The TJMS Community Garden 2025 Season is Under Way.
The TJMS Community Garden has been a Plot Against Hunger participant for over a decade, donating produce to AFAC and other local food pantries. The Jefferson Community Garden is the largest school garden in Arlington, and we are taking our community responsibilities seriously. But more than that, we are working to become a hub for joyful community and learning. Have you ever thought of starting your own garden, but you feel a little overwhelmed? Volunteering with our experienced gardeners is a great way to learn more about starting a garden, managing pests and diseases, and how to plan for seasonal harvests. A sunny Saturday morning in the garden is a great family activity, and it's the perfect place to meet friends to socialize while volunteering and getting a bit of fresh air and exercise.
Bring Friends or Family and Join Us in the Garden:
We would love you to join us in the garden. We have regular garden workdays every week from 10 AM to noon Saturday mornings. Not quite ready to start gardening today? Sign up for our newsletter and we'll send you weekly updates about our workday plans, and pictures of what we're doing in the garden.
Stay tuned to our Facebook page for late-breaking schedule updates and weather cancellations.
Garden videos:
Bees on sunflowers at the volunteer garden workday...
Milkweed pods, fluff and milkweed bugs in the poll...
We are planning a hugelkultur mound, and collectin...
A tour of our sugar snap peas and strawberries, ou...
A teeny tiny native bouquet, with obedient plant, black eyed Susan, NY iron weed, cup flower, blue mist flower and I think boneset. Next week we will have the Garden Club out harvesting seed heads to package for native seed giveaways. #schoolgarden #nativeplant #volunteer #communitygarden ... See MoreSee Less
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So pretty!
We’ve moved our evening workday to Tuesday now that Garden Club has started on Fridays. Join us in the garden at 6PM to help us harvest our endless bounty of beans, as well as okra, peppers, and tomatoes! ... See MoreSee Less
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In addition to crows, we’ve got some really nice sunflowers going on this morning. ... See MoreSee Less
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A murder (of crows) at the garden this morning. The other three flew away as I pulled out my phone to take the photo. The weather is deliciously cool, and we have lots of beans to harvest and lots of everything to fertilize, so join us for our volunteer workday this morning. We will be here until 11. ... See MoreSee Less
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It feels like we went straight from “why are there only male butternut squash flowers” to “whoa, those are huge” in only four days. I must have missed these on Saturday, right? But there are SO MANY. How could I have missed them all when I was looking closely enough to tell the flowers were male? Either way, hooray! Butternut squash! ... See MoreSee Less
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Beautiful!
Volunteer workday tonight at 6:30-8. See you there! ... See MoreSee Less
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We are deep into bean season this week— join us in the garden from 9-11 Saturday morning to admire our bean tunnel, hunt for ripe blackberries, and take home some basil for pesto or pizza. #volunteer #communitygarden ... See MoreSee Less
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Ready to harvest at tonight’s pleasantly cool volunteer workday. ... See MoreSee Less
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Yay! A harvest it is!!
Thanks to Master Naturalists Marj and Rita for the great pollinator garden tour! (It may be hot at the fair, but it’s lovely and cool under the magnolia trees next to the pollinator garden.) ... See MoreSee Less
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Enjoy this beautiful sunflower, and a vacation day from garden workdays (no workday Wednesday evening this week). We will be back in the garden on Saturday 9-11 AM. ... See MoreSee Less
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The only squash that survived the vine borers is this unusual yellow and green variety that came out of a yellow crookneck seed packet. If we let it get to the size of a large crookneck, it has seeds that are too woody to use, but we did a test pick today of a younger smaller squash, and it was deliciously sweet (even raw) and the seeds weren’t objectionable. Whew! It will be usable after all. ... See MoreSee Less
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Looks like yellow mosaic virus
The first gorgeous deep blue butterfly pea blossoms of the year. ... See MoreSee Less
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In addition to our Saturday 9-11 workday, we will hold a Monday 6:30-8pm work session to get the garden ready for the county fair. ... See MoreSee Less
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Thanks to our Wednesday evening volunteers, who helped us install these cattle panels to act as a cucumber trellis. We harvested our first cuke of the season, along with some tomatoes and shoestring beans. ... See MoreSee Less
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Good morning! Look at this gorgeous sunflower, our first of the season. Nothing like a little garden “sunshine” to cheer you up first thing in the morning. 💕🌻 See you in the garden Saturday at 9! ... See MoreSee Less
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Come visit the pollinator garden to see all of our blooming native plants. Cupflower, ironweed, mountain mint, asters, Joe Pye weed, and more. Thanks to Master Naturalist Marj Signer and the rest of ARMN for all their support in keeping it thriving and beautiful. ... See MoreSee Less
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Thanks, too, to volunteers Rita Wiggins and Debbie Hill for helping out regularly this summer!
Our bean “tunnel” is starting to take shape. These are mostly Kentucky Wonder, with a few shoestring beans interspersed. Have you ever seen a shoestring bean? They look just like you’d imagine from the name, 2+’ long! Join us in the garden this evening (Wednesday at 7) to see them in person and help harvest them to donate to @afacfeeds. There might even be a few butterfly pea sprouts in the row— if you’ve ever gotten a bright blue tea or latte, you’ve probably had butterfly pea flowers. Nutrition powerhouse AND strikingly beautiful. ... See MoreSee Less
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Habanero peppers, ever-taller corn, black eyed Susan’s, and zinnias. ❤️ August is when the garden really starts to take off! We are already starting to prep the garden for County Fair visitors. If you can’t make it to one of our workdays, pop over to take a peek while you’re at the county fair. Stay tuned for times when there will be volunteers in the garden to show you around, or just peek over the fence and see how everything is growing. ... See MoreSee Less
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Remember when the squash vine borers took out of first two attempts at growing zucchini and summer squash? We direct-seeded borer-resistant butternut squash, and they’ve reached the point where they’re starting to create trailing vines. Triumph! (Now we just have to keep an eye out for squirrels! No rest for the wicked. Or for gardeners, if we want to stay ahead of garden pests…) ... See MoreSee Less
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