Help the Eldert Street Garden grow!

The Eldert Street Garden is a beautiful community garden in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We've been growing and building our garden for six years, and this is the first time we're asking for the assistance of our community. Now the garden can't continue to grow without your help! We need funds for materials to do important repairs, and to continue to build raised vegetable beds for neighborhood residents to grow in. Read more below to learn about the garden, and what your support can help us achieve.

The Eldert Street Garden Story

How we got started

In 2009, several neighbors in Bushwick, Brooklyn got together to realize a collective dream of starting a community garden in our neighborhood. After a long search, we found a landowner willing to let us build our garden on their empty lot. The owner, a former non-profit organization with a small piece of donated land in its name, had never built on the land, and it had stood vacant for over a decade. We reached an agreement with them, and in February 2009, we opened the gate and started working. We’ve never looked back, and the garden has been growing ever since.

Getting to work

We had a lot of work to do to transform the empty lot at 315 Eldert Street into a garden. We had to clear the entire property of the leftover rubble of a demolished building which had once stood there.  Volunteers of all ages helped clean the garden, and had a blast doing it!




Above is a photo of our first few months of progress in the garden, in 2010. After cleaning the land and constructing a shed, composter, path and our first garden beds.

We continued working, building raised vegetable plots and ornamental beds.

A generous neighbor supplied us with access to water. We also added a rainwater harvest barrel. 
Later on we built a “kitchen” area, a roofed structure we’ve used during parties to prepare and serve food and store supplies in. 

(Our "kitchen" and compost bins. Photo courtesy of Jack Reep)

Today, the garden is home to numerous raised vegetable plots for use by individual neighborhood residents, six ornamental beds which include a number of native plants and shrubs which attract bees, butterflies and birds to the garden, two fruit trees, several berry bushes, an active compost bin, a lawn area, a barbecue and several benches and seating areas that gardeners and other neighborhood residents can make use of. Murals add color to the walls surrounding the garden. Visitors often describe it as a secret garden, an unexpected little oasis on a block that’s crowded with a high density of buildings and construction.

Below is a photo taken in 2015 of that same view:
(photo courtesy of Jack Reep)

(Photo courtesy of Citizens' Committee for NYC)

(Some veggies and flowers during growing season.)

Bringing the neighborhood together

We are the only garden in our immediate area where residents can grow their own plants in raised beds, and compost their food scraps. This is an experience that children and adults alike enjoy together.

(a gardener's plot of beans, kale and eggplant, and the harvest)

Since the garden’s beginnings, we’ve made a point of gardening with kids in the community, giving many of them their first opportunity to grow plants, dig in the dirt, and learn about compost. Bushwick is a densely urban and industrial area of North Brooklyn; many youth in Bushwick wouldn’t have the chance to garden otherwise. (Our community has a considerably lower percentage of accessible greenspace than other parts of New York.) It’s amazing what committed gardeners kids can be!

(Hard at work digging, watering, and planting fruit trees! Photo below courtesy of Citizen's Committee for NYC)

We’ve also hosted numerous free events of all kinds over the years, including barbecues, community dinners, musical performances from local musicians, mural-painting events, a block party which included book giveaways, DJ’S and live music and break dancing, a puppet show, several educational workshops on gardening and cooking, and even a wedding! 

(A community open mic and BBQ)

(painting seashells at out Brooklyn Arts Council event)

(painting a mural together)

(live music at our BRIC-sponsored mural party)

(DJing at the block party!)

Overcoming challenges

In the summer of 2014, the garden property was sold illegally and without our knowledge by a former member of the nonprofit who we had leased the garden from. After multiple break-ins and harassment by the new “owners”, we enlisted the help of a wonderful pro bono lawyer who helped us get an eviction overturned and remain in the garden. There is an ongoing lawsuit over the ownership of the land, but it is likely that we will be eligible in the next year or two to become a land trust garden, which would mean that our garden could be permanently protected as greenspace. But in order to make that potential a reality, we need your help!

(Success at the courthouse, with the support of our amazing lawyer Paula Segal of 596 Acres and the office of councilman Rafael Espinal)

Why we need your help now

After six seasons of gardening, we are in serious need of funding to make some important basic repairs to our infrastructure. We have to fix certain problems in order for us to be considered for permanent protection by a land trust and to be safely accessible to the whole neighborhood. We had to demolish our beloved kitchen area this spring when it became structurally unsound and both our composter and shed are in dire need of repair/replacement. Our water barrel and our pathway need repairs as well.
(The kichen this winter, shortly before we demolished it)

(Our toolshed's doors are broken, and it is much too small to house our current tool collection)

Besides these issues, we are also in need of building materials for new raised vegetable beds; our current beds are all full, and there is a waiting list! The annual garden membership dues are nowhere near enough to cover the costs for this season’s building, growing and repairs.

Lastly, our lawyer has been working tirelessly to help us protect the garden. We hope to be able to thank her by giving a small donation in the garden's name to her non-profit organization 596 acres (http://596acres.org/ ), which works to help start new community gardens and to protect existing ones.

Because our garden is privately owned, we are not eligible for the financial or material support that most city-owned community gardens receive. This means that from the beginning, we’ve had to be resourceful and find creative, independent ways of funding the costs of building and growing this garden. We’ve found help along the way with donations and grants from our local senator Martin Dilan, the office of Councilman Rafael Espinal, Citizens’ Committee for New York City, Brooklyn Arts Council, and others, and have thrown fundraising parties and art auctions to help raise money for past budgets. Plants, soil and tools have been donated from Brooklyn GreenBridge, Fresh Kills Compost Facility, and individual residents. We’ve worked hard for every inch of progress we’ve made in the garden. 
 
That’s why we’re turning to our community for assistance now. The bottom line here is: without your help, the garden can’t continue to grow.

What we'll do with your donations

With your support, we could make some big changes happen! The wishlist at the bottom of this page breaks down the specific items and materials that we hope to purchase this spring, which include lumber, soil and mulch, and community message boards, and other important items. We are aiming to make this campaign only two weeks long, because the flowers are blooming and it's growing season again; we're ready to get to work! 


In these tumultuous times in New York, it’s increasingly difficult for community gardens to thrive when land all around them gives way to new condos and expensive construction. We cannot guarantee our garden’s own security unless we can become a protected Land Trust garden. But with your help, our garden will be in tip-top shape for consideration, and we can take that next step toward permanence for future generations. 

It’s your garden, too!

The garden is open to new volunteers! If you’re in the area and you haven’t been to the garden before, you are welcome to drop in, whether it’s for a leisurely visit, a day of volunteering, or a long-term membership. For more information about joining or visiting the garden, please contact us though this GoFundMe site for more information, orvisit https://www.facebook.com/eldertstreetgarden and our blog: http://eldertstreetgarden.blogspot.com/

Whether big or small, your donations make everything we do this year at the Eldert Street Garden possible. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!