At the Pennypack Sunflower Farm, Heroic Gardens uses horticultural therapy to support veterans' mental health.
From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!
On a large grassy plot in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia, about three dozen volunteers formed a huddle around Collie Turner.
To the side, gardening rakes of various sizes were lined up in the grass. A bucket was filled up with gardening gloves and a pile of plastic watering cans was at the ready.
"I want to be the first person to officially welcome you to the sunflower farm at Pennypack," Turner told the group, who clapped and cheered.
Right now, the Pennypack Sunflower Farm is not much more than a flat patch of land and dirt that used to be military housing and then public housing before they were demolished over a decade ago.
Today, the plot has been prepared for planting and divided into narrow rows and lanes. In about a hundred days, the space will be filled with 12-foot-tall bright yellow sunflowers for the community to enjoy.
It's part of a new urban agriculture project by Heroic Gardens, a Philly nonprofit that uses gardening and horticultural therapy to support military veterans and their mental health challenges with post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression and other issues.
"We can't heal the person, but we can help them learn to heal themselves by transforming their land," said Turner, the organization's founder.
The therapeutic benefits of working in a garden can translate to the simplest of changes and improvements in a veteran's life, she said.
"People lose weight, people get a haircut, people get jobs," Turner said as she choked up with tears in her eyes. "It's quite something."
Organization leaders want the new sunflower farm to serve as a space for therapy and healing, community events and gardening training. With more funding, they hope to also make it a veterans workforce development initiative, which is a specific kind of employment program that helps veterans transition to civilian life and jobs.
"So, there's one rule before we get started. Just have fun. That's really it," Turner told the volunteers. "So, here are the teams."
As Turner rattled off names, people split into smaller groups, each responsible for different tasks.
Some were tasked to rake and level the soil for others to dig tiny, evenly spaced holes. Other volunteers would then plant sunflower seedlings, which were about two inches tall with two or three green leaves attached to a clump of soil and roots.
Local business owners and leaders, horticultural therapists, farming and gardening experts, and residents from around the neighborhood kneeled in the dirt with trowels and rulers.
There were also veterans, their families and their friends.
Turner isn't a veteran herself, but she was inspired by one: her grandfather, Joseph C. Stevens, who was a medic in World War II. After serving, he bought a house in Somers Point, New Jersey, with an acre of backyard - big enough to grow a vegetable garden to help feed his family.
"He was my best friend," Turner said. "He also, like many of the veterans here, just continued to give back after he served, no matter what ailment he had. He just continued to serve."
Heroic Gardens gives other veterans the same opportunity, she said. They can volunteer while doing activities and learning skills that could help them manage or recover from mental health challenges and stressors.