Best Garden

There are plenty of beautiful, well-established gardens in this city, from the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to the Chinese Scholar's Garden in Staten Island. But if gardens are places that bring communities together and, more importantly, where new things are growing, this award should go to three connected plots on Bergen Street in Gowanus called A Small Green Patch. Until recently, the plots were empty, unused, and full of garbage. But after a successful Internet fundraising drive, negotiations with the Housing Preservation Commission and a private owner, and many hours of work by community volunteers, the garden is now blossoming into something new and exciting. The first plot is a community space for everything from neighborhood picnics to musical performances. A second area is dedicated to growing food, under the direction of urban-agriculture pioneers Feedback Farms. The last plot will grow pigment-producing plants for a Natural Dye CSA program run by the Textile Arts Center. The seeds of the idea for this new garden were only planted last fall, but already it is growing into a great example of the city's vibrant local green-space movement. 346 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, asmallgreenpatch.com (11217)

Source: The Village Voice

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