Reclaiming a Community Garden

Starting its life as an unused plot of land donated by a local Jewish school, Glendale Community Garden has expanded to a thriving project for local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and children from nearby schools. Everything from the location to the dirt in the planters has been donated, including the four raised beds built with lumber from BIG!NYC’s donation program, BIGBlooms.

The people at GCC believe strongly in managing the garden with as little disruption as possible. To improve the soil quality, they’ve planted cover crops to condition the dirt for the next harvest and keep the soil healthy. Choosing to stay away from chemical fertilizers or pesticides, they built their own compost tumblers for weeds and compost scraps and instituted a careful crop rotation plan to reduce the need for any artificial additives. The perimeter of the property is lined with roses, shrubs, and flowers, and residents expect it to only flourish from here—especially with the recent addition of lumber from BIG!NYC. They envision a reclaimed window greenhouse, an arbor, and a sitting area for the community in the years to come to transform what was once a weedy, rocky plot of soil into a thriving grassroots garden.