Category Archives: Municipal Services

New City Website Aims to Help Turn Vacant Lots into Community Gardens

Posted on November 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you want to turn a vacant lot in your neighborhood into a community garden, the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. is here to help. The quasi-municipal agency that manages the sale of city-owned property has long been criticized for letting thousands of city-owned vacant lots languish in limbo, blighting neighborhoods citywide. But this summer, the PHDC set up a new website to facilitate the process of putting vacant lots to productive use, including community gardens. If you have spotted a vacant lot and want to acquire it to turn it into a community garden:

  • First, peruse this map to see if the lot is city-owned and available.
  • Next find out if you’re eligible to purchase the lot and submit an application. You’re supposed to get some response from PHDC within 120 days.

PHDC’s overhaul of the system for selling publicly owned vacant lots is a result of a reform process that has been underway for several years. The push for a better way was spurred by reporting by Plan Philly and WHYY, the public radio station, which uncovered a backlog of more than 18,000 “expressions of interest” to buy some of the more than 8,000 vacant lots in the city’s inventory. Many of the queries had gone unanwered for years.

Under the new system, buyers may submit formal applications for lots approved for sale as side yards or community gardens–as long as the applicant meets certain terms and conditions. The city is supposed to respond within 120 days–with approval by no means guaranteed.

The new website acknowledges that the city has some fences to mend with community gardening advocates who have long complained about the inability to make use of blighted lots:

“The City of Philadelphia and PHDC have a strong commitment to community gardening and urban agriculture. Gardening is an important part in helping to transform and sustain communities. In the last five years, PHDC has done a lot of work in community gardening and urban agriculture. There is more work to do, but we are committed!”

PHDC also acknowledges that some gardens have already been established without authorization on vacant lots. The new system promises a possible path toward legalization for at least some of them:

“If you are already gardening on a lot but don’t have an agreement to do so, we may be able to formalize your garden.”

In considering applications, PHDC apparently will take steps to assure that vacant lots ostensibly purchased for use as “community gardens” aren’t commandeered for purely private use or perhaps flipped to a developer for a fat profit. That sort of scam does indeed happen with disposition of city-owned vacant lots, as WHYY and others have reported in, among others, a piece about a city judge who acquired lots for a pittance and sold them to a developer a year later for a $135,000 profit, and another article about how political favoritism can distort the process of disposing of vacant lots.

The new application process suggests the city will require proof that a purchaser has the intent and wherewithal to create and manage a garden that is actually open to the community. As the PHDC’s new website states:

The application to use property for a community garden, open space or recreational area will ask for information about you and, if applicable, your organization. It will also help us make sure you are up to date on your taxes, have no conflicts of interest, and comply with the City’s campaign contribution guidelines.

  • The application also asks you to submit:
  • An economic opportunity and inclusion plan
  • Detailed plans
  • Documentation that you have successfully completed such developments in the past
  • Proof that you have the funds needed to complete the development
  • Organizational documents

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Posted in Community Gardens, Municipal Services, Philly Urban Ag News, Vacant Lots

Philly Compost is Back, Free and Socially Distanced

Posted on May 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

UPDATE: By midsummer, compost, mulch, and wood-chip distribution had resumed at 3850 W. Ford Road in the park. Check for schedule.

The recycling center in West Fairmount Park usually opens its doors to aficionados of its free leaf compost  like me at the start of April. That didn’t happen this year. Blame the coronovirus, and the fact that in the old setup at the recycling center, a small throng would gather around one huge mountain of compost standing practically shoulder to shoulder to fill their buckets and bags, conduct that is off limits these days.

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation came up with a new, safe setup and commenced free compost distribution this year on May 20. Mulch and compost is now spread out into 12 different numbered piles so 12 customers at a time can load up while remaining properly socially distanced, a good 20 feet apart.

Below is the notice recently sent out by the department with details about where and how you can get free compost. Word apparently hasn’t spread very far and wide yet. I dropped by for compost on both May 20 and 21 and was the lone customer both times. (Hint: for ease of loading, back your car right up to the pile and shovel the compost directly into heavy-duty trash bags in your trunk.)

