Newbold Neighbors is teaming up with the Philly Orchard Project, Neighborhood Gardens Association, and NPAC to revive and expand two community gardens.

One is at 17th & Latona and the other is on S. Sydenham near 15th & Ellsworth.

Philly Orchard Project and the Neighborhood Gardens Association will be presenting to the Newbold Clean & Green Committee on Tuesday, February 12th. The meeting is from 7-8pm at the DiSilvestro Rec. Center (15th & Morris).

If you're interested in getting your hands dirty this spring come on out and help plan your garden.

Thanks for this post. I just moved around 6th and Snyder and have always wanted to participate in this kind of project. What does one have to do to get a little garden plot? I plan to attend the event...thanks again.

Are you new to south philly? (if so, welcome!)

From preliminary conversations on the topic it doesn't look like we'll be going the route of divvying the lot into smaller parcels. There's more of an emphasis, so far, on a cooperative effort and divvying up the bounty along the lines of a CSA farm share according to how much time one puts in. Lots of reasons ranging from the limited space, to wanting to avoid a "waiting list" scenario, to keeping neighborhood kids involved . . . but nothing has been set in stone yet and you're certainly welcome to add to the conversation.

My wife and I were walking by there the other day; We really probably need to get out there soon to clear the lot. It's pretty overgrown and completely littered (this probably goes without saying, but it's going to need a lot of work before we can put spade to dirt...)

__________________
G.Twilley

you're absolutely right. Access is the only barrier at this point but since someone from NGA will be at the meeting (they own the land) we should be able to schedule a work day. Hopefully we can get in there within the next 3 weeks.

I'm interested in this thread even though I don't live near there. We have a couple of "vacant" lots that could be put to good use like this. Pardon my ignorance, but is NGA a city department?

http://www.ngalandtrust.org/

NGA is a land trust. Land Trusts are much bigger in the suburbs where they do a lot of farmland preservation. There are also groups like the North Camden Land Trust http://www.pbs.org/capital/stories/north-camden.html that focus on housing.

A land trust is basically a non-profit holding company for land.

In the case of the NGA, the city gives them a lot of vacant land that the city doesn't want to take care of. In some cases the NGA gives the land back to the city to sell to developers because NGA doesn't have the resources to handle it either.

If there's vacant land near you the first step is to find out who owns it, when was the last time it sold and for how much. If it's owned by the city or by NGA then you have a good chance of being able to green it.

so i'm curious, where are the lots?

Thank you for the informative post. I've learned so much from the participants here. One lot is between two row homes on 2nd street, I think it's just before Moore. There's another one just south of there. I'll pay more attention next time I'm walking down that way and let you know. One lot on Front and Greenwich is being developed now, so my assumption that it was abandoned was wrong. The lots that I'm trying to recall are most likely privately owned as well, but they're eyesores and it doesn't hurt to check it out.

If you're ever around the South Philly Taproom walk/drive up Hicks St. about 6 houses north of the Taproom and you'll see an empty lot that folks in the neighborhood greened up. It's not all that impressive in the dead of winter but in the warmer months it certainly is.

It was more or less a guerilla action. They wrote the owners a letter saying "we're going to do this." and did it. After the gardeners invested a considerable amount of time and money the owners of the lot put it on the market. The garden group bought it and have since signed it over to the NGA but they still have about $17k to repay for the cost of the lot.

IMO it was a little shortsighted. If it was me I would've held on to the land and continued gardening there with the intention of selling it later and making a more strategic investment in neighborhood open space. There's not much you can do with one 14x50 lot and there are plenty of much larger parcels where the city owns most of the land with the exception of a key parcel or two . . . but that's just me. In the southern end of our neighborhood, like in Pennsport, there's not much vacant land so you make do with what you have.

Just be prepared to pay a lot more than $20k for a lot in Pennsport.

Wonderful!

__________________
G.Twilley