For the past few years I have been a bit obsessed with finding little gardens in the Philadelphia area, mainly in the areas where I live and work because it gives me an excuse to get out on my bike at lunch with my camera to enjoy the sun. Well, today, even though there was no sun, I rode to one of my favorite spots to grab a few photos.
When I tell you that pretty much only 1 in 100 people near where I live have a garden that's not an exaggeration. Although my neighborhood is dominated by immigrants from Southeast Asia whose former livelihood was determined by growing their own food, few have carried on their growing to their new homes. The area just south and west of my neck of the woods is full of descendants of Italian immigrants who now rely on the ACME more for their produce. Granted, we all have concrete slabs for backyards (if you even are blessed to HAVE a yard) and flat fronted homes where you need to worry about someone either stealing or breaking your flowepots (sad isn't it). A few of us have been crafty enough to establish sorts of raised beds and/or utilize pot to grow some flowers and veggies throughout the warmer seasons. Others, for instance those in Center City regions, enter a lottery to obtain a spot in a community garden where they can grow herbs, produce and flowers. The photos above are from one such community garden near the Schuylkill River. Some days, if you are incredibly lucky, you can enter the garden if a plot manager is there tending to their beds (if you ask nicely and are, of course, only taking photos and not trying to sneak away some peppers!), but today the gates were locks so I could only snap a few photos from the plants in the perimeter. I did, however, snag a few of a fuzzy little bumble bee, which totally made my day.
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