Giving Gardeners

December 8th, 2020

   It’s no secret there was a huge boom in vegetable gardening this year – whether it was because people were worried about the food supply or because they were stuck at home and looking for productive things to do.

Sean and Stacey McNicholl harvest produce from their Philadelphia-area GreenHorn Garden.
(Credit: Pa. Horticultural Society)

   The green industry estimates some 16 to 18 million new gardeners dug into the soil this pandemic year with the vast majority planting edibles.

   But not all of the produce that came out of those new gardens went to the gardeners themselves.

   Many gardeners – new and veteran – donated their tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zukes, and such to friends, neighbors, churches, food banks, and anyone else who could use it.

   One couple who gave in an enormous way was a young Philadelphia-area couple named Sean and Stacey McNicholl.

   These Upper Darby thirtysomethings used their urban-farm land and their greenhouse in a cemetery (once a stop on the Underground Railroad) to churn out more than 15,000 pounds of give-away produce.

   That amounted to nearly half of the 33,000 pounds of total produce that thousands of other gardeners donated through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Harvest 2020 initiative.

   PHS announced that food-donation program in the spring as a way to encourage gardeners to help their Philadelphia neighbors in need.

   PHS, best known for running the Philadelphia Flower Show, wrote a piece about the McNicholls’ efforts at season’s end. I got PHS’s permission to share it with you.

   Here it is. May it inspire us all for next year:

Harvesting Fresh Produce and Goodwill in a Cemetery

   Sean and Stacey McNicholl are dedicated urban farmers living and sharing their dream with their hometown community.

  The McNicholls have been farming together for almost a decade in the Philadelphia region, sharing their life’s passion with everyone they encounter. After farming in several locations, the McNicholls wanted to start their own farm but didn’t have a lot of funds. So they made an unconventional choice and leased a greenhouse – in a cemetery. 

   They imagined growing vegetables, fruit, and flowers to sell in their community and teaching the fundamentals of food production and gardening to those who wanted to learn.

   Their vision also included sharing the fruits of their labor with those in need. Already established and much-loved by their community, they never could have anticipated how this past growing season was about to change for them.

   Their tiny garden, GreenHorn Gardens, led the way in produce donations to local food banks as part of PHS’s food-growing initiative, Harvest 2020.

   The wonderful bounty began with an email from PHS introducing Harvest 2020, PHS’s initiative to grow and share food in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

   The McNicholls wholeheartedly knew they wanted to be a part of this important effort, and they immediately made their pledge to Harvest 2020.

   “We have always been vegetable people,” says Stacey McNicholl. After growing vegetables in their back yard years ago, the couple graduated to larger spaces every year.

   At their current site, in what was a vacant, 80-year-old greenhouse on the grounds of the historic Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, they set to work revitalizing the greenhouse and creating their dream location for growing produce.

   Life-long gardeners with giving hearts, they made a pledge to share their passion and expertise with those in need. They increased their seedling and plant starts orders by 5,000 units above their total for 2019, filling the 13,500-square-foot greenhouse.

   Between February and June 2020, the McNicholls tended several thousand seedlings. When they were ready to transplant, the seedlings were moved from the greenhouse to their farm, a total of three acres of land split between the cemetery and the adjacent farm they built in 2018 on the sub-divided grounds of the former Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School in Drexel Hill.

   The McNicholls focused on popular produce that the community would enjoy, like cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, as well as six different varieties of eggplant. Some new additions this season were Casper eggplant (a crowd favorite), along with habanero peppers and daikon radishes.

   With the help of eight regular volunteers working in shifts, they planted, cared for, and harvested more vegetables than they could have imagined possible. They also grew herbs and flowers in the pollinator garden that everyone enjoyed.

   The McNicholls had already been active in their neighborhood, holding farmers markets at the cemetery the previous year. The couple had also started donating unsold produce to local food banks and churches as well.

   By pledging to participate in Harvest 2020, PHS connected them to several food banks participating in Harvest 2020 as new food donation sites for their produce bounty.

   “We are so grateful that our community is open to us. We love this town!” says Sean. “This is our way of giving back to them.”