Kera Gibbs shows how even the smallest garden can create a big impact on lives
Her sidewalk Germantown Garden brought together neighbors during COVID. Her next vision: a future farm retreat.
Over the last four years of running a Germantown community garden, Kera Gibbs, a 2024 SustainPHL nominee, has seen the transformative power that growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs can have on an individual and a neighborhood.
As I visit Gibbs’ garden that she created outside her home during the pandemic, she is cutting back the hearty mums, bringing in tender vegetation, and harvesting what she calls “the salad bowl,” a hodgepodge container of arugula, broccoli, and a variety of kale greens. However, the inconsistent temperatures due to warming from climate change, or what Gibbs called “heat-ups,” have delayed other seasonal projects.
“Around this time, we’d be putting our bulbs in, and you want to put bulbs in when the weather is cold because then your plants get too much green, and they just deform the way the flower grows. So, we’re having to wait, Gibb said.
Also on hold is what Gibbs called her “winter sowing project,” which entails recycling a plastic jug, filling it with soil and seeds, and leaving it outside during the cold months. “Manarda and echinacea do really well. You can use lots of different flowers and herbs. You just leave them outside, and the winter takes care of them. [But] a lot of plants need to go through a cold stratification period, or they won’t bloom. So we have to wait till it gets cold. It’s still too warm,” she noted.
Gibbs also observed that the warmer season has extended squirrel activity, which disrupts sowing. The warm stretch does however bring some unexpected delights such as the very late blooming columbine. “These typically will bloom in spring, so I was so excited to see that.”
As she readies the garden for fall and winter, Gibbs is also looking toward her own next season.
Gibbs will be relocating in July, and the future of the bounteous, colorful garden that seems to greet you to the quaint one-way street where it resides will be out of her hands.
“But I release [it] and don’t hold onto it,” she said. “Just like the seasons bring and take, gardening teaches you how to let go.”
“Gardening has something for everybody.”
Kera Gibbs
Although Gibbs said she has always had a passion for nature and literally getting her hands dirty, she gives credit to community organizations like Wycck Rose Garden for what she has learned and for connecting her to an entire family of growers. “I posted on Nextdoor, ‘hey, is there anything going on with gardening? I don’t know anything about it. Just at home during COVID. Somebody help me!’” she recalled.
Someone from WYCK responded, and that connection later led Gibbs to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), where she is now employed as a healthy neighborhood specialist. Part of her role is supporting the Society’s tree program. According to PHS, Philadelphia falls short of the minimum recommendation of having thirty percent tree canopy, with some neighborhoods showing significant need. Although the City’s Philly Tree Plan may face logistical obstacles, the plan reports the link between tree dearth and threats to public health; that trees serve as heat reducers, and help remove air pollutants.
Gibbs recently did her part in putting a small dent in the tree void, planting eighteen trees in the Nicetown and Tioga sections; through her work with PHS. The Commonwealth recently announced a $500,000 grant to the School District of Philadelphia, part of over $79 million in grants awarded to support projects improving outdoor spaces, and to “ expand close-to-home opportunities for outdoor recreation that are so important to our mental and physical health.?”
Planting seeds for a future career
The benefits of access to greenery, fresher air and horticultural education fuel Gibbs’ motivation to pursue owning a two-acre farm, shop and wellness space while living out of a tiny home. “I want to offer a space for retreat and education, a holistic wellness facility centered around fitness and indigenous growing practices,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs has been working with SCORE, which pairs its clients with retired executives who provide free mentoring and educational support for starting or growing a business.
The wellness effect is of primary importance to Gibbs and is the mission of her next venture. “I want to radicalize self-care and the stigma around rest. Through tending the garden, I want to show others that the path to peace is covered in leaves and buzzes with bees.”
“Anybody can grow things. It’s a part of our indigenous nature.”
Her work through community gardening has taken Gibbs to a diverse population; from exposing young students to growing to the contrasting image of armed policemen enjoying the planting process. “They’ve got all their equipment on, and they’re like, ” Oh, my grandma loves flowers,” and they’re asking for advice and how to take care of their plants. Gardening has something for everybody.
“There’s something about gardening that everybody loves, whether you like the dirty part of it or you just love to sit and observe and be pleased. All of it is welcome in the space. And for folks that really get into it for medicinal reasons, the garden is where it’s at.”
When Gibbs started working with the police at the station right across her street, she recalled getting a bit of pushback. It was during the height of racial tensions following the death of George Floyd. “[But] we kind of thought, well, if we can have some sort of impact, and give people what this gives us, that will in turn affect our community. And so that’s how we decided to extend ourselves and it was amazing,” said Gibbs.
Since she has seen first-hand the universal impact gardening can have, Gibbs challenges anyone who claims not to have a green thumb. “It’s a part of everybody. They just don’t have enough practice or experience, but anybody can grow things. It’s a part of our indigenous nature.”
Cover photo: Kera Gibbs (Right) with Aminata Sandra Calhoun and Asha-Le Davis (L-R) at SustainPHL. Photo by Beaumonde Originals
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