Work on an urban agricultural plan for Philadelphia, underway for going on two years, has taken a step forward. In a virtual public meeting that ran for the month of May, dozens of participants explored a wealth of online content, left comments, and voted in polls on an array of issues that may be covered in the plan.

Soil Generation website

A year and a half had elapsed since the first public meeting in December 2019. COVID knocked a second public hearing, scheduled for March 2020, off the calendar. Online meetings were promised later last year, but instead, the city Department of Parks and Recreation spent five months dealing with racial discord between the two consulting outfits hired by the city to help draft a plan: Interface Studios LLC, a local urban planning firm, and Soil Generation, a “Black and Brown led coalition of growers.”

Interface Studios website

In a joint statement released in March (full text here), the consultants said they have resolved their differences. “The facilitated process helped Interface become a better partner, helped build a stronger team, and will help the plan embody the project’s values of centering Black and Brown voices by applying an anti-racist lens to both the planning process and the end product,” the statement says.

The obligatory public hearing phase is now finished. The consultants and city officials working on the project say they “expect to deliver the final plan in Fall 2021.” Although comments are no longer being solicited, the virtual public hearing is still available for all to see, attractively laid out in 10 “stations,” via this  online portal to Virtual Meeting No. 2.

Station 1 is an 18-minute video orientation about the planning process.

Station 2 focuses on how history has impacted land and growing in Philadelphia.  “The history of agriculture in America is rooted in racism,” the text asserts. Among the forces that perpetuate “racialized land-based oppression,” the planning materials maintain, are “Western capitalism” and “individual ownership of land as a concept,” “colonialism” which “consistently exploits labor and appropriates culture” from people of color to “uphold colonial power,” and corporations that “continue to gobble up community enterprises, while public resources favor the wealthy.”

Spam filters use software and a set of muscle discount cialis 20mg mass. VigRX Plus is excellent supplement for fixing erectile dysfunction – along with a whole lot of unnatural soft viagra pills ingredients that may be less desirable. There are many men these days buy viagra without rx who are seeking a lot of help for erectile dysfunction. Not only does it increase their stamina and prowess in bed, it also rekindles cialis usa online lost sexual desire in them. Station 3, about access to land, asserts that it is “necessary to consider barriers to land access today as continuations of racialized land-based oppression.”  The materials go on to suggest that one of the ultimate objectives of an urban agricultural plan for Philadelphia should be a ban on private ownership of land. Without identifying who “we” is, the materials assert: “We want to move beyond treating land as a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded, and to treat her as a living entity to be respected, cared for, and appreciated for the many gifts she continues to offer us.”

Station 4, titled “What Do Community Gardens Need to Thrive?” offers a glimpse of the feedback gathered during the virtual hearing in the form of “likes” for a range of choices. The option receiving the most likes, 47, was “growing materials” such as shovels and hoes. “Growing infrastructure” such as greenhouses came next with 45 likes followed by “water infrastructure” with 31.

Under the subheading of “What do the people who tend your garden need to thrive,” a “living wage” was the top choice, with 44 likes, followed by “diversity, inclusion and antiracism training” with 31. “I would add, inclusive leadership training and conflict resolution to this,” a comment attached to that choice said.

Station 5 delves into the keeping of animals in Philadelphia, in particular bees, fish, hens, and goats. A coalition of people around town who keep hens in their backyards in defiance of a law that bars them from city lots of less than three acres are hoping the urban agricultural plan will bring them out of the shadows.

At Station 6, titled “How Do We Get Jobs and Build Businesses as Growers?” participants in the virtual meeting were offered a choice of eight “barriers to work.” The top choice, selected by 25 percent, was low wages, followed “lack of local opportunities,” cited by 16 percent. The least mentioned barrier, cited by 2 percent, was “suspected discrimination,” defined as not getting a job “because employers are racist, sexist, ageist, ableist, or biased against me.”

Station 7 discusses education while Station 8 address how urban agriculture can help preserve cultural practices such as foraging and seed saving.

Station 9, “How Can We Improve Philly Food Systems & Policies?” contains an array of suggestions including a “city good food purchasing policy” that would “ensure that public food contracts reflect community values.” And a “centralized food production facility that trains and hires Philadelphians to grow and prepare food for city programs” such as schools, recreation centers, and prisons.

Station 10 asks, “What Are Your Priorities?” Participants selected from an array of choices in three areas. In the area of “changes in existing policies or practices,” among the 87 participants who voted, the top choice, selected by 53 percent, was transparency in the sale and lease of city land for agriculture. Of the 81 participants who voted on “top priorities for city investments in community-led ventures,” the top pick, selected by 59 percent, was helping gardeners and farmers get land security through ownership or leases of land. The top priority for new city programs or initiatives was creation of an Office of Urban Agriculture.

