DC Natives Welcomes the Autumn Harvest at the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild’s Fall Festival
Recently, DC Natives was invited to attend the Fall Festival at the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild to celebrate the autumn harvest. We are thankful that the Guild had such a bountiful harvest, none of which would be possible without the help of, you know who: the pollinators.
According to the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild (FMGG) website, the farm features a historic 110-year-old greenhouse and a vast garden where produce is grown for disbursement into the community through the farm’s food donation program.
Through the program, they grow, harvest and donate as much as 8,000 pounds of fresh, local food every year for food pantries and non-profits that provide meals for neighbors in need.
Two DC Natives Pollinator Gardens block captains, Sarah and Victor, were able to attend the event and talk to some of our neighbors in attendance about the importance of pollination and native plants.
To add to the excitement of the event, our Block Captains were even able to witness the marvelous weed-eating machines: the sheep of Lamb Mowers Fairfax!
The Lamb Mowers of Fairfax use a flock of sheep to clear poison ivy, multi-floral rose and other nuisance or invasive plants out of yards through natural grazing. The sheep provide mostly odorless fertilizer pellets that increase the soil’s fertility, carbon capture, and water-holding capacity.
We are so grateful to all community members who came to this event and stopped by the DC Natives Pollinator Garden table. We hope all in attendance were able to enjoy the fruits of the labor of all the volunteers at the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild as well as our unpaid busy workers: bees, butterflies, ladybugs, ants, flies, and every other little creature that helped pollinate all the plants at the garden and increased the food produced to help our communities!
If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit or volunteer at the farm at the Franciscan Monastery, located in Brookland, you are certainly missing out! The monastery is completely free to visit and a great place to find community.