Tree Baltimore

We have had our first tree delivery!

Now three red maples will be planted at the corner of Montford and McElderry in partnership with

Banner Neighborhoods and the McElderry Park Community Association.

Thank you Tree Baltimore!

Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary School

Dr.Rayner Browne Elementary School revitalized their chess park garden on the corner of Chase and Montford on Saturday November 5th. The event was held for the James W. Rouse day of service and the school, the residents, Parks and People, Elev8, American Communities Trust, HEBCAC, and Power in Dirt all busied themselves to make this day full of sweat and smiles! The greenspace was expanded to include room for a raised bed vegetable garden that students can use to sprout to their hearts content. A new horseshoe pit was created too. Many folks from little ones to Bobcat drivers manned their post. The central pathway was reworked, new beds dug for planting, trash removed, the chess tables refinished, trees planted, and on and on! Volunteers arrived bright and early on a Saturday and had their bellies filled with a lovely lunch and also a BBQ (two meals!)

Thank you so much everyone! I can't wait to see how this project will grow!

Dr Eason, The Schools' principle with rose bushes~

A Horseshoe pit is formed!

A Bobcat machine digs a new space for plants~

Artist Ivy Parsons weather seals the chess tables she built in collaboration with the residents~

Peanut, a resident, reworks the stump on which the tables are built~

On the way for more mulch~

C.A.R.E Foundation and Baltimore City Vacant Lot Transformation

The C.A.R.E. Community Association is a non profit located in East Baltimore. Their boundaries are from N. Washington Street to Patterson Park Ave. and Fayette Street to McElderry Street. They are a resident-led coalition to create better living conditions in and around their neighborhoods. "C.A.R.E." stands for Cleaning, Active, Restoring, Efforts.

The C.A.R.E. Community Foundation has worked on four separate gardening sites in Baltimore City - Duncan and Orleans, Orleans and Chester, Duncan block, and Medeira Block. 

Community residents dig in the dirt to fix up a vacant lot

Everyone comes out to help turn a neighborhood vacant lot into a green space

President of C.A.R.E. Drew Bennett answers a few of our questions below:

How did you get started, and why?

Our community has large open spaces that need continual maintenance.  Power in Dirt was an opportunity to restore one such place and assist with our overall objective of making the space more community friendly.

What things did you learn?

It was great to work with so many city departments to see the project executed.  I learned how to communicate and network effectively to see something impossible become possible.

What obstacles have you faced? 

The large quantity of open spaces is a burden to regularly maintain.  We are in the process of training residents in our community to have a collective priority of beautifying and up-keeping the spaces so as to prevent any possible decay.

What are the benefits you've found?

Such activity draws residents together around common objectives.  It is also an opportunity to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with residents, which enhances the overall community.

Who is involved? 

Our neighborhood group works closely with Banner Neighborhoods, Civic Works, and The Door to execute the vacant lot projects.  We appreciate the kind funding and technical assistance provided by the Baltimore Community Foundation and Parks & People Foundation.

What is your favorite plant in your garden? 

We have a spectacular weeping redbud that peaks my aesthetic senses when in full bloom. 

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Power in Dirt coordinates Baltimore City community efforts to adopt and revitalize city-owned vacant lots. Tune in to our blog to learn as we help residents transform unused space in their neighborhoods into community managed green and open spaces! Do you have a vacant lot to green space story? Please share it with us! powerindirt@gmail.com

Concepts for Vacant Lot Projects

Vacant lots are just vacant space - sure there is sometimes trash in them, they have the leftover rubble from the buildings that once stood on site, there are tall grasses and weeds. But imagine if all of that were gone and you had a blank slate, a vacant lot, to put in whatever you could dream up! Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. All of these suggestions have been created in vacant lot spaces, and they are just the beginning of what can be done. What are your ideas?