Hello Philly Food Growers,

As you may know, food production has been deemed essential during the COVID-19 crisis. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation appreciates your efforts in growing food for your families and communities.

In an effort to support food production in Philadelphia, we will reopen the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center (3850 Ford Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19131) by appointment only for Philadelphia growers with open-bed vehicles (pick-up trucks or dump trucks) to receive free compost and mulch on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. We ask for your personal protection and the protection of others that you follow the protocols listed below. If it is determined that protocols are not being adhered to, this service will be discontinued.

For individual growers without an open-bed vehicle, there will be free piles of mulch and compost available for growers to self-load into containers at the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center’s parking lot (100 N. Horticultural Dr., Philadelphia, PA 19131). Compost and mulch will be available Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We ask for your personal protection and the protection of others that you follow the protocols listed below. If it is observed that protocols are not being adhered to, this service will be discontinued.

Protocols for self-service compost and mulch at the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center parking lot:

  • Please remain in your vehicle until loading.
  • Please be mindful if there is a line of vehicles waiting. If there are more than two cars in line, you are limited to 20 minutes to collect the materials you need.
  • Only one vehicle at a pile at a time.
  • You will need to bring your own shovel and container.
  • You must wear a mask and gloves at all times.
  • You must follow directional signage and instructions from PPR Staff
  • The best way to keep yourself and others safe from COVID-19 and to end the pandemic is to stay away from other people; try to keep at least six feet between you and anyone else picking up compost or mulch. If you’re having trouble keeping a safe distance, consider coming back at another time.
  • You will be asked to leave if you are not following protocols.

Protocols for open bed vehicles at the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center:

  • Please arrive 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. We reserve the right to turn away any vehicles that are late to their appointment.
  • We ask that you make a sign with the name of your garden and appointment time that can be read from 10 feet away.
  • You will check in with the attendant at the gate and be given instructions on where to receive the materials.
  • You must wear a mask and follow the instructions of PPR staff.
  • You are not allowed to exit your vehicle.

Make your reservation for the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center.

Please reach out to FarmPhilly@phila.gov with any questions or concerns.

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Posted in Compost, Municipal Services, Philly Urban Ag News

My 2020 Garden’s Indoor Jump Start

Posted on February 23, 2020 | 3 comments

 

After a couple of years on a waiting list, this winter I got into one of Philadelphia’s hidden gems: the greenhouse in the Horticultural Center in West Fairmount Park,  run by the city’s department of parks and recreation. Part of the building is open to the general public. Another part of the facility is a working, commercial-grade greenhouse, half of which is used by parks & rec employees to grow seedlings for gardens in public parks and community recreation centers all over town. The other half of the greenhouse is occupied by a community propagation program. Community gardens, nonprofits, for-profit growers, and individual Philadelphians like me can rent an 8’x3′ table for $50 for the propagation season, which runs from the February through May. So, as I said, after waiting for a couple of years, I’m in, and have wasted no time getting my crops going.

It’s the third week of February, and I’m largely alone so far. Do my greenhouse neighbors know something that I don’t about the folly of getting such an early start? We’ll see.

By the third week of February, few of the other growers in the propagation program have gotten started, but I have eight or 10 different crops underway already including rutabaga, rapini,  kale, chard, cilantro, arugula, sprouting daikon radish, three or four varieties of lettuce and lots of spinach.

I’m planning to put the spinach out in my garden, under a floating row cover, in early March, followed by the lettuce a week or two later. We’ll see how that goes.

One of the propagation program tables near mine

Another table near mine with a myriad of herbs

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Posted in Greenhouse, Municipal Services, My Gardens

Sure Sign of Spring: Philly Muni Compost

Posted on April 5, 2019 | 1 comment



It’s back for the season. And for Philadelphia residents, it’s free for the taking at the Recycling Center in Fairmount Park, at 3850 Ford Road, courtesy of the Department of Parks & Recreation. The department doesn’t seem to have posted any test results lately, but they had a sample checked out by the Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory several years ago and it passed muster. I add thick blankets of it each year to my gardens, and it’s great stuff, as far as I’m concerned–much better than my homemade compost, which I have to use judiciously because it’s full of weed seeds.

