A.C.T.I.O.N. Greens the Bronx

Posted in Learning Experiences on July 26 2012, by Matt Newman

As the community outreach arm of The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Green-Up is invested in the future of our Bronx neighborhoods, providing horticultural advice, technical assistance, and training to the growing urban gardening movement here in the borough. It’s this very program that earned the NYBG the prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2010, as given by first lady Michelle Obama. Through workshops and certificate programs, as well as harvest festivals, BGU is still building on that honor, working tirelessly to bring community gardeners together through the sharing of information. And so far, it’s working. Just ask the newly-minted gardeners of the A.C.T.I.O.N. group!

It stands for Activists Coming to Inform Our Neighborhood, and it’s an apt description for an outfit looking to identify and tackle environmental and social justice concerns at home. After four dedicated seasons of tutelage under our BGU horticulturists, these 21 teens returned to their south Bronx neighborhood with useful new tools in hand, ready to paint Hunts Point green. They did it not only through classroom learning, but hands-on activities in the soil, learning the ins and outs of a food system under increased scrutiny in areas such as the Bronx. Now they’re able to look past the supermarket produce aisle, turning to shovels, wheelbarrows, and plenty of elbow grease to tackle the issues in their own garden plots–from seed to harvest.

And they’re sharing the wealth. The A.C.T.I.O.N. Urban Gardening Manual is the result of many focused hours of effort, a field guide for beginning city gardeners who might not have the benefit of a workshop to show them the ropes. It’s one important step in erasing the growing issue of “food deserts” in America’s cities, neighborhoods where access to healthy foods is extremely limited. And each page has been carefully written and illustrated by none other than the students themselves, with BGU Community Horticulturist Sara Katz heading up the editorial department.

“We worked on our seedlings indoors with a growing unit, which helped the plants grow faster than if we had planted them outdoors, in the cold weather,” writes student Kendrick Martinez, providing an epigraph to the chapter on starting seeds. In another section on composting, Darius Daniels explains the process of creating compost bins at Riverside garden, using plants from the group’s last harvest to kick things off. The science, mechanics, and benefits of each undertaking are all here–from dirt to dinner table. It’s a step in the right direction for many neighborhoods that must often rely on corner bodegas for nutritious produce.

With sharp young minds like these at the helm of the urban gardening push, the sense that the Bronx is becoming a hub for the movement is even more present. The A.C.T.I.O.N. group is only one of the many influences moving the borough–and Hunts Point in particular–toward a brighter future. Along the southern end of the Bronx River Corridor, for example, shorelines are being revitalized, the river no longer the most polluted waterway in America but a thread of hope passing through greenspaces and recreational parks. Likewise, plans are being made to build the largest rooftop farm in America–10 unbroken acres–over top a warehouse in Hunts Point. And the NYBG is, as always, proud to be involved in this growing success story. Stay tuned for more news from the northernmost borough as the Bronx Green-Up and its forward-thinking partners plant healthy in the Boogie Down!