Brooklyn’s Greening Heroes

300 East 25th Street

Rooted in Caribbean traditions from Jamaica and Barbados, the gardeners of 300 East 25th Street in Flatbush grow flowers and cultivate belonging. The scent of rain on soil recalls home, grounding neighbors who brought their gardening traditions to Brooklyn. What began with a few people planting has grown into a shared sanctuary where flowers, vegetables, and window boxes connect longtime residents and newcomers from around the world. Gardening here goes beyond plants; it provides a place to grieve, to heal, and to breathe.

Pauline Greene ›

Julia Charles ›

Vera Toney ›

Hazel Deane ›

Grace Henry ›

Pauline Greene

I came here in 1995 and I’m from Jamaica. And I’m from the Parish Saint Ann, which is called the Garden Parish, so we are all gardeners. When I came to New York, people talk about farm-to-table. This farm-to-table became trendy in New York, but this is how we literally live in Jamaica. That’s how we were brought up. You plant the ground provisions, or whatever it is, and you reap it, and then it’s for dinner. That was our way of life.

So, gardening wasn’t new to me, and because of the Greenest Block in Brooklyn, we really got involved. And everybody started gardening more serious. I remember going to the Chelsea flower show one year, and I was just fascinated with the window boxes. And I was the first one to start a window box on the block. It caught on. We have had winners from 300 East 25th Street getting first place for window boxes.

It’s a lot of work making everything work. You meet a lot of new people, new faces. You’re gardening, neighbors talk to you. People from Europe sometimes will come here. They heard about the block, and they’ll come and see. It’s more therapy for me as well.

Wherever I go, I’m gonna garden. I remember when my husband was sick in 2023, and that was my haven—I was in the garden most times for like four to six hours a day, but Patrick was sick, and I just needed a break, and that’s what kept me going. And sometimes he will tell me, “Why don’t you just move the bed outside,” because I would spend so much time out there and Miss Toney will tell me, “Go inside and sleep.”

I mean, I’ll literally come from work—I was a nurse, and I worked in the critical care area, ICU, and sometimes you had a rough night, and just coming home and just to de-stress, it made the world, it helped me a lot, and it was a lot of therapy for me back then.

Julia Charles

Moving on the block in 2013, I got to meet my neighbors. And obviously, before purchasing the house on the block we saw how beautiful it was. And so my neighbors, they kindly nudged and pushed and said, you have to green on the block, this is something that we do, this is the way of life and culture. And they’ve taken their time to coach me, first of all, to have window boxes. And then what used to be, I think, a signature, was to put window boxes over the door threshold. But now I really have the opportunity to kind of do my own thing and put my own stamp.

I do take a little pride in my window boxes. I love petunias. I love how they grow and hang over. I just love the way that looks like a bountiful color. I think that speaks to our culture, too, being Caribbean, that Caribbean people and cultures are associated with color and vibrancy. So I like to think that the flowers are an extension of that. And so I think that’s my personal stamp.

And then additionally, I’d say, I have boxwood topiaries in front of my house. So just a little history, my parents are from the Caribbean. My mom from Barbados and my dad from Jamaica, but they met in England. I love to see the pictures of the houses in London with those pretty signature doors and then the topiaries. So I incorporated that into the front of my house to have the well-manicured topiaries with also the bountiful color of petunias and vincas and so forth. So I think that kind of lends to the marriage of my culture and my background, between something really well kept and manicured and also a little bit more free and color vibrant.

I grew up in the Rockaways, Queens. Rockaway is a peninsula and pretty insulated. But how I ended up in Brooklyn was because of Superstorm Sandy. So my whole family, my parents, my in-laws, siblings all live in Rockaway. We got water four feet high. It was really devastating, but it showed me what we are all made of and brought me to Brooklyn.

[My husband and I] came across this block, and immediately we hit the corner of Clarendon Road and East 25th Street, and we’re like, “Wow, this is beautiful.” There was just a certain synergy that’s here that’s really unique and different to all the blocks in Brooklyn. There’s many, many beautiful blocks in Brooklyn, but I have to say, there’s something very special and unique right here. There is something like a pull here.

So it’s really kind of through what could seem like a tragedy, Superstorm Sandy, but also taught me a lot about myself and my husband and my children, of our resilience to hard times, especially being a city girl, and not just making the best out of a bad situation, but making something really great out of a situation. So to have neighbors that are really like family, and even special to this group here, where I’m like, the split between Barbados and Jamaica. I mean, it really doesn’t get much sweeter than that.

As much as I grew up in Rockaway, and we all knew each other, Rockaway is a very insulated town. Everyone went to the same school. Everyone knows everyone, but there was not necessarily a level of intimacy. So I would say gardening was that catalyst for that intimacy. And that’s something that I actually didn’t have all my years growing up in Rockaway, so just coming out, and my neighbors encouraging me to garden, asking me questions, wanting to share their garden with me, and replanting it and actually watching it grow has been the backdrop to many intimate conversations.