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Posted in Compost, Municipal Services

Space for Rent in Parks Department Greenhouse

Posted on January 11, 2017 | Leave a comment

I’m a big fan of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation compost, available free of charge to Philadelphia residents, at the city recycling center on Ford Road in Fairmount Park. When it’s open from spring through fall, I drop by once a month or so and shovel many pounds of the stuff into heavy-duty trash bags in the trunk of my car.

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department greenhouse

The Parks Department, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, is now offering another service to Philly urban farmers: space in a greenhouse in Fairmount Park where you can start your own seedlings. A 3-foot by 8-foot table in the greenhouse costs $50 per season, spring or fall—water and potting mix included. You’ll need to sign up for an orientation session, and kick in five hours of volunteer work to help maintain the greenhouse. For serious gardeners, that seems like a good deal, and fun, to boot. Here’ s a Philadelphia Parks & Recreation memo with the details.

UPDATE: Read about my adventures in the greenhouse here and here.

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Posted in Greenhouse, Municipal Services, Uncategorized

Community Gardens Get Break on City Water

Posted on December 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

Community gardens can get steeply discounted–and in some cases entirely free–water from the city under a rate determination announced by the Water Rate Board on Dec. 2. The discount is based on the idea that community gardens absorb rainfall, reducing stormwater runoff, a costly problem faced by the city. Here’s the rate board’s announcement: Water Rate Board Releases Rate Determination on Stormwater Fee Discount

 

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Posted in Community Gardens, Municipal Services

Putting Philly Muni Compost to the Test

Posted on May 3, 2015 | 3 comments
compost 6

Compost cluttered with litter

It’s been nearly a month since I spread a thick layer of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation compost on my community garden plot in Roxborough, and planted some salad-mix seeds in it. The seeds germinated, the seedlings are thriving, and I haven’t seen any five-legged toads in the garden. So that load of city compost, from the parks department’s recycling center at 3850 Ford Road in Fairmount Park, was apparently good, non-toxic stuff.

The compost, in a pile set aside for the general public, alongside piles

Compost in early April was cleaner that plastic-littered stuff later in the month

Compost in early April was cleaner than the plastic-cluttered stuff later in the month

of mulch and manure, varied on each of my three visits to the recycling center in April. When I dropped by for a bag on April 24, the compost was riddled with shreds of plastic bags, nylon rope and other decidedly nonbiodegradable trash, which was easy enough to pick out but a bit unsettling anyway. Earlier in the month, the recycling center’s compost was free of trash.

You can’t complain about the price. It is available free-of-charge, 30 gallons at a time, to anyone with an ID proving that that they are a Philadelphia city resident.

The recycling center’s web site describes the material as “screened leaf compost,” which is made on site from “leaves and herbivore manure.” It contains no sewage or sludge material and is “approved for various applications and is tested periodically through the U.S. Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance Program,” the web site says.

The most recent test results were released on April 7 by the Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory, which analyzed a sample of compost collected in late March. The detailed analysis, posted on the recycling center’s web site, indicates that the compost on that day hit the sweet spot by the most important measures.

The nitrogen content was 1.9 percent by dry weight, towards the upper end of the average range for finished compost of 0.5 to 2.5 percent. The Ph level was 8.0, a notch above the neutral measure of 7, which is about what garden soil for vegetables should be.

compost 10

My seedlings like Philly Parks & Rec compost

In addition to a chemical analysis, the test also entailed planting cucumber seeds in the stuff to see whether they would sprout and thrive. The U.S. Compost Council uses the germination rate to group compost in three grades, from “immature” to “mature” to “very mature,” with a germination rate of over 90 percent required to qualify for the latter, highest grade. The sample of Philadelphia municipal compost from late March passed that part of the test with flying colors. Germination and seedling vigor for the cucumbers planted in it were both clocked at 100 percent. I can’t say that 100 percent of the seeds I planted in parks department compost germinated, but most of them did,  as the photo below will attest.

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Posted in Compost, Municipal Services