A lawn at the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Pelham Parkway Houses has been transformed into a community garden.
GrowNYC, a nonprofit that has reenvisioned thousands of square feet with NYCHA residents since 2010, unveiled the project on July 6. The project was funded with $30,000 of Fiscal Year 2023 discretionary funding from Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, a Throggs Neck Democrat.
The organization has created 13 gardens at NYCHA developments with support from tenant associations and other community-based groups. In the Bronx, the organization helped gardens become a reality at the Castle Hill Houses in 2020 and Melrose Houses in 2021.
“GrowNYC’s Gardens at NYCHA program is operated with a community-first approach, focusing on the garden space and growing together using community feedback, events, virtual support, and access to educational materials,” said GrowNYC spokesperson Andrina Sanchez. “Most importantly, our approach empowers NYCHA residents with ownership and agency in their garden.”
The garden spaces help filter the air, prevent pollution, attract pollinators and connect residents with nature, she added. They also bring healthy food access and distribution.
The new garden will double as a community space and learning garden for Pelham Parkway residents and youth from Bronx House day care. The garden will be an extension of their environmental curriculum, where they can grow food for the community.
Before the garden was installed, the lead resident gardener Richard James started growing daffodils in the corner of the lawn. Now, his little corner of beauty has blossomed, and his daffodils are accompanied by other plants, flowers and produce that he can care for with his community.
Pelham Parkway Houses Tenant Association President Oscar Grant and Property Manager Nicole Harris applied for the garden funding in early January, Sanchez told the Bronx Times.
Since then, GrowNYC Garden coordinators have worked with the community, along with Bronx House and the Jewish Association Serving the Aging, to drum up excitement around the project.
The workers hosted plant painting with youngins and Zumba for elders, as well as build days — in which members of the community helped GrowNYC employees create the garden by planting, building beds and moving soil. Volunteers from other Bronx gardens also helped, as well as from GrowNYC and NYC Parks GreenThumb.
“This initiative provides residents the tools and opportunity to learn step-by-step how to build a garden; from breaking ground, which plants grow best in our climate and soil, the management of the garden, and more,” Velázquez told the Bronx Times.
Velázquez said that her office is funding GrowNYC again for Fiscal Year 2024, which began on July 1.
Michael Corbett, a senior advisor to Velázquez, told the Bronx Times that the $30,000 for this project went toward planters, seeds and labor costs. He did not know the cost breakdown — deferring the question to GrowNYC — saying the councilmember’s office doesn’t usually require a breakdown for funding, just the total cost of the project.
Sanchez said that about half of the funding was used for planters, soil, landscape fabric, seeds, plants, benches and garden tools, and the other half was used to pay the GrowNYC garden coordinators — who oversee garden design, community organizing, outreach and regular programming.
Corbett said that the organization will receive “some level of funding” this year but does not yet know how much. Sanchez said the organization is hoping to open another site, but it’s contingent on funding and community support.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
