August 26th, 2009 · No Comments

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Fiskars Project Orange Thumb, the Home Depot Foundation, and the City of Baltimore are teaming to make over an area in a local Baltimore neighborhood in just one day. This Thursday, 80 members from all three groups and people from around the community will build a new garden in the Oliver neighborhood. They will break ground at 8 a.m. and complete the project just in time for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 4:30 that afternoon.

Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb, started in 2003, has helped over 100 communities and given more than $200,000 in garden grants. “The overall mission of Fiskars Project Orange Thumb is to encourage and develop neighborhood beautification, horticultural education, sustainable agriculture, neighborhood involvement, community development and outreach,” said Brent McHenry with Public Relations and Communications for Fiskars. The Oliver neighborhood garden will be Project Orange Thumb’s 6^th makeover this year.

For each makeover, Fiskars partners with a corporate sponsor and a local community organization. “Fiskars coordinates, develops and manages the day-long makeover. The Home Depot donated all the planting materials and supplies for the project and will assist with the garden installation. The City of Baltimore also will assist in installing the garden and will help manage its maintenance upon completion, ” said McHenry.

Joe Lamp’l, known as “Joe Gardener” on Fresh From the Garden on the DIY Network, uniquely designs each garden for Project Orange Thumb. The Oliver neighborhood garden will feature shade trees, hundreds of vegetables, flowering annuals and perreniels, as well as a sitting area.

“We strive to find locations that will benefit from this type of build, including densely populated areas, priority neighborhoods with a vast population,” said McHenry.

Do you know of a place in your community that could use a makeover? You can nominate an area for a new garden by emailing orangethumb@fiskars.com. With your submission, provide information on where the location is, a brief history of the area, and why it deserves a new garden.

(If you’re wondering why these green projects are dubbed Orange Thumb, it’s because of the company’s iconic orange scissors, first sold in the 1960s. Fiskars, a Finnish company, is among the oldest businesses in the world, having started as an ironworks in 1649.)

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