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May 16, 2013
'Grow Anywhere Tour' - Goes to Washington
Burpee  Edible Gardening Team Members

We're making a difference in schools across the country on our “Grow Anywhere Tour,” so it's very appropriate to be reaching the nation's capitol on a fine spring day. We vote for fresh healthy food!

Our destination event is Friendship Tech Prep Academy in southeast Washington, D.C. The school already has been awarded grants this year to build and expand its school garden space. We can't wait to fill up their raised beds with vegetable plants from Burpee Home Gardens!

But before we drove to the school, we began our DC journey at Maryland Flower and Foliage, the grower in White Marsh, Maryland, who supplied all 500+ plants for the giveaway. The plants were healthy and looked great! Just ready for their forever homes. We couldn't be happier. Thanks for such a great job!

Next we visited our friends at Mars Supermarket. With vegetable gardening so popular lately, the folks at Mars were eager to supply plants to their customers who also buy fresh produce in the grocery aisles. During our stay we helped answer questions and chit-chatted with locals about unpredictable spring weather, favorite varieties, recipes, and more. Everyone liked the Burpee Truck and took home a “Garden Fresh” gardening guide.

Soon it was time to gather the fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers for the school community and off to Friendship Tech Prep Academy. But first we just had to drive the Burpee Truck through downtown DC - hello White House!

The school was definitely ready for the “Grow Anywhere Tour.” Helpful volunteers - many of them young students - took charge and bagged up veggies in no time. When school let out, our placement at the exit was prime location for students to meet up with their parents and pick up a plant of their choice. Lots of kids ate the cucumbers for an after-school snack. We loved it!

This was a very crowded event as you can see in our slideshow below. Over 1000 estimated folks visited the Burpee Truck! There was music, too, and dancing, as well as local television crews to capture it all on the news; so much fun and enthusiasm for good food, great weather and ready-to-grow veggie plants.

The teachers at Friendship Tech Prep were obviously well liked by their students. Hugs all-around! After the last Burpee plant and final produce bag was handed out, we were pleased to receive a heavy stack of homemade thank-you notes from the children. It really warmed our hearts. We also received a special tour of their re-vamped school gardens. The raised beds were newly planted and newly painted with artwork from the student body. There will be outdoor classes and projects completed by many grade levels in this garden space, and Burpee Home Gardens is proud to kick their season off with our great-tasting and healthy varieties.

We're coming towards the end of our “Grow Anywhere Tour,” dear gardeners. We hope you've enjoyed following the Burpee Truck on our cross-country journey. Next stop is Baltimore Community High School, then on to New York and a grand finale in Philadelphia.

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