Greensgrow West

Open tomorrow! March hours: Thursday - Sunday 10am-4pm Must wear a mask!!! Even though we are outdoor, no exceptions, no mask holes ... We can accommodate 25 people on site at a time and 1 person or pod can be in the tiny-house at a time. We know and trust that everyone is looking to keep everyone safe and will follow all the protocols that we are used to these days. Spring drama is a hellebore! Plants!! Soil!! Seeds!! Pottery!! It’s all open for the in person experience! Can’t wait to see you!

Open this weekend! Saturday- Sunday from 10am-4pm Shop in person. Early spring annual color.... Overwinter Sale: This weekend only!! 25% off perennials and soil. Big NOTE: West is filled with soil, Kensington is filled with perennials ... A very post covid inventory anomaly - help us rebalance and make a trip to both garden centers this weekend

The Community Supported Nursery shares helps get us over the final hump of the season, when you pre-purchase a pack of seedlings that are on the rise for you in our greenhouse! Ensure that you will have some seedlings and food security in this coming year! Cyclical support! https://greensgrow-farms.shoplightspeed.com

Get your greens in the ground! Lettuce, collard greens, broccoli, kale, brussle sprouts, tatsoi, spinach, onions Thursday-Sunday 10am-4pm

Did you know we now have bucketed compost from Bennett Compost in the bulk bin. A 5 gallon bucket of soil is $7, with a $5 bucket deposit. When you return the bucket, we return your deposit. You could also bring your own bucket and only pay $7 or keep the bucket because you want some snazzy Bennett Compost merchandise. So many options when we get rid of the disposable plastic Come in! Thursday - Sunday 10am-4pm

Are you a sort-of farmer? A want-to-be urban farmer? A farm intern who enjoyed the experience? A long time grower, without a perfect resume track record in farming, but want to work hard and learn on the job? Let’s talk. We posted our job ads, have gotten lots of responses across the board, yet very few for our Urban Market Farmer position. That’s strange, maybe we set the bar too high? Meg is here, Amirah is here, Danny is here we are all experienced farmers and will ment...or the right person but for sure it is not a fluffy job :) Pictured here are our Philadelphia Youth Network Farmers that worked with us a few years ago. Farming is takes dedication, focus, interest and drive - if you have that, send your resume! We value tenacity! https://www.greensgrow.org/get-involved/jobs/market-farmer/

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." -MLK Jr. Lend a hand, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Sign up to volunteer with Greensgrow for MLK day. Click the linktree in our bio to RSVP! Read less

Our seeds are stories, textures, landscapes - they are the capsules of what came before us, they are important for our resilience and our soverignty. This year Greensgrow is funded to start a Community Seed Library with Amirah Mitchell at the helm as the Seedkeeper-in-Residence. As part of this project we are looking for seven fellows who are interested in exploring seedkeeping, have a seed from their heritage in mind and can identify a cultural organization that will suppo...rt their interest as a partner working to preserve the legacy of our seeds. We believe that seeds are safest when they are held collectively! The seeds that the fellows choose to grow will be kept by the grower, Greensgrow and the cultural organization they partner with - and for growers who have an interest in joining the community of farmers that grow for @trueloveseeds, this fellowship will facilitate that connection. If you are interested, please fill out the application form at the link in our bio and we will be in touch for an interview in the coming weeks! https://docs.google.com//1SzQwdO6CO-9GxuR4Dm6zN0c4cH/edit

Did you know we'll have native plant starters waiting for you in the spring? One variety is purple love grass, a native to the Midwest, drought resistant and cloudlike growth to line your walkways in the warmer months!

