This post comes to you from the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Vicki and I have finally come to the end of the dreaded apartment hunt. Our new place is in an old Victorian mansion that has been converted into a small apartment building. Large old Victorians are a major part of Germantown’s appeal. The blocks are lined with standard Philly row homes and turn of the century stone houses with the coolest wrought iron fences. The Belgian block main strip, Germantown Ave, has a ton of charm. The southern portion of it hasn’t experience the renaissance that it has in Mount Airy, but the architecture is certainly there waiting for some creative entrepreneurs.
Like a lot of neighborhoods, this one has seen better days, but its also seen worse. Ever since I first visited Germantown I noticed the relics of a serious garden culture. In mid-summer there are large and often overgrown flowerbeds that stand in such contrast to the concrete aesthetic of most of our fair city.
The building we will be living in is within walking distance of one of the coolest extensions of this garden culture, an urban farm. It would be shortsighted to call this a new part of urban living, but it’s a cool rediscovery of an old way of life. As immigrants from rural areas have aged or moved away, this connection with the earth in an urban setting has largely been lost until recently.
My friends Matt and Amanda own and operate a large garden on a piece of land I’d estimate to be somewhere just under an acre. The plot faces Penn Street, only a few blocks east of Germantown Ave. They bought the land last fall, and have worked tirelessly to get it cleared and prepared for planting. I’ve turned a few shovel-fulls of dirt in the effort, and the generations of buried bricks don’t make it fast or easy work. The past life of this land is somewhat of a mystery, but a 10 foot high cinderblock wall surrounds it on three sides. There are still trees to be cleared and debris to be removed, but what was an abandoned plot of land is quickly transforming into Philly’s newest farm.
Matt and Amanda had six chickens last I visited, but they hinted at a possibility of adding some more hens to the flock (or whatever a group of chickens is called). They’ve also got a hive of honeybees to make the sweet stuff.
With so much work left to do there aren’t any concrete plans for selling the produce they grow on the land, but some local restaurants have expressed interest in some locally grown veggies. Lets just hope this is the first step in a thriving local connection.
