Broadway East Work Day

Planting trees

Power in Dirt partnered with the Baltimore Wake Up (http://baltimorewakeup.org/) to help revitalize a vacant block in East Baltimore. Check out a celebrity appearance from The Wire's Sonja Sohn!

 

Group picture with Sonja Sohn (center)

 

More than 80 people volunteered on 5 work days for a total of 225 hours worked over the course of the 8 week initiative.

 

The group, headed by the New Broadway East Community Association, planted 10 trees and 800 bulbs, removed trash and overgrowth, and built a scenic walkway through the lot.

 

The Baltimore Wake Up project was developed by the non-profits ReWired for Change and the violence prevention program Why Murder? Through the WakeUp, community groups get technical assistance from coaches with expertise in a community improvement area and grants to conduct neighborhood improvement projects.

Ten trees have found a new home

 

Planting the Seeds of Recovery

The addiction recovery center Man Alive Inc., in collaboration with the Neighborhood Design Center, used the Love Your Block with Tree’s grant to kick-start their ambitious plans for 2004-12 N. Charles Street. Man Alive first adopted a lot on Charles Street in 2011 and since then have worked to maintain and care for the lots while a plan was generated. While excitement for the project was great amongst the clients and staff, the project faced a series of obstacles in the first year and a plan was never fully developed. In the summer of 2012, with help from the Neighborhood Design Center, the garden committee coalesced around a plan for a grove of fruit and flowering trees that would act as a memorial orchard.  Grace Sweeney, lead organizer of the project for Man Alive says she’s excited “for our clients and staff to have a positive impact on the community and to provide an environment where our clients can work outside and literally see the ‘fruits’ of their labor.” Staff at Man Alive hope that the project can tie in with their own programs and help serve as a form of horticultural therapy for clients struggling to recover from addiction. Grace notes that “work outside will be coupled with a therapy group inside where [clients] can talk about their experiences and share how working with the plants and fruit trees influence their recovery.”

The Love Your Block with Tree’s grant (http://www.parksandpeople.org/greening/grants-for-greening/love-your-block-with-trees/) allowed Man Alive patients and staff to get a head start on their plan by planting native perennials in a designated meadow area and street trees in front of the center.  Man Alive hosts biweekly workdays to help clean up the prodigious amount of trash that accumulates on the highly-trafficked lot and prepare the soil for spring planting. If you are interested in helping out with the project please contact Grace Sweeney at gesweeney@manaliveinc.org or Mikah Zaslow at mzaslow@ndc-md.org.

 planting native plants

 hauling soil

cleaning trash

the whole group

This past Saturday, Mt Clair St Garden had their second work day! We had about 22 volunteers come to assist in the planting of trees, trash clean up, and garden clean up. It was a successful day as over ten trees were planted in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Jane, Bill, and several volunteers cleaned up the inside of the garden. We composted the leaves that were collected in and around the garden.









Cassandra and volunteers cleaned up broken glass from her sculpture. They also cleaned up some trash that had been dumped near the garden.

Tree that was planted through the Love Your Block with Trees grant.

T

Thanks for all of your hard work and enthusiasm, Mt Clair St!

Pratt Street Communal Farm

The Fells Point Farm Project’s first farm location is at 1639 E Pratt Street. 

They used their Home Depot gift card to create raised beds for the Pratt Street Communal Farm- 

look at those lovely little nasturtiums!

Fun Fact- they are adopt a lot neighbors with Treefill Baltimore, an organization working to create an urban forest right across the street.

Mt Clair St Moves Their Pond!

This past weekend, the Mt Clair St garden had a work day with the intention of moving and revamping a pond that has been in the garden for some time. It was a challenge, but with help from members of the garden and city volunteers, the day was a great success!

(Jamie shin deep in water moving the pond lining!)

The chickens kept us company while we moved and filled the pond! We also cleaned up leaves around the garden and weeded the pathways. 

Adam made a delicious chili and corn bread lunch for all who helped out. Thanks Adam!!

Mt Clair St will have another work day in December to re draw the garden plots. Thanks for all of the hard work and dedication that you bring to your community!

Art Garden in Hollins Market!

Cassandra Kapsos and her husband Eric have recently begun a vacant lot project in Hollins Market! As an artist herself, Cassandra has the goal of turning their space into a public art and green space. She has already installed some of her own artwork into the garden.

When I asked Eric what kind of impact he though the garden was having on the community, he told me something interesting. “We had a part of our garden that we called the untouched triangle.  In this spot we didn't cut down the weeds or throw away the trash.  It was very obvious that people would throw more trash into the untouched triangle than they would our kept up area.  People seem to respect the work that we do there and in turn they respect this small part of the neighborhood better than they otherwise would.”

This couple is clearly having a positive impact on their community. They have been awarded the “Love Your Block with Trees” grant and will receive about seven trees to plant in their garden and in tree pits in the surrounding area.

Cassandra has had a difficult time finding artists to display their artwork due to the not for profit nature of the exhibit. Any artists interested in displaying their work can contact Cassandra at cassandrakapsos@gmail.com.

Whitridge Garden

A small stretch of Greenmount Avenue in the Harwood neighborhood is looking a little greener these days thanks to some dedicated local residents. Residents of the 400 block of Whitridge Ave. gathered last weekend to transform a vacant lot on the corner of Whitridge and Greenmount into a new neighborhood garden. After obtaining a $500 Home Depot gift card as part of the Love Your Block grant,  project leader Amanda Ruthven was able to buy soil, paving stones, and mulch for the lot. Native plants and shrubs were purchased from the Herring Run Nursery, a native plant nursery run by Blue Water Baltimore. On the workday, dozens of neighborhood residents worked the entire day to clean up the lot, dig up the grass, and install the garden. The stars of the workday were the neighborhood kids who helped out all day, and who unanimously agreed that "its fun to play in the dirt." By turning a trash strewn vacant lot into a neighborhood green space, the Whitridge Avenue Community Garden is a testament to how even the smallest projects can have a big impact on a neighborhood.

 before

 

hauling dirt

putting in the plants

 

 

kids helping out

 

after