The Borland Green Ecological Garden is the result of a cooperative housing group seeking to transform the vacant land adjacent to their new homes into a diverse and productive space.
In 2011, Pittsburgh Permaculture received a $5k Spring Grant from The Sprout Fund which is enabling Pittsburgh Permaculture to help design and plant the food forests for the Borland Green Ecological Garden. Spring is a program of The Sprout Fund supporting local biodiversity initiatives that inspire greater stewardship of our region’s natural resources.
The garden space, on the corner of Black St. and N. Beatty St. in East Liberty, was owned by East Liberty Development Inc. and has been managed as a reclamation project by GTECH Strategies since 2008. Over that time GTECH has activated countless volunteers on the site to clean up a seemingly endless amount of rubble, add organic matter to the soil and maintain the site.
In addition to the Spring Grant from The Sprout Fund the Borland Garden group also received funding from the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh. The CDCP funding enabled Pashek Associates, a landscape design company, to work with the garden group, GTECH, ELDI and Pittsburgh Permaculture to come up with a comprehensive design for the space while allowing Pittsburgh Permaculture to plan the specifics for the garden spaces.
GTECH and Pittsburgh Permaculture will be working on preparing the site throughout the summer of 2011 while plant selection is finalized. Planting for the Spring Grant will be completed in the fall and the Borland Garden group are going to receive a final layout of the plantings in addition to maintenance plans.
Stay tuned for blog updates with the Borland tag!
Pittsburgh Permaculture’s design for the planting of the Borland Green Ecological Garden is being funded by Spring, a program of The Sprout Fund supporting local biodiversity initiatives that inspire greater stewardship of our region’s natural resources. Supported by The Pittsburgh Foundation, Spring catalyzes community-based projects that positively impact biodiversity in Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
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