James Taylor wakes at 4 a.m., crosses his street of tidy row homes, and opens the gate to Glenwood Green Acres. Four acres of green purpose meet his pale gray eyes.

If Taylor turned his gaze north, the outline of center city Philadelphia would pierce the dimly lit sky, an abandoned factory loitering in the foreground. Instead he looks straight ahead to his neighborhood's garden.

Taylor and his late wife founded Glenwood Green Acres community garden nearly 20 years ago, following a fire that destroyed the factory that once stood here at the 1800 block of Glenwood Avenue.

"My wife loved this garden so much I thought I'd put that right here,'' Taylor said, gesturing towards a cornerstone, honoring the founding couple. "She was always out here."

(Photo: Leon Green another volunteer.)

Urban gardening isn't a new concept. What is special about Glenwood and other Philadelphia gardens is that they are protected. The gardens can't be shut down, paved or built on.

"Most community gardeners do not own the land where they garden," said Terry Mushovic, Executive Director of Neighborhood Gardens Association/A Philadelphia Land Trust. "They are always at risk of being asked to leave. We try to save the better ones that are out there and help the city in creatively dealing with all the vacant space."

Glenwood Green Acres is one of 22 gardens owned by the Neighborhood Gardens Association/A Philadelphia Land Trust. The organization holds long-term leases on two other gardens and is working to protect dozens more. Its mission is to ensure the continuity and preservation of community managed gardens and open space in low to moderate-income neighborhoods. Taylor and 80 of his neighbors, their children and grandchildren will always have the opportunity to garden the land.

Philadelphia has 31,000 vacant lots, most of them derelict. Over the past two decades, local people have constructively redeveloped 1,200 of these areas into community gardens — converting neighborhood liabilities into neighborhood assets.

Folks get attached to the gardens. In the city, two blocks away can be an entirely different neighborhood with its own culture, and the garden is part of the culture. Unfortunately, upon occasion a long absent property owner shows up, and the people who poured their sweat and money into the land are out-of-luck.

The Neighborhood Gardens Association works to avoid this unpleasant scenario. By acquiring properties or helping other community groups to do so, NGA ensures that James Taylor will never have to move his cotton and tobacco plants.

To read the remainder of this article go to the PA Land Trust Association website. To read more success stories, visit this PLTA webpage.

11/29/2008