Nibbles and Sips – Del Ray Artisans Gallery

Jordan Wright
May 2010

Healthy Snacks Fuel Local Garden Volunteers

Under the guise of calling power bars and lemonade food reporting, I’ll relate last week’s triumph at Alexandria’s Del Ray Artisans Gallery’s gardens, which I have been curating with a small but dedicated group of gallery members for the past ten years or so. The single-story clapboard gallery charted its renaissance on a dirt-and-trash-strewn lot where our all-volunteer gardeners have helped to transform the blighted property into an award-winning garden often featured on Del Ray’s House and Garden Tour. Usually we have eight to ten folks during spring and fall to weed, plant, mulch and prune, keeping the grounds up to snuff for the Gallery’s monthly shows.

This year we got herculean help from a batttalion of volunteers. From SunTrust Bank: Steve Truitt, Brian MacDonnell, Bob Dail, Jill Fields, Chris Hartman, Lori Caumeil, Mark Leonard, Lauton Brown, and Jim McCormack. From King Street Wireless: Remy Kauffmann, Allison DiNardo, Robert DiNardo, Judy Harmatz and Bruce Kauffmann.

What an amazing, upbeat, cheerful and hard-working group they were. We thank them all for their participation. Drop by and see the results!
Though we are not on this year’s tour, make sure to stop by and visit the gallery and sit along the garden path on the benches beneath the crepe myrtles. And, if you’re of a notion, there might be a few weeds left for the plucking.

This year Del Ray’s House and Garden Tour is this Saturday, May 22nd from 11am to 5pm. Go to www.delraycitizen.org for tickets. Or visit www.thedelrayartisans.org.