GREEN STEWARDSHIP PROJECT LOG
DATE
ORGANIZATION (Ex: UC Green, Philly Orchard Project, etc..)
SITE LOCATION (Ex: Address, Park Name, etc...)
TIME LOGGED (in hours and minutes)
3/12
Sattlebrook Boy Scouts
Sattle River County Park
3 hours
4/2
Chinatown Development Corp.
Chinatown
4 hours
4/23
Phila Cares
Harrowgate Park
3 hours
Monday, May 2, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Harrowgate Park
Justin Oriente
Last saturday I complted my service hours by doing a service event at Harrowgate Park in Philadelphia near Kensignton. I was orignally supposed to go to the Wissahickion but since it got rained out I decided to do this event at the park that was scheduled for later on in the day. I found the event through the Philadelphia Cares volunteer website. I ended up calling the person as soon as I found out on Friday that the Wissahickion was canceled and they said they were doing their event starting at 12 when the weather was supposed to clear up. Lucky for us the weather did clear up in time and we were able to help clean up the park. While we were there we did some tree tending, and also helped to clean up the park. This was my second time planting both trees and doing clean up so I was expereienced enuogh to actually know what I was doing. One thing that I found interesting was that when we were planting the trees all of the soils were a good color but many of the trees that were already in the park looked worn out and tired. Also most of the trash in the park were bottles and other wrappers even though there were many
recyable and trash cans in the area. I believe that it is a more a problem of people simply not wanting to throw their trash away but more of an issue of people just not caring. Overall this was a very good experience that I learned a lot from.
Time 3 hours
Total time 10 hours :)
Last saturday I complted my service hours by doing a service event at Harrowgate Park in Philadelphia near Kensignton. I was orignally supposed to go to the Wissahickion but since it got rained out I decided to do this event at the park that was scheduled for later on in the day. I found the event through the Philadelphia Cares volunteer website. I ended up calling the person as soon as I found out on Friday that the Wissahickion was canceled and they said they were doing their event starting at 12 when the weather was supposed to clear up. Lucky for us the weather did clear up in time and we were able to help clean up the park. While we were there we did some tree tending, and also helped to clean up the park. This was my second time planting both trees and doing clean up so I was expereienced enuogh to actually know what I was doing. One thing that I found interesting was that when we were planting the trees all of the soils were a good color but many of the trees that were already in the park looked worn out and tired. Also most of the trash in the park were bottles and other wrappers even though there were many
recyable and trash cans in the area. I believe that it is a more a problem of people simply not wanting to throw their trash away but more of an issue of people just not caring. Overall this was a very good experience that I learned a lot from.
Time 3 hours
Total time 10 hours :)
Monday, April 18, 2011
After reading about New York City's community garden program, I believe that Philly should as well adopt this program. All thoughout the city of New York, in areas such as the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, there were over 114 abandoned lots up for public auction. Upon hearing this the New York Restoration Program decided to take charge and instead of allowing these vacant lots to be built upon with useless infrastructure, they would turn them into valuable green spaces that would highly benefit the community. Thanks to the NYRP, New York City is home to 55 community gardens. The gardens function as mini farms by producing vegetables, herbs, and flowers. These gardens add to the overall health of the surrounding area because they promote community interaction and economic development. What makes this program much more benefitial is that it is personally run by the community. From barbeques to educational events, these gardens serve as a venue for several activities for the neighbors. Philedelphia, like New York, could highly benefit by adopting this program. Philly is full of hundreds of vacant lots that are not being used to there full potential. Looking at all of the positives that came out of the NYRP, the city of Philly should want to immediately implement a community garden program that has the same objectives as the NYRP.
Community garden in East Harlem
Communtity garden in South BronxAlli Kobylinski
Sources: http://www.nyrp.org/
Case Study Baltimore
Justin Oriente Case Study: Baltimore One of the cities that I was able to research and look at was Baltimore, Maryland and their community garden system. I choose to look at Baltimore because it is an urban city along the east coast that is very similar to our city. The city of Baltimore offers over twenty two community gardens along with many more ways to maximise their urban landscape. The community garden programs also has a large affiliation with the University Of Maryland. Together both the school and the state work together to make sure that community gardens are available and that they produce fresh food that the locals can use to eat that they would normally not have access to because they are in the city. Also the community garden program looks to provide financial assistance and community outreach to all of the Baltimore residents that take part in this. Baltimore also works with the Baltimore City Master Gardner Community Garden Program which last year alone saved the city of Baltimore $137,800 dollars. Another thing that the community gardens do is that they take advantage of their land and offer programs that teach the residents how to use their land to plant food and also to use it for activities that can get kids involved and keep them from doing bad things. Philadelphia can learn from Baltimore because they have done a great job and look to be doing well in the future as well.
