Some Great Information about joining a Brooklyn Community Garden by Brooklyn Based.
A Plot of Your Own by Brooklyn Based
Brooklyn has the greenest thumb of all five boroughs, if you measure that by our 349 community gardens (Manhattan comes in second with 204). The Brooklyn Queens Land Trust defines a community garden as "a shared green space which is planned, designed, built and maintained by some community members for the use and enjoyment of the entire community," but how each garden interprets that definition varies greatly.
At the Garden of Union in Park Slope, no one gets an individual plot, and the produce grown is divvied among members. Clinton Hill's Hollenback Garden assigns separate plots, but requires its members to attend four meetings and four group "workdays" a year and spend two hours a month hosting the garden's weekly "open hours," the 10-hour period all gardens are open to the public. The rules are strict because there's a waiting list to get in next year.
Getting In
The Green Thumb website (greenthumbnyc.org), part of the city Parks and Recreation department, allows you to enter your street address or zip code to find the gardens nearest your home (or office). You then call Green Thumb (212-788-8070) to get the name, phone and email of the garden’s coordinator for details on how to join.
If your heart's set on joining a garden with a waiting list, you typically need to invest some sweat equity for admission. This Saturday, for instance, Hollenback is hosting a workday starting at 11 am, open to interested parties.
Once you're in, you're expected to abide by the garden's rules -- and not be an idiot. "We've only asked one to person to leave in 10 years," said Wayne Tobias, co-coordinator of the St. Mark's Avenue Block Association garden, "and that was because she would go into other people's plots and dig their flowers up."
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