Growing Community Gardens with Jenny Greenberg and Bob Jobin from Neighborhood Gardens Trust
This episode of Gritty and Green, host Meredith Nutting is joined by Jenny Greenberg from Neighborhood Gardens Trust and community gardener Bob Jobin to discuss the importance of community gardens and the challenges of keeping them in a developing city. They discuss how to start your own community garden and Meredith gives tips about designing your own garden.
For more information about Neighborhood Gardens Trust go to: ngtrust.org
To learn more about soil testing go to: https://extension.psu.edu/soil-testing
To learn more about Grounded in Philly and land ownership go to: https://groundedinphilly.org/
If you want more information about local sustainability go to https://www.greenphl.org
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Nat Sound: Digging, watering, working in garden
MEREDITH: FROM MARCH THROUGH THE END OF MAY GARDENING IS A RUSH OF PLANNING THE GARDEN, POURING OVER SEED CATALOGS, PREPPING BEDS, STARTING SEEDS, PLANTING NEW PLANTS, AND WATERING. BUT ITS MID JUNE, MUCH OF THE PLANTING HAS BEEN DONE AT LEAST IN MY GARDEN. NOW IT’S JUST THE MAINTAINENCE. THE TEDIOUS MAINTAINENCE. WEEDING AND PRUNING. WATERING AND MORE WEEDING. IT CAN BE A HUGE CHORE TACKED ON TO THE END OF A TO DO LIST --
OR IT CAN BE A CONSTANT RAMBLING THROUGH THE GARDEN THAT TAKES YOU FROM A LITTLE WEEDING HERE, TO LET ME JUST WATER THAT THIRSTY TOMATO TO HEY WHAT’S THAT BUG AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU’RE LATE TO YOUR MORNING MEETING! OOPS! GOTTA GO!
Gritty and Green Theme Music
MEREDITH: THIS IS GRITTY AND GREEN AND I’M YOUR HOST MEREDITH NUTTING. TODAY WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW TO MAKE A GARDEN – LIKE WHERE DO YOU EVEN START? AND I’LL ANSWER SOME OF YOUR GARDEN QUESTIONS BUT FIRST, I SAT DOWN WITH FOLKS FROM NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN’S TRUST TO TALK ABOUT HOW GUERILLA GARDENS CAN TURN INTO PROTECTED GREEN SPACES.
SO LET’S GET GROWING!
JENNY: My name is Jenny Greenberg, and I serve as the executive director of the Neighborhood Gardens Trust. So for close to ten years now, I've been working with Entity to try to expand the network of preserved community gardens across Philadelphia.
MEREDITH: NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN TRUST STARTED IN 1986 AS PHILADELPHIA’S LAND TRUST WITH A MISSION CENTERING ON LAND PRESERVATION.
JENNY: unlike a traditional land trust that might focus on conserving forested land or farms or ranches and has an urban focus on community managed gardens and green spaces. Philadelphia has a rich tradition of community gardening, which dates back many decades. because of the history of abandonment in Philadelphia and the amount of vacant land there's been a lot of opportunity and need for residents to kind of take matters into their own hands when there's sites that are causing a nuisance on their block and to clean them up and transform them into community assets.
MEREDITH: WE’VE TALKED ABOUT IT ON THIS PODCAST BEFORE BUT DURING THE 1960S, 70S AND 80S WHITE PEOPLE WERE LEAVING THE CITIES FOR THE SUBURBS. THIS WHITE FLIGHT AS IT WAS KNOWN, TANKED REALESTATE PRICES AND LEFT MANY LOTS VACANT. THE RESIDENTS WHO REMAINED TOOK IT UPON THEMSELVES TO CLEAN UP THESE LOTS AND CREATE AMAZING POCKETS OF COMMUNITY GREEN SPACES.
JENNY: So there are hundreds of of instances where self-organized residents have come together, to create gardens where people are addressing some of sort of the most pressing needs in their communities. Some of that is around growing healthy, affordable food, some of that is around cultural preservation, creating safe green spaces for people to to gather, to build social connections and ties, and to be outside in the city and kind of find relief from the stresses of urban life.
