South Philly Review

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In French author Voltaire’s novella “Candide,” the title character uses the metaphor “We must cultivate our garden” to encourage his friends to balance life’s fortunes with its ills. For the last 12 years, Tracy Levesque has tended to a literal area, serving as “the unofficial mayor” of the Bodine Street Community Garden, 914 S. Bodine St.

Her diligence and that of other Queen Village residents has won multiple honors, culminating in a national nod with their space’s inclusion in this month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Levesque united with her horticultural helpers Sunday to clean up their space, which in August became an obsession for the magazine’s film crew.

“I received an e-mail from a representative and thought it was spam,” she said of learning last spring the publication, which discovered the green space via its website, http://bodinestreetgarden.org, craved a profile of the three-lot-long stretch for its gardening issue.

A genuine request, the outreach floored Levesque, who, as an active voice for the garden since it faced destruction in 2003, scored her neighbors’ support. The team for the 20-year-old monthly visited Aug. 14 to 15, a time when the 12-plot garden is, according to Levesque, typically “buggy, weedy and dead,” but precautions kept it stellar for a weekend of footage and photos.

Replete with flowers and vegetables from April through much of August, the garden hosts quaint block parties, but the visitors inspired a lavish gathering. Despite the tinkering, the participants enjoyed their own recipes, with Levesque preparing grilled clams and Mia, her wife of seven years, offering vegetable lasagna for the potluck party. Children made an heirloom tomato and herb salad, and a cupcake sunflower sated desires for dessert.

The issue, featuring a seven-page spread, hit stands last month and has generated further renown for what Levesque terms a “laid back garden.”

“We had a woman from South Carolina send us heirloom bean seeds for the kids,” she said of being able to encourage the gardening bug among her daughter Josephine, 4, and the other budding growers.

The exposure gives the space yet another plaudit. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society named the 31-year-old tract the top vegetable garden in its ’08 and ’09 City Gardens contests.

“We all really love this garden,” Levesque said of plans to improve its infrastructure, which includes a new gate featuring a planting guide, a fence, a water system and a path courtesy of a grant from the Neighborhood Gardens Association. “It’s a great way to protect urban green space and to get to know our neighbors.”

The space used to be a prime spot for dumping debris and served as a shortcut for muggers’ escapes during Queen Village’s crime-filled 1970s identity. Philadelphia Green, a PHS program devoted to urban renewal, made residents’ dreams for improved aesthetics realities by donating fencing, seeds and topsoil, birthing the garden in June ’80. Locals acquired free lots over the next few years, and the space came to merit respect. As it neared its 20th year, the area needed more direction, finding it in Levesque, a Bucks County native whose mother’s gardening background incited her desire to deal with dirt.

She could not, however, foresee dealing with a dirt bag. In 2003, the previous owner put the space up for sale, a move Levesque feels Queen Village’s rising property values inspired. With the 3,000-square-foot paradise in jeopardy, the “Save the Bodine Community Garden” campaign, complete with a website that Levesque and her wife crafted, fought back.

The residents’ activism, which involved hiring a lawyer, meeting with developers and reaching out to the Neighborhood Gardens Association, won the attention of 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco. The South Philadelphian used community development money to buy the land in ’07. The Neighborhood Gardens Association received the territory as a donation soon after, making it one of its nine local points.

“We’ve enjoyed our most productive period since NGA became the owner,” Levesque said of knowing the expanse is preserved and being able to plot its future.

That new stage commenced Sunday. Levesque likes to hold three cleanups each year and saw the three-hour session as a chance to inspire many of the 20 gardeners for the planting season, which begins in earnest in only a few days.

Entering the garden, one can immediately marvel at local artist Isaiah Zagar’s mosaic tile mural “The Garden Goddesses,” a May ’00 work that dominates the left-side wall. Four others adorn the right-hand partition, with one situated just above a garlic plant Levesque sowed last fall.

The day’s primary task called for her and her cronies to move the raspberry and strawberry lots to make room for two new spots. Working on revitalizing the kids’ plot also made Levesque eager to soil her gloves.

“Slugs have had their way with the original,” she said as helpers Kira Merdiushev and Alison McCook added compost to the L-shaped section.

Not aspiring to be capitalists, the gardeners do not market their yield, preferring to give surplus items to one another. Collard greens, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, kale and spinach delight taste buds, but they are not the only pleasure-inspiring items, as daffodils, tiger lilies and bearded and Siberian irises enchant noses.