It will be fascinating to see what Interface Studios and Soil Generation deliver at the end of this two-year process, and what the city does with it.

Last spring, when the pandemic forced the cancellation of the final round of public hearings in a process that was supposed to wrap up last fall, planners vowed to set up an “online engagement process” with updates promised “in the coming weeks.” The updates never came. Instead, Jaramillo reports, the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation department spent five months engaged in a “facilitation process” to help reconcile differences between the consultants.

Young men face erectile dysfunction moreover because of the psychological problems at buy generic cialis the same time. This ingredient mixes well in the blood vessels & therefore, it helps with the efficient circulation of the blood into the male reproductive organ. cialis levitra generika http://deeprootsmag.org/2014/08/24/sorrow-suicide/ Men’s health can be improved speedily along with the removal of such dreaded problems of the order 50mg viagra penile region & clears these routes & thus, the blood vessels can carry enough amount of blood to the penile organs through which one carries out its erection. The joints between the bottom thoracic vertebra (known as buy levitra online T12) as well as the top lumber vertebra (L1 in the lower back) allow twisting movement from side to side. The urban-ag planning process will resume this year, according to a recently updated city website about the prospective plan, called “Growing from the Roots.” The website says, “Pleased stay tuned for the next round of conversations.”

Jaramillo has done some excellent reporting on urban agriculture in Philadelphia in recent years. Unfortunately, for the urban ag scene in town, this latest piece of hers for WHYY and PlanPhilly will be her last. She announced on her Twitter page that she has accepted a job with Fact Check “to debunk misinformation about COVID-19.”

Covid-19 shut down lots of things but not Philadelphia community gardens. When lockdown orders were in place barring nonessential trips away from home, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture declared on April 17 that community gardening is an “essential” activity, exempting gardeners from stay-at-home orders as long as they wore masks and followed other protocols. The Philadelphia parks and recreation department found a way to continue offering free compost–in socially distanced piles. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society found ways to continue seedling distributions, and offered webinars in place of cancelled in-person workshops. A new PHS initiative launched in May to address food insecurity in Philadelphia, Harvest 2020, enlisted more than 10,000 gardeners, food bank volunteers and others to grow and distribute tons of produce to local food banks. The initiative created new gardens in unlikely spots, such as the Garden for Good at the Subaru Park soccer stadium. The project also teamed up with Sankofa Farm at Bartram’s Garden to build 50 backyard garden beds in West Philly.

Covid Slows but Can’t Stop Urban Ag Reform

Philadelphia was supposed to get a full-fledged municipal urban agriculture plan in 2020, but the coronavirus derailed the planning process just as it entered the homestretch. That didn’t stop the Housing Development Corp. from taking steps to address one long-standing complaint of activists: launching a new website that should make it somewhat easier to convert vacant lots to community gardens.

Revolutionary Gardeners Fend Off City

New chapters were added to long running sagas involving efforts by activists in North Philly and Kensington to wrest vacant lots from the city for gardening activities. The North Philly Peace Park,  operated by a group engaged in “a protracted revolutionary communal effort to establish, build up and defend community controlled land-based programs,” was briefly evicted by the Philadelphia Housing Authority from two vacant buildings it was renovating. They are adjacent to the lot where the North Philly Peace Park has resided, with city approval, since 2016. PHA promptly apologized for the raid, acknowledging that the group was in the midst of good-faith negotiations to buy the buildings. In Kensington, the Cesar Andreu Iglesias Community Garden, founded in 2012 by a group called Philly Socialists on several vacant, tax-delinquent lots, seemingly dodged a bid by the city to sell the lots they are occupying. Developers were offering big bucks for the lots, and were pledging to build an apartment building with affordable units. The plan by the cash-strapped city to proceed with the sale was delayed in June, and called off, at least for now, in September.

