Growing Community Gardeners

Philadelphia’s community gardens offer the opportunity to harvest fresh, locally grown produce, and serve as havens for relaxation and social gatherings.

Believing that community gardens are a vital form of open space and important to a neighborhood’s quality of life, Philadelphia Green has provided technical assistance and project support to city gardening groups since its inception in 1974. In fact, community gardens are the foundation of Philadelphia Green, which later expanded its projects to include the revitalization of parks, vacant land, and other public spaces.

Philadelphia Green helps gardening groups to not only grow their gardens, but also improve the strength of their groups. Staff provides workshops on how to manage meetings, recruit members, and secure resources for the garden. The program has also works with several “Keystone” gardens, which are older large-scale gardens that symbolize the history and success of the city’s community gardening movement.