Meet Amirah Mitchell, she is the 2021 Seedkeeping Resident at Greensgrow. Amirah has worked in agriculture and food justice organizations for fourteen years, since starting as a teen farm intern at The Food Project in Boston, MA. She has worked on urban farms in Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and delivers workshops on agroforestry, soil ecology, urban gardening, seed-keeping and with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Soul Fire Farm and more. In honor of her ancestors, Amirah practices seedkeeping, focusing on food crops of the African diaspora. Currently she is finishing a degree in Horticulture at Temple University, and works at Truelove Seeds

Happy holidays from Greensgrow! What are your favorite rotations of crops? Rotating crops from season to season in each of your garden beds prevents the soil from being depleted of one type of nutrient. Plants are specific in what minerals they draw heavily from the soil, plants in the same family have similar nutrient demands. Switching the same bed from tomatoes one year, to kale another year, to cucumber the next year is a practice that will give the soil a chance to re...plenish nutrients from year to year. Start the year with balanced soil. Keep rotating those crops, like plant musical chairs.

Seedless hay is a gardening solution that both insulates and gives nutrients back as it decomposes. If you planted garlic recently, patience is key. The slow growing alium is winter hardy so long as the clove is sufficiently insulated.

Tis the season! Good Host plants has been supplying us with various "straight species", species based plants, native, and wild harvested seeds that have undergone symbiosis with the land. Otherwise, ideal plants are propagated through cloning a stalk of a successful variety.

Check out this video of Executive Director Meg speaking on how Greensgrow is entering 2021, and watering a few plants in the greenhouse! Look forward to us: -Being a demonstrator of good habitat with onsite demos. -Mindfully designing native plant containers and beds for sale.... -Sending a portion of sales to "Mary's fund". -Inviting fellows to grow cultural heritage seeds and lead education. -Showing how to better connect to local food systems. -And more! As the sun returns day by day, so do we!

Getting our sidewalks shoveled yesterday turned into family fun, followed by a snowball fight! It is good to see life poking through along the perimeters of Greensgrow. How was your snow day?

Greensgrow is a microcosm of all things and we too have encountered soil health issues on our farm. Over the past two years we have been stabilizing our soil systems by cover cropping in the fall and turning it down in the spring just as the crop starts to put up a flower. This is the vital moment when nitrogen fixing is at it's peak, just before the plant looks to take that nutrient back up through its systems to feed its fruit and seed! When we turn it under at the height of the fixed nitrogen we leave that fertilized boost in the ground to nourish the seedlings of varieties we plan for spring and summer crops.

Did you resolve to work with Greensgrow this year? If so, we've got some good jobs for you! https://www.greensgrow.org/get-involved/jobs/

Greensgrow is a nonprofit organization. We cultivate urban agriculture and social entrepreneurship - we sell plants to support our mission. This year we also became essential workers and made decisions to keep supporting community as best we could despite the impacts of COVID-19 on our world. We realized that the work we did brought wellness, so we continued to give despite our losses. Greensgrow lost 40% of what we expected to earn this year because the large majority o...f that earning comes in April and May - while we were all locked down. We made decisions to conserve our resources in this unknown time to ensure that we will be here next spring. And we will! Please follow our stories to stay in touch over the coming months, please support our year end campaign and if you have the impulse to give today: https://www.greensgrow.org/get-involved/donate/ See you again in the spring!

These international masters will be playing two seatings in our greenhouse at the end of the month, buy a ticket to be filled with the vibration of live music.

Come pick out some pumpkins this weekend. Carving, fancy, blue doll, jack-be-little, caspirita, field day. Suggested pricing, pay what you can! This Saturday October 3rd | 10am -4pm ... at our Kensington location | 2501 East Cumberland Ave. See more

Still a handful of tickets left for this live performance of Philly Goats Gruff put on by @theheadandthehand and @phillygoatproject at our farm in Kensingtonlink in bio If you miss the tickets, stay tuned - we are planning a distanced little goat parade for after the performance

Help win $15,000 for Greensgrow by voting for Meg every day! Link in bio Green space and garden resources are the keys to healthy urban communities. Your vote helps make more resources for Greensgrow and our communities in 2021

I’m bored, what do I do now? August Adventure Pack! Have you ever had the experience of your little person coming to you while you work looking for a new activity? This beautiful and thoughtfully designed kit offers materials for fun, 30 activities they direct your kid into exploration and a sticker calendar to chart progress! ... $40 each box - buy next weekend in store at Kensington. Or purchase on @studio.ludo website! link in bio!

