PHS and Philly Homegrown Pop-Up Garden

Monday, July 11, 2011

In partnership with Philly Homegrown, PHS created a beautiful pop-up garden in the formerly empty lot at 20th and Market. Just look at all the beauty next to those boring skyscrapers! You’re welcome to pop-in on Wednesdays and Thursdays and spend some time in the garden. The garden will stay up until October, then come down for the winter and pop-up in a new location next Spring! I stopped by for a short workshop on vegetable growing. These Wednesday workshops are free and easy to squeeze in over your lunch hour:

• August 4: Gardening Odds and Ends — Fabulous Containers
• September 1: Edible Landscapes — Growing Beautiful Food
• September 22: Edible Landscape — Planting and Harvesting

And, if you’re feeling like a special lunch afterwards, you can visit one of six local hot spots – R2L, Square 1682, Table 31, Sampan, Barbuzzo, and Paradiso —who have agreed to use ingredients from the pop-up garden in special dishes whose proceeds benefit City Harvest, PHS’s program that provides fresh produce for underserved Philadelphia residents.

E-Z Grow Vegetable Workshop

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Trying to make the best of your paltry city lot? Or maybe you’re interested a larger plot that aims towards vegetable self-sufficiency? Either way, it’s good to learn the tricks of the trade.

April 9, 2011
Penn State Philadelphia Master Gardeners 2nd Saturday
EZ Steps to Grow Vegetables (Come and Learn from my Mistakes!)

Fairmount Park Horticultural Center
N. Horticultural and Montgomery Drive Phila., Pa.19131
9AM Registration    
9:30 Workshop Begins  
$10.00 registration fee

Julie Cox, Penn State Philadelphia Master Gardener and avid long time
vegetable gardener, will be addressing the questions and dilemmas of
the beginning vegetable gardener. Topics will include site selection,
soil testing, planning, planting, nurturing, and harvesting in a
mostly organic approach. A fan of “Intensive” or “Square Foot”
gardening—she will have you hooked on homegrown tomatoes in no time.

Become a Master Gardener!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Penn State Philadelphia County Outreach Accepting Applications for the Master Gardener Class of 2012

The Penn State Master Gardeners are taking applications for the Class of 2012, which commences in August 2011. We are looking for dedicated organizers, horticulturalists and environmental stewards with at least 5 to 10 hours of volunteer time to work in areas of elementary gardening education, workshop presentation series and answering gardening questions via our Hortline. For more information and an application, please refer to the Penn State Philly website at http://philadelphia.extension.psu.edu/. From the home page, select Horticulture/Gardening tab and find the Master Gardener section.

Applications and inquiries may be send to Kim Labno at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Prune those Branches

Monday, February 07, 2011

FRUIT TREE WORKSHOP: WINTER PRUNING
Saturday, March 5th, 1-3pm
@ Grumblethorpe Historic House & Museum
5267 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia
Many Philadelphians grow their own fruit trees, and you could, too! But one of the basics of fruit tree ownership and maintenance is pruning. Find out everything you need to know to keep your fruit trees healthy and productive at this low-cost workshops. 

This introductory workshop will cover the basics of fruit tree pruning, with hands-on demonstration on some of the existing trees at historic Grumblethorpe. Workshop leader Phil Forsyth is the Orchard Director of the Philadelphia Orchard Project, a non-profit that plants orchards in partnership with community groups across the city. Forsyth also operates an edible and ecological landscaping business (forsythgardens.com) and writes about urban food growing at phigblog.com.

$ 10 per person

There are 25 seats available, and you must register and pay before the class.  To register, visit http://www.philalandmarks.org/calendar.aspx to sign-up through PayPal.
* If the class is canceled due to the weather, there is a rain/snow date scheduled for Sunday, March 6th @ 1pm.

Start Your Own Community Garden!

Monday, January 17, 2011

I can personally attest to the awesome-ness of this course - after I took the winter and spring sessions I started not one, but two community gardens in West Philly!

Garden Tenders:  Create a Neighborhood Garden

These self-help courses are designed for individuals and groups who want to improve their neighborhoods by turning vacant lots and other spaces into both community and individual gardens.  Garden Tenders participants learn how to get gardens started, and how to keep things going once the garden is in the ground.

2011 COURSES
Winter:    Saturday, January 29, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Fee $10 Preregistration deadline: Jan 21.

Spring:    Wednesdays, March 23, 30, April 6, 20, and 27, May 4 and 11, 5:30-8:30 p.m. &
                    Saturday, April 16, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.:  Fee $25 Preregistration deadline: March 18.

These trainings are held at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 N. 20th Street, 5th Floor.
To register and pay online, go to https://www.pennhort.net/gardentenders
Act 48 credits are available.

For more information, contact Sally McCabe at 215-988-8846 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Soil Kitchen

Friday, January 07, 2011

Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy just commissioned the artist group Futurefarmers to create a temporary public art project that addresses urban sustainability.  The Soil Kitchen will be a pop-up facility in an old warehouse at 2nd and Girard that will function as a wind-powered soup kitchen, soil testing laboratory and event space.  The project will be up for about a week, coinciding with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Conference scheduled to take place in Philadelphia April 3-5, 2011.

Soil Kitchen will incorporate community involvement, naturally generated energy, local foods, food exchange, the creative reuse of a brownfield site, and brownfield mapping. This new site-specific public artwork will provide a stage for community interaction, dialogue, and education on topics of sustainability that impact every Philadelphian. The work will depend on the thoughts and actions of the people who engage with it.

Futurefarmers, founded in 1995 by Amy Franceschini, is a collective of artists and designers based in San Francisco, California. Their work explores a myriad of social and environmental issues by encouraging participation and interaction. Futurefarmers’ playful and accessible projects provide platforms for local communities to examine issues central to their lives.
 
Follow the project at: http://www.soilkitchen.org