THE PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
a publication of
STRATEGY for a GREEN CITY
Growing for the Future From producing fresh food to strengthening neighborhood bonds to educating children, community gardens have a huge impact on the
100 North 20th Street, 5th floor Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 Phone: 215-988-8800 Fax: 215-988-8810 email: pginfo@pennhort.org
quality of city life.
W
alking along a city street, few sights are as unexpected—or as welcome—as a lush green garden abundant with vegetables and flowers. Through its Philadelphia Green program, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) has helped thousands of Philadelphia residents turn neglected vacant lots into thriving community gardens in every corner of the city. PHS supports these gardens with technical assistance, training, and networking. In the United States, the modern community gardening movement dates from the late 1960s and early 1970s and grew in concert with the environmental movement. The majority of community gardens are built on formerly abandoned city lots—the remnants of a population shift away from cities after World War II. The aesthetic benefits of urban gardens are obvious. They transform unsightly vacant lots into oases, providing open space, greenery, and a place for city dwellers to enjoy the outdoors and grow vegetables. Gardeners create a positive use for land that otherwise would remain an eyesore. Over the decades, however, it has become increasingly clear that gardens play many other vital roles in urban communities. They provide important social, economic, educational, and environmental benefits, yet much of their potential remains untapped. In the twenty-first century, going back to the garden can mean going forward to a new way of envisioning city life.
STRATEGY for a GREEN CITY
Pat Schogel, a member of Hansberry Garden in Germantown, displays the harvest.
CULTIVATING STRONG COMMUNITIES A great deal has been written about the power of community gardens to live up to their name—to create a sense of community among city residents who come together across chasms of race, culture, and economic status to share the simple joys of gardening. This “social capital,” though hard to measure, is an invaluable asset for cities. Philadelphia’s newly appointed director of sustainability, Mark Alan Hughes, says community gardens are “crucial” to a high quality of life. “They build solidarity among residents and strengthen people’s attachment, both to the place and to each other,” he says. “And their collateral benefits extend to the neighborhood and to the city as a whole.” Community gardens give cities an economic boost by increasing nearby property values and retaining residents.1 Moreover, gardens indirectly help reduce crime rates by reclaiming spaces that otherwise serve as havens for criminals and bringing neighbors outside as the eyes and ears of the community. Less crime means less municipal spending on police, prison, and courts. Once the scene of some of the city’s most rampant drug trafficking, the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Norris Square is now home to six prize-winning gardens that reflect the heritage of the predominately Puerto Rican residents. “By working together we created something from nothing,” says Iris Brown, who runs the gardening program for the Norris Square Neighborhood Project. “It’s like an entirely different place now, and it all started with the gardens.” Perhaps the most tangible social benefit of community gardening is the food itself. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, community gardeners have always had informal ways of sharing surplus vegetables with their neighbors and with less fortunate members of their communities. More recently, many 1
Been, Vicki and Ioan Voicu. 2006. “The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values.” New York University, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Available at www.law.nyu.edu/realestatecenter/publications.
cities and garden networks are addressing hunger by setting up formal systems to tap this natural generosity. In Philadelphia, PHS’s City Harvest project is a collaborative partnership that enables gardeners to share their bounty. Through City Harvest, inmates of the Philadelphia Prison System nurture vegetable seedlings that are grown to maturity at 30 participating community gardens. The nonprofit group SHARE (Self Help and Resource Exchange) helps connect gardeners with local food cupboards for distribution of the produce, and the Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania provides nutrition workshops and recipes to food cupboard clients. In addition to offering fresh produce to people in need, City Harvest has a transforming effect on everyone involved, not least on the prison inmates, who, by experiencing the satisfaction of growing food, doing something positive for their city, and gaining skills they can use on the outside, often begin to see a way out of the cycle of crime and incarceration. “City Harvest is empowering gardeners to help their neighbors in a meaningful way while giving prison inmates tools for a better
Iris Brown of Norris Square works with young people in the garden.
life,” says Philadelphia Green senior director Joan Reilly. Prison-based horticulture programs like City Harvest can reduce recidivism by giving participants a positive outlet. In his book Doing Time in the Garden, James Jiler writes, “Plants respond to care, and a garden rewards the caretaker with food, beauty, flowers and a positive response from the community… that is not readily found in other settings or work sites.”2
TEACHING THROUGH GARDENING Another way community gardens change lives is through education. Today’s children have fewer opportunities to interact with nature than past generations. Many community gardeners work to change that by partnering with schools or other organizations to offer after-school programs where children can learn about gardening, nutrition, the natural environment, and community stewardship. A program of the Greater Philadelphia Federation of Settlements, Teens 4 Good was launched at the Journey Home community garden in North Philadelphia. It engages young people in hands-on gardening, nutrition, and entrepreneurial activities. The teens grow plants at six garden sites and sell produce to restaurants and farmers markets, as well as donate food through PHS’s City Harvest project. Jamie McNight, who coordinates Teens 4 Good, describes the effect it has on the teenagers: “The kids enjoy working outdoors and learning how plants grow, and they also develop a good work ethic. They become more aware of their community and more interested in continuing their education.” Located in Germantown, the Hansberry Garden and Nature Center partners with two local elementary schools to offer after-school programs and a 4-H club. It also has a summer entrepreneurship program that lets students explore business ideas using plants, cut flowers, herbs, and bamboo products. The Hansberry group collaborates with a nearby senior center as well. Dave Schogel, one of Hansberry’s founders, is treasurer and head of the programming committee. “We reach out to children, teenagers, and seniors. We take a very holistic approach to the garden and to our neighborhood,” he says.
