Since the mid 1970s, community residents have been growing food at Aspen Farms, a former vacant lot in the Mill Creek section of West Philadelphia. Dozens of rowhouses were demolished in the mid 1960s, and with the help of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society neighbors got the land cleared of debris and started working in the soil in 1975. The large mural of a pastoral farming scene is a perfect backdrop for this community farm where gardeners harvest a variety of food crops from their raised bed gardens.

But Aspen Farmers not only grow food but also grow community on their 3/4 acre farm. There are 40 families that have individual plots and work on maintaining their own piece of ground as well as helping with the center path flower bed and the multiple fish ponds. Work days are held throughout the season and everyone is expected to share in the communal work.

Aspen Farms is the most visited community garden in Philadelphia. Thousands of people of all ages visit the garden each year to see what can be done when neighbors work together to turn vacant land into a productive, attractive asset in a community. Aspen Farms demonstrates the best practices for creating and maintaining a community garden in an urban setting and has been featured in local and national print and television spots.

In March of 2004 after many years of negotiations, the City's Redevelopment Authority donated the garden land to the community gardeners and the Neighborhood Gardens Association/ A Philadelphia Land Trust (NGA). Aspen Farms was recognized by the City as a positive amenity to its community and deemed worthy of being a permanently preserved community-managed green space. NGA provides the garden with nonprofit status, liability insurance and funding for physical improvements, allowing the gardeners to do what they do best - garden.

Sustainability Narrative:

Over its thirty year history, Aspen Farms has continued to grow as a community garden and has provided a safe, environmentally sound green space in its Mill Creek neighborhood. There are 40 garden plots on 3/4 of an acre that are planted and maintained by gardeners. Over the years, they have gradually added features to the garden that make it a good example of what people can do when they work together:

• All of the gardeners use organic gardening techniques in an attempt to eliminate the use of any type of chemicals.
• Aspen Farms has a well established composting system creating black gold out of their garden refuse that can be used inside the garden to continually renew the soil.
• The gardeners designed and installed an irrigation system throughout the garden to help gardeners use water in an efficient way. Garden beds are hand watered in an attempt to use the least amount of water possible to grow their crops.
• Aspen Farms is one of the gardens that is part of the PHS City Harvest project. Gardeners receive transplants grown at area prisons and grow the plants on to harvest. During the 2006 season, the Aspen Farms gardeners donated over 2,000 pounds of produce grown in the garden to a locate food cupboard in their community. They will continue to be part of this project in 2007.
• In 2006, the garden received a grant to install a solar energy system. Working with a solar consultant, the gardeners mounted a grid-tied photovoltaic solar system to the roof of the garden shed to collect solar energy and supply surplus power back through the grid to the utility company. The system has generated numerous comments from neighbors for information and NGA and Aspen Farms hosted a workshop on the solar system for other urban community garden groups.
• In 1986, the gardeners dug with the help of local school children a series of three ponds where goldfish and water lilies add to the excitement and habitat as one walks across a bridge over the ponds.
• The gardeners are interested in educating people especially youth about the art of gardening. Two plots are gardened by local students from Sulzberger Middle School and MarthaWashingtonElementary School. Aspen Farms frequently hosts workshops with Philadelphia Green for interested individual and community gardeners on a variety of gardening topics. In addition, the garden hosts numerous tours of local school classes, out-of-town visitors, and groups of Philadelphia community gardeners showing them how the garden works. The garden is wheelchair accessible and accommodating of special needs.

 

Results:

As the Sustainable Narrative above describes, Aspen Farms is a place of beauty in a densely populated community and one that also contributes to the health and welfare of the gardeners, their neighbors, and the environment. A great deal of food is produced in the garden plots each season, but there is also a bounty of community spirit and camaraderie as well. The gardeners are committed to taking an organic approach to the garden, producing compost to replenish the soil, sharing their harvest, hosting people, and having fun while they are doing it. The garden also serves as a model of best practices for other groups that are working on community gardening projects.