Stoneleigh: a Natural Garden—the Villanova estate turned rustic public green space profiled in Grid’s May 2018 issue—is the most recent addition to the 36 public gardens that earned Philadelphia the moniker of America’s Garden Capital. But the uniquely beautiful green space wasn’t even open to the public yet when Natural Lands executive director Molly Morrison found
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At the region’s newest public garden, you won’t see ruler-straight rows of color-coordinated petunias, or trees pruned into perfect proportions, or hedges of boxwood trimmed high and tight. At Stoneleigh, native plants get preference, and trees have spent the past century growing wild, unshaped by orchard saws and pruning shears. That’s just what the former owners,
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Nakia Maples, better known as Philly Plant Guy, has around 200 plants in his South Philly rowhouse. They're mostly tropicals like palms, philodendrons and long, trailing pothos in hanging baskets. In his “plant room”—where the only unoccupied space is a small sofa—a fountain gurgles away, and humidity-loving ferns hang above. A turtle swims in a
MorePhoto by Marika Mirren Simple Pleasures by Alex Jones No food tantalizes eaters quite like cheese. I’ve been sourcing and selling artisan cheeses produced on small-scale farms and dairies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for seven years, and it still makes me smile whenever a farmers market shopper slows down as they approach my table
MorePhoto compliments of Philadelphia Cheese Guild Education and advocacy are key for a growing industry with changing regulations by Alex Jones On a cold day between snowstorms in January 2016, cheesemakers and dairy advocates gathered in a Penn State agriculture sciences classroom. The small meeting—catered with leftover wheels from the Pennsylvania Farm Show’s cheese competition—marked
MorePhoto courtesy of Hoshea Hart-Rogovin One Love by Alex Jones On an unassuming block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia, Malaika Hart and her family have spent more than a decade working toward their vision: an oasis of sustainability and healing where an abandoned lumberyard-turned-short-dumping-ground once stood. That vision has become One Art Community
MorePhoto courtesy of Toni Shapiro-Phim Ephemeral Beauty, Lasting Lessons by Alex Jones The Philadelphia Folklore Project has been supporting and documenting folk arts and artists in the city’s diverse communities to create social change since 1987. “We have these long-term collaborations, long-term commitments to [communities] that develop into things depending on what’s needed at the
MoreGreat Grains by Alex Jones Any beer lover in Philly can tell you that the region is in the midst of a craft beer boom. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of licensed breweries in the state nearly doubled to meet demand, from 114 to 224, according to state Liquor Control Board figures. Local beers
MorePhoto courtesy of Laura Deutsch Photography The State of Sustainable Agriculture by Alex Jones While the current trendiness of the farm-to-table movement might lead consumers to believe that the businesses that grow our food are booming, that’s not exactly the case. Just ask Brooks Miller of North Mountain Pastures in Perry County. Miller and his
MorePhoto by Kriston Bethel The Line by Alex Jones On a blustery, sunny Friday she’s taken off of work, Melanie Hudson waits in line for food. “I have a lot more month than money,” says Hudson, 46, who works with autistic teens at Upper Darby High School. Her 17-year-old daughter Veronica is an honors student
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