Plan Your Visit
The Farm at Awbury
The sixteen acres of the Arboretum northwest of Washington Lane make up the Farm at Awbury (previously known as the Agricultural Village), a shared farm space for a variety of local partners. From gardening to goat walks, Harvest Festivals, workshops and classes at the Education Center, co-op farming, and much more, there’s always something new to discover in this educational and community-focused area.
Visitors are welcome from dawn to dusk; the space is free and open to the public. Please be mindful of the vegetable and flower beds, beehives, and animal enclosures, and follow any posted signage. There is plenty to see and learn in this unique area of the Arboretum!
Location and Directions
Pedestrian entrances to The Farm at Awbury are at 6336 Ardleigh St
and 901 E. Washington Ln, Philadelphia, PA 19138.
Click here for a map of the entire Arboretum grounds, and click here for a map of the Farm at Awbury.
With the exception of visitors with disabilities, parking is not permitted in The Farm at Awbury, but free parking is abundant on the bordering streets of Ardleigh St and Washington Ln. The Education Center building is just a short walk from the Ardleigh Street entrance.
Sunday Fun Days
We’ve wrapped up the 2021 season! Thanks to all who presented, visited, and took part in the FUN!
The Farm is always free and open to walk and explore, but on Sunday afternoons Spring through Fall we have Awbury staff and partner organizations on site to answer your questions, plus fun, family-friendly activities!
Cost: All events are FREE, no registration required
Questions? Please contact Grace Wicks at thefarm@awbury.org.
Features, Tenants, and Partners – The Farm at Awbury
Community Garden
The Awbury Arboretum Community Garden, established with Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension in 1977, is the successor to Great Depression allotments and WWII Victory Gardens. The Garden is comprised of over 60 garden plots including 20 raised beds. It provides flowers, fruit and vegetables to local residents and annually donates substantial quantities of food to Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest. The Community Garden at Awbury is managed by a coordinating committee of neighbors.
The Community Garden has won several awards, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Blue Ribbon in the Gardening and Greening Contest in 2017.
The perimeter of the Community Garden is a woodland walk that includes many established native trees, a small orchard, and sitting areas made from tree stumps.
Awbury Educational Center and Pavilion
The Education Center, introduced to The Farm at Awbury in Spring 2013, includes a garden classroom and teaching kitchen.
The Pavilion is brand new, constructed in Summer 2021. More information coming soon!
Here we host educational programs, community events such as our yearly Harvest Festival, local homeschool groups, and more. When not in use for programming, the Education Building and Pavilion are available for rent.
Awbury Cluck Patrol
The Awbury Cluck Patrol is currently made up of ten hens of various breeds who spend their days strutting about the Farm, resting in their spacious coop, and being cared for by volunteers, led by neighbor Petra Bräuer. The chickens not only provide eggs and eat agricultural pests that destroy crops, but they help us educate families about life cycles- from egg to chick to adult back to egg- all while engaging guests with their antics.
Awbury Uptown Farm
Divided into four quadrants, this growing area is rented by local gardeners and farmers.
New in 2021! Within the Uptown Farm is also the Awbury Kitchen Garden, which provides a place for the public to engage in hands-on educational programming about urban gardening, creates a food source for culinary demonstrations such as workshops and special events, and opens up opportunities for regular volunteers who want to learn while being of service.
Belk Gardens
Belk Gardens is a garden design company in Philadelphia which provides design and installation for residential and urban gardens. Owner Elizabeth Belk is also a horticulturist, rosarian, and educator.
Greenhouses & High Tunnel
Weavers Way partners with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest Program, providing food to several organizations combating hunger in Philadelphia. Since 2008, Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension, Weavers Way Farm, Awbury Arboretum, and PHS City Harvest Program, have joined in season-extension through use of a high tunnel/hoop house, a heated greenhouse to start seeds and a shade house for hardening off seedlings.
In 2008, Penn State Cooperative Extension partnered with Weavers Way Farm and Awbury Arboretum to build a hoophouse at the Farm at Awbury for experimentation with season extension.
Many Hands Community Apothecary
The Many Hands Community Apothecary garden beds are cared for by and support Awbury Arboretum’s nine-month “Herbal Aid Ed” course, where students learn about the growing, making, and distributing of herbal medicines to support home and community wellness.
Philly Goat Project
The Philly Goat Project is a unique community-based program offering four services: grazing overgrown vegetation, animal-assisted therapy, goat yoga, and community wellness. They invite the community to join them for goat walks several times each week – please visit their website and Facebook page for the latest news and schedules.
Awbury Food Forest
The Awbury Food Forest (AFF) is an evolving perennial demonstration site designed using permaculture ethics, principles and techniques with the goal of creating habitat, edible/medicinal resources, and fostering community engagement in a sustainable way. AFF is managed by a volunteer stewardship group with the support of the Philadelphia Orchard Project. Click here for more information about volunteering.
Fuugs Woodworking
Fuugs is a locally rooted, sustainable furniture company based in Philadelphia, PA. They salvage, mill and dry fallen and damaged trees into lumber that they use to make furniture. The salvaging process informs their products, giving insight into the life of the trees, the ecology of our watershed and the beauty of the organic form. It is a collaboration between wood and woodworker, using a combination of classical techniques and modern machinery.
Weavers Way Co-op’s Mort Brooks Farm
The “Mort Brooks Memorial Farm” est. in 2000 commemorates a long-time proponent of Urban Agriculture. The farm was established on ¼ acre of Awbury Arboretum’s “Northwest Tract” in 2000 by Mort’s wife Norma Brooks and her friends from Weavers Way Co-op in partnership with Awbury Arboretum. Since 2007, a full-time farmer and many volunteers have worked the 2-acre farm, providing learning opportunities for our community as well as fresh, environmentally responsible produce to Weavers Way Cooperative stores. Through the nonprofit Food Moxie (formerly Weavers Way Community Programs), community members and students visit the farms and get their hands dirty planting, weeding, harvesting, tasting and learning about growing healthy food. They also donate food to local organizations that serve our communities.
Philly Forests
Philly Forests‘ mission to uplift and highlight Black and Brown stakeholders in our local food system through small-scale agriculture, farmers market operation, and philanthropic urban forestry.
Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers
The Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster the art and craft of weaving and the fiber arts. They maintain several raised beds and grow plants used to dye textiles.
Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild
The Farm at Awbury is home of the Philly Beekeepers Guild, who have been “givin’ a durn about bees since 2009.” They established and care for dozens of hives on site and host workshops, symposiums, extraction sessions, and more, caring for these pollinators and serving a resources for local beekeepers.
Awbury Pollinator Habitat
This garden, maintained by Penn State Extension Master Gardeners and skilled volunteers, is specially planted and tended to attract pollinators. Plants are both nectar- and pollen-rich natives and exotics. The Philadelphia Committee of the Garden Club of America initially funded the garden in 2010.
Wingohocking Creek Riparian Area
The spring house and wetland area near Washington Lane feeds the Historic watercourse across the street and is the only above-ground portion of the Wingohocking Creek. This entire area helps reduces storm water stress on city sewers. Thanks to the help of hundreds of volunteers and support from Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and Umar Myca’s Poison Ivy Removal crew, this area was recently cleared of hundreds of pounds of invasive species and planted with over 300 trees and shrubs as well as other wetland plants, which will manage rainwater, stabilize the creek’s edges, and keep our creek healthy for years to come.
Awbury Arboretum’s Landscape Headquarters and Supply Yard
Awbury Arboretum’s Landscape Staff strive daily to maintain Awbury’s 56 acres of greenspace so each area may be enjoyed by visitors and utilized for programming, rentals, and community events.