We got started with a Bang!

One of the valuable things the Horticultural Society teaches is the community gardener’s salute: raise your right hand, bend your elbow, and pat yourself on the back – takes some coordination, but it works. We have a lot to congratulate ourselves for. In just a few months we transformed a neighborhood eyesore into something we should all be proud of. The site of the old brewery was becoming a dumping ground in East Falls. We picked up bags and bags of bottles and trash, including most of an old couch, a toilet bowl, and more other stuff than can be inventoried. With much help, we started what we hope will be one of the prettiest urban green spaces in the city. We have a lot going for us: a great neighborhood, some dedicated, energetic, and creative participants, a piece of land with a lot of potential, and a good support network. Highlights of the past summer include:

getting organized

building a fence around the perimeter marking the formal garden area

clearing about 2 acres of land for the garden

soliciting and receiving materials to build 15 raised beds for as many gardeners

starting a rock garden outside the perimeter

and planting seven trees.

Of course, we get much in return. Despite one of the worst droughts in the region’s history, Brewery Gardeners harvested juicy tomatoes, luscious melons, bounteous basil, cute cukes… the list goes on. We had the honor and pleasure of getting to know some of our fellow Fallsers, and the good feeling, after a long workday, that we had done something worthwhile.

We also have some challenges: skeptical neighbors, terrible soil, and no guarantees about the long-term status of the site. Most of you know the land is privately owned and we have written permission from the owner to garden there. In addition to the lien on the property, though, there are also unpaid taxes, and we suspect the city will eventually put it up for sheriff’s sale. Our hope is that we can work with the Neighborhood Gardening Association, which is a Land Trust, similar to the Nature

Conservancy, except they buy land that is used for Community Gardens.

In the meantime, make sure your voice is heard regarding the Brewery Garden! Please answer the community development survey that will be coming this fall. There is one very specific question about the future plans for the garden site. Please let them know we want to keep it green! Lastly, we have many people to whom we would like to give special thanks.

Special Thanks to Our Local Businesses:

East Falls Café and Deli

Home Depot, Roosevelt Blvd

Horticultural Society

Frank’s Pizza

Conrad Market

And to Our Members, in no particular order:

Thanks to Jon, who kept all of our beds watered through the drought, Maria and Kevin, who were always there and worked so hard, Guy, for making those crucial phone calls and for much else, Dave and Theresa, especially for their community relations and construction skills, Peg, for lots of ideas and hard work, Marianne and Len for going to the meetings at the beginning that kept us going, and to Dave and Nancy for demonstrating what can be accomplished – they win the prize for best garden yield! We wouldn’t have gotten all the trees planted without Kate and Sean. Pepe gets praise for finding the materials to build his own bed, and Mike and Jackie for supplying considerable muscle to the project along with all their moral support. Thanks to everyone who contributed plants, and to all those people, way too many to name, who came just to help.

Composting and Winter Crops

If you have completed your harvest, please make sure you remove the spent plants from your bed. Happily, we now have a brand new compost bin for you to deposit them in. This was truly a collaborative effort. The materials were mostly recycled flats, and some leftover fencing. Mark, Peggy, and Maria came up with a great design, and even managed to execute it without driving each other crazy. So please, when your plants are done, use the bin!

Mums and marigolds, some of them recent plantings, others planted in the spring, are going strong and look great. Those bright yellows and oranges are even visible from the train. Mark and Sue are trying out a winter crop of garlic.

What you can do

Looking for some way to contribute? Find you have a couple of spare hours on a wintry Saturday and need some vitamin D? Come on over to the Garden and shovel some wood chips. It’s a lot cheaper than joining a gym, plus you get to be outside, and it’s really not hard. All you need is a shovel and either the wheel barrel or a tarp. Until we have a secure place for the wheelbarrow (any ideas on getting materials and design on a tool shed are very welcome!) it’s in Sue & Mark’s garage. Call us at 215-848-5508 to get it. If we can, we will come out to help. Even if we are not around, we have successfully used a tarp to drag chips to where we want them. The tarp can be any big, old piece of material, such as an old paint tarp, or even your old shower curtain. We would like to get 3 to 4 inches of wood chips covering everything that is not a bed before the winter is over. The chips simultaneously look nicer than the bare clay earth, condition the soil, and keep the weeds down. On the subject of keeping the weeds down, the Horticultural Society suggested recycling old carpet and covering that over with wood chips, and we have been experimenting with that. If you see any old carpet on someone’s curb on trash day, pick it up and bring it to the garden. We would all rather spend time tending to the garden than weeding the walks!

Other projects

We are still looking for someone to make a sign. “Brewery Garden – A Community Garden of East Falls.”

Anyone have any ideas for a fundraiser? The obvious one, a spring plant sale, is already being done for the library.

We would like to make a tool shed that is big enough to house the wheelbarrow as

well as other stuff. We have some donated wood, but we need plywood, a design, a leader and a bunch of folks to execute it.

We also need wood for more beds for more people.

We would like to create a communal herb garden. As usual, we need materials, wood, bricks or stone, to hold the good soil. There is a lot of broken masonry and hunks of cement around, but they are ugly and we would like to use something that looks nicer. If you have a source for natural stone, or whole bricks, please let us know!

Building an Arbor/Pergola

Other ideas?

What’s New

On our last planned workday, October 2^nd, we planted seven donated trees, built the compost bin, and spread a lot of wood chips. The trees included a cherry and a small maple (donated by the Horticultural Society), a blue spruce (from Marianne and Len), and a redbud, dogwood, hawthorn, and rain tree, all donated by Diane Martin, Master Gardener. Thanks, Diane!

Maria with Dogwood

Plans for next year

We will have a meeting sometime in February to decide what our priorities are. If anyone who currently has a plot does not what to participate in 2000, or wants to participate in some different way, please let Sue know (phone 215-848-5508 or email haucks@philau.edu) as soon as possible. We still have a waiting list of 20 people who would like to garden.