Pauline spoke about her husband passing, and I wasn’t well myself, and she actually came and took care of me, which is something I’ll never forget, and that’s something I couldn’t pay for. And if I was in Rockaway, I don’t think I would have that. So it’s that level of intimacy, of putting your hands in the dirt and just having those conversations you never would believe, where something can really grow. It’s not just our flowers and the plants, it’s real relationships, life-long relationships.

We live on a beautiful block, and we’re homeowners here, and that’s a privilege that is undeniable, but there’s something to the window boxes. Majority of people can do that, and it may seem daunting, but there’s therapy into making a garden for yourself, even with limited spaces, but also sometimes you think you’re doing it for yourself, but you don’t know who you’re actually inspiring.

And this is why it’s important to participate in any way that you actually can. Because if you have a window box and someone is walking by and they’re admiring it, they also feel encouraged to feel good about me and my environment and how I live. And other people can watch and see and admire and say, “Wow, I can do that too.”

So I think there’s something very important to that, acknowledging the fact that there are people who have a limited area for where they live. That’s very real, having housing insecurity. It is a privilege to live on a block like this, but people should definitely feel encouraged to just get started. Have something, even a house plant—if you can put it by your window, and others can see, they would feel inclined to be encouraged to get started.

Vera Toney

We’re from the same home country, Barbados, and from childhood, you’re used to growing something: a nine o’clock flower, or cactus, anything that you grew in your front yard.

Starting gardening here on this block was something that I wanted to do when I bought the house, but I was renovating, and I had all my stuff in the front yard, and I was gently nudged to get rid of that, it’s unsightly. But like all stubborn people, I paid them no attention. Eventually I cleared it out and started my garden, which then brought us a few years later into the Greenest Block.

And I love gardening. I love my flowers. I love the different plants that come up, one after the other, succession planting. In the springtime, you get tulips, and then you get the hostas coming up later, and then you get the different variety that’s coming.

It’s soothing. It’s relaxing for me. I enjoy my garden from that aspect, and then I walk the street and help do the boxes in the street. When you work at night, and you come home, and you want to get rid of all the stress of the night, and I talk to my plants, and you see the different change in one plant from the other, it calms me down, and I’m more relaxed by the time I’m ready to go back to face another night.

Hazel Deane

Among this group, I am a cornerstone. When I came in 1974, it was just a few of us. The block had boxwoods and mostly dirt. And I work in the evening. They knew my husband, they knew my son. No one knew me. And I start planting impatiens, and some of the neighbors admire them, and they joined too. Then Miss Foster introduced us to Botanic Garden for the Greenest Block. I learned then how to plant, from the annuals to the perennials.

And coming from my home in Barbados, if you had a little house, you had a plant around the house. And so that was my inspiration, to bring my home to my home through the garden. And now I know and communicate with everyone. The gardening made the community.

I love to see things growing. Now in the fall, I will take in my little cuttings and group them and have them for next year. I like to see the growth. I love spring. I plant vegetables in the backyard, and I love the flowers, I really do, but when I pick a tomato, it’s something else. It really makes a difference. Now that my husband is sick, I can go outside, and I can talk to the plants and dig in the dirt and have a little breather for a little while. So the garden really helps, and it is something that I grew up with. The gardening is really an extension of my growing up back home.

Grace Henry

I am Jamaican. The Caribbean culture is vibrant, and one of the things that I love most is, even as a kid, I like dirt. I like to feel the dirt. I like to smell the dirt. One of the things that was nostalgic for me, that brings back memory, there’s a certain smell you get growing up in Jamaica when it rains. At a certain dew level, there’s a scent that comes from the earth that just stays with you, and that’s what carried me when I moved from Jamaica as a teenager to here. But that gardening smell is the thing that really anchors you and make you feel at home away from home.

One of the things I love about gardening on the block is building community. Just because of gardening I’m familiar with every neighbor on this block. What gardening did was build a family, and because of the change of time and people moving out, other people coming into the block, selling the house. One of the most important thing that we introduce them to is flowers. Not only does it beautify, but it lifts the soul and reminds you how big and vast this world is.

Flowers don’t know what color we are, or where we’re from, and so it builds that bridge, and it connects us all as a family. So gardening is something that sustain you, actually make you feel good. People from various block walk their dogs here, and they say when they walk in Brooklyn on 300 East 25th Street, there’s a feel that you get nowhere.

It’s the love that is in the plant, it’s the love that is in everybody else. And so you get that feeling and they just walk, because it takes them to a different place when they walk on the block. So it’s not only for us that we garden, but we garden for the whole community.

I think most importantly it creates not only a synergy, it creates family. This block is a sanctuary. It’s a home. It’s one of the things that we’ve built here by accepting each other, understanding each other, and learning to grow with what we know. The plant is a reflection of who we are. Who we are is a reflection also in the plants we grow. So not only do we share our plants, we share what we have, we share our friendship, our time, and that’s how you build a community.

