With our support, residents of public housing along Myrtle Avenue are growing their own food and flowers in two locations: the Ingersoll Garden of Eden and the Walt Whitman Victory Garden. The Ingersoll Garden of Eden currently includes 60 raised beds where over 60 gardeners ranging in age from 10-75+ are growing 25 varieties of fruits and vegetables – creating an award-winning NYCHA community garden! The Whitman Victory Garden has 10 gardeners growing food in 10 boxes, and gardeners are also beautifying the  grounds by planting flowers and bushes throughout the development.

Project Background

In 2007, in partnership with Project for Public Spaces, we conducted a number of community planning workshops for local stakeholders, including one workshop co-sponsored by the Ingersoll and Whitman Tenant Associations. Residents expressed a great desire to beautify and use the open greenspace that surrounds their buildings, to explore the many possibilities for creating great active and passive spaces, and to improve access to healthy, affordable food. Ingersoll Garden of Eden broke ground in 2009 and the Walt Whitman Victory Garden in 2012.

How we support growing at NYCHA developments:

• Sponsor skills building workshops led by Just Food with topics such as: garden planning, hoop house construction and organic pest management.
• Help gardeners share their past and present farming experiences at conferences and on Heritage Network’s “Hot Grease” radio show
• Connect gardeners to Farming Concrete so that their harvest can be included in city-wide counts
• In partnership with the NYCHA Garden and Greening Program,  we will assist the Ingersoll Garden of Eden to expand to a second location in 2014

Read our Annual Report for more information about project activities and accomplishments.

Project Funders