A Rain Garden is a garden that is designed to catch the water from stormwater runoff and manipulate it so that it is absorbed into the ground rather than redirected to stormdrains. Plants and flowers may be planted around the rain garden so that all water redirected to this area will be nourishment for water-needy plants. On vacant lots the soil is oftentimes so compacted that water simply runs off the surface as if it were concrete. This reduces the amount of pervious - or absorbable - surfaces in an area. The more pervious surfaces you have, the more water is absorbed into the ground, filtering out chemicals and pollutants and replenishing our healthy groundwater source. The more water runs off into storm drains and the street the more likely it is to catch trash and pollutants en route to our greater body of water - the Chesapeake Bay. 

A Sedum Berm (or Sedum Rock, or Berm Rock Garden) is essentially a rock garden. The "berm" implies that it is raised above the rest of the garden - for sedums, or plants that are drought-resistant (do not like wet soil), and for improved drainage throughout your garden. Rocks are placed among the soil in the raised mound with vegetation planted betwixt and between; the rocks are both decorative and practical additions to a garden. The interspersed rocks help water drain into the soil, as well as provide decorative places for people to sit! Check out How to Build a Rock Garden and How to Design a Berm.

A very popular item - the vegetable garden! Vacant lot soil often has poisonous lead in it. We don't want to plant our fruits and vegetable plants in lead contaminated soil as it will transmit the lead into the food we eat! In order to bypass this toxic salad, we make a raised bed. Raised beds, as you can see in the above image, are literally on top of the ground soil. You can make a raised bed out of repurposed weather-resistant wood, or any kind of wood that you weatherize in some way so it lasts longer from the elements. Put some nutrient-rich top soil in your raised bed and ta-da! You have a mini soil plot with absolutely no lead in it, ready to hold delicious vegetable-bearing plants in it. Tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, okra, peppers, radishes, squash, cucumbers, spinach, kale, lettuce, onions, lima beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, you name it!

Usually less desirable because they take a few years to bear the fruit of your labor - fruit orchards are nevertheless a beautiful contribution to a neighborhood as well as a wonderful source of fresh fruit! Trees are very fragile in the first two years of their life - they need a lot of water as they plant their roots. After the first few years they begin to show that fruit for which they were planted...but they aren't truly safe until the 5-year mark. (Check out some tree planting tips Here.) After 5 years if the tree is still healthy you will start getting tons of apples, or pears, or peaches, oh my! People often don't think to plant fruit trees because they can take so long to give you fruit, but think of how wonderful it will be in a couple of years to have fresh apples every day, or be able to make batches of peach preserves for christmas presents, or bake apple pies! Not to mention they are beautiful, and provide wonderful hot summer shade. And, you can often get free trees from our very own Tree Baltimore.

Butterfly gardens have plants and flowers planted in them that attract butterflies. The butterflies are attracted by the particular nectars of the plant or flower that feeds them. Did you know that the monarch butterfly species migrates as far as Mexico? These gardens give them some delicious food on their path! Asters, Black-Eyed Susans, Daylilies, Lavendar, Hibiscus, and Lilac are just some of the (also gorgeous) flowers that butterflies enjoy feasting on. Check out other butterfly garden plants Here. 

So, what are your ideas? Let us know! Powerindirt@gmail.com

ALL ART FOR POWER IN DIRT DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY GALADRIEL ROSEN

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Power in Dirt is a Baltimore City Mayoral Initiative empowering Baltimore City communities and residents to adopt city-owned vacant lots and turn them into community managed green and open spaces. www.baltimorehousing.org/vtov to look at a list of city-owned vacant lots listed by neighborhood as well as applications for adopting a vacant lot or getting access to water for a lot you already maintain.  

Meet Our Team - Anna! Coordinator for Southwest Baltimore

Anna E. Evans-Goldstein coordinates for Power in Dirt in Southwest Baltimore. She is stationed at Bon Secours Community Works and serves the neighborhoods of Sandtown-Winchester, Harlem Park, Rosemont Homeowners Tenants, Shiply Hill, Booth-Boyd, Mill Hill, Carrollton Ridge, New Southwest Mt. Clare, Union Square, Franklin Square, Hollins Market, and Poppleton. You can reach her at (410) 362-3185 or anna_evans-goldstein@bshsi.org

Anna grew up in Baltimore, MD. She grew up going to neighborhood association meetings with her Mother, who was the President of their neighborhood group for as long as Anna can remember. These community meetings paved the way for her to be interested in community development. She went to college in Portland, Oregon, where everything is green and plants grow without much help in the constantly wet Pacific Northwest. Returning to Baltimore at the beginning of 2011, Anna is excited to bring her love of green things together with her love for Baltimore and building strong and healthy communities. Her favorite plants are aloe vera and any medicinal herbs. She loves free information, sharing, and yoga.

