Washington Street Garden

10/23/2024

Super Hunter's Moon strained tinctures. Join us this evening from 5-7p to learn together with our guest presenter, Akil!

Fresh tinctures seen in the photo will be available for guests to take home if they'd like. Hope to see you there!

10/23/2024

Biophilia : plant mutual aid & medicine with Carbondale Food Autonomy

Wed, 10/23, 5-7. Carbondale Neighborhood Co-op Grocery

Join us to welcome Akilkuumba Kelley from Colorado, who will present some apothecary preparation methods, and hopefully guide us through the uncertainties of the changing weather.

Open to everyone, children welcome.
Refreshments provided.
This month we will be in the community room of the Carbondale Neighborhood Co-op Grocery.

1815 W Main St, Carbondale, IL 62901

10/16/2024

While we continue to brainstorm adequate critter (groundhog and deer) deterrents, we will bask in the modest sweet potato harvest as we admire our Hunter's Supermoon and the passing comet visitor. Happy Autumn! 🍂 🍠

09/17/2024

Feeling warm and fuzzy after this evening's latest herbal workshop! Huge thanks to Michelle for sharing her research and knowledge on comfrey, mullein, and lambs ear, and for suggesting a moment of silence to mourn what has been lost to destruction at the north of the garden.

We were thrilled to see new faces added to those who continue to engage from month to month. A very tactile workshop, where these plants uses were discussed during participant war stories with garden tools, spiders, and our inevitable aging bodies. wrapped up tonight's session sharing what he has learned about elderberry from including enough homemade syrup for everyone to take home in preparation for the cold/flu season, our just general immunity boosting!

Keep up to date with for the next session to be held in October by a very special guest presenter traveling great distances to be with us!

Stay well and see you next time 🥰

08/13/2024

Another incredible shared learning experience within the Biophilia Series in partnership with ! The skies held off on rain, and we braved the incessant swarm of mosquitoes to explore the herbal benefits of goldenrod, echinacea, and New England aster (helpful tip: a goldenrod poultice will certainly address those bug bites!). Not only did we enjoy some fresh teas made from today's focused herbs, but we also got to try a lemon balm tincture made from a previous workshop, and sampled some goldenrod-based muscle rub from our good friend at

Thanks to for sharing what he's learned so far, to for bringing these workshops to life, to all of our homegrown herbalist friends who continue to show up and ask questions and dive deeper into our collective practice (especially when homemade scones are involved 😋).

We are so thrilled to host these sessions within the comfort of the garden. Our connection to these plants as medicines is paramount to understanding our own physical health journeys, but perhaps these experiences are equally important to the ceremony that we are creating in our social-emotional connections with one another at the blue picnic table. We look forward to the big hugs at the end of each workshop 🤗

Until next time, stay well. Get yourself some echinacea to ward off the current covid surge.

08/01/2024

07/29/2024

Greens for this year's fall crop have been started thanks to our lovely partner 🥰

A huge thank you to these donors to our 2024 Seed Swap back in February; y'all make our project with that much more fruitful with the diversity of seeds that we can offer in our community gardens and share with our local neighbors. all inspire us to instill the importance of seed saving among growers here in Southern Illinois!

Here's to a continued bountiful summer harvest as we look forward to the fall!

07/27/2024

Tomatillo season is in full swing, and the harvest this year is plentiful! Many, many more will continue to ripen... so stop by and gather what you need for your culinary needs. This batch will be donated to for their weekly meals program, so check them out and support if you can!

Did you know tomatillos are rich in antioxidants, vitamins A, B3, and C, and dietary fiber? Aside from being the main ingredient in salsa verde, these nutrient dense fruits are extremely versatile and you should definitely experiment in your cooking!

Today we learned that a 52 million year old tomatillo fossil was found in Argentina, proof that nightshades have withstood the evolutionary tests of time. We are so lucky to enjoy these delicious beauties during our short stays on this planet!

07/23/2024

Another successful session in our Biophilia series, where we learned together about the many remedies available to us for balancing our emotions and bodies. We sampled teas, shared our personal experiences with the herbs covered today, and perhaps most importantly, made time to connect with each other intimately before the setting sun in our beautifully chaotic garden. Much appreciation and love to for bringing this series into the garden and facilitating tonight's seminar!

We have tentatively scheduled our next session for Monday, August 12, so mark your calendars! Send us a message or comment if there's something you'd like to learn more about, or if you or someone you know might be interested in leading a session. As we continue to share our knowledge and skills outside the confines of market capitalism, we actively build our own resilient communities.

Thanks to all who joined us this evening, and we look forward to the next event!

07/21/2024

Fresh cut flowers from the garden, perfect for any occasion; especially when there is no occasion and you just need a little pick me up.

