A Dream Come True The House of Grace Catholic Worker Community Garden has been serving Philadelphia’s East Kensington neighborhood for almost 30 years. Under the leadership of Johanna Berrigan and Mary Beth Appel, the garden continues to flourish, transformed from the neglected land it once was years ago into a community gem. After many years spent worrying about the future of the garden, these community leaders felt relieved in 2018 when NGT was able to acquire ownership of the garden from the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. Once the garden was preserved, they dreamed with NGT about ho ..read more

The start of growing season is always an exciting time. Neighbors look forward to seeing bright colors pop up from what’s planted, and gardeners get to rekindle their relationship with the soil and other gardeners. The new season at Pulaski Zeralda Garden came with new leadership. Tracey Savage took on the role of Garden Coordinator and recently showed us around the garden and shared her vision for the future.  Founded in 1987 by Ms. Cook, the Germantown garden was then an empty lot but the community saw its potential to be more. The beauty of the garden is what drew in Tr ..read more

For most neighborhoods in North Philadelphia, you would consider yourself lucky to have a tree on your block that provides shade during the hot summer months or a picturesque scene as leaves fall in autumn. At 18th and Glenwood, there’s not only trees, but a 4-acre community garden. For almost 40 years, Glenwood Green Acres has been a vital resource providing access to the land to grow food, build community, and pass on agricultural traditions and knowledge. The garden sits on the former site of a whiskey barrel factory that was destroyed due to a fire. It soon became a dumping ground and eye ..read more

This little oasis has been a fixture in the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood since 1992. Over many years this all-volunteer garden community has stayed true to its mission to provide a transformative educational and safe space for children, youth and families who have limited access to fresh food sources. Their goal is to help resolve inequities within the local food system while educating the community. They achieve this through seed saving and community-based actions emphasizing accountability, sovereignty, education, and unity. All are welcome to assist in achieving PCG’s mission. The ga ..read more

It’s Earth Month 2021, and we’re proud to announce the permanent preservation of the Emerald Street Community Farm! Securing and protecting the land for this East Kensington communal growing space took five years and efforts of many, from the grassroots to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Emerald Street Community Farm (ESCF) was first started in 2008 on the site of five vacant lots at the corner of Emerald and East Dauphin Streets. The site was full of tall weeds, trash, and an RV with no traceable history. The dumping was so bad the city was forced to put up a fence. A nearby resident, E ..read more

Alanna Bozman, a gardener at Chester Avenue Community Garden, shares her favorite early spring blossoms now growing in the garden! Daffodils (Narcissus): The standard-bearers of spring. Found in the large front bed, along the side walkway, and in several beds in the back.  Crocus (Crocus): Absolutely adorable! Easily my favorite early spring flower. Most of ours are purple, but we have a few in both orange and white. Unfortunately, many of our crocuses took a beating in yesterday’s rain. Found in the large front bed. Cornelian Cherry Dogwood (Cornus mas): Without the large bracts of its ..read more

Among many losses of 2020, Philadelphia lost Libby Goldstein, a leader in the movement to reclaim vacant land for community gardening, and in the fight to preserve that land for the neighbors who cultivate it. Libby wrote in the late 1970s that, “Land acquisition is ultimately a political act.”  She got it. And her passion and hard work seeded community gardens across Philadelphia and led to the establishment of the Neighborhood Gardens Trust. In her final act, Libby left a bequest to NGT to establish the “Libby J. Goldstein and James A. Brightman Fund,” to support “garden acquisition an ..read more

We asked NGT community gardeners from around the city to share how they are keeping the gardening spirit alive as temperatures drop and daylight fades earlier. Learn how they’re preparing their gardens for the winter below and explore other ideas and resources at ngtrust.org/resources and follow us at @ngtrust for more tools of the trade! Viery Ricketts-Thomas, of Glenwood Green Acres, prepares her beds by pulling up all the old growth, and vines, and chopping it into small pieces to use for ground covering. It’s important to do this because, in the spring, she will till it over and it makes t ..read more

Uniting a Community for Food Justice Dr. Beverly Giles Carter’s journey to the movement for food justice and the creation of the Five Loaves Two Fish Community Garden began around 2009.   A West Philadelphia resident and high school science teacher, Beverly was troubled by the number of people she knew who were being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  Wanting to understand more, Beverly began to study nutrition and the impact of diet on health. She came to recognize that the lack of access to fresh, nutritious food in her neighborhood made it much harder to maintain good health overal ..read more

Abandoned Lot to Beloved Space Situated in the heart of East Kensington is a grassy 2,045-square-foot plot of land sown by seeds of love. Over a decade ago, the space was nearly unrecognizable. Its grass was strewn with trash and contractors were using it as dumping ground. Julius Rivera, a resident of the neighborhood and Philadelphia native, decided to step up and transform the vacant lot.  Long before Rivera moved into East Kensington, an old building on Hagert Street had fallen to pieces after a fire and years of neglect. The city bulldozed the remaining foundations and occasionally ..read more