Tired of the trash and heat this summer? Philly’s community gardeners are cultivating fresh alternative spaces

Philadelphia often wears its grit like a badge of honor However two weeks after the city s municipal workers strike which was punctuated by overflowing trash dumpsters the need for clean green locality spaces especially in the summer heat feels more urgent than ever That s where neighborhood gardens come in Garden spaces in Philadelphia are usually neighborhood driven and often start on one of the city s empty and forgotten lots Philadelphia has a lot of vacant abandoned land certain of which is privately owned particular of which is owned by the city explained Mimi McKenzie legal director of the Community Interest Law Center It s collecting debris and trash and rodents And the neighbors roll up their sleeves and put in their own blood sweat and tears to clear the land of debris and to bring in soil to test the soil to make sure it s safe Courtesy of Ben Corn Miller McKenzie works to protect green spaces in the city and help grant farmers and gardeners legal ownership of their space Neighbors all around the city have been stewarding and gardening this land she disclosed They make huge investments up front and then have been taking care of this land for several several years And all of us benefit One of those stewards is Ben Corn Miller Miller is a chef and co-founder of South Philly Barbacoa The People s Kitchen and a lead organizer behind the Reinhard Street Population Farm in South and Southwest Philadelphia Miller s middle name isn t definitely corn but he added it because as a tortilla enthusiast he s obsessed with growing the grain Plus he liked the pun Corn Miller created If I get particular extra money someday I ll change my name legally he commented But right now it s just for fun Like McKenzie Miller has noticed Philadelphians using vacant lots as trash dumping zones Being up there since I ve seen all kinds of stuff dropped off up there he explained I ve seen abandoned cars I ve seen animal carcasses bags of trash old furniture you name it And I think that has a tangible effect on neighbors that live there Their children play there They walk their dogs there Courtesy of Ben Corn Miller Like with the trash they all kind of go together the drug dealing the delinquency the bullshit it causes depression he added And I feel like putting love into the land and making it look beautiful and taking the attempts to regenerate it and bring the public together it s got so plenty of amazing positive benefits Multiple studies have shown that cultivating vacant lots into gardens yields benefits beyond only removing a neighborhood blight including improved robustness outcomes cooler temperatures to mitigate the urban heat island effect and a major reduction in the amount of gun violence crime and fear a district experiences Not only this but population gardens like Reinhard which grow nutritious food help feed food-insecure Philadelphians Courtesy of Ben Corn Miller We can t consistently rely on the authorities to take care of us Miller explained We have to take care of ourselves and our own communities and that s why we re doing this Lu Thain the director of land and environmental initiatives at The Village of Arts and Humanities Philly Earth Farm Orchard echoed this sentiment especially in light of up-to-date SNAP cuts Her organization is helping feed her neighborhood in Fairhill Hartranft which she refers to as a food desert We re very heavily geared towards the youth and youth teaching Thain disclosed Once a week we do particular type of culinary arts demo for them So we re doing a lot of cooking and processing with what we grow Taking control through gardening For Thain expanding green spaces in the city is essential amid what often feels like a sea of concrete Humans connection to the land is severely broken Thain stated When people can veritably connect to the earth and be around big trees I think that there s truly something that happens in their body that causes a sort of regulation A lot of people can t put that into words but they feel it Philly Earth Farm Orchard has three different food-producing green spaces Courtesy of Lu Thain Erecting a new garden is similar in avenues to creating a new mural in the city It provides purpose to a space and makes it beautiful The Village does also have a lot of really beautiful murals and also sculptural arts Thain mentioned We call them art parks but our green spaces are really something profound because of people s response to them especially in our neighborhood What s more when people see that a place has been cared for and loved they re less likely to disrespect it Thain announced that for beginners starting at home can be the first step into getting involved in a greater project Sometimes we just give out plant starts and kind of teach people the basics of gardening so that they can go do it at home Thain reported And it s really about that empowerment and getting people to realize that they need to have control over their own food source Strategies to participate Area gardens start as a seed of an idea before they re ready to grow into something bigger Anyone who wishes that they had more green spaces on their block may need to consider taking matters into their own hands Often a transformation for a vacant lot begins from the bottom up Pick the one that s next to your house one that you can oversee Miller advised People can think about what s the ownership status of the lot Is there a fire hydrant nearby where they could get water And then having those conversations in group with all the neighbors that surround those lots to make sure that they re on board Helpers tend a society garden space cultivated by the Village of Arts and Humanities Philly Earth Farm Orchard Courtesy of Lu Thain Creating a new green space is not easy In multiple strategies it s a leap of faith It takes time and commitment and because a great number of spaces are in a somewhat legal gray zone of ownership there is no guarantee that a garden will stay a garden Still Miller has a scarce tips for how to create a new garden He explained that vacant lots often consequence when a building is demolished leaving behind rubble like old bricks in the basement which the city then covers with a layer of topsoil My technique is permaculture he declared Build layers and layers and layers and layers on top of it right I know an arborist in West Philly and we ll get dump after dump of wood chip mulch He cuts down trees they mulch them up He necessities a place to dump them So he just dumps it on our spot After a month that soil compacts and the process repeats Then we mound up the compost he explained We bring in nice compost from the organic recycling center Eventually the soil becomes rich enough to endorsement plants There are a lot of things to think about when gardening on vacant land mentioned Adam Hill director of society gardens at The Philadelphia Horticultural Society in an email PHS supports a configuration of independently run region gardens in the city and has a map of neighborhood gardens to get involved with If you have a garden or are planning on starting one know that it is extremely rewarding and has incredible benefits to you and your neighborhood Hill announced However it can also be very intricate and time-consuming in terms of the actual gardening but also from the land access water access and community-organizing perspective Creating a fully new space isn t the only way to get involved Tree canopies provide cool shaded spaces during summer heat waves Courtesy of Lu Thain The Residents Interest Law Center holds Vacant Land sessions on gardening vacant lots Hill is presenting in August on the topic along with representatives from the Inhabitants Interest Law Center Neighborhood Gardens Trust and USDA Urban Ag Function Center PHS s Garden Tender series also provides tips and tricks for budding green thumbs to check out What s more organizations like Philly Earth Farm Orchard and the Reinhard Street Neighborhood Farm accept contributors and have programs people can get involved in I ve been in Philly for years and I love it Miller explained The city has a lot of special people with a lot of revolutionary spirit who come up with creative avenues to collectively deal with the struggle in situations that we have Sometimes he added we have to do it for ourselves The post Tired of the trash and heat this summer Philly s public gardeners are cultivating fresh alternative spaces appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY