Washington Street Garden

04/07/2026

Carbondale Food Autonomy annual native tree distribution is on Saturday, April 11th from 9a-12p at the Birch Street Food Forest.
900 trees of 12 species available for free to the community. Donations suggested for those who are able of $1/tree to ensure we continue to offer this great opportunity each year. Other select plant starts and seeds also available. Feel free to bring your own to share!
First come, first serve. No one turned away for lack of donations as we believe re-foresting efforts are for everyone!
Follow Carbondale Food Autonomy on Instagram for more info.

01/30/2026

For people interested in how things grow, check out these amazing courses by the Soil Keepers!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mind-of-soil-soil-chemistry-with-the-soil-keepers-tickets-1975240827487?fbclid=IwY2xjawPp3mRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe9upU6r72o3I4wGBU-7Y7xC-xOxRVGTLqIZnZhgmlX_NgZp46A9KHpNglk5g_aem_x0P2wWxL0z_Zb9pTLB2soQ

Virtual course on the chemical exchanges and interactions within soil, with water as primary partner and solvent.

01/26/2026

Love snow/hate ICE

09/03/2025

Please join us, this Saturday, September 6th, from 10-11am at the destruction site, finding comfort in one another as we bear witness to this unnecessary ecocide and say our goodbyes to what once was the most beautiful lot in Carbondale.

Garden volunteers will have a prepared statement to share with our supporters, in effort to offer insight not just to what transpired in the last few weeks, but also the last 10 years of this magical space's existence.

Bring a chair, blanket, or water if you need it; bring your memories and your grief; bring flowers or trinkets for a memorial; but more importantly, bring a friend. Please share widely.

The spark is aching for the light; return, return, return tonight.

09/02/2025

The irony in this photo is certainly not lost on us.

We are devastated, we are grieving, we are working on a longer statement to share what has happened in this garden's robust decade of life.

We appreciate everyone who has reached out to us so far, sharing in this unimaginable sorrow. For what has been an overwhelmingly difficult summer for many of us, we can only hope for a bigger and brighter future - for each other, and for our Earth.

As we see it, Washington Street Garden will never be laid to rest.

Much love to you all 💔

07/07/2025

Garden workday tonight, July 7th, 5-7pm!

07/07/2025

Tonight, July 7th 2025, from 5-7pm we will be in the garden picking blackberries and pulling weeds! We would love to see you there!

06/12/2025

For Southern Illinois people who are caring for land. Nance Klehm of socialecologies.net is offering Carbondale Food Autonomy an online seminar to learn about reading our soil, and about using mycorrhizal fungi to amend it. We will focus on creating good conditions tree saplings and maybe other plants. There's room for about 5 more in this free course. Two online meetings (in July and Sept) will be interspersed with individual and group research and field work. Participants are asked to commit to all meetings. Please contact Sarah Lewison if you are interested. - see email in image

06/12/2025

Another solid workday this evening, and a huge shout out to all of our continued help this season! We've got just about everything in the ground for the summer, including sweet potatoes today.

We're so grateful for the recent rain we've had - all the transplants are establishing nicely and new seeds are sprouting at every turn. Keep your eyes peeled as we start announcing harvest ready items in the coming weeks (think peach 🍑).

In the meantime, enjoy these blooms across the garden, attracting beneficial pollinators and offering other medicinal purposes. Seen here are marshmallow, a bee with red clover, anise hyssop, and cilantro, milkweed, yarrow, and St. John's wort.

Come join us for our next workday, Monday June 16!

05/20/2025

We've got our regularly scheduled community workdays set for the season. We're experimenting with alternating days hoping that this is better accommodating for folks summer activities.

We'll be back in the garden next Wednesday 5/28 from 5-7 to finish out the May schedule. For June, plan on dates of 6/2, 6/11, 6/16, and 6/25. We will try to send out reminders on workdays, as well as any updates on weather cancelations and other pop-up days that might occur (Saturdays?).

As always, feel free to message us if you or a group are looking to schedule a larger workday with us. You're also more than welcome to spend your own time in the garden, just message us if you're looking for some tasks! Weeding and watering are always a priority.

We're excited for the season to unfold this year, and look forward to all friends new and old that we'll see throughout the summer!

03/26/2025

Apologies for the delay in sharing this. Carbondale Food Autonomy was somehow deleted off of Facebook, so in the meantime give them a follow on Instagram to keep up to date with events from the collective. Since WSG is hosting the Neighborhood Planting Project again this year, we are excited to share this post on their behalf. Hope to see you there!
_____________________________________________

Save the date for our Annual neighborhood Planting Project! Saturday, April 12 we will have a variety of native fruit and nut bearing trees for distribution to the community, as well as other select plant starts and cuttings on a first come/ first serve basis. Suggested donation $1 per tree to help cover the cost of the project and pay it forward for a neighbor. No one turned away for lack of funds.

This year we would like to redirect attention to the world of carceral capitalism and how it displays itself in our everyday. Most systems we engage with daily are in part built and sustained by prison labor; from the food and products we buy to the communications and other infrastructure we access regularly, the unpaid or *EXTREMELY* low wage labor of incarcerated individuals provides the outside world with excess, even while their own conditions remain inhumane and basic needs go unmet.

Many state nurseries (such as where our trees are sourced) are no stranger to using prison labor directly from state department of corrections. As we recenter this project around abolitionist principles, we felt that a first step was to bring some awareness and context for our local project. In the new world, we will have our lives dedicated to each other and the environment rather than to the economy; where new forms of relating to one another flourish, helping to transform our systems of punishment to systems of accountability.

The goals to our local NPP are many: to advance the mission of Food Autonomy by providing neighbors with low/ no cost food producing trees; to contribute to local reforestation, biological diversity, and ecological rejuvenation; to offer alternative modes for community members to connect with each other outside of the traditional economic market; and, finally, to dismantle the systems of oppression that continue to exist through the prison industrial complex.

In what ways do you see the issue of climate change and abolition overlapping? What might your role be in building autonomous food systems while working toward the freedom of all people? We are excited to hear your thoughts when you come to pick up trees 🌳