The Phantom Garden

The sight of 10-year-old girls slamming hammers gave her hope.

by Bruce Schimmel

How could a thriving garden simply disappear? That's what bothered Cidney Alexander, as she'd walk by the little trophy case of the elementary school in Fishtown where she teaches language arts to sixth-graders.

The trophy case contains ample evidence that the Horatio B. Hackett School once had a garden, and a big one, too. There is an entire shelf of pictures of kids and adults, smiling in front of neatly planted rows, and several garden awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS).

"So, where's the garden?" Alexander would ask herself, looking around the schoolyard, and seeing mostly grass.

The garden was gone, even its memory. The school's last award was dated 2002. And, says Alexander, no one in the 400-student school — child or adult — remembered it.

It's as if the world had changed overnight, reducing the garden to a phantom. Which is precisely what Alexander thinks happened.

Community gardens are microcosms of their neighborhoods. And the neighborhoods around Hackett — Fishtown, Port Richmond and Kensington — are morphing in ways that Alexander says haven't been good for her school.

"The student population is shrinking, because children aren't coming to their public school," she laments. "But Hackett is a wonderful place; our children feel safe here."

Alexander reasoned that since the garden had failed because Hackett had lost touch with its community, perhaps reviving it would help re-establish the school.

So, she contacted PHS, and met Sally McCabe, who coordinates their Green City Teachers program.

McCabe remembers the Hackett garden. It was gorgeous, she says. But the teacher who started it in 2000 left in 2003, and the garden "stopped."

McCabe knows all about starting — and stopped — gardens. She and her interns cruise around in a panel truck full of tools and lumber, helping to tend about 100 school gardens a year.

"To start a garden, you need a leader, a hero," says McCabe. "But to keep it going, you've got to bring in teachers, the administration and the home and school organization.

"Oh, and you definitely also need to get the school's custodian in tow."

In Cidney Alexander, the Hackett School had found its hero. Hackett recently hosted a workshop by McCabe and her PHS colleagues to train Alexander and about 30 other teachers who want to start gardens at their own schools.

To bring in the community, Alexander invited her students to attend the teacher training. And, critically, she discovered that the school's custodian, Mark, is fond of fresh cucumbers.

For three days, McCabe taught the teachers — almost all women — how to make their gardens unstoppable. But before she gave out hoes, she handed out hammers.

The women built raised planters, and installed them right in front of the windows of classrooms. To make their garden a little less forgettable.

"You people are hammering like girls," McCabe chided a few, whose first efforts were hit-and-miss. Though she later admitted that seeing "women with hammers sends chills down my spine."

Several of Alexander's students did show up, and the sight of 10-year-old girls wailing away on hammers gave her hope.

"This is going to be the Hackett Family Garden," said Alexander. "It will come from the children. And once they take ownership, it will take on a personality, and the community will join in."

Alexander says she's "determined to make this happen" and has given up teaching summer school this year to devote more time to the project. The children planted perennials and climbing vines, along with rows of carrots, squash and tomatoes.

They will be planting cucumbers, too. They will be for Mark, the school custodian — who says he's also ready to help keep this garden from fading away again.

(bruce@schimmel.com)