Oral History of New York City Community Gardens

Community Gardening in all of it’s manifestations is a proving ground for experiments in social and ecological sustainability. Read How.

 Over the past couple of years I have interviewed community gardeners and community gardening activists and discussed with them the early days of the modern community gardening movement in New York City. The time period stretches from the late 1970′s to the early 2000′s. I turned these interviews into a total of 8 audio podcasts thus far. The people that were interviewed were either colleagues from my time working at Council on the Environment and then GrowNYC or community gardeners who I worked with on projects at their gardens. There are a number of other people who I wish to interview but it does take a bit of organizing to arrange an interview and then to edit those interviews into a podcast. Most of the editing was to remove tangents or asides that may not have been relevant. I can’t claim to have put together a definitive history but the stories that are told and the events described in these interviews are good starting point for anyone who wants to know about this time period or to write about these people or events.

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The first podcast was with Gerard Lordahl, the Director of what was called the Open Space Greening Program at GrowNYC when I worked there. Gerard and I worked together for 31 years from 1986 to 2017 and the interview includes some reminiscing while recounting the history. This episode was published January 31, 2021 and contains notes and links to groups mentioned in the interview. The episode is 48 minutes long and is very creatively called Community Gardening Part 1

                                                Lenny Librizzi and Gerard Lordahl in 1986

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardening-Part-1-epapab 

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In the second podcast published on March 9, 2021, I tell the story of a visit I made to a community garden on Staten Island called Olivet Heavenly Harvest Community Garden. Many of the gardeners are cancer survivors and they have created a unique and beautiful garden together. It is one of the most inspiring stories about a community garden and shows the social impact of community gardening. This episode is a little over 8 and a half minutes long and is called Community Garden Spotlight – Olivet Heavenly Harvest Community Garden.

                                           Kelly Morris at the Olivet Heavenly Harvest Garden

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Garden-Spotlight-Olivet-Heavenly-Harvest-Garden-ertomk 

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The third and fourth podcasts were published on April 3 and April 5, 2021. They were the  two parts of an interview with Jane Weissman who was the Director of GreenThumb, New York City’s Municipal  Community Gardening Program, from 1984 to 1998. Jane has many stories to tell about the inner workings of New York City agencies and how the program developed from simply leasing land to community groups to providing an array of materials and services. Jane was part of a group of advocates that helped preserve community gardens from being bulldozed. The episodes highlight the contributions of several women and were titled Community Gardens- Strong Women, approximately 25 minutes long and Community Gardens – Strong Women Conclusion which is 35 minutes long. The second part is a retelling of the threats faced by community gardens from then Mayor Giuliani. In this episode Jane mentions these 2 volumes of stories told by the gardeners. Here are the links to the .pdf documents. 

City Farmers:Tales from the Field⁠ and ⁠Tales From the Field II

                                                     Lenny Librizzi and Jane Weissman⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardens—Strong-Women-ett1n2 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardens–Strong-Women-Conclusion-eu880f

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The next podcasts were published on June 29, 2021 and are three parts of an interview with Ena McPherson. Ena is a community gardener / activist in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. In the first part Ena talks about her early influences and how she became involved in community gardening by helping to create and preserve community gardens in her community. The first part is called Community Gardens: An Interview with Ena McPherson and is 24 and a half minutes long.

 The second part is called Community Gardens: Hattie Carthan as Told by Ena McPherson and is 13 minutes and 30 seconds long. Ena tells us about Hattie Carthan who pioneered urban forestry and urban agriculture in her community She was an advocate for Environmental Justice before that term was used. Ms. Carthan was an inspiration for all community gardeners. 

The third part of this interview is titled Community Gardens, Conclusion of an interview with Ena McPherson and is a little over 33 minutes long. In this episode Ena recounts how she created a community garden with young people and her work to preserve this garden. I played a small part in this effort by working with teens to install a rainwater harvesting system.

Ena McPherson

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardens–An-interview-with-Ena-McPherson-e13jmt3

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardens-Hattie-Carthan-as-told-by-Ena-Mcpherson-e13l2as

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/Community-Gardens–Conclusion-of-an-interview-with-Ena-Mcpherson-e13lbg0

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The eighth episode of this oral history of Community Gardens in New York City was published on November 2, 2023. It is titled East New York Farms and is approximately 46 minutes long. We recorded the episode in the Herbal Garden in East New York, Brooklyn and it is an interview with community gardener Johanna Willins and former Cornell Cooperative Extension agent, John Ameroso. Johanna and John were the visionary founders of East New York Farms, a community based farmers market, founded in the 1990′s on a bare bones budget. The market continues to operate and helped pave the way for the many local neighborhood craft / produce markets so prevalent today. Note that there is construction noise in the background during this podcast. It was a difficult podcast to coordinate and unfortunately the day we chose to record was the day the streets surrounding the garden were being repaved.

                                                       John Ameroso and Johanna Willens

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecobytes/episodes/East-New-York-Farms-e2bd7e0

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More episodes / interviews will be recorded soon as I make an effort to to preserve the voices and rich history of community gardens in New York City.