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 region 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 particular of which is privately owned certain of which is owned by the city explained Mimi McKenzie legal director of the Population 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 mentioned They make huge investments up front and then have been taking care of this land for a large number of plenty of 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 veritably 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 a few extra money someday I ll change my name legally he reported 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 commented 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 procedures to regenerate it and bring the area together it s got so several amazing positive benefits Multiple studies have shown that cultivating vacant lots into gardens yields benefits beyond completely removing a neighborhood blight including improved healthcare outcomes cooler temperatures to mitigate the urban heat island effect and a major reduction in the amount of gun violence crime and fear a society experiences Not only this but society gardens like Reinhard which grow nutritious food help feed food-insecure Philadelphians Courtesy of Ben Corn Miller We can t dependably rely on the ruling body to take care of us Miller reported 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 modern SNAP cuts Her organization is helping feed her region in Fairhill Hartranft which she refers to as a food desert We re very heavily geared towards the youth and youth guidance Thain revealed Once a week we do selected 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 noted When people can indeed connect to the earth and be around big trees I think that there s definitely 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 tactics 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 explained 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 stated 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 declared And it s really about that empowerment and getting people to realize that they need to have control over their own food source Methods to participate Locality 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 neighborhood with all the neighbors that surround those lots to make sure that they re on board Supporters tend a public 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 countless approaches it s a leap of faith It takes time and financing and because multiple 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 insufficient tips for how to create a new garden He explained that vacant lots often end 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 revealed 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 requirements 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 revealed We bring in nice compost from the organic recycling center Eventually the soil becomes rich enough to backing plants There are a lot of things to think about when gardening on vacant land noted Adam Hill director of public gardens at The Philadelphia Horticultural Society in an email PHS supports a system of independently run society 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 mentioned 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 entirely 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 Masses Interest Law Center holds Vacant Land sessions on gardening vacant lots Hill is presenting in August on the topic along with representatives from the General Interest Law Center Neighborhood Gardens Trust and USDA Urban Ag Operation 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 Locality Farm accept helpers and have programs people can get involved in I ve been in Philly for years and I love it Miller reported The city has a lot of special people with a lot of revolutionary spirit who come up with creative approaches 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 group gardeners are cultivating fresh alternative spaces appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY