Philadelphia Community Gardens

Hi everyone,

I haven’t written in awhile about the project.  Ari and I have been quite busy.  We have been processing plant and soil samples for the last week +.  Plant samples have been dried in an oven, ground up (using coffee grinder!) and sent to a lab in Utah to test for elemental composition.  Soil samples (all 126) have been dried, sieved to >2mm, and now weighed into 5 and 2g samples in plastic containers.  I need to take pictures of these viles because they look like they belong in a medical/hospital lab, with their red caps.  Some samples of particular concern were just sent to a lab in Reno where they will test for overall elemental composition as well.  In Bryn Mawr’s lab, we will be testing for plant- and human-available Pb.  Hopefully we can have our results in one week!

Aside from working inside, I have also been spending time with various gardeners and community members throughout the city, whom I met through a gardener’s workshop at the Horticultural Society.  I met about 30 gardeners last week at a woman’s house– all sorts of people!  Gardening brings people together– both people who do it as a hobby, as well as people who use gardens as an educational tool in schools.

I spent much of today (despite the rain!) at the Munoz School in North Philly.  Ari and I tested the soil from this school (alongside the parking lot) a few weeks ago.  But today, this plot became a garden.  What a simple, yet beautiful process.  Various Puerto Ricans who live in the neighborhood came to help.  One thing I re-recognized for myself is that I want to learn Spanish.  I was able to communicate with mothers via their sons.  But wow, what a community!!  I find myself blessed to be able to show up at a garden and be fed, meet wonderful people, and laugh and play with kids– all of whom were strangers to me yesterday.

Here’s a recent article published by Philly.com.  It focuses on Mill Creek Farm (where we were on Monday to collect samples) and how the urban gardening movement is helping to alleviate the hunger problem in Philadelphia.

www.philly.com/philly/living/green/47186617.html

(It’s not just us!  This is a real issue!)

Aside from the 12 gardens we tested today (whew) I have a lot of thoughts running through my head– about race, the value of this project, and perhaps doing solidarity work in general.  And although I would love to share my thoughts, I’m not quite sure what I feel comfortable writing (and maybe should not include) in this blog.

After visiting Mill Creek Farm today, Ari and I walked over to the garden on the other side, which is the Brown Street Community Garden.  There was an older black man sitting on one side, taking a break from the beating sun.  I talked with him for awhile about the history of the garden, etc, and asked if he’d feel comfortable giving me his name and phone number so we can notify him of the results.  I followed that up with “would you like to know the results?”  He looked at me and said something like he’s going to keep gardening here no matter what, so he doesn’t care/need to know.  Earlier, he told me he’d been gardening there for “many moons”– and this was coming from an old man.

I stepped away from this conversation nodding– understanding– with a slight smile.  Understandably, this man is going to continue doing what he’s been doing for so long in HIS OWN neighborhood.  Who am I to tell him that Pb in his soil may be a concern, given hundreds of other things that could be remedied in his life?  It was humbling.

the most yellow I saw, looking in all directions.

The role of the Neighborhood Garden Association is an interesting one.  Gardening in Philadelphia is “guerilla gardening,” as Skip Weiner puts it.  Community members begin gardening on abandoned plots, without knowing too much about who owns the land.  Often times and until recently, guerilla gardening got off the hook and land owners did not stop the gardening from happening.  However, there have been cases where the owners sell the land to developers.  In this case, the gardeners have no power.  Then comes the role of the NGA.  The NGA buys properties so that community members can garden on legally purchased land.  This organization owns 29 plots in Philadelphia.  The organization does not interfere with the leadership of the gardens– this is left up to individual community members of each garden.  Where does the NGA get its money?  Good question.  I will ask Terry.

Urban Tree Connection: www.urbantreeconnection.org/ On Wednesday, Ari and I visited the home of Skip Weiner, who lives in a historic home in NW Philly.  What a beautiful home.  It’s from 1690, I believe.  It used to be the home of William Penn’s doctor, and was the only structure on 100 acres of land.  There was nothing else from that house to east to the Schuylkill or south to the Philadelphia Zoo.  Imagine that!  wow…

Skip started his organization, the Urban Tree Connection, which works with gardeners and schools and soup kitchens in greening Philadelphia.  He was on the front cover of the April issue of Grid Magazine, Philadelphia’s very own sustainability magainze.  www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/redflag/gridphilly_200904/#/0 He gave us permission to visit 5 more gardens.  Thank you, Skip!

On Thursday June 4th, we set out with Terry Mushovic who works with the Neighborhood Gardens Association.  www.ngalandtrust.org/

She has been such a great help.  She contacted many gardeners and laid out a course of action for the day– to get as much done before the rain.  We visited gardens throughout Point Breeze, which is a poorer neighborhood in SW Philly, bound by Washington Avenue to the north.  Driving through the city, I was surprised by how much the socio-economic status of a neighborhood can change just by crossing one street.  Point Breeze is undergoing many revitalization projects– one of which is gardening in abandoned plots.

It’s interesting to note that some gardens have fences, others don’t.  Of the fenced gardens, some have locks, others don’t.  I think it is safe to say the accessibility to these gardens says something about the neighborhoods in which they are located.

Gardens we visited on 6/4:

6. Pemberton Garden: 704-706 S 19th St.  This first garden we visited is in Center City, in a plot between 2 townhouses.  This garden is quite close to where I will be living beginning next month.  I think I will be seeing it more often!

7. Bouvier Street Garden: 1348-1350 Bouvier St.  This garden spans two lots.

8. Kimball St. Garden: 1012 Kimball St.  We met a woman gardening.  She told us a bit about the history of this garden: the plot used to be a factory, and ownership of the land is not completely settled.  The owner donated the land to get a tax break.  The plot couldn’t be used as a fully functioning factory b/c the road next to it is SO narrow that trucks could not fit through (yes, it’s true.  It’s the width of 1.5 cars).  After the factory, the land was turned into a tree farm.  Many of the trees on sidewalks in Point Breeze originated here.  Looking at the area today, you can tell it used to be a factory– other industrial buildings remain in the area.

9. Bodine Street Garden: 939 N. 3rd St.  This garden won a gardening award.  It is SO beautiful!  The walls of the buildlings surrounding the garden have mosaics on them, created by high school students from NJ on a service project.  There are all sorts of mirrors put into intriguing shapes.  This is the only garden I didn’t bring my camera to!!

10. Daly Street Garden: 1055 Daly St.  Located next to a home of a woman who gardens with several of her friends.  We met her son and another woman.

11. Hope Garden: Ellsworth and 12th.  This garden was very active long ago, but was untouched for 15 years until just this past year.  A young woman showed us around and offered us tea in the rain

I finally figured out how to upload photos.  I know viewing photos always makes it easier for me to get a better feel for something, so here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Photo of me and Ari taking a soil sample using the corer at Pemberton Garden in central Philly.

Signs like these are common on many gardens. They explain who maintains the plot. This photo comes from the Daly Street Garden.

The Kimball Street Garden has a nice big composting bin. Haverford just gone one of these last fall!

check out the trichomes on this plant! (yes I'm a bio nerd.)

Kimball Street Garden: This garden is on a plot of land that used to be a factory.

Kimball Garden: beautiful marigold rising out of hay.

Kimball Street Garden: Roses growing overtop the fence

Tuesday 6/2: Soil collection day 1

Sites we visited:

1. Green Tree School in Northwest Philly.  I worked with highly-functioning autistic kids/high schoolers.  They were very smart and enthusiastic.  Their teacher Marianne later told me about the importance of outdoor and engaging education for disabled students (athough I could barely tell they were “disabled”.)  I even got to speak Japanese with a few of the students- wow!

2. Roxborough Presbyterian Chruch in NW Philly

3. John B. Kelly Elementary School- worked with 5th graders in testing site for future garden

4. Tipsy and Tula Garden/ Two Goats Garden:  located in townhouse community of NW Philly.  Garden is on the site of a vacant lot, and beds are against one side of a house.

5. 1522 Rowan Street: Garden in someone’s backyard in a run-down part of NW Philly.  Might this be a private garden?  We need to find out.  The lot next to the garden was FULL of trash that looked like it had been collecting there for years upon years.  There was a huge blackberry tree growing over the garden– we marked our steps by squishing black-purple juice.

Exciting points thus far:

1. working with 5th graders from John B. Kelly elementary school.  Potential garden to be located on edge of playground, currently grass.  All the kids took turns in using the soil corer without the teacher needing to intervene- amazing.  5th grade is the age where kids are excited to do new things, and respect you (myself as a 22-year-old) as someone old enough, with a sufficient age gap.  They were so awesome.  And the Ms. Carter got Ari and my name right away, and smiled genuinely, and loved that we were working at her school with her kids.  (This interaction made me wish I was teaching 5th grade next year!!)

