For those of you who missed last night’s workshop, it was pretty fantastic and included chicken talk accompanied by a slide show by Anna Herman (whose chicks are living in our coop!) as well as Joe Kirby and Robyn Mello, of Philly Food Forests who gave a thorough going over of their experience of food forestry in vacant lots throughout Philadelphia.
And here are my additional (unspoken) two bits:
The Edible Backyards exhibit at Art in the Age briefly stops at different points in history where humans have intervened with the intention of creating green spaces in Philadelphia beginning with William Penn’s design for a ‘fine green country towne’. We have decorated these points in time with copies or original historic artifacts, along with paintings, photographs, tools, film, plants, new Peg and Awl objects and 12 chicks! The show will be up through 3 June at Art in the Age at 116 N. 3rd St in Phila, PA 19107.
When Walter and I met Joe and then Robyn who started Philadelphia Food Forests, we thought it would be a pretty perfect marriage. This begat Edible Backyards.
Peg and Awl has been using reclaimed wood to create objects for the home and garden from Philadelphia homes and buildings – olde growth wood that had started growing in the area long before Penn’s arrival here. The wood was used for houses that existed throughout this history of the city and finally fell or have been torn down around the time Walter and myself began. So Edible Backyards – to start – offer’s Peg and Awl garden boxes built from antique wood which will be delivered and installed in your backyard and will include soil, plants of your choosing (we will have a complete list available, and should you want something that we do not offer we will gladly attempt to source it). This will all be brought to you by Joe Kirby, our gardener who will not simply deliver a box and seed or seedlings, but who will guide and educate you throughout the process. Follow up questions and discussion from local gardeners will be available for all to participate in here on this blog.
And this is just the beginning. We will be offering more garden/outdoor objects including the chicken coop (in this post) and modular boxes that can be built up. We will also always be willing and wanting to design complete gardens without boxes and directly into your soil. If you have any questions, please ask!
