Photos from our Gathering for Garden Educators, Day 1

Wyck is a Colonial-era house in the Germantown section of Philadelphia that has the oldest continually-tended rose garden in the New World.  Visitors can trace the history of rose gardening by walking through the garden, seeing what kinds of roses were popular at different times in our history. 
You can contact Wyck for visits and special events at http://www.wyck.org/ or at 215-848-1690



Nicole Juday is the landscape curator at Wyck Historic House and Garden, and she and Wyck's horticulturalist Elizabeth Belk took us on a terrific tour of the grounds.  Classes of all ages are invited to participate in hands-on activities and lessons and to tour the grounds and building to learn about life during the Colonial period.  There is also a working farm on the grounds and a Farmers Market every Friday from 2-6.  While we were there, a group from a nearby day care stopped by to see the chickens! 




Bee houses at Wyck. 
One thing we learned about while touring the Farm Camp at the Schuykill Center for Environmental Education the next day was how to make simple houses for native bees- just drill a series of holes in a narrow log or string together pieces of bamboo and hang the "bee house" from a tree limb.  Wyck's annual Honey Festival is Saturday, Sept. 10th.




Hansberry Garden and Nature Center is an amazing jewel in the heart of Germantown (Wayne and Hansberry Sts.).  Begun as a community garden, it now participates in City Harvest and provides environmental education to over 300 school students during the year.  David (pictured above) is one of the educators who teaches water testing to students of all ages at Hansberry and at area community centers.  Plans are underway for wheelchair-accessible beds, and area kids are encouraged to come garden in the summer. Contact the center by calling 215-438-7047.



We started the morning at Germantown Meeting's Old Tennis Court Community Garden, where each bed shows the particular interests and creativity of its owner.  These hardy folks first took up the asphalt from the tennis court, then prepared and planted beds, either raised or on straw bales or mounded.  What looked like an impossible task in the winter has turned into a verdant lot right on Wissahickon Ave.



Most impressive of all is the gardeners' creativity and hard work to deliver water to the garden.  This is their first water storage system.  Water is pumped up via a solar-powered pump from a well dug for this purpose.