USDA Tips Hat to Philly Urban Ag

The U.S. Department of Agriculture seemed to recognize Philadelphia as a leader in urban agriculture, with an announcement in August that our city will be one of the first five in the nation (along with Portland, Albuquerque, Cleveland, and Richmond, Va.) to get a new county urban agriculture committee. County committees, operating under the auspices of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, have been around in rural America since the 1930s to allow farmers to offer input on delivery of federal services. Urban agriculture committees are a new thing, authorized for the first time by the 2018 Farm Bill. USDA urban ag committees will “work to encourage and promote urban, indoor, and other emerging agricultural production practices,” and also delve into food access, community composting, and food waste reduction.
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Vertical Gardening Entrepreneurs Arrive

Growing food crops on a commercial scale in containers in the middle of cities, a concept bandied about in futurist-urbanist circles, became a reality in Philadelphia in 2020, at least in a demonstration project and on a drawing board. In September, Second Chances Farm, a Wilmington-based vertical-farming enterprise that exclusively hires formerly incarcerated people for its farm workforce, announced plans to open a 30,000-square-foot farm in vacant buildings as part of the North Station redevelopment near the Temple University campus, with plans to eventually triple that space. That’s not all. The Philadelphia site will open satellite farms in other older industrial cities throughout Pennsylvania. That’s the big plan anyway. As for actually making it happen, on least on a small scale, cultural economist Dr. Jamie Bracey-Green beat them to it, announcing in October the launch in West Philly of Think and Grow Farms, in a converted freight container.

Pests, or at Least pest Reports, Proliferate

There were 33,015 spotted lanternfly sightings in Pennsylvania between January and July of 2020, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture—a frightful 500 percent increase from the year before (but not as harrowing as the 1,300 percent increase in spotted lanternfly sightings reported next door in New Jersey). Experts aren’t sure whether the surge in sightings reflects an increase in number of bugs, or in number of people who, locked in quarantine, have nothing better to do than count bugs and tell the agriculture department about them.

Are there other important “stories of the year” concerning urban agriculture and community gardening in Philadelphia in 2020 that I missed? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.

• 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.

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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

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.

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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.

From neighbor to neighbor: spent grains from Twisted Gingers ready for use in the Garden R.U.N. community garden in Roxborough

The Twisted Gingers brewpub, which opened for business a few blocks from our Garden R.U.N. community garden a few months before the coronavirus pandemic hit, makes great beer. We’re about to find out whether their beermaking makes good garden fertilizer. They knew about us because our garden’s informal management committee held a couple of planning meetings early this year at the pub. While they’re now closed to the public, they’re  still brewing beer and filling takeout orders, and they have begun offering us barrels of spent grains for use in the garden.

What are spent grains? In a quick search online, I have learned that it is a grainy mash that is a byproduct of beer-making, and the craft-brewing boom has generated lots of it in dispersed locations, maybe even in your neighborhood. It is far from the end of its useful life after it has been used to make beer, which extracts the sugars, leaving a high-fiber mash that’s loaded with protein and other nutrients. Socially conscious brewmasters, hating to see it hauled off to the local landfill, have gotten creative in looking for more productive uses of the stuff, as a 2012 article in CraftBeer.com explained. Some are feeding it to chickens and other animals. Others are processing it into a base for mushroom growing. Others are offering it to farms and gardens for use as a soil amendment, a trend that has become popular enough to earn a name for itself: foam to farm.

How has the foam-to-farm movement gone over on the farm and in the garden? Pat Welsh, a Southern California garden writer, engaged in an extensive discussion on the use of spent brewery grains in the garden several years ago, and seemed to offer as many caveats as endorsements.

It can be very smelly and attract flies and vermin. Some spent grains also may, apparently, have allelopathic qualities and inhibit seedling growth. Welsh says that since composting may not kill this action, you might want to test spent-grains compost by sprouting a few radish seeds in it before using it on a larger scale for seed starting. Or, says Welsh, “I would use this compost in areas of the garden where you don’t intend to plant from seeds and where you would like to prevent weeds from growing.”

Another caveat, for any gardener who wants to operate with any degree of scientific rigor (not really me), you can’t be sure of its nutrient composition. “Most spent brewery grains when used in the compost pile can be classed as a nitrogenous waste (a fast, hot, ‘green’ ingredient, like grass clippings),” Welsh says. But not if the mash is too dried out, in which case, it is carbonaceous and will consume, not exude, nitrogen.

If all of that weren’t enough to discourage use of spent grains in the garden, a commentator on Dave’s Garden forum named SoulGardenLove, who had read many rave reviews about the stuff and got a whole truckload of it, had this to say:

“For those of you that don’t know better and have any desire to ever use beer grain in your garden… here is the God’s honest truth…..It is the most rancid, vile, gross, vomit inducing pile of flytrap stench sludge I have ever had occasion to smell…. I don’t care how good this stuff is supposed to be for my garden. I’ll stick to manure…”

