Category Archives: Uncategorized

Photo by Jon Hayes Photography.

It’s that time of year again when GM harangues you about caring for our precious street trees. So here is goes:

Water your street trees!

It’s still early in the spring, and trees are only starting to leaf out, so you do not need to start watering street trees immediately. But it will become necessary sooner than you think. So if you have a young tree on the sidewalk in front of your house or apartment, please, please keep it in mind this summer and water it. The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week, so long as you get a good 20-25 gallons of water.

The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go. Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A couple places to get good pastrami in Georgetown (and elsewhere).
• When a house built in the 80s looks like it was built in the 1880s. (The article wrongly says this location is outside the Georgetown historic district. It isn’t.)

3600 block of Prospect St.

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU students vote to establish reparation fund for descendants of enslaved people sold by the university.
• ICYMI: WAMU interviewed GM on how there’s too many damn banks in Georgetown.

Dumbarton Oaks

This week GM is returning to a series that he thought he had just about exhausted: Know Your Trees. Somehow he had forgotten to do cherries! Now’s the time to correct!

Most residents of DC don’t need much information of cherries, it is true. But many just group cherries into one large group, when several distinct varieties dot our city.

The most famous cherry and the one that gets the most attention is the Yoshino cherry. The Tidal Basin is ringed by these beautiful specimens, which turn a lovely pinkish white at peak. Famously, they were originally the gift from Tokyo to Washington in 1912.

Yoshino cherries can grow quite large for a flowering tree. They can grow over forty feet tall. Dumbarton Oaks has one of the best large Yoshino cherry groves in the city. Over the past week (and maybe even as late as today) visitors have come, sprawled on the grass, and luxuriated in the gentle snowfall of spent blossoms. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM makes his case to WAMU that we don’t need no more stinking banks.
• Reverie tried out a pay-what-you-think-is-fair program and the results were somewhat surprising.

Dumbarton Oaks

On May 11th, the 91st annual Georgetown Garden Tour will be held. If you buy your ticket by the end of April, you get them slightly discounted at $40. Afterrwards the price goes up to $45. Tickets can be purchased here or on the day of the tour at Christ Church (all proceeds benefit the Georgetown Garden Club).

This really is one of GM’s favorite events of the spring. It lets you peek behind the gates of some of the most impressive properties in the neighborhood. But GM also loves that they don’t just select the grandest gardens. Plenty of small plots find their way on to the map. And that proves that anyone can build a tour-worthy garden if they’ve got a backyard and some elbow grease. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The story behind the restoration of Julia Child’s old house.
• Georgetown still on top in terms of pricey home sales.