Garden News, Summer 2009
Upcoming Events
GreenFest Philly invites you to party like there IS a tomorrow on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009, 11am to 6pm at 2nd & South Streets. GreenFest Philly '09 will be all about FOOD! This is Green Fest’s 4th year as a home grown, local community festival of all things green, organic, and sustainable in Philadelphia.
You can participate financially as a partner or sponsor, or you can be a part of the day as an exhibitor, vendor, presenter, intern, or volunteer. For more information, please visit:
http://www.greenfestphilly.org/
For up to date information about upcoming events associated with the Garden of the Arts, please visit:
http://www.friendsgardenofthearts.info
Political Action for Greening in Philadelphia(get political, it’s getting you)
Summer 2009 is turning out to be a pivotal season for The Garden of the Arts. We’re at a critical time in Philadelphia’s history with the debut of Mayor Michael Nutter’s Green Works Philadelphia:
http://www.phila.gov/green/greenworks/PDFs/GreenworksPlan002.pdf
The Board of the Friends of the Garden of the Arts (FOTGA) and Urban Green Partnership (UGP at http://urbangreenpartnership.org/) are working to secure a future for The Garden of the Arts as a permanent green space in Center City Philadelphia. We are making sure that our goals for the northeast corner of Broad and South Street fully support Mayor Michael Nutter’s sustainability plan for Philadelphia.
Laurie Fitzpatrick, Founder, Board President, and Executive Director of the Friends of the Garden of the Arts has initiated (with the support of the FOTGA Board) 2 new greening initiatives for the City of Philadelphia: Keystone Agricultural Zones and the Percent for Green Space program. Generally speaking, the Keystone Agricultural Zones (KAZ) will provide zoning for urban agriculture in Philadelphia’s distressed neighborhoods that can create local food and green collar jobs for our city. This program will serve as a model for other cities across Pennsylvania. The Percent for Green Space program is inspired by Philadelphia’s Redevelopment Authority percent for Art program. A percent for green space program can provide funding for significant urban green space that is accessible to the public and integrated with the development project, or the developer can put this money into a fund that can purchase urban land to be converted into open green space.
For up to date information about our effort to preserve this green space, Kaz, and the Percent for Green Space program, go to:
http://www.friendsgardenofthearts.info
Petition Time – again : (
In support of bringing the Big Green Building and the Garden of the Arts to the northeast corner of Broad and South Street, the gardeners are running our 3rd petition to demonstrate the huge community support that exists for this project. This petition will be given to 1st District Senator Larry Farnese who will take it to Harrisburg in July, 2009 to help us obtain $100,500 in DCED money to fund the first 2 planning phases for the Big Green Building/Garden of the Arts development project. For more information about the project, or to volunteer to circulate the petition, please visit:
http://www.friendsgardenofthearts.info
Food Trust Farmers Market at the Garden of the Arts
The Garden of the Arts is thrilled to host a Food Trust Farmer’s Market (http://www.thefoodtrust.org/) every Wednesday starting May 27th through the fall. The market will open at 2pm and close at 6pm and will be located on Broad Street in front of the Garden of the Arts. Be sure to stop by on your way home from work and buy farm fresh, locally grown vegetables. Aside from providing us with delicious, healthy fresh produce, The Food Trust the Trust works to improve the health of children and adults, promote good nutrition, increase access to nutritious foods, and advocate for better public policy.
Special Thanks
We are grateful to State Representative Babette Josephs for giving the Garden of the Arts $500 that we used in April to replace 50% of the plot wood in our garden. Babette came out the garden on Saturday, April 25 to present the $500 check (see photos HERE) and expressed strong interest in supporting the Garden of the Arts and the Big Green Building. She is also interested in supporting KAZ in Philadelphia. A special team of plot holders braved the scorching sun and searing 70 degree temperatures (it felt really hot after 30 degree nights) to reconstruct the new plots.
The original plot wood, purchased in 2000, lasted 9 years and has been trimmed down and will be used again to build the compost bins. The unusable portions of this wood will be ground up into wood chips that will have a variety of uses throughout the Garden of the Arts.
In the Garden
Larry Shaeffer and a small but dedicated team of Garden of the Arts plot holders will soon build a Compost Center in the dog run area of the garden. This compost center will employ several composting techniques (compost bins, enclosed barrels, worm composting) to transform discarded vegetation (rotten vegetables, kitchen waste, coffee grinds, tree trimmings, grass clippings, vegetable plant trimmings) into valuable organic compost that will feed the flowers and vegetables, and ultimately the people of the Garden of the Arts.
This composting effort will remove an estimated 90% of trimmed vegetation from the waste stream of the Garden of the Arts that is picked up by the Philadelphia Sanitation Department.
For up to date information about composting and interesting photos of your neighbors all sweaty in grubby clothes at the Garden of the Arts, please go to: http://www.friendsgardenofthearts.info
An adjunct group of Mad Gardeners will soon plant a field of sunflowers in the common area of the Garden of the Arts. Their goal is to plant 100 Mammoth variety sunflowers. Later in the season, gardeners, friends of gardeners, garden neighbors, politicians, celebrities, and other persons of interest will be invited to pose in front of this field of sunflowers to have their picture taken then posted on our website for all the world to enjoy.
Special Thanks - For the continue support of PhillyCarShare in the use of their vehicles for garden projects.