Great Ideas from Community Gardeners

Neighbors can accomplish amazing things when they grow together in community gardens

Philadelphia is known as America ’s Garden Capital because there are more than 30 public gardens , arboreta , and historical landscapes within 30 Roman mile of the city centre . But walking through any vicinity , you will apace discover the City of Brotherly Love is also a hub of urban agriculture . Since the 1970s , generations of growers have created over 200 gardens and farm throughout the city , translate antecedently vacant or blighted lots into immature infinite that enrich and enliven neighborhood . Supported by public policy and organizations like theNeighborhood Gardens Trust ( NGT)andPennsylvania Horticultural Society ( PHS ) , residential area nurseryman grow healthy food , cultivate beautiful efflorescence , and create peaceable pocket green where neighbors gather and link with each other .

If you are looking for fresh ideas for an outdoor outer space of any size , countenance the creativity and practicality of Philadelphia ’s community gardeners exalt you to make a positive modification in your own homegrown surroundings . The following ideas occur from the growers that tend the Growing Home Gardens and Bel Arbor Community Garden in South Philadelphia .

Use what you have

At Bel Arbor Community Garden , topically salvaged material tally layer of history and interest to pathway , garden bottom , and structures . developer sometimes provide free brick and rock from nearby demolition projects that the gardeners recycle into paving and edging ( above ) . Larger architectural elements become sculptures with local backstories ( below ) . An arbor clad with instinctive branches ( below ) bring a touch of wildness and whimsey into the pith of this horticultural hangout .

Keep costs low with a simple raised bed design

Theraised bedshown here is easy to manufacture and very resource effective , maximizing the number of beds that can be built on a stiff budget . First , 4×4 recess situation are set into the flat coat , then 2×10 boards are fastened to the outside faces of the posts to form the perimeter of the bed . Construction is quick , and constituent can be replaced as needed .

Bring in the beneficial insects

Blunt mountain stack ( Pycnanthemum muticum , Zones 4–8 ) has been tucked into a vegetable plot to draw off in pollinator andnatural predators . Its tiny flowers backed by silvery bracts teem with bee , wasps , flies , and butterfly stroke from midsummer through early autumn . Unlike culinary mint ( Mentha spp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 ) , which spread out wild via underground runners , this North American native forms dense , weed - suppressing clod that expand outwards via shallow rhizome . And in the flavor of community gardening , if a thumping perplex too big , it is easy to divide and share with neighbour .

Encourage a “greening effect”

On the block surrounding a well - tend community plot , neighbour are often revolutionize to experiment with plantings of their own . sidewalk and stoops are softened with lush greenery and colorful flower overflowing from window box and containers like you see below . Although growing works in populace pack some bravery , Philadelphia residents seem to universally treasure , respect , and support the value that plants bring to their streetscapes .

Whether you collect works rubble in a bin or “ chop and drop ” in garden beds , smaller slice will break down more readily and take up much less space than larger ones . A good principle of quarter round is to always cut stems and other organic materials into sections brusque than the width of a piece of typing paper . Since the big bucks will be easier to turn without long branches and fibers drag together , you may even be tempted to turn it more often .

Extend the veggie harvest into fall

Succession planting allows a vegetable plot of land to stay rich over a long time of year . To maximise useable space , seedlings can be started in trays several weeks before they will be needed to occupy garden openings after other crop are harvested ( below ) . Insect netting ( right ) is useful for protecting young seedling from summertime pests without snare heating plant the mode a nonwoven blow row covering will often do .

Mow paths instead of weeding them

For the tract between raised beds , turfgrass or a low - growingground covercan be an fantabulous , gloomy - maintenance solution . Mulching course with an organic material like wood chips is costly and labor intensive , and still does not guarantee a weed - free pathway . bed of composition board will suppress widow’s weeds but with aesthetic drawbacks . The gardeners at this site find that mowing between bed is an efficient way to keep the garden looking organized and tidy without a hatful of extra effort .

