Twining Square Beautification Project
Status as of 11/20/2001
See PHOTOS
See calendar for next work session.

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 August-November 2001

The August work session got a much-needed boost from 4 members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity: Michael Young, Kenneth Ford, Ernest Wiggins, and Kevin Allen. We hope they come back!
The National Park Service delivered a final load of mulch in August. For this session, we spread mulch, trimmed hedges, weeded, and cleaned the park.

We skipped the September work session, although several Friends spent time working in the park on their own. We had a few additional outside volunteers in October, wrapping up the year with a cookout, featuring hot dogs and Mr. Brown's famous ribs. We presented Ben Brown with a leaf blower, purchased jointly by Friends of Twining. Mr. Brown spends more time working in the park than anyone else, and asked several times about the possibility of getting a leaf blower. Also at the October work session, Vince Spaulding, Clean City Coordinator, announced the Adopt-a-Block program. Friends of Twining have applied to adopt the 2700 block of Pennsylvania Ave, SE

A final raking session took place in November, but only 4 people showed up. We raked over 20 bags of leaves.

The perennials planted in June did well for the most part, but at the east end of the garden where it's quite shady, we noticed that neither the perennials or annuals did as well as at the sunnier end. We need to re-think what we plant at the shady end. In the sunny area, white petunias did much better than other colored pertunias for some reason. The blue salvias ("May night") did extremely well in the sunniest part of the garden. Annual coleus at the entrance on Penn Ave. is extremely well also

In September, DPW removed (grinded?) the large stump in the treebox area on O Street, making it easier to mow that area.

As the plants were nipped by frost throughout the winter, and then turned brown, the garden looked a little shabby by March 2002. Next year, we should consider cutting back the perennials and pulling up the annuals in October-November, so that the following Spring the daffodils and tulips are not surrounded by dead-looking plants. plants.
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 March-July 2001

Thanks to a boost from two groups of young volunteers in mid-July, Twining Square looked better than ever. Volunteers from the Southeast White House spent many hours on a job that other volunteers shy away from--scraping the dreaded cobblestone. Clean cobblestone plus flowers in full bloom made Twining Square the best it's ever looked-- so far.
Early in 2000, the National Park Service presented VIPs (volunteers in the park) with a landscape plan which included an expanded curvy sidewalk garden full of perennial, hostas and liriope in the circle, rhododendrons at one entrance, and park benches. The plan was enthusiastically received by Friends of Twining. It was agreed to try 3 park benches with the understanding that more could be added later.

The March work session was a cleanup. A few daffodils were in bloom, the rewards from our labors of last Fall. Children applied a fresh coat of green paint to the fire hydrants around Twining. Mr. Brown made his famous ribs and other volunteers brought picnic food.

By early April, the mature cherry trees and daffodils were in full bloom. Even the new small cherry trees, just planted last November, put out a few blossoms. The National Park Service, with help from VIP Ben Brown, tilled one section of the expanded area for the sidewalk garden, making way for new perennial.

The April 28th work session was focused on tilling the circle under the tree, planting 150 hostas, and transplanting liriope to the outside of the circle. Liriope also were moved from the Penn Ave. entrance to the circle. We also moved the barberry bushes to the O Street entrance. With the help of 7 energetic young Americorps volunteers, about 120 perennial flowers were planted in the sidewalk perennial garden, filling about 15% of the garden.

The May work session was rained out, so we had 2 work sessions in June. With the planned walk-through of Pennsylvania Ave. by Mayor Williams, with a stop in Twining, we had to make the park presentable on June 9th. The Washington Post covered our work session, accounting for the larger-than-usual turnout of volunteers. We planted about 100 plants, which made up the remainder of the perennials in the sidewalk garden. The garden now has a mix of "Moonbeam" coreopsis daisies, "Happy Returns' day lillies, chrysanthemums, shasta daisies, and "May night" salvias. The garden looked good for the Mayor's visit, but it wasn't at its height of color.

