Las Parcelas, a community garden in the Norris Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, began with brushes and paint, rather than shovels and seeds. Plans for the space began in the 1980s. It was not until a summer day in 1992, however, that a “massive multi-agency, anti-drug raid” in “The Badlands” (so called because of the area’s […]
Situated on two and a half acres, the Breeze Hill estate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was home to J. Horace McFarland (1859-1948), an avid gardener, leading proponent of the City Beautiful Movement, and environmental preservationist. Planting began in 1909 by McFarland. The informal garden rooms were made up of contoured beds. Over many years of planting, […]
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden inspires people to value plants, garden design and the natural world by cultivating plant collections of the Allegheny Plateau and temperate regions, creating display gardens, conducting educational programs and conserving the environment. We’re nurturing a unique vision at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. We’re reclaiming land from Pittsburgh’s gritty, industrial past and transforming […]
Today our grandkids might think planting vegetables in a cemetery smacks of the gothic and macabre and perhaps such a garden hints at vestiges of the Addams Family somewhere in our genealogy tree. But they need to examine the circumstances and the necessity during World War II for a garden in an urban environment, to […]
Collecting Milkweed Pods During World War II We lived in a small, prosperous town in the middle of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, a very fertile valley, good for growing fruits and vegetables, still an area of small farms and truck gardens, with a range of mountains to the north and south. We were a family of […]
After living in the home in which we raised our children for 25 years, my husband and I decided it was time to leave homeowning behind. The Allegheny River, which flows past Pittsburgh, PA, has a number of apartment complexes and so we moved in the Fall in 2010, sadly leaving behind a glorious and […]
Formerly known as Squirrel Hill Community Garden, Chester Avenue Community Garden focuses on sharing community culture and providing fresh produce to west Philadelphia’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The garden began around 1984 on a lot that had previously been home to an apartment building. Garden co-founder Guina Hammond recalls that “it was really just a big […]