MEREDITH: TODAY THERE ARE PROBABLY OVER 400 COMMUNITY GARDENS AROUND PHILADELHPIA INCLUDING THOSE ON LAND OF OTHER INSTITUTIONS LIKE CHURCHES OR SCHOOLS AND THOSE THAT ARE ALREADY PROTECTED BY NGT. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 250-300 OF THOSE ARE FOOD GROWING GARDENS. THE REST ARE SITTING SPACES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC TO COME AND BE SURROUNDED BY GREENERY. THERE ARE EVEN A FEW FORESTED GARDENS. EACH COMMUNITY GARDEN HAS ITS OWN HISTORY AND STORY OF NEIGHBORS COMING TOGETHER TO GROW SOMETHING SPECIAL.
JENNY: The theme of our work is that these are all sites that are kind of community managed and maintained by by self-organized volunteers and, you know, I think that they are all addressing, you know, as we talked about earlier, different needs that and wishes of city residents. So people want to grow flowers or vegetables, but, you know, maybe they also want a place where neighbors can hold their kids birthday parties. People a lot of people don't have yard. So people just need green spaces to sit. So there are gardens that we're working with today that are for 40 to 50 years old, old for that long. You know, neighbors have been doing the stewardship to care for them without any assurance for the future
MEREDITH: OVER DECADES THESE GARDENS ARE CARED FOR BY THE NEIGHBORS THAT LIVE THERE. SOME MAY NOT EVEN KNOW HOW THEY BEGAN, JUST THAT THEY HOLD THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER. THE LONGER THESE GARDENS EXSIT, THE MORE THEY GROW. NEW GENERATIONS GROW UP WITH THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD GREEN SPACE AND THE MORE THE GARDEN BECOMES ENTWINED WITH THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE AROUND THEM. AND IT MAY BE FORGOTTEN THAT THE LAND THE GARDEN IS ON IS CONSTANTLY AT RISK.
JENNY: I think upwards of 200 our land insecure.
MEREDITH: THAT MEANS DESPITE THE DECADES NEIGHBORS HAVE SPENT TURNING LAND ONCE DEEMED WORTHLESS BY THE HOUSING MARKET INTO AN INVALUABLE COMMUNITY SPACE – IT COULD BE SOLD TO A DEVELOPER ONLY INTRESTED IN MAKING A PROFIT. THAT IS THE FATE THAT EVERY GARDENER ON INSECURE LAND FACES.
BOB: I'm Bob Jobin, a community gardener in South Philadelphia.
MEREDITH: BOB IS A FELLOW MASTER GARDENER – IN FACT I’VE PAID HIM A VISIT AT ONE OF THE SOUTH PHILLY GARDENS HE VOLUNTEERS AT.
BOB: That's an energy tea garden, the Bouvier Community Garden, and it's also involved in a garden I call the 15th Street Garden, which is currently seeking to be preserved community garden. what Jenny talks about is really kind of like the story of the Garden at 15th and Reed. It was like a large sort of row home lot in South Philadelphia, as you can imagine, But in the late nineties, in the middle of the night, the property and the building on the on the lot fell down No one was injured when that when the house fell there were a couple of units in the front of the house and they were able to get out. But from that time the property owner didn't, didn't really want to deal with the property that that had collapsed on the block in the late nineties. So a family who'd been on the block for 50 years, they were the block out and they were sort of like the the leader family on the block took it upon themselves to work with the city to clean up the land, to get all the debris from the building hauled away, and then to create the space where the block and the neighbors could gather and grow food and grow their ties to each other.
MEREDITH: A BIG LOT LIKE THAT, IN A NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE HOUSES ARE BEING SOLD FOR CLOSE TO A MILLION DOLLARS ATTRACTS DEVELOPERS. SO NEIGHBORHOODS GARDEN TRUST IS HERE TO STOP DEVELOPERS IN THEIR TRACKS AND SAVE THESE GARDENS. BUT HOW DO YOU MAKE A CASE FOR GREEN SPACE IN A TOWN WHERE DEVELOPERS RULE?
JENNY: It's a chicken and egg because it's hard to make a case for preservation until there's something to show to preserve.
MEREDITH: CREATING A GARDEN TAKES A LOT. IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK. IT TAKES A LOT OF MATERIALS MAYBE EVEN MONEY. AND IT TAKES AN EMOTIONAL TOLL. ONCE YOU’VE CARED FOR YOUR PLANTS AND HAVE NURTURED THEM TO GROW, IT’S PAINFUL TO SEE ANYTHING HAPPEN TO THEM.
