PHS | Philadelphia Green

Community Gardens &
City Harvest

There are more than 400 community gardens in Philadelphia, each one an oasis. Besides being attractive, these serene spaces promote health and nutrition, improve local economies, and allow neighbors to come together for a common interest.

Because these gardens are so important to their neighborhoods, Philadelphia Green devised the Keystone Garden initiative. The 14 locations given this special recognition are long-standing, large-scale gardens that set the standard for clean and green urban spaces.

Community gardens provide produce to city dwellers, and PHS’s City Harvest project is a collaborative partnership that enables gardeners to share their bounty. Through City Harvest, inmates of the Philadelphia Prison System nurture vegetable seedlings that are grown to maturity at 30 participating community gardens. The nonprofit group SHARE (Self Help and Resource Exchange) helps connect gardeners with local food cupboards for distribution of the produce, and the Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania provides nutrition workshops and recipes to food cupboard clients.

If you are interested in applying to the City Harvest Growers Alliance, our entrepreneurial gardening program, please send an email to chga@pennhort.org to keep up-to-date with information for the 2011 growing season. For a sampling of community gardens that work with PHS, please see the map below.

Find a Community Garden Near You!