As the community outreach arm of The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Green-Up is invested in the future of our Bronx neighborhoods, providing horticultural advice, technical assistance, and training to the growing urban gardening movement here in the borough. It’s this very program that earned the NYBG the prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2010, as given by first lady Michelle Obama. Through workshops and certificate programs, as well as harvest festivals, BGU is still building on that honor, working tirelessly to bring community gardeners together through the sharing of information. And so far, it’s working. Just ask the newly-minted gardeners of the A.C.T.I.O.N. group!

It stands for Activists Coming to Inform Our Neighborhood, and it’s an apt description for an outfit looking to identify and tackle environmental and social justice concerns at home. After four dedicated seasons of tutelage under our BGU horticulturists, these 21 teens returned to their south Bronx neighborhood with useful new tools in hand, ready to paint Hunts Point green. They did it not only through classroom learning, but hands-on activities in the soil, learning the ins and outs of a food system under increased scrutiny in areas such as the Bronx. Now they’re able to look past the supermarket produce aisle, turning to shovels, wheelbarrows, and plenty of elbow grease to tackle the issues in their own garden plots–from seed to harvest.
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Ursula Chanse is Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture and Project Manager, NYC Compost Project in the Bronx.

Yesterday, nine-year-old Jada Nicole Young from the Mott Haven section of the Bronx (pictured with her dad, Mike) received the Youth Gardener Award from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company at the Community Vegetable Gardening Season kickoff at The New York Botanical Garden.

Jada Nicole’s youthful bashfulness quickly gives way to joyful excitement when she talks about gardening, which she has been doing since she was 4 years old. Since I first met her at her community garden, Padre Plaza Success Garden, I have seen her jump into all activities, and in all weather, from helping to build a pond to planting garlic, working the compost, and feeding the fish and turtles. read more »

Bronx Green-Up Tours, Harvest Fair on Tap this Weekend

Karen Washington is a community gardener and activist. As part of The Edible Garden final weekend, she will lead a tour of the Garden of Happiness.

When I was 8 years old I used to watch the farm report before Saturday morning cartoons and wish and hope that one day I’d have my own farm.

And now, in a way, I do. It may not be what some might think of as a traditional farm, but it’s the closest thing possible: a community garden.

I turned my passion for gardening into community gardening and activism—they go hand-in-hand—over 20 years ago. I want people to be aware that they can grow their own food wherever they are. I live in a low-income neighborhood, and I help educate people to go back to the land, because our grandparents and great-grandparents did not go to a supermarket or grocery store to buy their food; they grew it themselves.

The interest in community gardening has grown in recent years as people are starting to connect their health issues with not knowing where their food comes from. Child obesity—I mean diabetes at the age of 12 or 13!—wasn’t happening to our grandparents or great-grandparents. So now the younger generation is really sitting down and speaking to their elders and having that conversation. And with over 600 community gardens in New York City that you can join for free, the combination creates an atmosphere for people to really want to grow their own food.

At my garden—I belong to the Garden of Happiness on Prospect Avenue between East 181st and 182nd Streets in the Bronx—we have 30 families. Each is assigned a specific plot—the plot can be 5 by 6 feet, 10 by 15 feet—to grow what they want. The Botanical Garden’s Bronx Green-Up program and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation’s GreenThumb program supply us with lumber for raised beds, tools, plants, seeds, soil, and compost. We bring our sweat and our hard labor. read more »

Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.

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