Frustrating points thus far:

1. getting organized enough to contact people ahead of time to get permission and plan gardens within close proximity to test in 1 day.  Ari and I decided that although we have verbal consent from gardeners, we figured it would be better to notify the gardener in-charge of our visit on a certain day.  If the gardener is present while we take our samples, he/she can also tell us about particular spots in the plot that are of concern.

2. helping the gardeners vs. helping myself for potential future science research.  Given the limited amount of money, we can’t test everything.  Ari and I have decided that this project is for PEACE– the gardeners and the community.  Although I wanted to initally spend the money to do more whole soil tests, Ari suggested we test more vegetables instead.  I agreed with her.  Data on the amount of heavy metals present in the soil would be very cool to use in future research (/grad school??) but since we received grants from two organizations promoting PEACE, we will be testing more vegetables, which will serve the needs and cater to the requests of community members.

After many days of deciding organizational details, we finally broke ground (ha) and took our first soil samples yesterday.  I wish I had my camera!  The photos would have been great.  On Tuesday, we stopped off at 5 gardens, or soon-to-be gardens.  But before I get into what I did over the past few days, let me explain the project.

Background: Across the country, a popular movement for organic food has developed in response to the use of pesticides on industrial farms, soil degradation by monoculture, and other poor farming practices.  As a result, urban gardens have become increasingly prevalent in American cities, especially as potential solutions to food security problems in low-income minority communities.  Alarmingly, however, the health safety of urban gardens has yet to be seriously assessed.  Soils in cities are polluted with heavy metals, chiefly Pb, from many years of leaded gasoline usage, paint, emissions from factories, and insecticides.  The New York Times featured a recent article just this past May on the issue of Pb in urban gardens in Brooklyn– www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=garden%20lead&st=cse&scp=1 (Thank you Professor Benston!)  Although many of these substances are banned today, Pb remains in the ecosystem and is cycled through the air, soil, and crops.  In urban gardens in particular, Pb can enter the human body through one of two ways— skin-to-soil contact when gardening and through the consumption of vegetables that have absorbed lead.  The presence of Pb-contaminated soil in urban gardens is especially problematic because people from under-served communities often work in these gardens.  Children are especially at risk because Pb is harmful to their growth.  In inner-city Philadelphia where nutritional food is harder to find, people grow their own healthy food.  Since gardening allows community members to improve their health, build active social lives, and eat healthily, we want to PROMOTE this movement.  However, we want to ensure the SAFETY of this practice.  This is why we are doing our project.

Project Overview: Ari Briski and I will travel to and visit as many *community gardens* within Philadelphia.  Criteria: garden must be used by more than one person, and located within Philadelphia county.  The garden must also grow vegetables, or some form of food.  We will take and test the soil from as many of these gardens from which we get permission (upwards of 40 gardens).  We will test 5 samples of soil and a maximum of 3 vegetables from each garden.  If the garden has raised beds with imported soil, we will test 2 samples of soil from the bed and 2 immediately outside it, which would be the original soil from the ground, as well as one spot outside the bed.  If the garden does not have raised beds, obviously all the soil we test will be the original soil.

We have read through the literature and learned about how particles tend to fly through the urban atmosphere.  Soil immediately next to a building tends to have higher concentrations of contaminants because the circulating air hits the wall and particles fall below.  We choose the spatial location of our 5 samples keeping this in mind.  We will draw an aerial sketch of each garden, labeling our 5 sites and if pertinent, locations of the 3 vegetables.

The samples will be tested using Bryn Mawr College’s brand new Inductively Coupled Mass-Spectrometer (ICP-MS).  It is so new that we are actually not allowed to use it, ha.  We will prepare the samples, but our former professor/current advisor, Geology professor Chris Oze, will operate the very expensive machine (although he’s not taking away all the glory from us– apparently, you just load the machine with your samples, press some buttons, and return in a few hours for the results).  The vegetable samples will be sent to University of Utah’s agricultural testing center, and the whole soil analysis will be sent to ALS CHEMEX’s lab in Vancouver.

Ari and I met in Bryn Mawr’s Environmental Studies Senior Seminar last fall, and developed a mock grant proposal written for the National Science Foundation for a course assignment.  We work really well together, in spirit of the inter-disciplinary-ness of the Environmental Studies department.  She is/ (was, gasp) a Cities major and I was a Biology major.  Over winter break, I found out about an opportunity to apply for real money to actually do the project.  I figured why not?  Before I knew it, we were funded by the Davis Projects for Peace through BMC, as well as Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship.  (…a big THANK YOU!)

Cecily Moyer ’09 will be testing the soil and vegetables of community gardens in Philadelphia for lead (Pb) and other heavy metals.