Community gardeners rejoice as efforts to preserve the Summer Winter Community Garden receive support
In the heart of West Philadelphia, the Summer Winter Community Garden has secured a major victory in its quest for long-term preservation. City Council has authorised the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority to transfer ownership of the garden’s land parcels to Neighborhood Gardens Trust, a nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving community gardens across the city.
This transfer provides a stable, secure legal ownership structure for the garden's more than 60 caretakers, alleviating fears of losing the space to redevelopment. The garden, spanning nearly an acre, is located in an area experiencing high housing development pressure and displacement risks, making the preservation especially significant.
Crishana Manigan and her fiancé, Luke Dougan, are among the gardeners who have transformed their raised bed into a bountiful oasis of various vegetables and herbs. Manigan describes the garden as a place where people come together from diverse backgrounds, including older adults, students, and people in the medical profession.
For Dougan, preserving green spaces like the Summer Winter Community Garden is crucial for community use, growing food, and providing green spaces for people to take a reprieve from the city. The garden is a precious space that has been cultivated for decades through the hard work and vision of community members.
The Summer Winter Community Garden is not alone in its struggle for preservation. According to a 2023 city plan, fewer than half of Philadelphia’s community gardens are considered secure. Many gardens rely on neighbourly stewardship without secure ownership, highlighting the importance of legal protection efforts like those pursued by nonprofits including the Neighborhood Gardens Trust and advocacy by legal experts like Mimi McKenzie.
Joe Revlock, a gardener at the Summer Winter Community Garden, has lived beside and grown food in the garden for nearly 50 years. The garden boasts unique features, such as a persimmon tree that took eight years to bear fruit and a pond full of koi fish, where Revlock once raised crayfish.
The Summer Winter Community Garden is located in Philadelphia's Powelton Village section. Neighborhood Gardens Trust is working to acquire the land under more than two dozen active gardens in its preservation pipeline from the city or private owners. The process for transferring city-owned land to community gardeners or organisations that can preserve it needs to be streamlined, and the Philadelphia Land Bank needs sufficient resources to purchase privately owned garden land, according to Jenny Greenberg, executive director of Neighborhood Gardens Trust.
District 3 City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier sees the Summer Winter Community Garden as a potential model for protecting many other community gardens in the city’s neighbourhoods, which often have high poverty rates and majority Black, Indigenous, and people of color residents. However, Gauthier stresses that there’s much more work still to be done to protect community gardens across the city.
Neighborhood Gardens Trust agreed to take on a 30-year mortgage to acquire the property of the Summer Winter Community Garden. The mortgage automatically reduces to zero by the end of its term. This victory is a testament to the power of community effort and the importance of preserving these vital green spaces in urban environments.
The gardeners at the Summer Winter Community Garden, such as Crishana Manigan and her fiancé Luke Dougan, appreciate the transition to Neighborhood Gardens Trust's management as it offers a secure home-and-garden environment for their diverse community. The preservation of green spaces like the Summer Winter Community Garden is crucial for community use, gardening, and providing serene home-and-garden spaces for city-dwellers.