The June 28th work session brought out only a handful of VIPs, but we worked very hard. The NPS gave us annuals to plant among the perennials for a color boost.\ We also mulched and weeded. The DC trees between the street and sidewalk along Pennsylvania Ave. all got a dose of mulch.

Mid-July brought 2 groups of young volunteers. The Hugh O'Brien Youth (HOBY) were in DC for their annual conference, and 40 of them worked for 2 hours on Sunday, July 15th. They planted 200+ liriope in the outer circle, weeded, pruned, and trimmed hedged. On June 16-17, volunteers from 25 the Southeast White House worked for 8 hours for 2 days. They scraped the cobblestone, spread mulch, swept, weeded, and made the park look the best it's ever looked.
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 June-November 2000

The park got rave reviews from neighbors and passers-by throughout the summer of 2000. A typical comment was "I've driven by the park many times and never noticed it; now it grabs my attention so much that I have to remember to keep my eyes on the road."
In June, the Park Service repaired the drinking fountain and connected the water pipes, making water available to the landscape. Volunteer Ben Brown repaired the concrete curb at the end of the bed, winning praise from the Park Service and other VIPs. In late June, the Park Service delivered compost to mix into the garden beds to loosen the hard clay soil. A truckload of annuals was delivered during the July work session and planted. Many of the plants were scrawny, but within a month most were thriving. By September, the cana lilies were 6 feet tall and bursting with color. The garden strip along the Pennsylvania Ave. side had become an attention-grabber, with a combination of cana lilies, ageratum, marigolds, dahlias, vincas, and begonias. The eastern (shorter) side of the strip, being shadier, did not bloom as well, but still had some color. Residents of Naylor Gardens held a flea market in June to raise money for plants at the Penn. Ave. entrance. They planted liriope, several euonymous shrubs, stella d'oro day lilies, barberry shrubs, mums, and other perennials. A few annuals were added as filler.

In August, the Ft. Davis Garden Club planted a circle of liriope (about 50) under the tree in the center circle. Ben Brown removed the grass and tilled the area during the August work session. Unfortunately, a week later about 10 of the liriope were missing. Maybe we should buy smaller less attractive plants in the future, making for less of a temptation for plant thieves.

In October, the National Park Service delivered tulip and daffodil bulbs as well as pansies. We weren't able to use all they provided, but we planted as many as the garden strip would take. At this writing (Feb. 2001), we haven't yet seen the fruits of our labors but are looking forward to Spring. November was our final work session for 2000, and we had a record low turnout for this raking session. Everyone was probably busy raking their own yards.

A wonderful thing happened in November. All the missing and dead trees were replaced with new ones. Now we have a full complement of trees in Twining! Thank you, National Park Service.
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 April-May 2000

The "Friends of Twining Square" agreement with the National Park service was signed on April 29, 2000, at a kickoff event in the park. John Hale, Superintendent or National Capital Parks-East and Kathy Chamberlain, representing Friends of Twining, signed this 5-year agreement to work together to beautify and maintain Twining Square. As of that date, 35 people signed up to become VIPs (Volunteers in the Park). Prior to the kickoff and cleanup event, the NPS did much of the preparatory work. They removed the dead shrubs along the Pennsylvania Ave. side, mowed the grass, and applied herbicide to the cobblestone. On April 29th about 30 VIPs worked in the park, transforming it into a neat, clean, inviting place. The VIPs edged the walkways, cleaned, scraped, and swept the cobblestone, weeded and trimmed. Approximately 70 volunteer hours were invested.
During the first few weeks of May, the NPS delivered about 30 small pyrocantha shrubs to fill in the gaps along the border of the park. VIP Ben Brown single-handedly planted all of these shrubs. NPS also delivered about 6 truckloads of mulch, which Mr. Brown spread under the bordering pyrocantha shrubs. Mr. Brown also mowed the "tree box" area along the curbs surrounding the park, which is technically the responsibility of the DC Government. Mr. Brown agreed to take on this task regularly, while NPS agreed to mow the grass within the park on a weekly basis during the growing season. The NPS turned on the water in the park and gave VIP Ben Brown the fixture for a hose connection. Ms. Yates reported that the water fountain will need to be replaced.