Order online before this Thursday for West Philly pick-up this Friday 8/21 and Saturday 8/22. Last week to order soil from Greensgrow in 2020! Potting mix, perennial mix, pine bark and cedar mulch. Prune, plant new perennials, replenish nutritive soil and mulch layers.

Houseplants, ferns, cacti, pines, fall perennials . Order by 3pm today to pick up at West this weekend. Order this upcoming week to pick up at West on 8/21 and 8/22

You can put an adventure box in your cart and pick it up at Greensgrow West this Friday, Saturday and next. Natural exploration to balance digital education! The August Adventure Box is filled with 30 designed activities, a DIY kit to grow mushrooms at home, a calendar with stickers to track activities and some cool tools to chart the natural world.... link in bio See more

Today we hold in our hearts the memory of Mary Seton Corboy, Founder of Greensgrow, Nov 18, 1957August 7, 2016 "In my life as an urban farmer, it’s like I try to build a well for my community to draw from everyday Mary, may you rest in peace knowing that the physical manifestation of your life’s work is still a well in which the community draws from.... Listen to Mary's beautiful 'This I Believe' essay below - this inspiring place that we all can inhabit was built choosing to commit to the simple beauty of physical labor <3

While many have been struggling through the heat and tropical storms, Greensgrow has been thinking about Christmas Trees. We received notice that the great local vendor we have built a relationship with will not be cutting or selling this year. We thought about this news. We considered the unknowns and how maybe the environment just needs a rest, all of it, all of us - ... We made a hard decision not to look to source Christmas Trees elsewhere, but instead to just scale back to a restful winter, for the environment, for the organization. Greensgrow is a nonprofit and we will continue working on the grant supported projects we have committed to, which include the installation of new perimeter plantings, SNAP Share, Community Composting Network set-up, Adventure Boxes and the 2020 Pay What You Can Farm Stand. We need to preserve the organization until next spring, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will be open to supply plants again in whatever possible form when the world is green. We have high hopes for improvements created by how we focus our work in this slower time, and hope it enhances your experience next time you can come into the farm/garden space of Greensgrow on a Saturday morning. Greensgrow will close Plants at a Distance as of August 31, 2020 through the end of the year. We will continue a Pay What You Can Farmstand through October that will feature Greensgrow Grown veggie starts, small bags of soil and pumpkins. All retail activity will close November through March 1st. We are grateful for all of your support this year, our customers ability to flex with us in this time to embrace operational changes and at the garden center jammed into a website! It's this community that kept this place here for the future. Thank You.

Stop by Greensgrow West this Saturday for free veggie starts! We have varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and more that need homes in planters and beds this week! If you’re able to help Greensgrow stay open as a community staple for plants and gardening, please make a donation on our website. We appreciate our neighbors’ loyal support and hope you enjoy these plant starts!

Adventure boxes in action! Are you running out of ideas for fun, adventurous play for your kids? Are your kids itching to get outside and explore? Our Adventure Boxes, a collaboration with Studio Ludo, offer 30 activity ideas and the necessary supplies for kids to grow plants, cook with plants, draw butterfly gardens, explore textures and patterns in nature, and more! Its kind of like summer camp in a box. Order yours now for $40 on our online store, Plants at a Distance, and pick up at the Kensington farm or have it shipped. Photos from Studio Ludo #plantsatadistance #gardeneducation #creativeplay #growyourownfood #youngfarmers

SUMMER HOURS: Greensgrow's Garden Center hours are Fridays 12-6 and Saturdays 10-4 this summer! All plant purchases must continue to be made on our online store, Plants at a Distance and picked up via our no-contact system. Now is a great time to stock up on perennials and annuals - they're still 40% off! And plant starts are as low as $1! As we're reaching a slower point in the gardening season, we need to get these plants off our shelves and into the ground. Shop today to pick up this weekend: https://greensgrow-farms.shoplightspeed.com/