Beautification Project 2023-Present
In 2023, BNCA partnered with ANC SMD 5B04 to start a native plant garden at the Welcome to Brookland sign at 12th Street and Rhode Island Ave NE. We raised over $2000. Right Proper Brewing Company, one of our local craft breweries, matched $1000 in donations. Thank you to everyone who gave!
That Spring, many plants were donated. We brought in truckloads of free compost from the city to amend the soil. Our local hardware store, Annie’s Ace Hardware, generously donated and delivered $1000 worth of mulch, stacking the bags so high you could not read the sign! Volunteers planted the area directly around the sign, and installed barrel planters to beautify the 12th Street corridor.
In Spring this year, we completed the native plant garden by the Welcome to Brookland sign. Most of the plants we put in were awarded to the BNCA through a plant grant from Bona Terra, a local landscaping company. Some plants were donated from Three Part Harmony Farm. Others were lovingly transplanted from our home gardens. Thank you to all the volunteers and local businesses involved!
Looking forward
We are going to keep the Welcome to Brookland sign clean and weed-free. We are also planning to install a plaque that explains what the garden is and markers that identify plants sometime this year. The donations cover all costs through 2024.
Get involved! We are out there once a month to weed and pick up trash. Sign up below if you would like to hear about opportunities to volunteer.
What We Planted:
Achillea millefolium, Yarrow
Anemone virginiana, Thimbleflower
Aronia melanocarpa, Chokeberry
Asclepias syriaca, Common Milkweed
Carex appalachia and C. pensylvanica, Sedge
Clethra alnifolia, Summer sweet
Echinacea purpurea, Purple coneflower
Heuchera americana, Alum root
Hydrangea quercifolia and H. quercifolia var. ‘Ruby Slippers’, Oakleaf hydrangea
Hypericum prolificum, Shrubby St. John’s wort
Ilex verticillata, Winterberry
Pentstemon digitalis and P. hirsutus, Beardtongue
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, Mountain mint
Rudbeckia lacinata, Green-headed coneflower
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, Aromatic aster
Yucca filamentosa, Adam’s needle
Concept Drawings
2023: Phase 1
2024: Phase 2
Before Photo
