Philly Earth seeks to build a better world by creating communities where the interconnections between human aspirations and ecological systems can be realized.

Sponsored by The Village, Philly Earth is an Education and Demonstration Center that provides educational programs in Permaculture, Appropriate Technologies, and Environmental Sustainability.

With a magnificent array of wall murals and parks glimmering with giant mosaic mythical creatures, The Village’s public art offers vibrant testimony to the role art making can play in restoring urban landscapes and bringing community together.

Digging Deeper is a planning, design, and preservation project focused on the physical environment of the “Village Heart”, a three- block area comprised of parks, gardens, residences, and buildings that house The Village. Working closely with youth, neighbors, artists, and community partners, the project will create a future vision for a lively and sustainable neighborhood where beauty and productivity coexist.

The Village cultivates successful community gardens ranging from their “Children’s Garden” to their more recent “Herb Garden,” sponsored by the The Wissahickon Garden Club. In 2010, partner Teens 4 Good added six raised beds from which they harvested vegetables to sell on the Germantown Merchant Corridor. The Village is proud to contribute mint to local chocolatier, John and Kira’s, and will be expanding their contribution to include chiles.

The Village of Arts and Humanities has been growing herbs for John & Kira’s Chocolates since 2009. In 2012, The Village and John & Kira’s will launch The Chocolate Lab consisting of a teaching kitchen and herb beds dedicated to growing various plants that Chef Jes can use for chocolate experiments. The educational space, located in The Village’s urban garden, will serve as a hands-on destination to conduct cooking demonstrations, gardening classes and chocolate tasting events for both the community and corporate clients…

Since 1986, The Village has transformed more than 150 parcels of vacant land into 16 parks, gardens, and passageways that are maintained by Village’s Environmental Crew. The crew is made up of local residents who clean and green the otherwise littered and overgrown areas. In addition to The Village’s 16 art parks, the crew cleans and greens over a half million sq. feet of North Philadelphia each season.