Community Gardening Resources
There is a wealth of information on-line about urban gardening. For New York City Community Gardeners, there are a number of public and private organizations that provide a variety of services to community gardeners.
GreenThumb (www.greenthumbnyc.org)
Established in 1978, GreenThumb (GT) remains the nation's largest urban gardening program, assisting over 600 gardens and nearly 20,000 garden members throughout New York City. Their mission is to foster civic participation and encourage neighborhood revitalization while preserving open space.
Today, the GT program, by providing materials and technical assistance, continues to support neighborhood volunteers who manage community gardens as active and attractive community resources.
GT gardens are located in all five boroughs of New York City. The majority of GT gardens are located in economically disadvantaged community planning districts that receive federal financial support through a complement of open space, affordable housing, and economic development. Active garden sites create a stable force in the community and serve as anchors for other re-development initiatives.
Individual Community Garden Websites
6/15 Green
6th and B Garden
Clinton Community Garden
Creative Little Garden
El Puente Espirito Tierra
First Street Garden
The Floyd Bennett Garden Association
Garden of Union
Greene Acres Community Garden
JFK High School
LaGuardia Corner Gardens
La Plaza Cultural
Le Petit Versailles
Liz Christy Garden
M'Finda Kalunga Community Garden
Red Hook Community Farm
R.I.N.G. Garden
West 124th Street Community Garden
West Side Community Garden
Council on the Environment of NYC (www.cenyc.org/openspace/mapping)
The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), founded in 1970, is a privately funded citizens' organization in the Office of the Mayor. CENYC promotes environmental awareness and solutions to environmental problems.
The Open Space and Greening Program has helped create and support community gardens and open spaces in the city for more than 25 years. The Plant-A-Lot Project gives substantial technical and material assistance to create and enhance a limited number of community open spaces each year; ongoing assistance is given to groups helped in prior years. The Open Space and Greening Program is a leader in promoting and building Rainwater Harvesting Systems in NYC.
For maps and further info about community gardens in NYC visit the CENYC Community Garden Mapping Project to find a garden near you. This link has detailed information about specific gardens, including maps and open hours. This site also allows you to find detailed information about any property in the city, including block and lot, zoning, ownership, and more.
Green Guerillas (www.greenguerillas.org)
Since 1973 Green Guerillas (GG’s) has helped thousands of people realize their dreams of turning vacant rubble-strewn lots into vibrant community gardens. Each year GG’s work with hundreds of grassroots groups throughout New York City to strengthen underserved neighborhoods through community gardening. With GG’s help, people grow food, plant flowers, educate youth, paint colorful murals and preserve their gardens as vital community centers for future generations.
The GG’s provide ongoing support to community gardeners citywide, preserve community gardens for future generations and help garden leaders form strong neighborhood coalitions.
Over 100 community gardens in NYC are now privately owned as part of a Land Trust.
Two organizations either own or manage these sites, the Trust for Public Land and New York Restoration Project.
Trust for Public Land (www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=15456&folder_id=631)
This national organization works to protect open spaces via land trusts. The New York City Program is TPL's oldest and largest urban initiative. TPL owns 64 community gardens, which were purchased off the auctioning block for development, and plans to expand its network to 100 community gardens, establishing a small neighborhood park system for New York City’s most underserved neighborhoods. There will be one land trust each in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn/Queens. The garden land trust will be among the largest urban land trusts in the country.
Manhattan and Bronx Land Trusts
Brooklyn Queens Land Trust
New York Restoration Project (www.nyrp.org/gardens/index.php?sub=0)
New York Restoration Project (NYRP) restores, develops, and revitalizes underserved parks, community gardens, and open space in New York City. NYRP invests in communities by providing on-going maintenance and programs. NYRP believes that every individual has the right to a beautiful neighborhood and the responsibility for contributing to its care.
New York Garden Trust, an official subsidiary, assumes ownership, commits to stewardship and restores the gardens and lots, while providing ongoing support to community gardeners including design consultation, garden materials, volunteers, community outreach and educational programming.
Two of NYC’s botanic gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden through Brooklyn GreenBridge and the New York Botanical Garden through Bronx Green-Up provide services to community gardeners in their respective Boroughs.
Brooklyn GreenBridge (www.bbg.org/edu/greenbridge)
Brooklyn GreenBridge (BGB), the community horticulture program of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is designed to share the knowledge and resources of BBG with the neighborhoods of the borough. Working with block associations, community gardens, community centers, and other groups, BGB promotes conservation and community through gardening activities. A major emphasis of BGB since its inception has been composting through BGB’s Urban Composting Project,
Bronx Green-Up (www.nybg.org/bgu)
Bronx Green-Up, an outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden, provides horticultural advice, technical assistance, and training to residents, community gardeners, school groups, and other organizations interested in improving urban neighborhoods through greening projects. At the heart of Bronx Green-Up are the community gardens of the Bronx and a regional compost education program.
