If you happened to visit the HPD (Housing Preservation & Development) owned lot at the corner of Grand and West Tremont Avenues in the fall of 2009, you would have found an abandoned lot full of bottles, cans, household items, shopping carts, discarded clothing, syringes, rats and every other type of debris you can think of.  Here's a video of the team assessing the lot, just months before the May 2010 campaign to bring an urban farm  to the neighborhood took flight:

http://www.leaveitbetter.com/play/176/

Now almost a year and a half later, July 2011, much has changed at the newest addition to the 600+ NYC community gardens.  The football field sized space is now officially under the jurisdiction of New York City Parks & Recreation after the persevering advocacy of  the Morris Heights Community, Leave It Better, Green Thumb and Bronx Green Up.

Meetings to plan for the garden began even before the first official work day of the season which was April 16th, 2011.  The first success for the Morris Heights Community took place on a snowy day in February 2011 when a group of advocates from Leave It Better and Bronx Green Up met with Council Member Fernando Cabrera and his Chief of Staff Gregory Faulkner.  On that day, to the thrill of the Morris Heights Community and the team, Green Thumb announced that a temporary license was granted by HPD, allowing the community to use the lot as a community garden via a temporary contract that would have to be renewed every year.  At any given point in time, however, the license could be revoked for development.  Needless to say, after an "in limbo" 2010 season, having a temporary license buoyed our spirits.  Even though it wasn't a permanent arrangement, a yearly license was a huge victory after spending months cleaning up and and caring for the park without having certainty that anything  tangible would become of our efforts.  It was the beginning of a string of favorable turn of events that keep us believing in the complete transformation of the forgotten park into an urban farm.

As if a temporary  license wasn't reward enough, 2011 had more great things in store the Leave It Better Kids' Garden.  On the day of the Bronx Grow Together - an event at Hostos Community College where gardening organizations get together to hold workshops for the community in everything from container gardening to beekeeping - Green Thumb announced that the Leave It Better Kids' Garden had been transferred over to NYC Parks & Recreation and was now was now an official Green Thumb Garden reserved as green space with very little threat of future development. It took a little longer for this victory to sink in.  It usually takes years to get an HPD garden transferred, however by reaching out to various community organizations, its residents and groups, Morris Heights made the transition in less than one year.

Each week this 2011 season, the community takes steps leading to becoming an urban farm where they will be able to grow affordable organic food.  As of July 9th, 2011, eleven plus work days hosted by the Morris Heights Community and Leave It Better, a Herb and Spice Your Life workshop hosted by King of Glory Tabernacle Groundswell Project and a food demonstration hosted by Just Food and Bronx Green Up have taken place at the Leave It Better Kids Garden.  Students from Validus Preparatory Academy in the Bronx  also visited the Leave It Better Kids Garden on May 26, 2011 as part of a week long program at their school to teach kids about healthy eating.  During their visit, the students transfered as set of  recycled raised beds from PS 306/MS 331, unloaded soil from the  Bronx Green Up truck and filled the raised beds and planted Basil and Cilanto.  Everyone enjoyed a healthy lunch of tacos prepared by Ollie who represented Just Food and a community Garden in Washington Heights.  We hope to have more food demonstrations and visits from schools in the future!  Below: Sister Addie Banks from the King of Glory Tabernacle Groundswell Project led the 4th installment of the Herb & Spice Your Life Series at the Leave It Better Kids' Garden, June 4, 2011.  The series consists of 4 workshops where communities plant, learn about herbs, talk about food & health, cook, prepare and share a healthy meal together.  The series, which aims to eliminate the prevalence of diabetes in Black and Latino communties will be ongoing, so stay tuned for updates in the future.

The Leave It Better Kids' Garden is very excited to have partnered with the King of Glory Tabernacle Groundswell Project in the mission to help reduce diabetes incidents in the Morris Heights Community.  The community and team are also psyched to have the assistance and support of Bronx Green Up who have helped with providing volunteers to our projects, helping schedule food and work days at the garden, training in building raised beds and via donating plants and supplies.  Green Thumb has played an instrumental role in the success of the Leave It Better Kids' Garden by supporting us through the transition from being HPD owned to being under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks & Recreation.  Additionally, the Green Thumb team guided us through registration twice, counseled us on community garden policies, provided us with lumber, free gardening workshops, a fire hydrant wrench and adapter (to access water to water the plants), a letter to receive a fire hydrant permit from the city from the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) an official Green Thumb Sign, garbage and recyling bags, trowels, garbage pickers, tomato cages, a lock and 2 keys.  They also put in an order for a shipment of soil, compost and mulch which we expect to receive soon.  Patrnerships for Parks and Council Member Fernando Cabrera's Office have been a huge help in advising us with the grants we've submitted.  To all these organizations and the others, we're extremely grateful and send out a big thank you for all your effort.  Below: Graham films the 4th installment of the Herb & Spice Your Life Series @ the Leave It Better Kids' Garden while the kids gather soil to plant herb seedlings, June 4, 2011.



