoke – Globe artichokes are decorative, delicious and a must-have edible plant for any garden. Their spiny violet-green hearts and blooming purple filaments add visual appeal. These bulbous vegetables are best used in salads or the always delicious spinach-artichoke dip.
Cilantro – Grow this annual tap-rooted plant in low, wide pots. Cilantro grows and flowers rapidly—once it reaches a height of about eight inches, cut off the outer leaves, according to Sunset.com. Sprinkle cilantro in your favorite Mexican cuisines, from gazpacho to guacamole.
Snow Peas – This podded pea is a cool-season plant that can be grown in all hardiness zones. The cultivar “Oregon Giant” grows not on a vine but a bush, and produces extra large pods. Ensure that you pick the sweet, crunchy pods when they reach harvest size — otherwise the seeds will ripen and the plant will halt production, according to Sunset.
Peppers – To add warm colors to your edible garden, plant red, orange and yellow Mariachi peppers. The plant produces elongated peppers that are mildly spicy. Mariachi peppers can thrive in all hardiness zones and grow best when bathing in the sun.
Mint – Mint is a warm season herb that's best grown in a bowl to isolate the herb from overtaking your garden. Spearmint produces vivid green leaves ideal for adding to jellies, mojitos or a glass of cold lemonade.


Written by, Bridgette Smith

For Love of Okra

By the time I was nine years old, okra had assumed the dubious honor of being the only vegetable I disliked. This held true for years, and I didn’t try very hard to identify any of the plant’s redeeming qualities. I loathed its slimy texture and strange anatomy, and that was that. But as I discovered last summer while enrolled in NFI’s Gardening Education Program, cultivating vegetables can do quite a bit to ease prejudices of taste. What we grow, we love.

Unaware of my long-held bias, two hearty okra plants thrived in my first garden as though that 12-by-12 plot was the happiest home they’d ever had. (I’d thrown in a few seeds on the edge of the plot as an experiment—or maybe a challenge.) Tall, leafy, and strong, they were prolific, and produced yellow flowers that belonged in a florist’s shop. It seemed clear that okra liked my garden. A lot. So I, in turn, began to like okra. It was especially good, I discovered, pan-fried in a hot skillet with a liberal dash of kosher salt.

The Gardening Education Program promises a growing-season of instruction; seeds and seedlings; and free use of tools. So I envisioned as many different veggies as my plot could hold: Zucchini, tomatoes, pattypan squash, green beans, fennel, chard, watermelon radishes, peppers, carrots, beets, spinach, basil, parsley, and dill, along with zinnias, sunflowers, and cosmos. And, of course, okra.  

Not all of my seeds sprouted. I was a newbie, after all, and no doubt my early and overzealous weeding hastened the demise of a few young plants. As the summer unfolded, though, my classmates and I learned how to care for those that did emerge. We watered, mulched, weeded, and—when our plants had matured--harvested. Terms like “vermicomposting” and “soil enhancement” became part of our vocabulary.

Our teacher, Nora, took care to explain that as some plants grow, they need extra help. A few varieties of green beans, for instance, do best when they have a trellis on which to climb. By mid-July, my bean plants had gotten quite robust. They looked restless. So one hot Saturday I went to the garden to construct a trellis. Using string and plastic stakes, I pieced together a makeshift contraption and threaded the beans’ spindly vines and heart-shaped leaves through it. Then I bolted for the air-conditioning, and from afar willed my green beans to grow fast and happy in their new vertical home.

By the following weekend, the trellis was dotted with purple blossoms. This was unexpected. I didn’t know bean plants produced purple flowers. And where were the actual beans? Nora took one look at my setup and laughed. “Those morning glories really like the trellis you made for them,” she said with a smile. So I spent the next hour dismantling the thing and detangling the impostors from their accidental home. On the ground, I cleared space for the bean plants—bush beans, as I now knew. The uprooted morning glories, meanwhile, found a new home in the compost pile.

The trellis incident was nature’s way of reminding me that I had a lot to learn. But I appreciated how the garden adapted again and again to my lack of precision and rookie mistakes. More than anything, though, I valued its tranquility. I loved wandering the wood-chip paths and watching other people’s gardens take shape. During the work week, my mind would often drift several miles across town to my own small plot. I’d picture the robins perched atop the bamboo rods to which I’d staked my tomato plants, and the bright goldfinches I often spotted in the cornstalks nearby. Thinking about the garden, it turned out, was almost as lovely as being there.   

By October, class was over and the growing season nearly done. I decided to pull up what plants remained. A few stray sungold tomatoes, some leaf lettuce, and young Red Russian kale just a few inches in length—that was it. Feeling sad as I placed the final harvest in my bag, I looked around and remembered what had thrived in this patch of earth. The carrots and fennel, admittedly, never made it. Nor did the beets. But I had conquered a lifelong suspicion of okra, grown a towering sunflower with a head the size of a pie plate, and learned how to squish beetles between my thumb and index finger.  

The garden had fed and inspired me all summer. Fittingly, it was a salad that emerged from that last visit. Tossed in olive oil and lemon juice and seasoned with a sprinkle of kosher salt, that bowl of baby kale, leaf lettuce and tomatoes was the very taste of my late-season garden. It was the best salad I’ve ever had.

