Spreading Beauty Throughout the Bronx

Posted in Programs and Events on September 4 2008, by Plant Talk

Written by Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, with additional reporting by Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University. Both interned in the Communications Department this summer.

One of the great things about The New York Botanical Garden is that it is nestled in the borough of the Bronx. One way the Garden reaches out to the neighboring community is through the Bronx Green-Up program.

Since 1988 Bronx Green-Up staff have provided gardening advice, technical assistance, and training to community gardens, school groups, and other organizations interested in improving urban neighborhoods in the Bronx through greening projects.

It sounded like a way of spreading the beauty of gardening throughout the borough. So Genna and I decided to get out of the office and into the field to become Bronx Green-Up community garden volunteers for a day. First thing in the morning we piled into an NYBG pickup truck and headed off to the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. Our leaders were Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture Ursula Chanse, Community Horticulturalist Sara Katz, and intern Kris Lau.

Read about the rest of Kate and Genna’s adventures after the jump.

Nestled between two apartment buildings in a vacant lot we found the Franklin Memorial Garden, the oldest community garden in the Bronx. Last summer the Bronx Green-Up crew completely renovated and redesigned the site. It is just one of over 100 community gardens that Ursula, Sara, and volunteers visit to teach community gardeners how to maintain their gardens.

Some areas of the Franklin Memorial Garden had been overcome with an abundance of weeds. So we put on some gloves and got to weeding. With advice from Ursula and Sara as to what is a weed and what is not, we spent about 2 ½ hours cleaning up the beds. It seemed like in no time the garden was looking much better.

One of the regular visitors to the Franklin Memorial Garden is Miss Verna Judge. Now 91, Miss Judge has been living in this neighborhood since her 20s, and the idea for the garden was hers. She had noticed that the neighborhood children had no open place to play. So in the 1960s, when she heard about a phone number New Yorkers could call if they were interested in starting a community garden, she did just that. She still visits the garden regularly, sometimes pulling up a chair and pulling some weeds herself.

Though we were getting tired, our work for the day was far from over—Ursula and Sara would be taking us to three more gardens. Check back to hear about the rest of our Bronx Green-Up adventure!