Voice Your Opinion on Pier 11

If you haven’t heard the exciting news, Pier 11 is becoming a park! Located just south of the Ben Franklin Bridge along the Delaware River, Pier 11 has the potential to become a welcoming neighborhood space and tourist destination.

But before the design team moves forward, they want to hear from you, the community! Join PHS, the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., and other partners at the first public engagement meeting. The event is Wednesday, November 18 at 6:30 pm at the Festival Pier (Columbus Blvd. at Spring Garden St.). To RSVP, call 215-751-1400 or email Shawn.Brede@chplanning.com.

To visit the Pier’s facebook page, click here. To learn about the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (and sign up for the Pier 11 mailing list), click here. And finally, to discover the principles that are shaping the park design, click here.

Spread the word and we’ll see you on the 18th!

Reps from Pittsburgh Tour Philly Green Sites

Iris Brown explains the creation of Las Parcelas community gardens in Norris Square for visitors from Pittsburgh.

In late September, the city of Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 summit and showed the world how it had traded its smoky, industrial image for a new, green approach to economic revival.

In late October, a group of Pittsburgh city officials, representatives of non-profits, and technical assistance providers came to Philadelphia to share their expertise and to learn how the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and its Philadelphia Green program have helped transform this city’s blighted lots into parks, gardens and revitalized land. The visit was hosted in partnership with John Kromer, Senior Consultant at the Fels Institute of Government.

The Pittsburgh contingent included representatives of the Mayor’s Office, Urban Redevelopment Authority, City Planning Commission, Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, Green Up Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Grow Pittsburgh, East End Food Coop, Hazelwood Harvest, and other organizations.

About Philadelphia Green Vacant Land Work

Fall For Your Park, Nov. 21

Fall For Your Park 2009 is fast approaching! On Saturday, November 21, join hundreds of wonderful Philadelphia Green volunteers as they make parks across the city a little bit cleaner. To discover which parks are involved with this occasion, follow the jump.

Campbell Square (at Allegheny and Belgrade) serves as headquarters for the For Fall Your Park this year. A press conference is scheduled for 10 am, followed by major mulching projects.

At the event, the Department of Recreation will exhibit and demonstrate the new leaf vacuum at Campbell Square. Using the resulting shredded leaves, volunteers will mulch garden beds and tree pits.

As part of the TreeVitalize program, in  coordination with Fairmount Park, hundreds of PHS Tree Tenders will plant 1,000 trees throughout the city on the same day. These wonderful volunteers will visit parks, including Campbell Square, to pick up leaf mulch for their new tree pits. Leaf mulch will also go to nearby gardens for their composters and garden beds. This “circle of life” practice highlights the impact volunteers have on making Philadelphia a green, sustainable city.

In addition to the leaf clean-up and bulb planting, volunteers from the Philadelphia office of Penn State Extension will offer craft activities for children from the neighborhood.  We know this will be a fun autumn day for everyone involved.  We are especially excited because CBS-3 will air a program on November 18 at 8pm that highlights the TreeVitalize planting and Fall For Your Park.

This is one event you don’t want to miss. See the list of participating parks after the jump.

Transportation Talk Nov. 19

Join PHS and its partner organizations on November 19 for the latest incarnation of the Urban Sustainability Forum. Titled “Transportation Reform: The Ticket Back to Town,” the panel program will discuss policies for a smarter, safer, and cleaner approach to transportation nationwide.

Celebrated speakers include James Corless, the director of Transportation for America, and Barry Seymour, executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

The program takes place at the Academy of Natural Sciences (19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway). A reception starts at 6 pm, with the program following at 6:30. The event is free, but click here to register.

Annual Report Now Available!

The PHS 2009 Annual Report is now online and available! Open the PDF to learn about all of Philadelphia Green’s accomplishments from the past 12 months. Highlights projects include: the PECO green roof, Liberty Lands Park, the Rodin Museum, and the Delaware River waterfront. There is also information about the PHS City Parks Handbook and the partnership with Keep America Beautiful.

Once you’ve brushed up on Philadelphia Green, be sure to read the sections on the Philadelphia Flower Show, the McLean Library, and Meadowbrook Farm. PHS is an organization with many components, and the Annual Report helps make sense of it all.  

As always, PHS extends an enormous “thank you” to all the volunteers and supporter who have allowed PHS to grow and improve in its 182nd year. Enjoy!

Remembering Hayward Ford

Former PHS Council and Philadelphia Green Advisory Board member Hayward Ford passed away on Sunday, November 1. In response to this sad news, PHS executive vice president J. Blaine Bonham Jr. issued the following statement:  

Hayward was one of the founding pillars of community gardening in Philadelphia. Working with the community, he put Aspen Farms at 49th and Aspen on the national map. Aspen Farms was featured in National Geographic more than a decade ago and became a place to which visitors flocked to see what community gardening was all about.

As a long-time member of PG Advisory Board, which he chaired for several years, and a member of PHS’s Council, he was the epitome of a leader — an innovator, an organizer, a green developer (solar greenhouse and koi pond at the site), a teacher, host extraordinaire, and a true inspiration to everyone who had the pleasure and privilege to know him.

To learn even more about Hayward’s many accomplishments and committment to his garden, follow the jump to read remarks from the Philadelphia Flower Show in 2008, at which Hayward was awarded the first Philadelphia Green Leadership Award. Bill Mills III,  regional president of PNC Financial Services Group, delivered the remarks (which have been altered slightly in response to Hayward’s passing).

Twitter While You Garden

If you are a gardener-on-the-go you’ll enjoy subscribing to the PHS Gardening Twitter account. Regular “tweets” of gardening tips, tricks, and ideas will keep you inspired all year long. The Twitter feed is also a great way to learn of upcoming Philadelphia Green events. To get started, click here! 

About Philadelphia Green Public Landscapes

Get Involved with TreeVitalize

Everyone knows the many merits of trees, from providing shade to improving air quality. So how great would it be to contribute to the tree population by planting a few of your own?

Now more than ever it’s easy to be a great tree steward. Thanks to TreeVitalize and Tree Tenders you can be an expert in just nine hours. Better still, training classes are offered all over Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh; Leesport, Berks County; city of Chester, Delaware County; city of Lebanon; Borough of Dauphin, Dauphin County ; Williamsport, Lycoming County; and the city of Philadelphia.

If you’d like to make a change and help plant trees, click here to learn more.