BOB: you're always sort of in this mind, if you're lands unprotected that like, I don't want to play, you know, these plants that take three or four, four years to kind of maturity because there might not be a garden in three or four years. So it sort of always has this like temporary mindset in your in your head without preservation. And that's why the act of having these gardens preserved and having land that, you know, is going to be available for gardening over a long period of time is like so important on the ongoing like garden Gardener level because it just allows you to just open up, open up the possibilities of a space when you know that like it will be a garden for ten years. So we can do a tricky thing here. We can do like a more perennial fruit thing over here, or we can have a patio sitting area that we invest time and resource to to build and create because they're not worried about something happening in 6 to 6 months to a year where the whole garden is going to disappear. So really, I can't stress enough how important it is to preserve land to garden on.
MEREDITH: LAND PRESERVATION IN A CITY – ESPECIALLY ONE AS HISTORIC AS PHILADELPHIA – ISN’T STRAIGHT FORWARD.
JENNY: the process is different depending on the ownership. So, you know, when you walk down the street and you see a community garden, it looks like one piece of land, but it often is many multiple properties. And those multiple properties can have different ownership, but they all share the story that they were not, you know, in most cases they were abandoned. if you have land that is held by one of the city landholding agencies, and that is the most common scenario that we're dealing with, it's a process that is sort of both political and kind of working through the city. Landholding agencies. We are fortunate that Philadelphia has a policy in place that states that the city can transfer land to nonprofits for community garden and green spaces for a nominal fee, and that then they're permanently preserved.
MEREDITH: THIS POLICY UNDER THE CITY’S LAND BANK INIATIVE STARTED IN 2011. ABOUT 30 PARCELS A YEAR ARE TRANSFERRED TO NON-PROFITS TO REMAIN AS GREEN SPACES.
JENNY: The two other common scenarios. One is where the land is in the name of a private property owner, but it was abandoned and it has decades of tax liens. It's encumbered with tax debt and often the owner is deceased or it's hard to find them. And those are challenging situations. And then the other scenario is one where it's privately owned, maybe maybe it was abandoned, but it's now flipped to a land developer or speculator. It's current on its taxes. And you know, someone might be planning to build houses on it. And we've seen that happen at a number of gardens and increasing number of gardens for sure. I mean, we're having more and more situations where we need to step in and actually say, Hey, don't build a house there. We want to buy that from you.
MEREDITH: TO BUY LAND FROM DEVELOPERS YOU NEED TO HAVE MONEY – A LOT OF IT. NGT HAS BEEN RAISING MONEY THROUGH STATE AGENCIES AND PRIVATE DONORS SO THEY HAVE THE CASH TO RUSH IN BEFORE DEVELOPERS BREAK GROUND AND PUT IN AN OFFER.
JENNY: We launched a campaign last year called the Gaining Ground Campaign so that we can have like ready funds in place. So when these kind of urgent situations come up, we're able to very quickly and assertively, you know, express our desire to purchase the garden from the developer. And it's been successful in multiple situations. But it is it is happening more often and it can be a nail biter.
MEREDITH: GREEN SPACES AREN’T THE ONLY COMMUNITY ASSET THREATENED BY THE ONSLAUGHT OF DEVELOPMENT IN PHILADELPHIA. THE CITY OF MURALS HAS LOST ABOUT 30 OF HER LARGE PUBLIC ART PIECES TO NEW CONSTRUCTION IN THE LAST 5 YEARS. PRESERVING NEIGHBORHOOD GARDENS TUCKED INTO A LINE OF ROWHOMES ALSO PRESERVES THE VIEW TO THE WALLS SURROUNDING IT.
BOB: Usually with sites that have walls and opening up to an open garden. Zoning rules you can’t have windows on those walls because they could always have a house on them some point in the future so they have to be a blank wall. They can’t have windows and stuff so we see a lot of murals on the sides of walls that are facing gardens. I can think of four or five NGT with really nice murals.
JENNY: I kind of think of it as like each garden, I think sort of starts as a blank canvas. And like one of the things I love about them is they're so unique and diverse and they're kind of an expression of the vision of the gardeners and so I think that sometimes the art is an extension of that.
