Meet at Capitolo Playground, 9th and Federal
8:45 am with after party at Fountain Porter

We’re teaming up with our neighbors at East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association (EPX) to do a combined planting event this Spring.  We’ve got over 50 trees to plant, including quite a few at Jackson School. We’ll need lots of help so spread the word.

Bring and shovel and gloves if you have them, or we’ll have some to lend. Send us an email at beautification@passyunk.org and let us know you’re coming or RSVP on Facebook.

If you’re getting a new tree, or have one from one from our recent planting, we encourage you to visit PHS’s guide to caring for your tree.  Watering is very import in the first year after planting, so give that tree a drink!

Come celebrate the start of the season with a potluck party in the garden on Sunday April 21 from 4-6pm. Passyunk Gardens is located at East Passyunk Ave and Wharton.

Bring your favorite Spring dish to share, a story about what you’d like grow this year in your own garden and learn more about what we have planned for this year. We’ll also have some seedling plants to put in the raised beds and extras to give away.

Everyone welcome! RSVP to our Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/557189370981842/

Forms need to be passed over to PHS for processing soon, so if you’d like a street tree planted in our fall planting event, download the pdf found at www.passyunksquare.org/beautification under the Tree Planting section and send us your form! Participating in our planting events is a fun way to meet your neighbors and get some more hands on information about how to best care for your tree.  We accept tree forms on a rolling basis, but we’ll need them by the 29th to get you a chance for a tree in the Fall of 2013. Alternatively, you can apply anytime to get a street tree planted by the city.

We’re always looking for help identifying places that could use some new trees, or spots with trees that need to be replaced. If you’re interested in getting more trees on your block, or helping us canvass for spots that need new or replaced trees, get in touch at beautification@passyunk.org!

Our semiannual Street Tree Planting is being held on Saturday, November 10th at Capitolo Playground at 9th and Federal Streets.  This Fall’s event is going to be extra special, as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society will be culminating their “Home Runs For Trees” partnership with the Phillies prior to our event!  The Phillie Phanatic will be on hand, as well as some guest speakers that have yet to be named, but we really want our community to come out in full force to greet everyone and, afterwards, to help us plant 50 trees throughout the neighborhood!  Bring a camera, some gloves, and a shovel, and the faster we get the trees in the ground, the sooner we can celebrate afterwards! 

Speakers go on around 9:30am, we’ll start planting around 10am, and with enough people, we should be done around 1pm to enjoy food and drink specials at a nearby eatery to be determined soon.  Stay tuned for more details, but for now, save the date and tell your friends!!

Please email us at beautification@passyunk.org to let us know if you’ll be able to volunteer at the event.  It’s going to be a great day!

More details on the Home Runs for Trees program here: http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/phi/community/rgg/home_runs_trees.jsp

Saturday, October 27 from 10am-2pm

Mark your calendars for our Fall Clean Up Day!  The focus will be  6th, 7th and 8th Streets from Ellsworth to Tasker Street.  Bring your brooms and dust pans along with your friends and neighbors as we sweep our way through the streets.  A limited number of additional brooms and dust pans are available as well as bags to be filled!

If you live on or near 6th, 7th or 8th street and you would like to help lead the effort that day or should you have any questions please contact PSCA Trash and Recycling Leader Carmela Fioretti: trash@passyunk.org

Let’s all work together to keep Passyunk Square clean and green.

Friday, October 26th, 6pm-8pm

Join us for a potluck dinner and fall festivities celebrating a successful season at Passyunk Gardens.  We’ll have a herb hunt for the kids, a chance to help us put together a spooky neighborhood herb brew in the garden cauldron and few surprise activities.

Come show off your Halloween costume or just come as you are and enjoy a fall evening with your neighbors. Everyone welcome!

Friday, September 21st

Passyunk Square Civic Association and a group of garden enthusiast neighbors are working to create an installation near Passyunk Gardens on Wharton Street (between 10th & Passyunk Avenue) for this year’s Park(ing) Day.  We’ll be taking over a parking space and turning it into a pop-up park.  Our group is called “South Philly Community Gardeners” and we’re looking for help!  We’re still working on what we’ll need and what be doing so if you’d like to help, email beautification@passyunk.org.

As always we’re interested in hearing your ideas, welcoming new volunteers, and helping you get an event in the garden underway. Feel free to get in touch any time, or join our new discussion group then connect with other volunteers by sending a message to passyunk-gardens-discussion@googlegroups.com.

We’re giving you a summer vacation from General Meetings for July and August, so we’ll see you in September with updates from our committees who have been busy working straight through these hot months to make Passyunk Square even better!  Speaking of committees, our 2012 Board of Directors and Committees have been announced:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Pam Zenzola, President
Angel D’Ippolito, Vice-President Outreach
Sarah Anton, Treasurer and Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Karin Morris, Secretary and Planning Committee Chair
Christine Knapp, Immediate Past President
Andrew Emma, Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Chris DiCapua, Parks Liaison
Ilene Wilder, Fundraising and Events Committee Chair
Carmela Fioretti, Trash and Recycling Committee
Cassie Knox, Communications Committee Chair

COMMITTEES
Beautification Clean-ups, plantings, banners, block efforts
co-chairs: Andrew Emma and Sarah Anton
Communications Public relations, external communication
chair: Cassie Knox
Zoning Monitoring zoning change requests
chair: John Digiulio
Outreach Giving every resident of the neighborhood a chance to become involved
chair: Angel D’Ippolito
Safety / Passyunk Square Town Watch
chair: Kim Davis
Trash & Recycling
chair: Carmela Fioretti
Planning Convening stakeholders to help choose what we want the area to look like in the future
chair: Karin Morris
Fund Raising/Sapling Program For association activities
chair: Ilene Wilder
Education Supporting schools in the neighborhood
chair: Open

A mix of stormwater trenches, sidewalk planters and rain gardens will be installed on various blocks in Passyunk Square, after a collaboration with the Philadelphia Water Department identified community members that were eager to see greening projects on their block.  The projects will help green and beautify the blocks, but will also help manage stormwater which can cause flooding and degrade our waterways.

The projects will be located on:
PASSYUNK AVE from REED ST to DICKINSON ST
10TH ST from REED ST to DICKINSON ST
12TH ST from DICKINSON ST to TASKER ST
12TH ST from REED ST to WHARTON ST
REED ST from 12TH ST to 13TH ST S
WASHINGTON AVE from 18TH ST to 19TH ST
19TH ST from WASHINGTON AVE to ELLSWORTH ST
ELLSWORTH ST from 18TH ST to 19TH ST
18TH ST from WASHINGTON AVE to ELLSWORTH ST
LINN ST from TASKER ST to 12TH ST S

PSCA is also participating in PWD’s RainCheck program, which will allow residents to split costs with PWD for green infrastructure improvements to their property that will help manage stormwater.

If you have ideas for other areas where a green stormwater management project could be conducted, fill out the Community Input form here www.phillywatersheds.org/CIF and also let us know by emailing contact@passyunk.org