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Glenwood Green Acres celebrates 41 years growing community along with vegetables for Earth Day

Glenwood Green Acres, one of the city's largest and oldest community gardens, will hold an April 20 open house that is part work and part fun.

President of the garden, Darlene Marcus at Glenwood Green Acres, in Philadelphia, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Glenwood Green Acres, one of the city's oldest and the largest community gardens, will celebrate Earth Day with an open house on Saturday, April 20.
President of the garden, Darlene Marcus at Glenwood Green Acres, in Philadelphia, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Glenwood Green Acres, one of the city's oldest and the largest community gardens, will celebrate Earth Day with an open house on Saturday, April 20.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

Glenwood Green Acres started life as so many urban gardens do — as an illegal dumping site. In this case, an old whiskey barrel factory burned down and the neighbors were left with two blocks of squalor.

“I don’t recollect when the fire was” said Darlene Marcus, president of the garden. But she can tell the story of the lot that grew into one of the city’s largest community gardens at their second annual Earth Day celebration.

“Last year we invited all the gardens in the city. A good 50 people came, maybe more.”

“It’s really more fun than work.”

Darlene Marcus

The open house will be Saturday, April 20 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Marcus said they are using Earth Day as a volunteer work day, especially to help senior plot holders who may need an extra hand. There will also be live music and a free bbq lunch. “It’s really more fun than work,” Marcus admitted.

Remembering Mr. Taylor

There would have been no garden without James and Ruth Taylor. The Taylors moved onto the 1800 block of West Glenwood Avenue in 1954, so he was residing directly across the street when the whiskey barrel factory was destroyed by fire. What was left of the building was demolished but it left scar through the heart of the North Philadelphia neighborhood. But where most residents saw an eyesore, James Taylor, a retired chef, saw a garden.

“I knew I needed a hobby to keep me busy and get me out of the house, and here was this big eyesore across the street — the perfect place to start a garden,” James Taylor once said during an interview.

In 1983 he gathered about 14 people who shared his vision, including Marcus’s grandfather, Phillip Turner, a retired plumber, and they put in immense sweat equity to transform the dream into reality. Marcus said both Taylor and Turner would stay in the garden from dawn to dusk, talking, working, and napping.

“Even when he became bedridden suffering from cancer,” Marcus recalled, “he would send me to the garden to watch over his vegetable plot and direct me from his bed. He didn’t want to give up his garden.”

For about a year Marcus would do exactly what he said. Bringing produce to his bed for him to examine and following his lessons. Not originally interested in gardening, by the time her grandfather died, she was hooked.

The value of green space

Like most urban gardeners, Taylor and his troop of hardy gardeners were squatters. When a Sheriff’s sale notice threatened the garden’s life in 1996, the group worked with the Neighborhood Gardens Trust. A year later, after offering the winning $25,000 bid, the property was officially preserved as a community garden.

Peaches, okra, string beans, figs, peppers, tomatoes, collard greens, potatoes, squash, spearmint — the list of what is grown at Glenwood Green Acres is long.

“I remember Mr. Taylor even grew tobacco and cotton. He was from North Carolina,” Marcus said.

There is a memorial plot at the garden for James Taylor, who died in 2009, with the produce grown dedicated to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest, which in turn distributes it to local food banks.

To walk around Glenwood Green Acres today, is to walk in what Taylor imagined 41 years ago. The garden has been named a Philadelphia Horticultural Society Keystone Garden, a designation for gardens distinguished by their large size, longevity and commitment.

» READ MORE: Keystone Gardens: Deep-rooted sources of food, pride

Research has found that green spaces have more value than the food they produce. They reduce community violence and people’s fear of going out.

“I think so” said Marcus, who has been president for the past 30 years.

“The garden is so relaxing. I can’t remember any incidents that we have had on this block.”

Those who are interested in donating or volunteering can connect with a garden staff member at Glenwood Green Acres, located at 1801 Glenwood Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19132, on any Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.