Also this issue:

Amy Wynn Pastor
-Interview by Frank Lewis

Girl, Power
Amy Wynn on buying tools that do the work for you.
-Frank Lewis

House of Style
Decorating tips to make your home fashionable for less.Why don’t you...
-Meredith Broussard

Home, Again
Two local decorators want to transform your home -- with your own stuff.
-Debra Auspitz

Get Hooked
A guide to buying art on the cheap.
-Lori Hill

May 9-15, 2002

cover story

Dirty Pitchers

Home grown: Past winners of the Horticultural Societyâs City Gardens Contest demonstrate the ingenuity of urban gardeners.

In urban guerrilla gardening, anything that can hold some soil can be a planter.

by Steve Maurer

In 1975, Jim LaRosa, then living at Ninth and Catharine, got bored looking at a sterile environment and decided to start gardening on his concrete patio. He put in some flowerpots and built up some beds with loose brick. Then, in a whimsical moment one afternoon, he filled some old roller skates with dirt and planted a type of succulent. His friends were so impressed they entered him in a new garden contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society that aimed to recognize skillful and imaginative gardening.

He won first prize. His secret was that he worked with what was at hand.

LaRosa answered the first question that a lot of urban denizens have about gardening: the question of where. The answer is, wherever you choose. If your backyard has soil, you can start there. Brick can be removed and the soil can be improved. There are empty lots, spaces around trees, or containers. Large pots, urns and window boxes are easy to purchase and use. Or you can try one of the 500 ideas that PHS judges see every year in the City Gardens Contest. Try a shoe, a milk container, a sink or a bucket; these have all been done. Even hanging plants on a wall in an alleyway. Anything that holds dirt.

Do you want to water daily, eat what you grow, just look at it, cut it or watch it come back next year? Decide that, and then it's a matter of what. The biggest mistake is to buy what is already in bloom. Beautiful and bright flowers, like our high school bodies, will fade once they pass their prime. Primroses are readily available in the spring but will bake in the sun. Black-eyed Susans will not. So how do you choose? Go to a reliable dealer and get advice. (The easiest way to tell if a dealer is reliable is to look at the hands of the person who is waiting on you. If they are not calloused, that person is not the one to ask.)

A reliable dealer will probably ask you questions. Are you in shade? Bright sun? Good soil? You can also check out a number of nurseries associated with the Philadelphia Flower Show (www.philaflowershow.com).

The big issue is maintenance. What are you willing to do -- how much time a day, a week or a month? Some things will do fine with minimal care; others need daily dedication. But once your garden is growing, a well-planned design can take care of itself with minimal attention. If we all put in less than an hour's worth of gardening work a day, this whole city would be cooler, have lower blood pressure, and be covered with green. It's that simple.

Fifteen years ago, at 22nd and South, a decision was made to plant a garden on some vacant space owned by Graduate Hospital. The neighbors bought what was on sale and a lot of foolish choices died the first year. Later someone stole all of the red flowers. So they rallied and bought yellow.

They formed a club, used a library (one of the best horticultural treasures in the U.S. is at 20th and Arch) and ended up impressing the owner so much that the space was donated and now holds six mature trees.

If it worked there, it can work in your backyard. Start now!

Steve Maurer is the public relations manager for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

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October 10, 2002
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