about

Welcome to Abundant Philly – a blog dedicated to one woman’s journey towards sustainable land stewardship in Philadelphia. I garden the land. I invest in the land. And I’m creating a habitat to foster abundance for all who want to share it.

What am I about? Let me give you the long and the short of it and some info on how you can support my goals of building a free food forest for my underserved community here in the city.

Website author holding spinach on a back patio in S Philadelphia.

I’m Key and I’m obsessed with centering my life’s work on (and for) the land – even despite my long-standing city-slicker ways. In the chaos of change & social distancing we’ve all experienced recently, where others have been repelled by the city’s density – choosing to move away from urban areas – I see so much opportunity in Philly to create a new, vibrant way of life that is financially stable, healthy and viable. The community, diversity, and audacity of natural life found in urban areas is so compelling to me. And so, I believe we can cultivate a city-centric ecological landscape of plants, wildlife and humans that builds community in forms we haven’t seen in generations.

Come along and learn with me as I chronicle my path towards building a portfolio of investments and food-producing gardens in Philadelphia.
photo of back patio garden cage with plants growing all around.

And now, a bit more

Sunflower in the sun

Above all, I believe urban gardening, investment in affordable housing and land stewardship in general, are one of the ultimate exercises in personal & community power. I am an educator and enthusiast of urban agriculture & affordable housing, who has worked with nonprofits, community groups, neighbors, and for-profit companies to install kitchen gardens, market farms and affordable housing units in cities on the East and West Coast for the last 10 years. For the last 6 of those years, I’ve been proud to call Philadelphia, PA my home.

 

While working as the operations manager for a market farm and garden center right here in the city, I found my love for experimenting with the principles of permaculture and organic growing in an urban context and sharing the good news of gardening with others.

 

In 2017, the reality of leaving a graduate program centered on social policy led me to discover my passion for real estate investment and affordable housing. With both being ways in which I feed my family; I fervently want to support our community’s most basic needs: food & shelter.

 

I dream of building a portfolio of real estate investments that I can live on, financially free, once I my retire from the current career I love. And the centerpiece of my dream is to invest in a food forest garden/park space, where folks in the community could freely visit and harvest organically-grown fruits & vegetables, learn hands-on about growing in Philadelphia, and host events that are meaningful in an safe, all-natural environment.


In this blog, you’ll find my two loves for the land intertwined:

  •  Insights on gardening learned from years of experimentation with permaculture principles in an urban, micro-scaled landscape (think growing on patios, in single raised beds, within tree pits!)
  • Chronicles of my experiences forming a team of partners, tradesmen, fellow investors and community members while building a real estate investment portfolio
  • My recommendations for the hyper-local (and also globally expansive!) ways folks in the greater Philadelphia region can successfully grow their food, flowers & medicine
  • My stories of seeing this city move towards rapid (re)development, in ways that could set the tone for urban reinvestment for other cities – centering green space & affordable housing alongside, rather than in opposition to, modern revitalization.

The “Big City” can still be a hub for innovation. For healthy living. For abundance. If you ask me, all we have to do it grow it and build it together.

How you can support me in creating articles, videos, green spaces & healthy living spaces in Philly:

  • Books & Tools that have helped me on the way (including buy list for the gardener/grower/developer in your life!): [AMAZON LISTS]

  • Buy me a coffee buymeacoff.ee/KeyInPhilly