Sweetgrass that smells like vanilla. Corn that hasn't grown in this soil for centuries. A bird bath made from clam shells. All of it now sits on a lot that used to be empty — one of three an Indigenous-led nonprofit has transformed in the middle of Philadelphia.

  • 3 vacant lots converted into native gardens in about six months
  • 2,250 sq ft — the size of the flagship Seeds Indigenous Listening Garden
  • 40,000 vacant lots citywide the project hopes to inspire others to reclaim
  • 10 years of tending required under Pennsylvania's adverse possession law to gain legal title

Rematriating endangered seeds

The organization, We Are the Seeds, is led by sisters Tailinh Agoyo and Xiao Hui Star, who is also a citizen of Rhode Island's Narragansett tribe. In April 2026, they began planting a West Philadelphia lot the city had been mowing for years as empty grass.

What's growing there now includes Lenape corn, Nanticoke squash, and heirloom bean varieties like blue Shackamaxon — all considered endangered heirloom crops that once anchored Indigenous agriculture in the region, alongside sweetgrass, milkweed, and native wildflowers that feed local pollinators.

"These are very special endangered varieties that we are rematriating back to the soil. Who knows how many centuries it's been since a Lenape corn or a Nanticoke squash have grown in this soil," said Xiao Hui Star.

The seeds themselves came from organizations devoted to saving heirloom agricultural diversity, including Truelove Seeds, the Experimental Farm Network, and the Seed Savers Exchange. Star and her father, the artist and educator Tchin, tend the plantings directly.

A model for 40,000 empty lots

Philadelphia has roughly 40,000 vacant lots, the legacy of decades of redlining and disinvestment. We Are the Seeds frames its project as part of the broader LandBack movement — an Indigenous campaign to return land stewardship to Native people — but Agoyo also sees it as a practical demonstration other community groups can copy.

"That's where the growth would go," Agoyo said of the ripple effect she hopes follows. "That's where the ripple effect would happen."

The city itself has taken notice. In April 2026, Philadelphia's Office of Clean and Green Initiatives launched Lotscapes, a pilot program aiming to convert 10 of its roughly 8,000 city-owned vacant parcels into gardens, gathering spaces, or interactive green areas designed with neighborhood input.

"The ultimate objective is to scale the ability of community groups to be able to access land in the first place from a legal perspective," said Casey Kuklick, the office's deputy director.

Why a garden, not just a lot

Before choosing the West Philadelphia site, Star searched city land-bank records for parcels with enough sunlight, then tested soil samples for toxicity. The organization's long-term goal is to secure a deed through adverse possession, a Pennsylvania law that grants ownership of vacant land to anyone who has tended it as a garden for at least a decade.

Research on vacant-lot revitalization backs up the instinct behind the project: studies have linked converting empty urban parcels into green space to reduced neighborhood violence and improved mental health for nearby residents.

In April, the group marked the garden's opening with a ceremony featuring Indigenous dancers performing a traditional corn dance. Neighbors from a nearby community garden joined in, and a local youth football team helped cast the first seeds — turning an empty lot into, as Star put it, a place to grow food you genuinely cannot get from concrete.