As part of our end of 的 year review, bg视讯找到了迈克·雷兹尼, Assistant Director of Open Space Greening at bg视讯, to talk about 的 year in urban agriculture, 所有bg视讯建造的新花园, 2017年将会发生什么.

For those that don't know, what does bg视讯's Open Space Greening program do?

Open Space Greening builds 和 supports community gardens, 城市农场, 和 school gardens all across New York City.  这包括建造农场和 种花 城市土地上的花园, gardens in public housing developments, 纽约市公立学校的花园, 和, 一次, 一个花园 在捷蓝航空在肯尼迪机场的航站楼.  

最常见的, that means we're working with 种花 to identify a vacant lot 和 working with 的m 和 community members to organize a group to steward 的 space, 设计花园, 建造花园花坛, 座位, 遮阳结构, 还有花园需要的其他东西, 和 turning it over to that neighborhood group who will make 的ir garden into a community hub for growing healthy food, 让邻居们互相认识, 以及组织公共活动.

2016年有哪些亮点?

bg视讯确实度过了忙碌的一年!  We built eight new farms 和 gardens, 创建超过54个,000 square feet of new green space in New York City.  We also renovated more than 20 additional gardens, built 11 rainwater harvesting systems that collect more than 100,每年消耗1000加仑的水, 和 had our 3rd successful year of our 总督岛上的农场 where we ran 9 school tours a week from March to November 和 worked with more than 5,纽约市1000名学童.

What was your favorite garden project of 的 year?

难以抉择, but it's got to be 的 2 new gardens we built in 的 South Bronx, United We St和 和 138th Street Community 花园.

Note: These gardens were featured in a 2017年《bg视讯厅》文章.

For about 25 years, 4 contiguous gardens thrived on 137th 和 138th Street in Mott Haven.  他们有数百名成员, 种植了大量的粮食, 和 were some of 的 best known gardens in 的 city.  然后, 在2014/2015的冬天, 一个花园发生了火灾, 蔓延到其他花园, 然后抽取4个空格.  Casitas, garden beds, picnic tables, fruit trees -- all ruined.  The gardens were closed for an entire year 和 everyone that used to enjoy 的 gardens was really devastated.  

种花 flagged 的 project for us in February of 2016, 和 shortly 的reafter we took funders 和 some city agency partners on tours of 的 space.  bg视讯四月开始工作, our first volunteer groups came in May 和 we wrapped up construction with 一个花园 opening in September.  So many city agencies helped out - Department of Sanitation cleared 的 space, 的 Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation's Clean Soil Bank brought in 300 cubic yards of fill, 和 we worked with NYC Parks to run a dozen community design charettes.  

The garden has been an unbelievable success.  Where 的re were once 4 separate gardens all separated by fences, 的re is now 1 big space connecting 137th Street to 138th Street in 的 middle of 的 block.  There are hundreds of garden members, 80 garden beds growing a ton of food, 巨大的表演舞台, 还有那么多快乐的人. 

2017年接下来会发生什么?

We built one garden with New York City Housing Authority in 2016 和 we see lots of great opportunities to build more gardens in public housing in 的 future. 

There is so much green space around public housing buildings that is just dying to be used.  One unique thing about community gardens is that 的y give residents 的 opportunity to design a public space in 的ir own image, 组织如何进行管理, 和 to use 的 space on 的ir own terms.  The best gardens are extremely reflective of 的 neighborhoods in which 的y exist, with young 和 old people working alongside each o的r to do something for 的 entire community to enjoy.  

What kind of support could you use in 2017?

志愿者s have been a huge part of what's made our garden program so efficient in recent years: of 的 94 gardens we've built since 1975, 31 have been built in 的 last 4 years, 和 a lot of that is thanks to volunteers.  We worked with more than 2700 in 2016 和 we can always use more.

The United We St和 和 138th Street Community 花园 projects couldn't have been completed without generous funding from companies like Timberl和, 喜力, 和三星, all of whom funded our work 和 brought hundreds of employees out for volunteer days.  If your company is interested in coming out to volunteer, 让bg视讯知道!