Spring Has Sprung!

The plant beds at the community garden are flourishing. Over the course of the past two weeks, the kindergarten through fourth grade students in the after school Homework Club Program have been busy planting. The kids first created a layout for the garden, deciding on which vegetables to plant.  They even made lables for the various vegetable beds.

There has been much excitment and anticpation as the first sprouts of the carrott, pumpkin and cucumber plants have begun to break through the soil.  The kids also planted tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, herbs and marigolds.  They are quickly becoming passionate gardeners!

As the vegetables and flowers continue to grow, each of the students are maintaining a “garden journal” to track the progress of growth.  Daily visits to the garden allow the kids to continually learn and experience the gardening process. It turns out some of the students may have the green thumb that it takes to make it grow!

Flowers for Fourth Street

The southeast corner of 4th and Huntington Streets was bustling with activity this past weekend, as Providence Center partnered with Friends of Fairhill to create the Fairhill Community Garden as part of the 5^th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup.   The plans for the garden have been designed by neighbors, volunteers from the University of Scranton, and even the K-4the grade students in Providence Center’s after school Homework Club Program.  Saturday started out with a rather littered and dismal lot until the volunteers set to work cleaning it up.

The lot before the cleanup

Another before shot

 The neighbors and volunteers were a determined crowd.  Everyone worked hard to clean the trash up, even out the ground and prepare the soil, saw the lumber, build the plant beds, and fill the beds with top soil.  Check out the photos below for a peek at the hard work that was happening.

 

 

 The garden will provide training in gardening for youth and adults in the neighborhood; build relationships among neighbors to promote peaceful bonds; and produce a community garden in the midst of blight and abandoned houses to be used as a training/work site for after-school and summer programs. Thanks to the neighbors on the 2600 block of 4th Street and the volunteers who came out to participate, the day was a huge success! By the late afternoon, 6 raised plant beds had been constructed and prepared for planting vegetables, flowers, and herbs. The garden will bring light, life, and unity to the Fairhill neighborhood community.  Providence Center will be receiving some funding from a Wells Fargo grant to develop and maintain the garden.

 

Bring on the Seeds!

Stay tuned for further developments of the garden as we prepapre to begin the planting process.

Community Garden Efforts Underway

This Saturday, April 14th, from 12pm-3pm, Providence Center is partnering with Friends of Fairhill to create a community garden at the end of our block on the corner of 4th and Huntington Streets.  The cleaning and gardening efforts are part of the 5th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup. The garden will include 6 raised plant beds for vegetables and various flowers. The planning and blue prints for the garden have been designed by neighbors, volunteers, and even the K-4 students in our after school program.  We are excited to bring light and life to our neighborhood community!  Many thanks to Wells Fargo for their generous support of this project.

Come on out, and give us a hand!