Longtime Nicholson Church Lane gardeners Garth Herrick and Roz McKelvey enjoy the sun and the plants in the garden. (Photo: Maleka Fruean)

Roz McKelvey, a longtime Germantown neighbor and block captain, remembers neighborhood champions Chris and Helen Nicholson with real fondness. She met them through the Germantown Friends community. Chris Nicholson invited her over to be part of the community garden on Church Lane and Baynton Street, which he helped build. It would later be called the Nicholson Church Lane Garden. 

McKelvey recounts the kindness and generosity of spirit both the Nicholsons had.

“They would come here, and he would give his wisdom, and Helen would give her silence and her smile. And if things weren’t going right, you could sit with Helen, and she would just tell you how beautiful you are,” said McKelvey.

She continued, remembering Helen’s little traditions. “Helen would get this old canister out, of lemonade. There’s some rust on it. By the time she passed, there was a lot of rust on it, but we still drank the lemonade out of it because Helen said do it,” said McKelvey. 

The rusty lemonade canister may be gone, but the legacy of the Nicholsons lives on. 

Longtime gardeners like Garth Herrick and Dawud Abdus-Saboor remember Chris and how he always shared his wealth of knowledge of gardening and his love of the outdoors with everyone, staying active in the space well into his nineties. 

Now, these longtime gardeners are working with new members and new leadership, bringing fresh energy to the Nicholson Church Lane Community Garden. They are starting with a campaign coordinated by the Neighborhood Gardens Trust to do a full renovation of the garden, opening the space and making it much more accessible for all neighbors. 

Nicholson Church Lane Garden is working with NGT to bring in professional landscapers and hopes to raise $18,000 to start the garden renovation in the early spring of 2025.

The History of Nicholson Church Lane Garden

According to an email sent by Chris Nicholson to the city, the garden was started in 1978 after the land was cleared for the Belfield bypass, a planned six-lane highway through Germantown that many local groups opposed. 

Nicholson and neighbors used the small funds they had to build the community garden, which was under constant threat of development. Chris noted that they later connected with the Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT), and in 1991, NGT preserved the garden and took ownership of the land. 

NGT is an organization that protects and preserves community gardens throughout the city through land ownership as a land trust.

In Germantown, NGT has preserved the Nicholson Church Lane Garden, the Pulaski-Zeralda Garden, the Old Tennis Court Farm, and the Penn & Greene Community Garden. Jenny Greenberg, executive director of NGT, says this is the organization’s prime mission, which works alongside the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) in their support and advocacy work for community gardens. 

“This is sort of what we exist to do,” Greenberg said, describing the essence of their work. “There are many instances around the city where self-organized groups of residents come together to clean up and transform formerly abandoned land into positive community assets and green space.”

She says many of the gardens and their many benefits would be lost to development if NGT couldn’t help secure and hold the land.

The Garden Today

The present-day dynamics of Nicholson Church Lane Garden involve significant transition and organizational challenges alongside efforts for future planning. 

Greenberg notes that part of taking ownership of these community gardens is continuing to invest in their upkeep, help maintain them, and ensure they thrive through these transitions over time. With the passing of the Nicholsons, the focus is working with current members to secure the garden’s accessibility, safety, and productivity for the next generation.

COVID-19 was tough for the Nicholson gardening community. The space became overgrown, with many of the 34 plots left unfilled. Due to the sloped land structure, the tiered stair and ground system they had set in place was not ideal for accessibility or long-term sustainability. Some leaders got sick and couldn’t work on administering the garden. 

This past summer, nearby neighbor and plant-based chef Christina Smith was appointed to president. Smith recently started getting more interested in gardening in conjunction with growing her own food to share with clients and customers.

She helped develop community gardening plots at The People’s Lot on Church Lane, behind Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books. It’s how she met Susan Mangan over the summer, who saw her outside gardening and invited her to join the Nicholson Garden. 

Smith learned about the challenges the garden faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, including leadership conflicts, poor communication, and the need for renewal.

Eager to bring new energy, Smith worked alongside the board, longtime members, and the NGT to draft a plan for the garden’s future.

Fast forward to today, all the garden’s plots are filled, and work has already started to beautify the space. Newer and older gardeners are trying to work together to bring the Nicholson vision to life. 

More seasoned gardener Dawud Abdus-Saboor lays out some of that vision, saying they’d like to make it more accessible by “doing some of the leveling (of the ground) to creating higher garden beds for folks who can’t get down low.” 

But, more importantly, he says, “making it a place that’s fun”–somewhere folks can gather in the sunset hours and watch the birds and other wildlife attracted to the organic plants and vegetables.

Looking to the Future

Moving forward, the main goal of the Nicholson Garden renovation is evening the ground. As mentioned, the garden is on a major slope. Throughout the years, they’ve established a tiered system of steps, all requiring repair and maintenance. 

Smith and longtime gardeners say that elderly and disabled folks have a difficult time moving around in the garden. Evening the ground would also stop the rainfall from collecting at the bottom of the garden, thereby preventing the uneven water distribution to all the plants.

Gardeners also want to cut some of the very large plots in half for folks with less experience in gardening. Additionally, they want to create some plots that are higher off the ground for folks with mobility issues. 

The team has hopeful plans to open up a space with a picnic and shade area, along with a play space, to encourage community gatherings. 

While there are chairs in the back and a bench made by a local Eagle Scout that will one day hold a plaque dedicated to Chris Nicholson, Smith notes a need for more gathering space. The goal is to have people come and linger when gardening and host community events in collaboration with local businesses and organizations. 

While speaking with the Germantown Info Hub, McKelvey carefully walked through the garden, carefully avoiding uneven parts of the ground. 

She pointed out the fruit trees growing all along the fence–pawpaws, mulberries, cherries, and figs–and explained that the garden wants to ensure the fruit trees are healthy and make the fruit accessible to the entire neighborhood. 

“Chris wanted to see the neighborhood people when they walked past, pick the fruit right off the tree. And you see them walking home, eating it, and they’re just happy,” said McKelvey.

While picking fresh spearmint, rosemary, and other herbs to give away, she pointed out all the work that POWER Corps did that week, including planting new trees.

Though Smith had never met the Nicholsons, she knew how important their vision for the garden was. She hopes with this new renovation, they can create the inclusive space he envisioned.

In the spirit of the Nicholsons, Smith invites all interested in the garden, offering an opportunity to learn alongside those with more experience.

She said, “Everybody has nuggets that they want to drop and information that they want to share. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a tomato. You know, we take it for granted. We just go to the store and buy a tomato. But if you come over to Nicholson Garden, you’ll know what kind of variety there is.” 

McKelvey also invites folks to come over to the garden, pick some of the remaining tomatoes of the season, and grab some of the lettuce to go with it. 

Talk to Dawud, Garth, Christina, Miss Elaine, or Roz about their own special gardening techniques. Or just be in peace among the plants, who are like your friends, as Chris Nicholson might say. 

Smith says the ultimate goal with all the renovations is to make a beautiful space for the community. NGT and the Nicholson Church Lane Garden don’t have confirmed numbers yet, but they think it will take at least $100,000 to complete the renovation project. 

NGT has some grant applications and a commitment to a matching gift, but crowdfunding in the broader community will be one of the keys to filling the funding gap. Neighbors interested in supporting the Nicholson Church Lane Garden can give to it through their Giving Tuesday campaign.