MEREDITH: SOME OF THE GARDENS PROTECT REALLY IMPORTANT PIECES LIKE THE CITY’S ONLY KEITH HARING MURUAL FACING THE GARDEN AT 22ND AND ELSWORTH. IF YOU’RE LIKE ME ALL THIS TALK ABOUT PRESERVING GREEN SPACES AND ART HAS GOT YOU THINKING ABOUT ALL THE VACENT LOTS YOU HAVE BEEN DREAMING ABOUT GARDENING IN. HOW DO YOU START?
JENNY: It's it's very unusual to have legal access to the land when you start So yeah, often, you know, when people reach out and they say, Hey, I want to there's a lot of my corner, I want to start a garden. Our advice is usually just, you know, check in with the council office, make sure there's no like building planned for six months from now. And if not, then you kind of have to just take the take the risk. people are doing a tremendous amount just kind of salvaging materials. But you can't invest in things like putting in a water line or installing a fence or fixing the sidewalk, you know, they're in like a there's there's a tenuous mess, but it doesn't stop people from growing a lot of veggies and and putting a lot of love into them.
MEREDITH: STARTING A GARDEN IN A VACENT LOT TAKES A LOT OF CREATIVITY BUT BEFORE YOU DIG IN YOU WANT TO BE SURE THAT YOU ARE SAFE. THAT INCLUDES MAKING SURE THERE’S NO STRUCTURAL ISSUES SURROUNDING YOUR GARDEN OR DEBRIS THAT CAN CAUSE INJURIES OR ILLNESSES.
BOB: Philadelphia was an industrial city, and it's a city that was built before the EPA and things like that came into existence. And before we knew about some of the contaminants that can can linger in soil and can cause issues if taken up into the food you eat. So we we definitely suggest that any anytime you're beginning or thinking about gardening in city soil, that you would do a soil test. and that you would understand sort of like the site history of a site, whether it was like a residential site or whether it did have an industrial past just to kind of like understand with clear eyes some of the environmental hazards that could be in the soil.
MEREDITH: I’VE TALKED ABOUT SOIL TESTS A FEW TIMES ON THIS PODCAST ALREADY SO IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION LOOK BACK TO THE EPISODE ON SOIL WITH TIM BENNETT. I’LL LINK TO THE RESOURCES ABOUT HOW TO GET A SOIL TEST THROUGH PENN EXTENSION IN THE SHOW NOTES.
BOB: So to that end, all the gardening that we do in our gardens is is in raised beds. So it's in a bed that's that's usually between 12 and 15 inches off off the sort of ground soil level and at bare filling that raised bed with fresh soil, clean soil that we know of like from a garden center. And if you do, if you do have a situation where the soil does, does not show good on it, on a soil test and seems to be damaged and can't do a raise better than I would advise, not necessarily growing food crops, but you could still grow other crops and just always wash your hands
MEREDITH: ONCE YOU’VE CONTACTED YOUR COUNSEL PERSON AND TESTED THE SOIL THEN ITS TIME TO GARDEN.
JENNY: And then I think just, you know, you need a groundswell of activity, right? A community garden isn't just one really, like ambitious person, it's community. So there's there's a community building side to a successful garden that is just essential.
MEREDITH: ONE GREAT RESOURCE NEW GARDENERS CAN LOOK INTO IS THE GARDEN TENDERS PROGRAM HOSTED BY THE PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. THE COURSE RUN TWICE A YEAR COVERS EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT COMMUNITY GARDENING – MINUS THE GARDENING. PARTICIPANTS LEARN HOW TO RECRUIT AND KEEP VOLUNTEERS, MANAGE GARDENS, FORM PARTNERSHIPS, FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LAND OWNERSHIP AND MEET OTHER GARDENERS IN THE SAME BOAT. PLUS THOSE WHO FINISH THE COURSE MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR PHS SUPPORT FOR THEIR GARDEN.
BOB: I would underline the don't go it alone and work with work with neighbors, work with people on the block. If you have like a neighborhood group or like a CDC or something like that, maybe reach out to them and just like understand like the history of why the lot is still vacant. Like, there's always usually like a story for a piece of land and why that land isn't being used. And just like so to have that context and have the clear eyes around that piece of land before you start to go too far, it I think, is important.