You can always stop by and gather your own bouquet, but please harvest with care to make sure the blooms continue all season long🌼 🌸 🌻 🌹 🏵

07/17/2024

Garlic has been harvested, processed, and ready for distribution! You can find some on the farmstand to the entrance of the garden. The rest of the harvest, in addition to the latest okra harvest, have been donated to the food pantry at 216 N Washington Street to share more widely with our neighbors. They'll be open this evening from 5-630 and again on Friday from 11-1.

As usual, we've set aside our best garlic bulbs to save for October planting. This is an important part of seed saving practices that we want to ensure can be utilized by other growers for their home gardens. Stay tuned for updates in the fall when we plan our big garlic planting workday!

07/16/2024

Biophila - plant love, staying cool when the sun is not our friend. july 22, 6 pm
Workshopping herbs together at Washington Street Garden
MONDAY JULY 22, 6-7 pm, 209 North Washington
It's crazy hot! Learn with us about how to use herbs to assist our bodies in being well, feeling good.
This week we tend to the mind, emotions, and to staying cool and collected.
We’ll learn about what can help when the sun is no longer our friend. And potions for grieving and sadness, feeling low.
Free to all, children welcome always, refreshments.
Thanks to Joana for the photo

07/11/2024

Harvests keep coming, and we're so thankful for the recent rains; make sure to swing by the garden and grab some things to keep your dinners fresh and nutritious! Pictured here are Chinese red long noodle beans; plus more cucumbers 🥒; and for those that like it hot, Thai chili peppers.

We've also made some larger donations of peaches 🍑 to the and to share in this year's bounty. Last year our entire crop was lost to a late freeze, so we're all pretty jazzed to be picking so many off the trees. There's still plenty to go around, so come by and pick em fresh. Don't forget about the blackberries!

07/06/2024

The lettuce and cilantro seeds from Washington Street Garden have been cleaned and are ready for next winter’s seed swap!

07/02/2024

All Cucumbers Are Beautiful

Stop by the farmstand at the entrance to the garden and grab what you need!

06/17/2024

Rain delay... join us tomorrow, June 18 at 6p instead! Hope you can make it.

POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN! Watch this space for when we reconvene.

Join us for another Biophilia Workshop, this time with focus on the benefits of lemon balm, coriander, and fig leaf. We had great participation and feedback from our last herbal demonstration that we want to continue these free skill shares around other uses of herbal medicines found in our garden.

Monday, 6/17 at 6p in the Washington Street Garden. Dress for the weather and bring some water. There will be plenty of other harvests as well! Hope to see you there 🌱

06/12/2024

06/09/2024

Folks have been so excited to share in the bigger berry harvest this year. Pictured first are jostaberries (a gooseberry- currant hybrid) followed by gooseberries themselves. Both are crisp and juicy, sweet yet tart, high in vitamin C and antioxidants. The flavors are incredible and we hope that if you haven't ever tried either of these that you swing by the garden soon before they're all gone!

You can find the jostaberry bushes on the south side of the garden next to the empty lot (look closely underneath their leaves as they like to hide), harvest berries that are dark purple. the gooseberry is at the sidewalk entrance next to the trellis, harvest berries that are dark red.

One of our harvesters sent the last pic of a batch of jostaberry kolaczkis... looks mouthwatering! 😋

06/09/2024

POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN! Watch this space for when we reconvene.

Join us for another Biophilia Workshop, this time with focus on the benefits of lemon balm, coriander, and fig leaf. We had great participation and feedback from our last herbal demonstration that we want to continue these free skill shares around other uses of herbal medicines found in our garden.

Monday, 6/17 at 6p in the Washington Street Garden. Dress for the weather and bring some water. There will be plenty of other harvests as well! Hope to see you there 🌱

06/09/2024

Biophila and our hearts! Please join another sesh of herb club with us, open to all. Snacks and refreshments, all ages. IN the garden!!

05/20/2024

Help yourself to some tomato starts shared by the Red Hen Garden! These are located on the farmstand at the sidewalk entrance to the garden.

Free tomatoes at the Washington Street Garden

05/15/2024

Strawberries and cherries picked today at Washington Street Garden! The cherries are still a little tart and will sweeten over the next week or so, but some of us like them that way! Go get some!!!🍒🍓

05/12/2024

Very soon... 🍒

05/11/2024

Get em before the slugs do! Many will ripen within the next week. Also keep an eye on the cherry 🍒 tree!

04/19/2024

Meet artist and herbalist Stephanie Lindquist to Carbondale for two workshops for plant learning, sensing and preparing.
Stephanie writes: When we respect plants’ gifts and limits, we respect humans’ too. When experienced intentionally pleasure with plants can be a positive feedback loop that encourages us to make healthy sustainable decisions for ourselves and environments.
It’s time for those of us who have forgotten our plant connections to reclaim them.
Our bodies crave them and our world will be richer for it.
April 24 at 5 at Bucky's dome (Campus lake trail),
April 27 at noon at Washington Street Garden. All free. See less