Kingsessing: Bartram’s Garden Serves Community For Centuries
In Southwest Philadelphia is something beautifully unexpected: the nation’s oldest surviving botanic garden. Bartram’s Garden is a 45-acre national landmark and public space, sprawling along the Schuylkill River in the Kingsessing neighborhood. The Garden is owned by the city but is operated by the John Bartram Association, a nonprofit and namesake of the founder’s historic […]
Bartram’s Garden: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Plants Opportunities For People Leaving Prison
Darnell Drayton didn’t know anything about landscaping or gardening before joining the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s (PHS) Roots to Re-entry program. Drayton (pictured above) just wanted something to do while in prison. “I didn’t want to be in a cage all day,” he said. He completed the program and was taught how to landscape so he […]
Point Breeze: Urban Farmer Shares His Craft With Community
Twenty-seven-year-old Atiba Ellerby is a part-time barista and full-time urban farmer. When he’s not making coffee at The Pharmacy, a coffee shop in Point Breeze, he is tending to gardens throughout the city. Farming is a craft he learned 14 years ago through the Urban Nutrition Initiative. How do you feel you impact your community? […]
Southwest Philadelphia: Revitalizing the Schuylkill by Bartram’s Garden
Over the summer, Bartram’s Garden hosted a meeting to get community feedback on the Bartram’s Mile, a stretch of trail that would connect Bartram’s to the Schuylkill River Trail that currently ends around South Street. They used the opportunity to reach out and find other ways to connect the people in the community to the […]
The Waterfront: Five People Making a Difference
People from across the city are constantly working towards making the Schuylkill and Delaware waterfronts better for Philadelphia. From revitalizing the rivers themselves to improving the green spaces around them, here are five people making a difference on the Philadelphia waterfronts. Justin DiBerardinis Justin DiBerardinis (above), who works in community outreach at Bartram’s Garden, is […]
Old City: Coffee and Cleanups at United By Blue
United By Blue is a clothing store and café that focuses on keeping oceans and waterways clean and beautiful through community cleanups and sustainable business practices. While the storefront officially opened in the fall of 2013, the company has been operating since 2010, hosting 102 cleanups across 21 states. While these outdoor events have helped […]
Southwest Philly: 5 People Making a Difference
Though residents of Southwest Philadelphia deal with tough issues like urban blight, gun violence and food deserts, individuals and organizations are working to improve the neighborhoods. Dozens of community churches and daycare centers line the streets, and four recreation centers are spread throughout the area. These people – a pastor, a gardener, two recreation center […]