MAKING CITIES GREENER With concern for the environment becoming a mainstream issue, there is a new push toward sustainability and “greener” cities. Community gardens can serve as models for environmental stewardship. Many gardeners practice natural or organic growing methods, install solar panels, use rain barrels to conserve water, and create shelter for wildlife. Community gardeners are great recyclers as well. They turn garden waste into compost and rescue cast-off materials for a second use. And, simply by preserving open green space, gardens improve air quality and absorb rainwater, reducing flooding and filtering pollution from the water. With concerns about food safety, health, and the dearth of fresh food outlets in many inner-city neighborhoods, community gardens are an important source of locally grown produce. Because it requires less energy for transportation, local food helps reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Some community gardeners go far beyond vegetables and flowers. In densely populated South Philadelphia, the Southwark Community Garden has fruit trees, a berry patch, and active beehives that produce honey. Bel Arbor, another garden site, started out as a tree farm. A group of neighbors, working with PHS, planted nearly 1,000 tree saplings on a lot left vacant after a factory burned down. The young trees were
Gardeners at Liberty Lands park and garden show off fresh figs.
PHS staff member Lisa Mosca works with City Harvest participants at the Philadelphia Prison System garden.
URBAN AGRICULTURE Like community gardens, urban farms make fresh produce available and create a positive use for abandoned urban land. Usually selling produce within their communities or to nearby restaurants, urban farms—some nonprofit and some for-profit—help build local economies; conserve energy resources; and engage in community education about food, health, and sustainability. The Mill Creek Farm is a collectively run urban educational farm in West Philadelphia. Mill Creek Farm grows food for local distribution and serves as an education center. Mill Creek Farm is also a stormwater management demonstration site. Water from nearby streets is directed toward the farm’s fruit trees. Greensgrow Farms, in North Philadelphia, is a market and nursery built on the site of a former steel-galvanizing factory. Through its “City Supported Agriculture” venture, Greensgrow works with a network of rural growers and small Philadelphia businesses to offer meat and dairy products, seasonal produce,
2 Jiler, James. Doing Time in the Garden: Life Lessons through Prison Horticulture. New Village Press, 2006.
baked goods, the farm’s own honey, and more.
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STRATEGY for a GREEN CITY then planted in parks, gardens, and streetscapes all over the city. The group went on to establish a community garden that now includes 25 family plots, a sustainably grown lawn, a mini orchard, and a meadow. Bel Arbor is a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat.
THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY GARDENS
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1827. PHS produces the Philadelphia Flower Show ® and sponsors events, educational activities, and publications for novice gardeners, experienced horticulturists, and flower lovers of all ages. PHS’s urban greening program, Philadelphia Green®, works with community groups, residents, city agencies, nonprofits, and other partners to plan and implement greening projects throughout the city. Proceeds from the Flower Show, along with funding from foundations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals, help support its projects. To support the work of PHS and Philadelphia Green, please call 215-988-8800 or make a secure contribution online at www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org. © 2008 PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY Text: Jane Carroll Photographs: Margaret Funderburg, Victoria Mehl, Julie Snell Design: Baxendells’ Graphic Printed on recycled paper.
From producing fresh food to promoting good nutrition, from strengthening neighborhood bonds to educating children, from revitalizing neighborhoods to feeding the hungry, community gardens have a huge impact on the quality of city life. To remain viable, these treasured spaces require investment and support. There are many practical ways in which municipalities can facilitate community gardening. For example, they can revise outdated zoning ordinances and cumbersome land-transfer systems that pose obstacles. (In Philadelphia, for example, community gardens are classified as “vacant land,” making it difficult for gardeners to obtain services like trash pickup.) Many municipalities go beyond just getting out of the way. Some cities, including Chicago, help negotiate leases for gardeners, leverage private funding, or make parkland available for garden plots. Many supply mulch, compost, and tools and make water accessible and affordable. Few large cities match Seattle in terms of resources invested in community gardening. Through its extensive P-Patch program, Seattle has made a long-term commitment to support and expand community gardens. P-Patch maintains several gardens in a land trust; employs paid staff; helps secure land leases for new gardens; and provides water, materials, training, and organizational support. Companion projects include hands-on gardening and nutrition education for youth and promoting urban farming enterprises in low-income communities. Providing a good quality of life is a top priority for twenty-first-century American cities competing for jobs and residents, and greener cities are coming out ahead. Local governments are beginning to take the lead in adopting sustainable practices, embracing the “green” technologies of the future, and encouraging environmental stewardship. Long a mainstay of the green movement, community gardens will continue to play as vital a role as ever. Cover photo: Local schoolchildren enjoy the meadow at Bel Arbor garden in South Philadelphia.
For more information, visit www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org and click on “Philadelphia Green.” Philadelphia Flower Show and Philadelphia Green are registered trademarks of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.