For several weeks between March and April, members of Luther Place Memorial Church combed through their garages, recycling bins and—in some cases—the very streets of DC for junk: old newspapers and office supplies, takeout containers and bottles, even rusty appliances. Then, at weekend workshops, supplied with glue, paint and chicken wire, they got to work… building a garden.

Plastic soda bottles and bottle caps bloomed into red and yellow daisies. Painted and jeweled hubcaps formed the centers of brightly-colored sunflowers. A string of soda cans slithered menacingly near a papier-mâché nest (of dinosaur eggs). And Pastor Karen Brau’s plucky pug (modeled after her own dog at first, and then a stuffed animal when he wouldn’t sit still) explored his new backyard, trying to mark his territory against the local (and much more intimidating) alley cat.

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