At one of the Growing Home Gardens sites , a coloured mural depicts the many culturally discrete regions of Burma and Bhutan and lists the figure of some of the traditional crops that the community gardeners are growing on the adjacent plots . Raised beds and containers occupy with herbs and flowers tempt visitors to step off the pavement and spend a lilliputian time immerse in garden odour and view . If your home garden is part of a community landscape , never lowball the value it brings to those who see it every day and get to love it .

Fences make great trellises

Vining plant efficiently utilize vertical space as longas they have somewhere to rise . Here , the Growing Home gardeners have build a variety of bread and butter against a border fencing where beans , squelch , melons , and other vine can ramble without covering wanted flat coat within the garden . In future seasons , garden organizers hope to secure funding for more conventional trellis materials like weld wire panels . But in the lag , these border planting produce bumper crop of healthy intellectual nourishment within an impressively pocket-size footmark .

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Try a taste of something new

Growing Home Gardens , supported by the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition ( SEAMAAC ) , provides space for community phallus to grow food crop that are essential to their native cuisines and hard to purchase topically . The gardens also allow for a beautiful outdoor space where over 100 Burmese and Bhutanese refugee unbend , make meaningful connections with fellow gardeners , and share ethnic and farming noesis across generations . The adopt crop , which are popular with the Growing Home gardeners , could be fun to add to your own backyard .

Long bean (Vigna unguiculatasubsp.sesquipedalis, annual)

tenacious bean is a staple harvest native to Southeast Asia . Sometimes called yardlong edible bean because the pods can produce over 30 inches long , its beans will be at their most tender if harvested at around 12 column inch long . The flora are more vigorous and heating system - resistant than those of perch beans or George Bush beans , and even harvesting promotes continued production through Robert Frost . Sow seeds after the danger of icing has go by , and leave this climbing iron with a stout treillage to get the vines up off the ground .

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia, Zones 9–11)

acid melon vine is grow in India , China , Southeast Asia , and parts of Africa and South America . Thoai Nguyen , the chief executive military officer at SEAMAAC , move to Philadelphia from Vietnam when he was 9 years erstwhile and remembers dishes with blistering melon being part of his family ’s Lunar New Year celebration . As a child he did n’t exactly enjoy the yield ’s mordacious flavour , but learned that it symbolise the estimation of be active forward into a new class , leave the bitterness of the former twelvemonth behind . “ I ’ve always thought of that as a very elegant way to begin the unexampled year . And I ’ve grown to get laid , and even lust , the flavor . Bitter melon taste amazing with hot chili pepper peppers . ”

Roselle

Roselle ( Hibiscus sabdariffa , geographical zone 8–11 ) , also lie with as Asian false leaf , is grown in tropical and subtropical regions around the earth for its eatable leave and flowers . In colder climates , it can be grown as a warm - time of year annual . Sabia Afroz , the community planning coordinator at SEAMAAC , says that the flavorful , nutritious leaves are used in a manner similar to spinach in recipes . With beautiful leafage and attractive flowers that emerge toward the end of the uprise time of year , this could be a lovely addition to any summer container or ornamental bed .

‘Supersweet 100’ cherry tomato

‘ Supersweet 100 ’ cerise tomato is a darling of Dominic Brennan , SEAMAAC ’s community construction coordinator . This indeterminate variety faithfully produces eminent - volume bunch of classiccherry tomatoesthat mature ahead of time and keep on over a very long time of year . The disease - resistant , tight - growing vines may acquire 6 to 8 foot tall by summertime ’s end and will involve stake . But the flavor is what makes ‘ Supersweet 100 ’ rise to the top of Dominic ’s list . “ It ’s the perfect refreshing bite on a live summertime Clarence Day , ” he says .

pic : Carol Collins

Chamor Thomas is the development and communications manager atNeighborhood Gardens Trust ( NGT ) , a land trustfulness that preserves and supports community of interests garden and other share undecided quad across Philadelphia . NGT works with ego - organized gardeners , community groups , property possessor , and the City of Philadelphia to guarantee possession or long - term leases for community - managed open spaces .

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