Additional sources of information and assistance for NYC community gardeners and others interested in community gardening.
Citizens for NYC (www.citizensnyc.org/ccnyc)
Through its Better Neighborhoods Department, Citizens for NYC helps New Yorkers get organized and stay organized to solve a wide variety of local quality of life problems through grants, workshops and training. Some of their programs support grassroots beautification projects like community gardens.
Just Food (www.justfood.org)
Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to develop a just and sustainable food system in the New York City region.
Just Food's City Farms program works to increase food production, marketing and distribution via community gardens throughout NYC. They offer workshops, training materials, and networking opportunities for NYC communities to grow more food. Since 1997, The City Farms has grown to include more than 30 community gardens representing all 5 boroughs.
More Gardens! (www.moregardens.org)
The More Gardens! Coalition is a group of community people, gardeners, and environmental and social justice activists who promote the development and preservation of community gardens as well as the cultivation of fallow land in New York City. They share information about community gardens with the public in order to raise awareness and engage people in both actual gardening and political activism. They organize individuals and groups to build an enduring infrastructure that provides direction and support for those engaged in the struggle for gardens.
New York City Community Gardens Coalition (www.nyccgc.org)
The mission of the New York City Community Gardens Coalition is to promote the preservation and
creation of community gardens and community-developed open space in the five boroughs of New York City, to educate the public about the value of gardens and the benefits they confer on New York City residents and to serve as an effective resource for providing information and technical support to community gardeners. They work to raise the profile of community gardening among elected and appointed officials, the media, the environmental community and the general public and to foster networking and communication among the NYC garden communities.
La Familia Verde (www.lafamiliaverde.org)
La Familia Verde is a coalition of community gardens in the Crotona, East Tremont, and West Farms neighborhoods in the Bronx. Formed in 1998, their mission is to sustain the environment and culture of their neighborhoods through education, community service, and horticulture. They sponsor a farmers market and helped to create a Food Coop in the South Bronx
East New York Farms (www.eastnewyorkfarms.org)
The mission of the East New York Farms Project is to organize youth and adult residents to address food issues in their community by promoting local and regional sustainable agriculture and community-led economic development. Over 20 gardeners in East New York and surrounding neighborhoods grow produce in their community gardens or backyards and sell at a weekly farmers market in the neighborhood.
Open Road of New York (www.openroadny.org)
Open Road of New York (OR) was founded in 1990 to work with children, teenagers, and adults on outdoor environmental projects. OR works long term with individual young people, public schools, non-profit and small business partners, and community volunteers to design, develop, and manage public gardens, playgrounds, parks, and compost systems. OR’s home site is the Open Road Park in Manhattan, but they work on projects city wide.
During the summers of 2000-2002, OR youth used measuring tools, maps, and data to verify and correct the location and size of every Garden, Vacant Lot, Vacant Building, Park, Playground and Building in several neighborhoods as part of the CENYC Community Garden Mapping Project.
Neighborhood Open Space Coalition - The Hub (www.treebranch.com/hub.htm)
The Hub is a center for NYC urban environmentalism. It includes information about national organizations and agencies that are working in areas of interest to NYC residents and citywide and local organizations
A History of New York's Community Gardens (www.treebranch.com/community_gardens.htm)
Community gardening is an activity that takes place the world over. To find out about community gardening beyond New York City visit the sites below.
American Community Gardening Association (www.communitygarden.org)
The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) was founded in 1979 to help gardening programs share their limited resources, and benefit from each other's experience and expertise.
Through its networking, publications (the annual Community Greening Review, quarterly newsletter The Community Gardener, etc.), and an annual conference held in a different part of the country each year, ACGA: promotes the formation and expansion of national and regional community gardening networks, develops resources in support of community gardening and greening, encourages research on the impact of community greening, and conducts educational programs. The ACGA web site has links to many supportive documents and research about community gardening.
For information about community gardening in the US and Canada:
Community Garden Listserv (www.communitygarden.org/connect/listserv.php)
Post questions and information to the list and have immediate access to the collective knowledge of all the other subscribers, including the Board members of ACGA and hundreds of knowledgeable, experienced community gardeners from all over North America. Discussion topics range from fund raising to soil improvement to keeping gardeners motivated. The subscription is free and available in regular or digest version.
City Farmer (www.cityfarmer.org)
City Farmer is a comprehensive site for information about international urban agriculture. There are a large number of articles about every aspect of community gardening. They also have a helpful search engine.
Other useful resources for community gardeners starting new gardens or looking for research on the benefits of community gardening.
How do I start a Community Garden?
Children, Gardens, and Lead: Fact sheet on lead in the urban environment
Soil Testing: Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratories web site with instructions on how to get your soil tested.
Selected Community Gardening Research: The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values
Community Development Through Gardening: State And Local Policies Transforming Urban Open Space
Helpful Resources
