A double-decker raised bed of herbs, a montage of paintings by young students at a Montessori school and bee boxes borrowed from the University of Delaware’s apiary club highlight one section of an exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show entered by the university’s Pennsylvania Horticulture Society Flower Show Club. The display was intended as a miniature version of The Spring Gardens Community Garden in Philadelphia. (Photo by Carol Kinsley)
One of the more eye-catching exhibits at the Philadelphia Flower Show in March was “Rooted in Community,” a depiction of The Spring Gardens Community Garden in Philadelphia put together by the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society Flower Show Club at the University of Delaware.
Club members, who are students, consulted with volunteers at the real Spring Gardens as they designed a miniature version for the show at the Convention Center.
They copied the fence, bulletin board, herb garden, pergola, beehives and raised beds with vegetables and flowers.
Also highlighted was a mural painted by the youngest students at Our House Montessori School.
The “real” garden was built by neighbors in 1995 on what was then an abandoned lot on North Street, between 18th and 19th Streets, just a few blocks from the Museum of Art.
As volunteer Justino Navaro recalls, where once there were houses, high rises and a post office, seven shells remained when the FBI came in and cleared out the drug trade, leaving a 70,000-square-foot “blight on the community.”
No one wanted to buy there. “You couldn’t give lots away,” he said.
The Spring Garden CVC and Spring Garden Civic Association reclaimed the area as a garden.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority turned over the seven parcels to the city, to Parks and Recreation.
The area is protected under an open lands preservation ordinance.
Originally there were 40 gardeners, but there are now 200 smaller plots tended by 350 people.
The garden serves as an outdoor classroom, hosting cooking workshops, gardening classes, school education tours and farm bike tours.
The nonprofit 501(c)(3) also provides hands-on learning for student interns, visitors and volunteer groups.
Families grow food and flowers for themselves and for donation through City Harvest. Community events are held often, including food truck nights, Solstice Celebrations, pot luck events, a May Day Festival and Summer Solstice Soirée Fundraiser. The Spring Gardens is also open to rent for weddings and parties.
Catherine “Cate” Boettger, president of PHS Flower Show Club, said the club has had an exhibit as long as there has been a club, even through COVID.
There are 30 members, 15 of them active, and two faculty advisors, Karen Gartley, director of the UD Soil testing program, and Stephanie Hansen, set designer for the professional theater program.
Boettger, who is a junior majoring in landscape architecture, said planning began last summer, choosing a theme and brainstorming.
Last fall the visited Philadelphia were given a tour of garden by Karen Cherubini. One student interviewed volunteers at the garden. Those who visited the exhibit, she said, liked how representative it was of the real thing.
Armed with ideas, the club made a design base plan and in winter added more detail including what plants to feature and what specific parts of the garden to incorporate.
Inspiration for the fence with its metal rods, cattail design, and crisscrossing came directly from the garden, as did the raised bed inspiration and stacked planter boxes filled with herbs.
“This spring we really started building,” she said.
The club contacted the Montessori school to ask the children to paint the mural. They borrowed bee boxes from the UD apiary club.
Half the plants were grown from seed in a greenhouse on campus, with advice from Gartley.
The other plants were purchased.
Set up onsite took a whole week. “The Thursday before opening, we were there until midnight. We used all the time we could,” Boettger said.
She continued, “It was a great opportunity. We are really proud of how it all turned out.”
The students got no college credit for the experience.
Sarah Nolt, club vice president, explained logistics: “We took materials up on multiple trips. We rented Penske moving trucks to move the building materials and plants to the Convention Center.
Club members and volunteers came up individually and in carpooling groups over the course of the week to set everything up.
The main setup day was Thursday, Feb. 29, where most members came up to complete the exhibit in time for judging on March 1.
The driver volunteered his services as his own community service, taking days off from work to do so, said Advisor Gartley, one of the original members of the flower show club.
She is also advisor of the university’s hort club. “Seven or eight years ago, the club needed someone who deals with plants,” she explained.
“We started in 2011 with our first role in a major exhibit class. That’s when I was an undergrad.”
Before that there were other competitive classes. The club was formed after a course in landscape architecture ended and the students wanted to stay involved.
“We won three bronze medals in our classes (this year),” Gartley said. “But the big thing, all the Philadelphia gardeners loved it. The garden looked good.”
She added their display was different from some others which were done by university class groups.
“This year, our display was done entirely by club members, working around their schedules. The PHS provides a subsidy that pays for everything. The university does not fund the effort,” she said.
