From These Roots, Communities Grow

Ada Smothers, McIntosh Neighborhood Association Garden, Elmhurst, Queens

The garden was founded in 1978 by the neighbors in the McIntosh Neighborhood Association.

This was an empty lot. People would use it to dump their debris and garbage. And we got together as a group of neighbors to clean up the lot and start planting.

We planted vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers. At that time, most of us were working people. I worked full-time. But we would do it in the afternoon and on Saturdays when we got home from work. And that’s how we worked this garden.

It gives me a peace of mind. I can come by here and it’s like a safe haven to me. I come out here and nobody bothers you. It’s relaxing. That’s what it is to me, a safe haven. It makes my life more bearable. The beauty of it, it’s so relaxing.

Anita Chan, Wortman Avenue Garden, East New York, Brooklyn

When people saw that we were cleaning it up, they took a lot of interest. When we told them, “Hey, you can have a garden bed here,” a lot of people were actually very excited. Being able to grow your own food is a very unique and special experience.

The Healthy Soils Project helps remediate soils that are contaminated with heavy metals, mostly lead. New York City soils have been historically known to be contaminated, and we really want to combat that.

The [Healthy Soils] Project was trying to find [garden] sites that can receive large deliveries [of clean soil], because a lot of construction projects [affiliated with the Healthy Soils Project] dig pretty deep down where they dig up glacial sediment, which is not contaminated because it’s very deep down, and it is safe to grow in.

Efrain Estrada, United We Stand Garden, Mott Haven, The Bronx

We grow a lot of things. We have Mexican vegetables like papalo. We got jalapeños, and we have eggplant, we have okra, we have collard greens.

Before, early in the spring, we had lettuce. Now we’ve got tomatoes and corn. We have peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes. We have cabbage. We have all kinds of greens. A lot of greens.

People like to eat the greens when they are fresh. They love that.

My favorite part of the garden? Well, you know I always go for agriculture and I like the people to plant. I like to help the people when they don’t know much, so they can have a good product.

Iola Sims, Rogers/Tilden/Veronica Place Garden, Flatbush, Brooklyn

Everything is bust right open now, so we’re gonna need some kind of sanctuary to come through, to heal, to talk. I think the garden will be one of those places for thought.

Joan Belton, Merrick Marsden Neighbors Association II Garden, South Jamaica, Queens

I’m proud that it’s a community garden and that we’re able to grow vegetables to distribute among the neighbors.

Kofi Thomas, The People’s Garden, Bushwick, Brooklyn

It really became more apparent that this was a place of mental health. A lot of people were suffering from anxiety or depression, which is common in our neighborhood.

I’d get text messages from people asking if I could open the garden for a couple of hours because they were feeling very dark and lonely and just wanted to sit outside for a while.

There was definitely a time during this pandemic when we were one of the only places people could come and sit down.

Lionel Mapp III, Five Star Garden, Harlem, Manhattan

I plant the flowers up front just to draw people in; people are attracted to the smells of the garden.

Marlene Wilkes, Hands and Heart Garden, East New York, Brooklyn

I want to share with everyone that even though gardening and farming are physically stressful, they are mental de-stressers. Because once you get into the garden and the plants command your attention, everything else disappears from your head until you finish gardening.

It really is a mental de-stresser. Yeah, I know that as a fact. I’ve experienced it so many times.

Mike DiGiacomo, Hill Street Community Garden, Stapleton, Staten Island

I’ve been here for 22 years. This was a dumping ground when I got here. And I took it upon myself to start removing the tires, the old air conditioners, about a thousand paper bags that were festooned all over the place, the beer cans, the coffee cups.

Eventually, I started calling [New York City Department of] Sanitation to get some help. They started to do this whole leveling thing. They came in here with a bulldozer, and they scalped everything and left a muddy mess behind. So I came in and cleaned up all the trash that they left behind. And little by little, it started to recover.

Whenever it rained, there was a washout of muddy, brown water rushing into the street, and it would pond down the street here. And when it eventually subsided, there was this nice fine powdered dust, and the cars would run over it. And there’d be a dust cloud every time. Guess who was breathing that in? Now, when it rains, it’s clear water because the vegetation is restored on top, and it holds the clay in.

Patti Hagan, St. Marks Avenue / Prospect Heights Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

A number of people in the neighborhood who are recovering from cancer and chemotherapy like to come in and watch the bees.

There are butterflies and Cabbage Whites right now, but we have lots of swallowtails, commas, and painted ladies. People birdwatch a certain amount here.

I’ve seen hawks here, cardinals, robins, and bluejays. Usually, one or two days in the spring and in the fall, hummingbirds come through either headed north or south and if you’re lucky enough to be here [you can] catch them. In the spring we always have praying mantis, this being a praying mantis sanctuary of many years. In May, the little teeny babies were all over the fennel.

Then, they started moving to other plants at the same time that the swallowtail caterpillars were hatching. It was really wonderful. Anybody who would come into the garden had never seen creatures like that, and it’s fun to show them, especially the children. [The garden] seems to draw people together.

People recovering from cancer can find a quiet place to be outdoors here. It seems to do wonderful things for them.