MEREDITH: SO GARDENING ON VACANT LOTS CAN BE A TRICKY BALANCE. CREATING RAISED BEDS TAKES TIME AND RESOURCES THAT YOU MAY NOT WANT TO INVEST IN UNTIL YOU KNOW THE LAND IS PRESERVED. AND GETTING A CONSISTANT GROUP OF VOLUNTEERS TO HELP A GARDEN THRIVE MAY BE CHALLENGING AT FIRST. SO HOW MUCH WORK REALLY NEEDS TO BE DONE TO A LOT TO GET THE BENEFITS OF A COMMUNITY GREENSPACE?
JENNY: I mean, I think anecdotally so many gardeners have described, you know, drug activity, other issues that were going on on their block, kind of moving on once the garden was there. But there's also some really compelling empirical evidence that has come out of studies at the University of Pennsylvania, which focused on the US's vacant land management sites. So as just cleans and green 13,000 labs around the city and they use those to do randomized controlled trials to just try to figure out what the social and health impacts of having a very simple treatment just like a maintain green space with a split rail fence and grass and a couple trees. And it's been in credit. I mean, they've they've been able to prove a decrease in gun violence and other crimes increase perceptions of safety by residents, decreased feelings of depression, an increased sense of connectedness to your neighbors
MEREDITH: THE 2018 STUDY SHOWED THAT SPENDING ABOUT 1600 DOLLARS TO CLEAN THE LOT AND LESS THAN $200 A YEAR FOR MAINTAINENCE WAS ALL IT TOOK TO REAP THE BENEFITS OF A GREEN SPACE. THAT AND A FENCE TO KEEP OUT ILLEGAL DUMPING AND SIGNAL TO THE COMMUNITY THAT THEY WERE WORTH INVESTING IN.
JENNY: Just simply having those well-maintained green spaces on your pathway when you walk out of your house in the neighborhood is very powerful.
MEREDITH: OF COURSE THE BENEFITS INCREASE WHEN THE NEIGHBORS ALSO GET INVOLVED TO CREATE A SPACE THAT IS NOT ONLY MAINTAINED BUT WELL LOVED.
BOB: it's a place of respect. It's a place that, you know, like neighbors and community members care about and that, you know, city residents, like we sort of like honor those spaces and we know that like someone's looking after that space. So it becomes a space that's held in regard by the block and by the neighbors and by community members.
MEREDITH: SO NOW THAT YOU’VE CREATED SOMETHING WORTH PRESERVING, IT’S TIME FOR NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN’S TRUST TO COME IN TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR PATHWAY TO PRESERVATION.
JENNY: once we're able to preserve a garden, then we're able to, you know, channel resources and investment and support.
MEREDITH: THE NEIGHBORHOOD GARDENS TRUST HAS PRESERVED OVER 50 GARDENS SO FAR AND THEY’RE WORKING HARD TO PROTECT 70 BY 2026 ACROSS PHILADELPHIA.
BOB: I would just add to find to go to entities website and find like your closest and your garden or your closest community garden and put it on your walking route, you know, to put it be because as we know from the studies would be good for you to walk past that or maintain green space. And it would also give you an opportunity to kind of see the change through through the seasons, a garden and to meet the gardeners there.
JENNY: when you're on your walk past the garden, I think very rarely do people stop and think, Hey, I wonder who owns this garden? So just like, you know, learn and share with others, like this is a big issue and Philadelphia, we have a lot of green space that we're going to lose in the next 5 to 10 years and at a time where with climate resiliency, we need it more than ever.
MEREDITH: EVERY GARDEN AROUND THE CITY HAS ITS OWN STORY AND ITS OWN STRUGGLE AND MAYBE THE LAND IS STILL IN THAT PLACE OF TENUIOUS UNCERTAINTY. MAYBE THE GARDENERS – PARTICULARLY THOSE TOILING AWAY ON INSECURE LAND NEED TO KNOW THAT THEIR WORK IS NOT UNNOTICED.
JENNY: every time you go to an entity garden or a community garden, just to to meet the gardeners, to hear what they're excited about growing to sort of like see the little corners of their garden that they've cultivated or they designed or they have envisioned in their own way their sanctuary in the city.
