The Urban Farm & Produce Stand

The Delaware Center for Horticulture is a non-profit community resource organization that established the Urban Farm & Produce Stand in 2008 as a means of providing some of Wilmington’s neediest residents access to fresh produce. Their goal was to provide convenient access to healthy foods and the ability to choose a nutritional diet in a part of the city known as a “food desert” where fresh produce is not generally available. The project quickly grew into a self-sustaining educational and community gardening movement.

The 2010 Founders Fund Award enabled the Urban Farm and Produce Stand to expand its mission and provide greater support to the Wilmington community. The award supplied essential resources for staff and volunteers to expand food production by building more raised beds to involve more families, building a hoophouse to extend the growing season and enabling farmers to start their own seedlings, and building a tool shed and developing a business plan for the farm’s produce stand.

The quarter-acre urban farm is composed of eight contiguous empty lots. More than 1,650 square feet of growing space in 35 raised beds ensure that the harvest is growing in the best quality soil, and make for easier plant care. Some of the beds are reserved for 18 local families to grow for their own use, and some of the beds are designated for farm production. One of the 3’ x 40’ beds is planted exclusively with blackberries. A beautiful shiny fence protects the farm without obstructing the view, and supports espaliered apple trees, herbs and cut flowers