Below: On July 1st, a group of Morris Heights Community members, friends, staff and volunteers from Bronx Green Up and Leave It Better teamed up to build 12 raised garden beds constructed with lumber donated from Green Thumb.

Below: the 12 raised beds the team cowboyed & cowgirled up to build, July 1, 2011. Can we get a yeeeeeeeeeeeee hawww?!!!!

In addition to the work days, workshops and food demonstrations, the community and volunteers have replanted the flower bed with ornamental Parsley, Nasturtiums and rose bushes, closed up rat holes, built 12 raised vegetable beds, picked up trash and sorted bottles and cans for recycling, pruned the trees, removed weed trees, bundled up branches, watered, put out the trash, weeded, turned the soil and completed various other garden tasks. Below: Validus Preparatory Academy Students unload soil from the truck and into planters at the Leave It Better Kids' Garden, May 26, 2011.

While much has been accomplished since the Leave It Better Kids' Garden was conceived, there's still a long road ahead.  A rat infestation which was minor in the initial stages of our project was exacerbated after relentless snowstorms last winter prevented garbage from being picked up for a week.  Also rats from the sewer were uprooted and relocated to the ground under the garden last fall after the city came to fix underground pipes.  The community and team of advocates have been working with Green Thumb, NYC Parks & Recreation and The Bronx Borough President's Office to get the rat situation under control.  Until the rats are diminished, we will have to hold off on planting any food.

The Morris Heights Community presses on week after week and are not deterred by any of the challenges faced by building a community garden from the ground up.  For every challenge faced, the residents find solutions and a new avenue of resources.  As more weeks pass, more community members, both kids and adults are pitching in and getting involved.  We have maybe 50-60 neighborhood kids who are involved regularly and maybe 30-50 neighborhood adults who have contributed in one form or another since the beginning.  We're very excited as these numbers continue to grow and more community residents get on board to heal their neighborhood. Below: Kids & Graham pose for a photo after working on closing up rat holes, June 11, 2011.

The mission of the Leave It Better Kids' Garden is to serve as an educational tool where kids will learn about eating organic food and learn how eating local will not only keep them healthy, but will keep the Earth healthy.  Studies and census records show that Black and Latino ethinicities are more likely to suffer from diabetes so reducing the number of diabetes cases in this predominantly Latino and Black community is high on the priority list.   The Leave It Better Kids' Garden will serve as a place where kids will grow to be stewards of the land and promoters of sustainability.  Neighbors will have the opportunity to connect and share share skills and knowledge to be passed on to future generations.  We plan to reach these goals by continuing with the programs already engaged and opening up a Farmers Market and Farm Apprentice Program at the garden in the future.

We invite everyone to come out and meet the Morris Heights Community and join in on one of our work days.    Every Saturday from 12-5 PM, the gates are open to all.  Additional fixed hours are in the works and will be available when the garden is more established.  We hope to see you all soon and thanks for helping make the Leave It Better Kids' Garden a triumph in the making.

Progress Made by the Morris Heights, Bronx Community:

Official Transfer from HPD to NYC Parks & Recreation, Official Green Thumb Sign received and mounted, lumber delivered and 12 raised beds built, gate fixed, flower bed replanted, wood border formed with excess wood from pruned trees for flower bed, trees pruned and weed trees eliminated, plans designed for future of garden

Parternships Forged (and growing): PS 306 MS 331, New York City Council - Fernando Cabrera's Office, Bronx Green Up / New York Botanical Garden, King of Glory Tabernacle - Groundswell Project, Bronx Borough President's Office, Bronx Health Reach, Green Thumb, Partnerships for Parks

Goals for 2011 & Beyond:

Fill out as many grant applications as possible, removal of collapsed concrete floor, eliminate rats, build Farm Apprentice Program, create a Farmers' Market, engage more and more people from the community

Below: Kids & Dominique create messages promoting sustainability to hang in the neighorhood, June 25, 2011.

Below:  The team mounts the garden's official Green Thumb sign. Thank you Green Thumb!

Below: Jim, a Volunteer from Bronx Green Up/New York Botanical Garden gave the kids a few pointers on building raised beds, July 1, 2011.

Below: Ursula and kids get ready to drive some screws into the lumber, July 1, 2011.

Below: Roz, (an Educator in the Leave It Better reGeneration Program) and kids add the finishing touches to this raised bed, July 1, 2011.

Below: Bobby, a community leader and neighborhood fixture on Grand Avenue lent his power tools and contractor skills to building the raised beds, July 1, 2011.

Below: Ursula, Director of Bronx Green Up (the Community Horticulture Program @ New York Botanical Garden) & Carlos, a volunteer from a community garden in the Bronx helped prune the trees, remove weed trees and bundle up branches, July 9, 2011.