Villa Africána Colobó manifests the links between North Philadelphia, the African Diaspora, and Puerto Rican culture. But the garden’s story of heritage began long before it was completed in 2006. During the 1990s, garden founder Iris Brown maintained a space in the neighboring Las Parcelas garden using “the shape of a hut” in plywood together […]
The Ancestral Roots Community Garden is in Chattanooga’s Menlo Park Neighborhood. The garden plantings and design are inspired by traditional Southern African American yards and home gardens. Greens, beans, okra, muscadine, herbs, corn, watermelons and squash are all growing in the garden. Also included are a row of fruit trees and flowering plants. The garden […]
In the 1860s, an 83-acre property on what was then Smith Road, now South 51st Street, in Franklin, Wisconsin was bought by our great grandfather, Johann (John) Barg and his wife Maria (nee Tietgen). The Barg homestead’s main barn was erected in 1877. Later, his son, our grandfather, Edward J. Barg and his wife Annette […]
The garden at Hickory Hill, a historic site in Georgia, grew out of a desire to share the site’s agricultural history with kids who visited the site on field trips and came for summer camps. We soon realized that children did not know where their food came from or how it grew. The garden was […]
The garden I am writing about is across the street, and two doors down, at my neighbor’s house. Our garden is not in yet, so I can not write about it. It is in her front yard, at the bottom of the hill. It runs down next to their barn driveway, about three or four […]
I spent a lot of time alone outdoors as a kid, and the component parts of plants were a source of deep fascination. I dismantled flowers to get to the tiniest parts and I loved anything with lots of seeds that could be collected – dandelions, tall grasses, and so on. When I moved into […]
When I was a young girl, Mom had two gardens (circa 1955-1966) in a rural area near Wilmington, Illinois, one at home behind the house, and one on my grandparents’ farm 1.5 miles away. I cannot believe not a single photo exists. We spent nearly the entire spring & summer tending those gardens, cultivating, planting, […]
In January 2014 Michelle interviewed her neighbor Kelly, a first-time beekeeper in Watertown, Massachusetts. The transcript of their conversation follows. Michelle: Tell me a little bit about your garden? Kelly: We have a pretty small urban garden. It is actually mostly flowers because I just love growing flowers. But, we also have a small (maybe […]