From a Seed: The Evolution of Community Gardens in New York City

Ashley Richards

     My internship entails working with community gardens located in New York, more specifically in East Harlem and the Bronx. The organization I am interning with is More Gardens! and their mission is to build and to fight for the protection of the community gardens located in New York City.

     While working at the More Gardens my duties entail maintaining and working with an array of gardens in the East Harlem and Bronx area. Two gardens that I have been focusing on are the Jacob Riis Community Center Garden (located in the lower east side) and the Courtland Garden (located in the Bronx). At the Jacob Riis Community Center, I also garden with a summer youth camp. When working with the youth camp, we first take out our materials for the scheduled day and start projects within the garden. Some of the projects we did were growing strawberries using a peat pot technique, making trellis s for our tomatoes and cucumbers, and growing plants from seeds such as water melon, pepper, and broccoli. I meet up with the Jacob Riis youth and co-worker (main instructor) Bridget on Mondays, from 12:00 to 5:00 to work on projects like these. In the future, the organization is possibly going to try to open a farmers market within the housing that would be run and produced by the youth.

     In the Courtland Garden my duties are to plant, maintain and harvest the plots. The different fruits and vegetables I have planted and harvested entail heirloom tomatoes, beans, dill, apples, carrots, basil, broccoli, collards, and ect. Weeding and watering the community garden is also an essential and vital task that I worked on at the Courtland Garden. I work in the garden on Tuesdays from 12:00-6:00.
     On Saturdays, I work with my co-worker in the East Harlem gardens. We are also working on a mapping project with the gardens and the communities. The project will allow folks to look up all the community gardens in the area, with the ability to read a brief bio and view pictures of the space. We usually meet from 12:00 to 5:00.
     Lastly, I also work at the head quarters of the organization for a few hours a week doing projects and workshops.

This project has been made possible by a funding support under the USDA CSREES HSI Higher Education Grant Program.USDA-CSREES Grant Number 2005-36422-15940.