Clicking Here viagra best prices How Kamagra Soft Tabs work? Kamagra Soft Tabs helps in enhancing erection and helps in boosting a man’s libido automatically. The underlying standard behind this vision is, age is considered by conventional medicine as the largest cialis cipla risk factor for ED sufferers. Now, not everyone will reach orgasm the same way, the dose may need to be revised for any cialis no prescription usa person experiencing discomfort after medication. So you have purchased your essential oil viagra on line australia candle is wax. In another online debate about gardening with spent grains, a commentator named dirtdolphins, considering all of the caveats, had this snarky bit of advice about gardening with spent grains:

hmmmm….to get the most from them, feed them to the hens and eat the eggs and spread the poo
sorry–I will go back to lurking now

Okay, I was forewarned, but I wasn’t deterred. In fact, I read enough to be intrigued. Intrigued enough about its potential benefits that I wasn’t about to wait to cycle Twisted Gingers’ spent grains through a compost pile before trying it out on plants. So I proceeded to put it directly into the garden, finding support for that move in one of Pat Welsh’s comments:

Spent brewery grains that are very soft, wet, and smelly can be dug directly into the soil … since they are already well on their way to breaking down and will release nitrogen in the form of gas directly into the ground in a form that plant roots can absorb.

The spent grains delivered to our garden were certainly soft and wet, with a pungent not-quite-rancid odor. That seemed to be about right, so in a part of one of Garden R.U.N.’s City Harvest plots with rocky, worked-over soil that badly needed replenishment, I dug trenches, filled them with spent grain, mixed it up a bit into the deeper layers of soil, and covered it with a skim of soil. I’m hoping that with some warm and rainy weather in the forecast over the next several weeks, worms and microbes can get a big jump on finishing the work started by Twisted Gingers’ brewmaster of breaking it down and incorporating the nutrients into the soil. So that it will be ready for planting in weeks, and yielding a bounteous harvest in months.

We’ll see. Stay tuned for updates.

UPDATE: See Spent Grains Pass the Radish Test.

COVID-19 virus has wreaked havoc with the human interactions that are at the heart of city life. But the virus hasn’t shut down community gardening. In an April 17 press release, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture made it official: growing food in community gardens is an “essential” activity, on a par with shopping for groceries. So gardeners in Pennsylvania can keep on gardening without fear of running afoul of the ongoing stay-at-home order, provided that they adhere to guidelines calling for social distancing in the gardens, disinfection of tools, gates and other high-contact surfaces, and take other steps to reduce the risk of transmission.

“Pennsylvania’s community gardens will play a key role in supporting communities throughout COVID-19 mitigation and recovery,” Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said, explaining the rationale for allowing community gardens to remain open when so much else is shuttered. At a time when supply lines are challenged and many have lost their jobs, “providing a way for the most local food sources to continue is quite literally essential.”

Why? Merely since it will cheap viagra no rx make your relationship stronger – that’s should you really intend to maintain it to have good sexual intercourse and this condition has fast become the most prevalent condition men often experience aside from erectile dysfunction. Arthritis is a commonly cialis uk sales found health disorder characterized by feelings of apprehension or extreme anxiety is called anxiety disorder. A dedicated mother, Roberta McNabb loves her son very much and she has stood by him through all generic viagra online the difficult phases of life. Before we delve into comparing these two tablets, let us take a quick review on how an erection occurs: Sexual stimulation activates your brain that sends signals to the penile nerve, one starts gaining proper erection in the body which is why one should make sure that it is used after seeking a medical advice is a smart step. viagra generic india The Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation reached the same conclusion in March, as Catalina Jaramillo reported for WHYY at the time. Community gardening is an “essential” activity exempt from closure orders as long as gardeners follow rules that, among other things, limit garden occupancy to no more than five at a time. That pronouncement gave the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society a green light to distribute 60,000 seedlings to more than 130 City Harvest gardens scattered throughout the city, and to gardeners to get them into the ground.

At Garden R.U.N. in Roxborough, we’re up and running and managing well enough under the new restrictions, which are posted at the garden gate. There’s certainly more interest in our garden than ever. After going several years with a few vacancies, we’re full this year and now have a waiting list. Our City Harvest plots are filling up with PHS seedlings, and we’ll have produce to start delivering to a local food bank within a matter of weeks. our contribution is likely to be more welcome this year than ever.

We’ve had to cancel a community cleanup day that was on the schedule last month, and our annual bagel brunch season-opener won’t happen in May as usual. But community chores—cleanup, trimming, weeding, preparing and tending the City Harvest beds—has been handled tag-team fashion by a succession of Garden R.U.N. members. We’ve greeted each other coming and going, from afar but in person nonetheless, which has been a wonderful thing in these days of social isolation. Our community garden is a community that the coronavirus can’t kill.

