Try This at Home: Join a community garden

Added Value’s community garden in Brooklyn.
See more photos from New York’s community gardens

So there I was in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood. Just out of the way of public transportation and once heavily controlled by the Mob, this area has become somewhat of a car-oriented wasteland in recent years. Blocks are wide, full of brick buildings and parking lots. A brand-new Ikea sparkles in one corner, beckoning Brooklynites with all its fabulously disposable wares.

And right next to the Ikea? Why, a huge, flourishing community garden!

A garden grows in Brooklyn.
See more photos from New York’s community gardens

The Added Value Urban Garden is a volunteer-driven, youth-oriented community garden that also happens to be planted right on top of the asphalt here in Brooklyn. The farm is funded with grant money and is considered a public land in New York—which means that it’s open to everyone. Two days a week, volunteers come from all over town to help with planting, weeding, composting and harvesting. During the summer, a weekly farmer’s market brings in cash and public interest. And in between, Added Value works with young kids from the neighborhood, providing paying jobs.

That paid work is incredibly important. I talked to a Red Hook teenager who used to make money selling water on the streets. That’s a sight better than selling drugs, but still not a great job for a 14-year-old. He heard that the NY Department of Youth and Community Development was helping kids find work, and went down to the recruiting office looking for better work. They placed him here at the Red Hook garden, where he’s now a leader in the youth program.

Don’t just buy local, grow local.

The Capuchin Soup Kitchen runs a community garden in Detroit.
See more photos from Detroit’s community gardens

There are community gardens like this in every city I visited, and most towns too. In most cases, they’re nonprofit or charity organizations who pay their volunteers in veggies, feed the local community, and offer valuable training to anyone wanting to green their thumb.

For example: in Detroit, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen manages a network of gardens that brighten the community and feed the needy. In Austin, Johnson’s Backyard Garden lets you walk away with a share of vegetables in exchange for a day’s work. In Chicago, the Fourth Presbyterian Church runs a beautiful garden on Chicago Avenue. In the Bronx, Tanya Fields is organizing her community to create a network of urban farms. And in Nashville, Earth Matters is revolutionizing the community with a grassroots sustainable-gardens movement.

Fence cutout at the Chicago Avenue garden

The point of all this? If you care about sustainability, you must get involved. Your community garden probably already exists, and it needs volunteers. All you have to do is put in a few hours—even if you only do it once—to understand the strength of the movement. And you’ll pick up some gardening knowledge too.

Don’t have a green thumb?

That’s no excuse, in fact it’s a great big lie. Gardening is a matter of knowledge, not talent. You don’t have to have a magical gift for talking to plants: all you need is a place to learn. Community gardens are the perfect opportunity to get the experience you need.

How to find your community garden

the Liz Christy Garden, beautifying Manhattan since 1973.
See more photos from New York’s community gardens

In most places, there’s no directory of gardens. Most of them are small, grassroots efforts– which is probably why you don’t know about them. Start by asking your neighbors and friends, and searching online. If that doesn’t work, go to the farmer’s market or call your Chamber of Commerce.

Still can’t find anything? Contact your local food banks and nonprofits, and let them know you’re a supporter of the community gardening movement. Tell them that, if they were to find the grant money to start a garden, you’d be willing to volunteer.

Or, if you can swing it, just start your own garden and invite your neighbors to participate.

However you approach this, whatever path you take, the simple act of doing something is what matters. Just take a little initiative in whatever direction works best for you, and you’ll be supporting the movement to green your community.

Earth Works community garden in Detroit.
See more photos from Detroit’s community gardens