The urge to grow your own food can strike in even the most urban environments. My post on the USA Character Approved Blog this week shows how one person answers that urge in the wilds of Manhattan.
Peter Bazeli and his wife Lisa Nathan live the big city dream—certainly my big city dream. Their apartment on the Upper West Side faces New York’s green jewel, Central Park. But old habits die hard. Peter grew up helping his parents in their large family garden in the Midwest. Gradually, he took it over and even put in a fish pond. Moving to the big city did nothing to stifle his desire to dig in the dirt. So he rents a tiny plot in a Manhattan community garden, where he and Lisa raise heirloom tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, eggplants, lettuce and spinach.
“Farming” a four-foot by four-foot garden plot in the heart of New York City is not without its challenges. But it brings plenty of rewards too. You can read all about both—and about Peter’s urban and not-so-urban foraging adventures—at the USA Character Approved Blog this week.
An interesting side note on Peter’s urban farming story—well, interesting to me, anyway. I think it shows how, as we become increasingly interested in where our food comes from and take an ever greater interest in growing our own food whenever possible, we will see more and more city/country mash-ups just like this. We first heard about Peter at an outdoor opera event in downtown Chicago. We met his parents while waiting in line for the performance and struck up a conversation. They had come in from their home in downstate Illinois for the day. And yes, they still have the fish pond—and Peter still maintains it for them on his visits home.
Thanks for the great post. Do you know of any place downtown with plots available?
Hi, City Share! I’m sorry, but my connection to Peter Bazeli has exhausted my knowledge of community gardens in New York. But I’ve emailed a couple of New York bloggers to see if they know anything. I’ll email you if I learn anything.
I caught this at your USA blog. ;-D
Dear City Share – All of the community gardens in New York City are sponsored by Greenthumb New York, which is a City agency overseeing the process of converting vacant building lots to managed community gardens. The website is http://www.greenthumbnyc.org and there is a search engine there that you can use to find “your garden” by borough or street address. Good luck!
In follow-up, my own community garden on the Upper West Side, which is administered by Greenthumb, has a website: http://www.west104garden.org
Feel free to visit. All the Community Gardens in New York are also open to the public according to a regular schedule, so I encourage everyone to visit the community gardens in their neighborhoods, attend music and community events there, and see what the members are growing in their plots. Even if you do not have a plot yourself, you might enjoy seeing how hundreds of other gardeners in New York City are making maximum use of small spaces.
Hi, Dani!
Peter—Thanks so much for the information! Everyone, Peter also sent me a link to a three-part video of him cooking mushrooms he foraged in Connecticut, Urban Forager Cooks Bi-Color Bolete.
Peter and Terry, thank you for the information. I contacted Greenthumb for additional details.
On behalf of Peter, I’ll say glad to help, City Share. Hope you find a space to garden in New York!
It’s amazing to see people embracing farming, even on a small scale, here in Manhattan. 🌱 With so much development around us, it’s nice to see folks getting back to the roots of what this area used to be. I’m curious, for those of you with small-scale farms, what challenges have you faced, especially with the weather and soil conditions around here? Do you find that it’s more about the love of gardening or are you able to sustain a significant amount of produce? I’d love to know if any local markets feature these home-grown goods—it’d be great to support our local growers!