MEREDITH: THAT WAS JENNY GREENBERG WITH NEIGHBORHOOD GARDENS TRUST JOINED BY ONE OF MY FELLOW MASTER GARDENERS, BOB JOBIN. IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NGT INCLUDING A MAP OF THEIR GARDENS SO YOU CAN CHECK THEM OUT YOURSELF VISIT NG TRUST . ORG
WHETHER YOU ARE LOOKING TO TURN AN EMPTY LOT INTO A COMMUNITY GREEN SPACE OR JUST TACKELING SOME CONTAINERS ON YOUR SIDEWALK, STARTING A GARDEN CAN BE EXCITING AND OVERWHELMING. LIKE AN ARTIST LOOKING AT A BLANK CANVAS, THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS – WELL NOT QUITE ENDLESS. THE ARTIST DOESN’T HAVE TO KEEP THE CANVAS ALIVE. SO WHERE DO YOU START? MY EXPERIENCE BOTH AS A PAINTER AND A WILDLIFE FILMMAKER HAS LED ME TO THE OBVIOUS ANSWER – YOU START BY OBSERVING.
TAKE A MINUTE RIGHT NOW EVEN, GO TO YOUR SPACE AND PAUSE THIS PODCAST AND JUST SIT AND WATCH THE SUN AND FEEL ITS WARMTH AND THE WIND – GO AHEAD I’LL WAIT.
WELCOME BACK. HOW WAS THAT? WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
THAT MAY HAVE NOT BEEN ENOUGH TIME TO REALLY MAKE SOME DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR GARDEN BUT DIDN’T IT FEEL GOOD?
THE OBSERVATIONS YOU WANT TO MAKE IN ORDER TO DESIGN AND GROW YOUR GARDEN MAY TAKE YEARS TO REALLY GET DOWN. YOU WANT TO SEE HOW THE SUN MOVES, WHAT CORNERS GET THE MOST SUN? WHICH GET NONE? WHERE DOES THE WATER POOL WHEN IT RAINS? HOW DOES THE AIR MOVE? IS YOUR GARDEN A BOX OF HUMIDITY IN MID AUGUST? DOES THE TRAPPED WARMTH ALLOW FOR PLANTS TO GROW LATER IN THE SEASON?
PAY ATTENTION TO THE MICROCLIMATES. THAT WOULD BE AREAS NEAR WALLS THAT ARE SHADED OR MAYBE THAT HAVE LIGHT REFLECTED ON THEM. OR SPACES NEAR DRYER VENTS THAT OCCASSIONALLY GET BLASTED WITH WARM WET AIR. SMALL NOOKS WITHIN YOUR GARDEN THAT ARE KIND OF ANOMOLIES
ALL THESE THING YOU WILL LEARN OVER TIME AS YOU WATCH AND OBSERVE AND GROW – BOTH YOUR PLANTS AND YOU AS A GARDENER.
THESE OBSERVATIONS TAKE TIME TO COLLECT – AND THEY’LL CHANGE AS YOUR NEIGHBOR’S TREE GROWS TALLER BLOCKING THE SUN, OR THE PLANTS IN YOUR GARDEN INTERACT, OR AS NEW INSECT SPECIES START TO DISCOVER YOUR PLANTS – THIS QUIET OBSERVATION AND MAKING ALTERATIONS IS THE ART OF GARDENING.
THE SECOND STEP OF DESIGNING YOUR GARDEN IS TO DECIDE WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT TO PLANT? ARE YOU DYING FOR AMAZING HEIRLOOM VEGGIES YOU CAN’T FIND IN THE STORE? DO YOU WANT A SMALL HERB GARDEN TO SAVE YOU A BIT OF MONEY? DOES THE IDEA OF RAISING BUTTERFLIES AROUND YOUR PATIO EXCITE YOU? WE’LL CALL THIS THE THEME FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD. SOMETIMES YOU CAN HAVE MANY THEMES IN ONE SPACE BUT OFTEN TIMES IN OUR SMALL URBAN GARDENS WE HAVE TO DECIDE.
FORTUNATELY, IT’S A DECISION THAT YOU CAN MAKE YEAR AFTER YEAR AS YOU LEARN AND EXPERIMENT AND REMAIN CURIOUS AND ADAPTABLE.
THEN YOU TAKE THE OBSERVATIONS THAT YOU’VE COLLECTED AND YOUR THEME AND SEE WHAT PLANTS MATCH THE CONDITIONS FOR LIGHT, WATER AND HUMIDITY IN YOUR SPACE.
