By Jillian Baxter
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) is offering a workshop June 18th-20th to teach how to design, build, and maintain an accessible and sustainable garden. The workshop is a mix of lecture and hands-on activity – teachers and community leaders will offer training, and attendees will actually build a garden.
Gardens can offer a lot to Philadelphia. Sally McCabe, Associate Director of Community Education, says “For kids, gardening teaches the practicalities of putting a seed in the ground, caring for it, watching it grow, and then harvesting food.” In a city with limited green space, gardens give kids a place to interact directly with nature.
For immigrant communities, gardens can be especially important. “Gardens are a cost-effective way to insert pride into a neighborhood,” says McCabe. “In a garden, people can grow food of their culture and share staples of their background- it becomes a source of pride.”
According to McCabe, community gardening also drives collaboration and inspires leadership. “If you’re going to garden with other people,” McCabe says, “you’re going to have to learn to listen.”
Not only do gardens provide food, they make people healthier, communities stronger, and the city more beautiful. “All of this revolves around the simple act of gardening, and that is why we have to make it possible for people to garden.”
To sign up for the workshop, click here.
