While the 12th and Brandywine garden’s age makes it arguably the most notable, it is not the city’s largest community garden. That distinction belongs to the Cool Springs neighborhood, where two years after 12th and Brandywine’s debut, the Rodney Reservoir Garden came into existence, at the corner of 10th and Clayton streets on vacant land owned by the Department of Public Works.

In 2013, Rodney Reservoir Garden organizers teamed with Bright Spot Ventures, a product of West End Neighborhood House and Barclays US, to provide job training to youth aging out of the foster care system. Two dozen additional beds followed, two-thirds of which were intended for the Bright Spot Youth to cultivate, harvest and bring to the Thursday pop-up farmers’ market at the foot of the reservoir.

Now, with more than 5,000 square feet of planting space for 50-plus families, the garden stands as a foundation for community building efforts on the city’s West Side.