WHEN I FIRST STARTED MY GARDEN IT WAS ALL CONCRETE SO I WAS CONTAINER GARDENING. I ACTUALLY FOUND THAT TO BE INCREDIBLY HELPFUL IN PLANNING MY GARDEN BECAUSE I COULD MOVE THE POTS OF PLANTS AROUND AS I MADE MY OBSERVATIONS. IT ALSO ALLOWED ME TO FIGURE OUT HOW I WANTED TO USE MY GARDEN SPACE. I SOON DECIDED I WANTED A SMALL TABLE IN THE SHADIER CORNER SO MY PLANTS MOVED TO THE SUN. THEN I WANTED SOME LOUNGING CHAIRS SO THE POTS MOVED TO THE PERIMETER. BY HAVING EVERYTHIGN IN POTS MY FRIST FEW YEARS I WAS ABLE TO NATRUALLY FIND THE GARDEN’S FLOW SO THAT WHEN I EVENTUALLY REMOVED THE CONCRETE I KNEW WHERE I WANTED MY RAISED BEDS AND FRUIT TREES.
EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE MY CONCRETE PROBLEM PERHAPS THIS METHOD WILL BE HELPFUL TO YOU AS YOU DISCOVER YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE.
WE’LL BE DIGGING IN MORE TO HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN GARDEN SPACE THROUGHOUT THIS SEASON AND OF COURSE IF YOU HAVE SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR GARDEN, PLEASE SEND THEM IN!
SPEAKING OF QUESTIONS – ONE I GET FREQUENTLY THROUGH THE GARDEN WORKSHOPS I RUN IS FROM FOLKS WHO ARE JUST LOOKING AT STARTING A VEGETABLE GARDEN AND WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY SHOULD GROW.
MY GO TO ANSWER IS HERBS. MANY OF THE HERBS TYPICALLY GROWN ARE DROUGHT TOLERANT AND GROW WELL IN OUR HOT SUNNY GARDENS – EVEN IN CONTAINERS. IT’S EASY TO FIND SEEDLINGS, OR STARTS AS THEY’RE CALLED, AT GARDEN STORES OR EVEN GROCERY STORES. AND, UNLIKE GROWING TOMATOES OR OTHER VEGETABLES AN HERB GARDEN ACTUALLY SAVE YOU MONEY. ANYTIME YOU NEED A LITTLE SPRIG OF ROSEMARY HERE OR A TABLESPOON OF THYME YOU JUST HAVE TO CUT A FEW STEMS. THERE’S NO WASTE AND REGULARLY PRUNING YOUR HERBS ENCOURAGES GROWTH. DRYING HERBS IN THE SUMMER FOR USE IN THE WINTER IS REALLY EASY AND ANOTHER WAY TO SAVE MONEY AND FEEL LIKE YOU’VE BEEN CONTRIBUTING TO YOUR MEALS IN A GARDEN TO TABLE SORT OF WAY.
SO IF YOU’RE JUST LOOKING TO START GROWING A VEGETABLE GARDEN AND WANT TO START OFF EASY FOR SOME EARLY SUCCESS – GO WITH HERBS!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF GRITTY AND GREEN. I’D LIKE TO THANK JENNY GREENBERG FROM NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN’S TRUST AND BOB JOBIN FOR SHARING HIS COMMUNITY GARDEN EXPERIENCE. I’LL HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SOME OF THE RESOURCES THEY MENTIONED IN THE SHOW NOTES.
IF YOU’VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS PODCAST I’D LOVE IT IF YOU’D SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND SHARE IT SO THAT OTHER GARDENERS IN YOUR LIFE CAN FIND IT!
AND IF YOU HAVE A GARDEN QUESTION SEND ME A VOICE MEMO OR MESSAGE TO GRITTY AND GREEN AT COOL GOON PRODUCTIONS. COM
GRITTY AND GREEN IS PRESENTED BY GREEN PHILLY.
IN COLLABORATION WITH COOL GOON PRODUCTIONS.
IT WAS WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND EDITED BY ME, MEREDITH NUTTING.
THEME MUSIC BY KAZUYA
IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY GO TO GREENPHL.COM