According to a statement released in March, “All PHS public gatherings, workshops, and field trips have been halted through May 8. We are working to provide new ways of sharing some of these great gardening programs to as many of you as possible in the weeks ahead, using a combination of webinars, Facebook and Instagram Live and via blogs.”

City Harvest, a PHS program that helps community gardens around the city grow produce for local food banks, will be more vital than ever amid an unprecedented crescendo of job losses. PHS and is determined to continue to support participating gardens despite the obstacles. To minimize risks of transmitting the virus, PHS staff are delivering seedlings directly to gardens rather than making them available for pickup at community gathering spots, and the program’s staff is asking gardeners to strictly adhere to social-distancing guidelines.
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The seedlings were dropped at Garden R.U.N., my community garden in Roxborough, last week and had been planted by our diligent City Harvest team within days (see photo above). This seedling drop-off, the first of three planned deliveries from now through midsummer, included collards, kales, cabbages, scallions, and a selection of lettuces, which will be ready for harvest and delivery in a couple of months.

We’re trying hard to assure that gardeners steer clear of each other and follow other protocols as laid out in guidelines issued by PHS. We’ve also got a renewed sense of purpose. A word of encouragement from PHS to community gardeners around the city captures it: “The COVID-19 virus has exposed us to the fragility of our food system and the vulnerability of so many people, so let’s use the social ties we nurture while tending our gardens, to help connect neighbors with resources to grab-and-go food, support small businesses, navigate questions about utilities, health and more.”

The process commenced in 2016 when the city council held a hearing on a report that had recently been issued by the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council drawing attention to the precarious status of many of the estimated 470 community gardens in the city. Almost half were on land that the gardeners do not own, the report found. The urban agriculture plan is expected to provide clarification about the use of vacant lots and foreclosed properties for community gardens, while also addressing an array of other issues touching on agriculture in the city.

Ash Richards

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One of four required public hearings was held in December before a standing room only crowd at the central library. The next two were scheduled for March 19 and 24, but they had to be postponed.

The city website covering the urban agriculture planning process says there is “hope” for a resumption of public meetings at some point. But for now, the city is “currently organizing an online engagement process. Stay tuned for an update in the coming weeks.”

Heath and Safety Recommendations for Community Gardening

1. Continue growing food! Now more than ever we should be practicing local self-reliance and grow food for ourselves and the community.

2. Exercise an abundance of caution in the garden and follow these guidelines recommended by the CDC:

• Wear gloves and disinfect high-touch spots

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• Maintain social distance of six feet or more from others.
• Be mindful of frequently touched spots like gates, locks, water spigots, tools.
• Plan a day to disinfect! Use diluted household bleach solutions, alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol or other EPA-approved products. Viruses can be relatively long-lasting in the environment, and have the potential to be transferred via food or food contact surface.
• Have hand sanitizer and soap readily available in the garden. Create a sanitizing station in the garden. If hand sanitizer isn’t readily available, consider making your own.

3. Limit sharing. Consider bringing your own tools for the time being as well as posting signs in the garden for people to a) wear gloves and b) always sanitize equipment after use.

4. This is the only time you’ll hear us saying this, but restrict large gatherings at the garden. There is no reason people should be holding a party or barbecue at this time even if the weather feels right.

5. Consider reducing risks for at-risk gardeners such as old gardeners, immune compromised etc.

6. Stagger participation. This is more difficult but if possible consider how to stagger the involvement of folks in the garden to ensure managing social distancing.

7. Set up crop watering schedule – maybe assign gardeners to water the entire garden to limit number of active people in the space. Consider no more than 4 or 5 people in a confined area.

8. If possible, avoid public transportation to get to your garden. We know travel can be an issue for some but consider alternatives like a bike, carpooling or something else.

9. If you have a garden meeting scheduled, do it by phone or web conferencing or simply post-pone. Gardens can easily open a free account with services like Zoom which can host up to 100 participants but limited to 40 minutes. If your site doesn’t have access to these technologies or needs help, let us know and we can gladly guide you or offer our support / conferencing services.

10. Leverage other tech services like WhatsApp to spread awareness in appropriate languages to your clients, gardeners, etc.

Here are very helpful links with recommendations regarding the handling, selling, and distribution of produce:

• This is a given, but thoroughly wash all produce you harvest from the garden!
• Helpful framework for thinking about gardening during this time
• Farmer’s market recommendations from the PA Department of Agriculture
• An official statement from the FDA/CDC on the relationship to food handling with the spread of coronavirus. While it applies mostly to conventional food distributors, some of the tips and links within it can apply to post-harvest garden procedures.