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.
The post Space for Rent in Parks Department Greenhouse first appeared on Farming Philly.]]>There have been notable accomplishments worth celebrating. There are now at least 470 community garden ventures underway in Philadelphia on 568 parcels of land, according to the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC). Scott Sheely, a representative of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, testified at the hearing that Philadelphia has become a national model for urban agriculture, with urban farm-friendly zoning reforms and water policies, and a land bank. Others who testified included:
Amy Laura Cahn, staff attorney, Public Interest Law Center’s Garden Justice Legal Initiative and a Co-Chair at the FPAC
Jamilah Meekings, third-generation gardener, the Master’s Work Community Garden
Matt Rader, president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which manages the City Harvest program.
Kirtrina Baxter, Soil Generation Coalition
Ryan Kuck, Greensgrow Farms
Juliane Ramic, Nationalities Service Center and Growing Home Gardens
Petry Carrasquillo, Campesinos of Norris Square and Las Parcelas gardens
Chris Bolden Newsome, Bartram’s Farm and Community Resource Center
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My plot at the Garden RUN community garden in Roxborough, Oct. 31, 2014
I’ve got a nice crop of lettuce coming along, and some kale, and frilly mustard and chard. I put it all under a row cover today, after four or five days of full exposure to the balmy weather. The weather has taken a chillier turn in the last day, and the temperature will drop into the mid-30s tonight. But still, the 10-day forecast from today, Oct. 31, shows no threat of frost. Particularly under the row cover, draped over hoops, my crops should continue to thrive for a good long while.
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Lettuce planted in September, photographed moments before harvest on June 14
The saga of my bumper crop of overwintered spinach garnered yawns from some people around here. Yes, spinach plants are known for being able to survive a freeze, even of the polar variety, and come back in the spring, I was told. But lettuce? Has anyone heard of lettuce that survived a Northeastern winter — an unusually cold one, at that — and yielded a continuous harvest of leaves from April till halfway through June? Some of my fall lettuces did just that, under the same thin row cover and snow pack that blanketed my spinach crop. There were two survivors from a mix of leaf lettuces that I planted last September: a red oakleaf and curly red-leaf variety. The stems kept extending themselves but the plants never did bolt before I finally pulled them up on June 14, so the leaves were sweet to the end.
polar vortexes didn’t faze my oakleaf lettuce
planted in September, harvested in June
I wish I remember the spinach variety I planted last September. It was the most successful spinach I’ve ever grown. The one small packet of seeds yielded several nice bags full of baby leaves last fall. As I’ve already noted, the plants survived the winter under a thin row cover topped with a thick blanket of snow. A continuous heavy harvest of fat, large leaves began in March. When the plants began to bolt in May, I topped them, prompting the plants to sent out multiple side shoots (as seen in the photo above), topped with lots more “baby” leaves as tender and sweet as the first pickings last fall. I will try to keep some plants producing into July, just to see if that is possible. But I pulled most of them yesterday, to clear room for basil, eggplants and tomatoes. I’m going to try to repeat the spinach feat in the coming fall and winter. Anyone have any idea what variety I may have planted last fall, or more generally, which varieties of spinach are best for keeping through the winter?
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