Libby Sander was a member of NFI’s 2012 Gardening Education Program. She is on the waiting list for a plot in the Mamie Lee Community Garden. 

NFI Seedling Updates

Check out what's growing in the greenhouse and what to expect to plant when you volunteer with NFI! 

Planting on February 22:

Phlox Beauty Mix
Everlasting Straw
Borage
Purple Echincea
Dill - Mammoth
Sage- Broadleaf
Lavendar- True
Onion- Red Wing
Leek-  American Flag
Brussels Sprouts- Long Improved
Cabbage- Red Express
Lettuce- Red Planet Salad Mix
Fennel- Florence
Lettuce- Red Salad Bowl
Mustard- Florida Broad Leaf

Collards- Georgia Southern
Kohlrabi- Early White
Pok Choy- White Stem
Kale- Vate Drawf Blue
Kale- Ragged Jack Red Russian
Arugula- Astro

Salsa Party

Notes from our volunteer team leader, Neil Zimmerman. Thanks again, Neil for your leadership and enthusiasm! 

Today was a good day for two reasons:

• We had a bigger harvest than I’ve ever seen from NFI before.
• The salsa party afterwards was filled with great fun, good community, and delicious food.

Harvest: Our total haul for the day included:

Tomatoes: 28 pounds                          Kale: 1 pound                         Peppers: 2 pounds

Eggplant: 5 pounds                             Squash: 10 pounds                  Zucchinis: 17 pounds

Spinach: 3 pounds                               Basil: 3 pounds

Unlike many other days, the harvest was so bountiful that we had three-four volunteers working fulltime just on harvest – people really enjoyed seeing the fruits of our labor.

[l to r, standing] Roger with a pony of tomatoes and a bag of cherry tomatoes, Wes with a basket of zucc’s and squash, Jenna with spinach, Phil with eggplant and squash, Kelsey with heirloom tomatoes and kale; [kneeling] Danielle with basil, Kim with peppers and more tomatoes.

Afterwards, two of us brought most of the harvest to the DC Central Kitchen [we are hoping to arrange a visit there for the NFI at some point].

Salsa party: After the workday and cleanup, seven of us gathered to make and eat salsa.  Phil ran home to get an onion and garlic, while others of us kept chopping.  The conversation was rewarding, touching on salsa, how to grow garlic, homos, which salsa got garlic and which did not.

It is so joyful to work hard in the rows, harvest ingredients, and then work as a team to make delicious food and eat in communally.

Get your summer garden started with organic seedlings!

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative will be returning toCommunity Forklift, a warehouse that sells salvaged, recycled, and donated building materials, for their third annual plant sale!  NFI will be selling veggie and herb plants at the warehouse this Saturday, May 5 and then every Saturday in May from 10am - 1pm. (Great present for mother's day!) Buy some seedlings and then shop around the warehouse for the perfect pot to plant it in. 

For pre-ordering or more information, email NFI or call 202-605-1634. All proceeds benefit NFI’s work to cultivate a resourceful community of adults and teenagers working together to engage in small-scale food production in the Washington, D.C. area.  Check out our website for more info!

Seedlings for sale: 

Tomatoes ($3-4 each):

Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mr. Stripey, Amana Orange, Amish Paste, Sungold (cherry), Big Beef, Bush Early Girl (container)

Sweet and Hot Peppers ($2 each):

Red Knight (sweet), Italian Frying Pepper (sweet), Cayenne Thin (hot), Jalapeno (hot)

Eggplants ($2 each):

Millionaire (long thin Japanese style)

Herbs ($1-2 each):

Dark Opal Basil, Genovese Basil, Sweet Thai, Cilantro, Chocolate Mint, Garden Sage, Garden Thyme

See you there! 

- The NFI Team

Workday blog- April 7: Spring Seedlings

We’ve had glorious weather so far this year, and April 7, 2012 was no different. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, we saw a yellow butterfly in the fields, ….

The three big events of the day were compost maintenance, path maintenance and planting. Yes, you heard it right, we got in a lot of cauliflower, mesclun, kale, and other things which I didn’t write down (I was on path maintenance most of the day). The photos show Danielle, Patricia, Kristin, Nicole, Michelle, Ilse, Beth, Cathy, Delia, Roger, and Meredith planting seedlings. Another good thing about the day is that Bob got the water system working – he’s apparently worked a lot of hours on this over the last week or so. This was especially fortunate, because we were then able to lavish a lot of water on the thirsty seedlings.

In the background of the first photo, you can see the row cover (white sheet) which had

been sitting on top of the black hoops over the past week. This row cover was keeping

the previously planted lettuce a little warmer this past week; it was good to see that the

lettuce had survived.

Also, Kristin had put the new seedlings under the row cover on Wednesday; this “hardened” the seedlings for the planting today. “Hardening”: the concept that, a few days before transplanting, one puts the seedlings in the trays out of doors, to get them a little more prepared for the shock of transplanting.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed some shared snacks, including some locally picked

blueberry preserves canned last year. During this, a discussion arose as to the definition

and usefulness of “pectin”.