Local Residents, Community Organizers and a small group of members from A Small Green Patch have joined together to organize and set up a community green space at 1187 Fulton street. A Small Green Patch reached out to Sister Maajeida after connecting with her through 596 Acres. Sister Maajeida works and lives near 1187 Fulton and has setup an initial meeting in front of the vacant lot where 15 residents from the area attended and expressed interest in converting the lot into a community space. A Small Green Patch is a garden that needs to be relocated because a new building will be built on the lot they have occupied for the past 2 1/2 years. A Small Green Patch is asking Community Board 3, Green Thumb, NYC Parks and HPD to allow us to move and transfer our Green Thumb License to 1187 Fulton Street. Our members would like to work with the surrounding community to create a community space that would be open to everyone interested.
If A Small Green Patch is granted permission to move to the new location our members would work with Sister Maajeida and the group she has gathered to set up a new process for decision making, set up and build a new garden based upon the ideas and needs of the surrounding community. A Small Green Patch would be able to help jump start the set up process by providing examples of a working members agreement, bylaws, experience, materials, tools and more.
A Small Green Patch would also work with the community towards renaming the garden to a name everyone votes on and the garden contact that is the liason between Green Thumb and the garden would be given to a community member that lives closer to 1187 based on what the group decides.
Transferring the green thumb license to 1187 Fulton would mean swift access to the space, as opposed to applying to Green Thumb as a new garden, and offers the possibility of permanent green space at this location if the relocation contract is fulfilled as was offered at a lot inside the ½ mile parameters. Also, we can offer many tools, soil, garden beds, benches, and small trees and bushes that have been a part of our garden at Bergen street. We have experience in setting up a new garden through HPD and Green Thumb, and would like to offer to assist Majeeda and other interested members in navigating the necessary city agencies.
The garden at its current location is a vibrant community made up of both community organizations and individual members.
- St. Lydia’s is a dinner church that holds a weekly service over a meal prepared from food grown in the garden; they have a weekly practice of welcoming anyone and everyone to their table.
- The Textile Arts Center grows plants that yield natural dye, supports artists-in-residence and interns at the space, and holds natural dye workshops on site.
- Feedback Farms is a working urban farm. They are developing appropriate technology and conducting research on best practices for urban agriculture and sharing this knowledge through community engagement and educational programs.
- Our beekeeper, Kellen, her Queen Bee Beyonce, and her hive have provided the lots not only with pollination, but also with a useful teaching tool for kids and adults alike.
- Our individual members have spearheaded potlucks and acoustic musical performances, members work together to tend to the bushes, flowers, grow organic vegetables in shared garden plots, and we have an active composting program.
Together, these groups and individuals produced over 2000 lbs of vegetables, started a community composting operation, held 20-30 hours of open hours on a weekly basis over the Green Thumb season, worked with a huge number of volunteers, raised funds, planted a beautiful perennial flower garden, hosted the NYRP's one million tree giveaway and numerous other art, music, and environmental education events.
If all these groups had not all worked together at the beginning, the garden as it was able to exist for the past two years and might not ever have been created.
This is a rare opportunity to create a possible permanent green space building off A Small Green Patch’s first two seasons as an energetic, multiuse and open green space, as any new garden is usually set up as a temporary space. We hope that the Board will consider recommending that A Small Green Patch’s relocation agreement be applied to Block 2000 Lot 43 at 1187 Fulton Street, so that with agreement from HPD and Green Thumb we can secure a permanent garden in your neighborhood.