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Power in Dirt is a Baltimore City Mayoral initiative building capacity in Baltimore City neighborhoods for community groups and residents to adopt city-owned vacant lots and turn them into community managed green and open spaces. You can find out more about this program and look at a comprehensive list of all city-owned vacant lots available for adoption at www.baltimorehousing.org/vtov_adopt 

Meet the Power in Dirt Team - Maria!

Meet the Power in Dirt Coordinator for Northwest Baltimore - Maria! Maria coordinates for Park Heights, Towanda Grantley and Greenspring. You can contact her at Park Heights Renaissance (PHR) at (410) 664 - 4890 or mvasquez@gmail.com

Maria Vasquez is a recent new comer to Baltimore, MD.  She recently graduated with a B.A. in History and a B.S. in Public Policy concentrated in Planning and Economic Development from Georgia State University.

Maria’s interests lie in helping underrepresented, blighted communities due to her unique upbringing. She and her family, originally from Peru, came to the U.S. in 1991 to escape terrorism. Growing up Maria remembers seeing her parents struggle to find employment, maintain a household, and provide a decent environment for her and her brother to be raised in. Unlike her peers in school, she spent her time after school helping her parents clean office buildings so that her family could afford to live in an area that provided good public schools and services.

Today, now a young professional, Maria still identifies with the struggle many Baltimore City residents face trying to provide their children with positive opportunities in life.  She sees Park Heights, with all of its assets like Druid Hill Park, Cylburn Arboretum, and Pimlico Race Course, as a community with so much potential.  As one of the community coordinators for Power in Dirt, she is ready to take on the challenge of revitalizing Park Heights and invites community members to contact her if they are thinking about adopting a lot in the area!

Please contact Maria if you live in Northwest Baltimore and are interested in adopting a vacant lot!

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Power in Dirt is a Baltimore City Mayoral Initiative that aims to build capacity in Baltimore City communities to adopt city-owned vacant lots and turn them into community managed green and open spaces. We are interested in all things green and growing in Baltimore City. Do you have a community garden or park on a vacant lot that you and your neighbors started? Do you have a particularly troublesome vacant lot in your neighborhood? Contact us! Let us know your thoughts, feedback, and questions at any time! General questions go to: powerindirt@gmail.com or visit www.baltimorehousing.org/vtov_adopt_resources to find the closest Power in Dirt Coordinator for your neighborhood!

Meet the Power in Dirt team - GIGI!

Meet the Power in Dirt Coordinator for East Baltimore - Galadriel Rosen or, Gigi! Gigi coordinates for Broadway East, Greenmount West, Barclay, Oliver, Biddle Street, Middle East, and Milton Montford. You can contact her at HEBCAC at (410) 528 2800 x 126

Galadriel Rosen (Gigi) is an artist, a self proclaimed plant nerd, and becomes quite merry when striking up conversations ~ How lovely to find a practice that combines all three! She attended MICA in 2004, Concordia University 2006 and graduated with a degree in Studio Art. She has just spent the last two years digging in the dirt to develop common Greenspace on vacant lots with the Community Lot Team of Civic Works, Inc. She is excited to continue working with dirt and green spaces with Power in Dirt!

More to come! Contact Gigi if you are located in East Baltimore and are interested in adopting a vacant lot and turning it into a green and open space for your community.

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If you're just hearing about it for the first time, Power in Dirt is a new Mayoral initiative empowering communities to adopt city-owned vacant lots and turn them into community organized green and open spaces! It is part of the stepUP! Baltimore Campaign making Baltimore City a recognized City of Service. We have revamped the Adopt-a-Lot process, making it easier to find and adopt a vacant lot. We are also offering water access at a reduced rate! Just think what your community can do with an adopted vacant lot!