http://mastergardener.umd.edu/Success%20Stories%20with%20Impacts/Community%20Gardens%20of%20Baltimore%20City.cfm
http://mastergardener.umd.edu/Success%20Stories%20with%20Impacts/Community%20Gardens%20of%20Baltimore%20City.cfm
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Case Study: Portland
Tara
Case Study: Portland
Case Study: Portland
Our group decided to do our grant project on community gardens in Philadelphia. I researched some of the top cities that had community gardens and Portland Oregon is one of the best. The city of Portland offers more than 30 different community gardens dispersed throughout the city. When building new gardens they try to fill in the gaps between the other gardens and place them in locations that lack parks and community gardens nearby. It started out with only three community gardens in 1975 and has increased since. Their programs try to build at least 1 or 2 new gardens a year depending on the funding they receive. The gardens are funded by private donors, local residents, government grants, and capital funding. Citizens find community gardens beneficial because they are able to grow food cheaply by only paying 45 dollars a month for a plot. They also offer school programs to children to learn how to garden and are pleasing to the eyes. “You can view a small fruit demonstration at the Brentwood Community Garden site, a compost demonstration at the Fulton Community Garden site, and some gardens also give you the chance to view local wildlife.” (yahoo) They also offer workshops like "Intense Vegetable Gardening", "Bee Handling Workshop", and "Sausage Making Workshop". There are waiting lists to apply to be able to garden in a plot and may take years until you are able to receive a plot but since they are building more gardens it is more likely to receive a plot. There is a request form you fill out on their website Portland Parks and Recreation website and wait and see to start gardening. Philadelphia could learn alot from Portland by placing more community gardens around the city and offer diverse programs to the community, not just the plot users.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/443954/community_gardens_in_portland_oregon_pg2.html?cat=32
Community Gardens In Portland
Community Garden in Portland
Philly Tree People
Tara
On April 17th I went with SEA (Students for Environmental Action) to help plant trees with Philly Tree People. All of the volunteers were assigned different blocks to plant trees. My group was assigned the corner of Coral and Susquehanna. Our small group planted 9 trees in total on the block. Each tree had a designated plot to be planted in and we dug the soil out so we could place the trees. Since we live in Philadelphia we ran into a couple problems when shoveling out the soil including coal, bricks, cobblestone, and concrete beneath the initial soil. We just ice picks and (strong men) to break up the difficult layers and then cleared the problem and continued to dig. Once we thought the hole was deep enough we placed the tree in and measured it and then mounted it with some soil. Then we filled in the hole around the roots and stepped on the soil to get out the air pockets. After that we watered the soil and layed down mulch and spread it out. We did all of this for each tree plot and then cleaned up. The nice thing to see was we were in a real community doing something for the block and several neighbors came out and offered water and thanked us for our work. The surprising thing was a couple neighbors even helped us shovel and use the ice picks to plant the trees. You can tell that the neighborhood is going to appreciate the trees. After all the work we headed to the Philadelphia Brewery and enjoyed a nice free lunch. Overall it was a good day with some awesome people!
On April 17th I went with SEA (Students for Environmental Action) to help plant trees with Philly Tree People. All of the volunteers were assigned different blocks to plant trees. My group was assigned the corner of Coral and Susquehanna. Our small group planted 9 trees in total on the block. Each tree had a designated plot to be planted in and we dug the soil out so we could place the trees. Since we live in Philadelphia we ran into a couple problems when shoveling out the soil including coal, bricks, cobblestone, and concrete beneath the initial soil. We just ice picks and (strong men) to break up the difficult layers and then cleared the problem and continued to dig. Once we thought the hole was deep enough we placed the tree in and measured it and then mounted it with some soil. Then we filled in the hole around the roots and stepped on the soil to get out the air pockets. After that we watered the soil and layed down mulch and spread it out. We did all of this for each tree plot and then cleaned up. The nice thing to see was we were in a real community doing something for the block and several neighbors came out and offered water and thanked us for our work. The surprising thing was a couple neighbors even helped us shovel and use the ice picks to plant the trees. You can tell that the neighborhood is going to appreciate the trees. After all the work we headed to the Philadelphia Brewery and enjoyed a nice free lunch. Overall it was a good day with some awesome people!
Our First Tree Planted
Amelia and I standing by our Tree
Hours: 4 hrs
Total hours: 10 1/2 hrs!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
St. Malachy's Flower Planting
Tara
On April 15th I participated at St. Malachy's flower planting of additional bulbs around the parish center. Last time we were there we had laid new soil and mulch around the trees and planted a few flowers but this time we had more supplies.
In this one particular section another girl and I planted 20 Crocosmias and 36 Acidanthera. We dug a hole for each bulb and made sure there was room for it's roots and then covered it back up and watered the area.
In another section we planted lillies, strawberries, and a rose bush. There was over ten different areas that we planted a mixture of bulbs. It was also nice to see the other flowers we had previously planted about two weeks ago in bloom.
On April 15th I participated at St. Malachy's flower planting of additional bulbs around the parish center. Last time we were there we had laid new soil and mulch around the trees and planted a few flowers but this time we had more supplies.
In another section we planted lillies, strawberries, and a rose bush. There was over ten different areas that we planted a mixture of bulbs. It was also nice to see the other flowers we had previously planted about two weeks ago in bloom.
Lillies
Planting bulbs in soil
Previous Flowers in bloom
Hours: 2 1/2 hrs
Total hours: 6 1/2 hrs
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