At a meeting on May 7th, attended by 10 VIPs, Sammy Morrison (SE White House) stated that his group would like to adopt the southeast corner of the park, nearest to Penna & 28th intersection. The VIPs present agreed that a group could take primary responsibility for a specific section of the park, but the cobblestone would be everyone's responsibility. No VIPs would be excluded from working in any section of the park. More discussion on this at the June 4th meeting.

VIP Anne Curtsinger announced that Naylor Gardens will sponsor a Fleamarket on June 17th, the proceeds to benefit the Twining Square Beautification project. It is hopes that there will be wide participation from the community.

VIPs decided on a regular schedule of:
  • Monthly work sessions the 4th Saturday , 7am-10am in Twining Square
  • Monthly meetings the 1st Sunday of every month, 3:30-4:30 at the 6D substation meeting room.
VIPs need to keep track of their hours and report them at least monthly to Kathy Chamberlain who will record them in a database. This is important for the future. We will need to cite volunteer hours to justify and defend things we want for the park.

On May 8th, Jim Reilly, a horticulturist with the NPS, met with several VIPs to answer questions and give advice. Present were Dennis Logan, Gloria Logan, Ben Brown, and Kathy Chamberlain. Madelyn Yates of NPS also was in attendance. Below are the highlights of the discussion:

1. Mr. Reilly said he would obtain 8 cherry trees to be planted in locations where they used to be. In addition, at two of the existing unhealthy cherry trees will probably need replacement. The replacement/planting of about 10 tree will be done in the Fall by NPS.

2. Mr. Reilly said he could get grass seed to fill in the area where the dead shrubs were removed. Subsequently, VIPs decided it would be better to plant something more colorful in the area, perhaps annuals to get us through the summer.

3. Mr. Reilly identified the shrubs surrounding the park as pyrocantha. Many were missing. He counted the gaps and agreed to deliver replacements (approximately 30). [NPS delivered these plants a few days later. VIP Ben Brown planted all of them.]

4. There are a few flowering quince shrubs that need to be pruned back now if we want good blooms next year. [ Kathy Chamberlain pruned them the following weekend.]

5. Mr. Reilly advised that we mulch well around the trees, after removing the grass.

6. Mr. Reilly may be able to get us some flowers for the flower beds. Stay tuned.

7. For the circle/tree in the center, Mr. Reilly recommended keeping grass in at least the outer circle for the purpose of erosion control. We should mulch around the tree. Outside the mulch line and inside the grass line we could plant liriope grass or hostas. (need approval from Mr. Hale before we plant anything).

8. For flower beds & borders, Mr. Reilly suggested liriope grass, Spring bulbs (i.e. daffodils), Stella d'Oro day lillies, and low-growing junipers.

On Saturday, May 27th 14 VIPs participated in the monthly work session. They spread mulch, trimmed hedges, edged, weeded, swept, and mowed grass. Participating VIPs were Gloria Logan, Dennis Logan, Vincent Spaulding, Mary Hammond, Anne Curtsinger, Lillian Chatmon, Abdul Ali, Joan Veers, Kathy Chamberlain, Bob Bush, Rodney Newman, Sammie Morrison, Maria Behrens, and Phil Hammond. Also participating were Madelyn Yates, and Mr. Chandler of the National Park Service; Michael Carter, Deputy Director of the DC Department of Public Works, and Kevin Brown, also of DPW. Many thanks to Dar Maxwell and Izzie Firth for loaning their truck to transport the wheel barrows and other tools.

Other developments:

Mr. Reilly (NPS) found the landscape drawings for the park. Copies will be made available at the next meeting of June 4th.

The Principal of St. Francis School, Kathy Pardue, is very enthusiastic about the improvements to the park and wants to get her 7th and 8th graders involved, as well as parents. The park has been off-limits for years because of what used to go on in it -- prostitution, drugs, etc. She's excited about taking it back and wants to be a part of it.

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