Spring Greening
Join your neighbors to spruce up city's open spaces
Philadelphia Daily News, May 6, 2010
Ninety-four parks will participate in Saturday's LOVE Your Park event, getting tender loving care from volunteers committed to keeping Philadelphia's green spaces beautiful.
Liberty Lands on 3rd Street in Northern Liberties is one of them.
Built on an industrial brownfield - the site of the long-gone Burk Brothers Tannery - the soil was deemed safe after the Environmental Protection Agency removed waste nearly 20 years ago. After development efforts failed in the mid-'90s, the land was donated to the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, which has nurtured the two-acre multi-use park that brightens 3rd Street today.
Among the park's features are picnic tables and benches, a playground, a butterfly garden, two murals, a Native American herb garden and more than 180 trees. The neighborhood association hosts several musical festivals here each year and during the summer hosts a lawn chair drive-in movie series.
This eco-friendly park has some undercover features, too. Just last year the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society worked with Liberty Lands' organizers to create a sustainable storm water management system, which prevents rain runoff from overwhelming the city's sewer system.
Here's how it works: Captured rain water runoff moves through an inlet on 3rd Street and travels under the sidewalk to be funneled into a rain garden. It then drains into an underground cistern, so that gardeners can use it to irrigate the park's community garden plots.
If you want to volunteer on Saturday - or any time throughout the year - to make your neighborhood park a greener, more welcoming space, register at gpcares.com. For a list of participating parks, visit phsonline.org or call 215-988-1611.
Liberty Lands on 3rd Street in Northern Liberties is one of them.
Built on an industrial brownfield - the site of the long-gone Burk Brothers Tannery - the soil was deemed safe after the Environmental Protection Agency removed waste nearly 20 years ago. After development efforts failed in the mid-'90s, the land was donated to the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, which has nurtured the two-acre multi-use park that brightens 3rd Street today.
Among the park's features are picnic tables and benches, a playground, a butterfly garden, two murals, a Native American herb garden and more than 180 trees. The neighborhood association hosts several musical festivals here each year and during the summer hosts a lawn chair drive-in movie series.
This eco-friendly park has some undercover features, too. Just last year the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society worked with Liberty Lands' organizers to create a sustainable storm water management system, which prevents rain runoff from overwhelming the city's sewer system.
Here's how it works: Captured rain water runoff moves through an inlet on 3rd Street and travels under the sidewalk to be funneled into a rain garden. It then drains into an underground cistern, so that gardeners can use it to irrigate the park's community garden plots.
If you want to volunteer on Saturday - or any time throughout the year - to make your neighborhood park a greener, more welcoming space, register at gpcares.com. For a list of participating parks, visit phsonline.org or call 215-988-1611.