Have you ever watered a neglected plant only to find the water bouncing off the surface of the soil? If so, your potting soil likely has peat in it, which has been a go-to ingredient in potting soil since it’s been sold. Not only does peat require regular watering to keep its surface permeable, it
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In the years since Brad Lidge closed out the 2008 World Series for the Phillies, he and his wife, Lindsay, have established themselves in Boulder, Colorado, where Lindsay has become an advocate for the beauty and benefits of wildflowers and native flora. As the owner and grower of Reverie Fields, Lindsay designs bouquets and other
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Yellow chili peppers grow pointing up from the bushy plant in a raised bed at the Emily South section of the Growing Home Garden in South Philadelphia, looking a bit like a miniature tree decorated with Christmas lights. Leafy green mustard plants sprout from a nearby bed that had apparently been turned over recently for
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Sandi Vincenti isn’t sure who called CLIP (the Community Life Improvement Program) on her native plant demonstration garden in Fishtown, A Child’s Inspiration Wildlife Discovery Garden. She can think of two possibilities. One is a developer interested in building on the plot. “The other assumption is that we have two neighbors in some of the
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You’d think that after protecting 50 gardens, the process would get easier. But for the Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT), a nonprofit tasked with preserving gardens, securing each parcel of land is a unique challenge. This spring NGT and members of Brewerytown Garden at 27th and Master streets celebrated the protection of some of the garden’s
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I’m bidding for a piece of my childhood. That feeling is something that … can be traumatizing. People are losing a part of themselves.” — Michael Gonzalo Moran, Iglesias Gardens board member When a notice went up in 2015 announcing that a lot his mother had tended as a vegetable garden since the 1990s would
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The Painted Bride Art Center has announced Resistance Garden: Cultivating Abundance, a programming series including five community dinners, five artist residencies, and four zine releases. “When you’re making a radical effort like beautifying and reclaiming land, the best way to engage people is art. Our artist residencies are how we bring an element of creativity
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We at Soil Generation have been organizing for land justice for growers of color in Philadelphia since 2014. Community control of land is the foundation of our collective struggle toward liberation. Whether the issue is food, education or housing, community control of resources requires community control of the land. As rapid development displaces community gardens
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Before the chic boutiques and overpriced cafés arrive, the first sign of gentrification is often a slew of ubiquitous posters stapled to telephone poles reading, “We Buy Houses.” One is more than likely to find these illegally-placed advertisements in low-income parts of the city where desperation for fast cash can outweigh the benefit of long-term
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There’s nothing like a great bookstore. At their best, they can provide both a mirror to who we are and expand the possibilities of who we can be. They are the hubs of the dreamers and visionaries. I share in the disappointment of many Philadelphians that Joseph Fox Bookshop will be closing after 71 years
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