My mom died in 2020. It’s Covid time, in November, and you couldn’t come to the funeral or we couldn’t have anything, but my neighbors show up. We created a repast in the middle of the street, and they set up food on the table and we were all outside with chairs. It really is a place where you feel safe and you feel love.

And I know I am loved if I’m sick. Pauline is nearby and with Julia across the street, they’re there. And so when my mom died, they became the next best thing on this block. So I don’t feel sad or lonely. When you know that you can call on somebody and know that you’re loved, there’s no feeling in the world that is better than it. Money can never buy that kind of love and feeling. It’s what you get in a community. It’s what you get on 300 East 25th Street—a feeling of belonging, a feeling of love, and a feeling that you’re safe.

It’s that feeling when I walk and I get on either Clarendon and Avenue D at 25th Street, it’s like you let your guard down and exhale. I don’t think there’s even a word in the vocabulary that is developed to express that kind of feeling that you get as soon as I get on my block. And I know if something happened, I don’t have to worry, somebody will know.

Gardening is just a reflection of what is on the inside. It’s the same thing with building a community. It’s the outward look of this neighborhood. So when you see the garden, you see that there’s a lot of love, because it takes a lot of love, patience to grow anything.

You don’t have to have a grand space. So a container garden, the window box. We use tires. We use anything. You could live in an apartment and you put a little something through your window.

It didn’t start this beautiful. It start with that set of people that constantly went out, just two or three dedicated people who love what you love and want to see a result, and that’s what happened. Diligently going out weeding. There were yards on the block that never did anything; that didn’t stop us. What we did, asked them, “Is it okay for us to come into your yard and to clean it up?” And they said yes. So we went in and cleaned up the yard.

Now different family moving on the block, and they’re not Caribbean. They are from different parts of the world, Europe, all over. And yet, you realize it doesn’t matter where you from, if you feel that the soil that is available, you can plant and grow and make a safe space, and that’s what we did here. Everyone has their unique taste. They came in, understood what we’re doing, and they bring their own flavor, and that’s what I love about my block. And it is absolutely fantastic.

Bay Ridge Blooms

Starting with a few pots and simple plantings, one building’s superintendent began adding flowers, color, and life to a once-empty courtyard. The garden grew into Bay Ridge Blooms, a place of learning and connection, where neighbors share gardening tips, children plant their own flowers, and people come from all over to admire the blooms. The garden not only beautifies the block but also strengthens the building’s community, attracting tenants and inspiring neighbors.

Susan DuPree ›

Judy Rudin ›

Cindy Ajredini ›

Susan DuPree

Well, I’m a newbie. I moved here seven years ago from Georgia, from living in a large house on three acres of land, to Brooklyn. Needless to say, it was a shock. I moved to New York because my daughter married a guy from Brooklyn, and he told me that New York was the center of the universe. I said, “Well, I’m not sure about that”. When I heard that they were having their second child, I said, “You guys are going to need some help.” My husband had passed away, so I sold the house and came up here.

We started looking for an apartment. It was depressing when there were no green plants. I had a great realtor helping me, and she said, “I know of a place I think you would like.” When I saw all the green here, I had to have that apartment. That rose was in full bloom, and it was like, I found a home.

I’ve always had gardens wherever I lived, and so Cindy introduced me to Judy, and I started helping out a little bit, and then we entered the Greenest Block. We really went into overdrive, and I took a course on tree beds, because I had no idea the right way to take care of a tree bed. And so it’s just been fun trying new things; some work, some don’t.

One thing we’ve tried to do, like with the tree beds, is to have perennials in there and incorporate more perennials in our garden, and also native plants around the corner, kind of my little patch where I have native plants. They’re good for the pollinators, and they come back every year, they expand. We’ve got milkweed popping up everywhere. So it’s just better for the environment.

Judy Rubin

I think each of us has things that appeal to us. For me, it’s making something look pretty. I like talking to people. And I like meeting people.

We get people who walk in this neighborhood, who come down this block to take a look at this garden. We have people asking all sorts of questions. I think that communication between neighbors is nice. When you’re outside, people just come up and talk to you, you’ve got a pair of shears in your hands. And I’m always willing to stop and talk about plants, talk about their plants, talk about anything that they want to talk about. I just think it’s nice, I think it’s the way to be in New York.

This is a rent-stabilized building. It’s not a co-op, it’s not a condo, and the landlord is the person who gains the most by having this because [prospective tenants] don’t even look at the apartment. People come over to her and say, “I want to live in this building.” And that’s partly because you come and you look at this. I think it helps him.

None of us mind. If it’s in Brownstone Brooklyn, everybody owns their brownstone. Each brownstone does their own garden in front. They sell that brownstone, and if they’ve been in the Greenest Block, and their block won, that brownstone is worth more money. None of that profit motive is here for people who work in the garden. The profit is totally, as we say, accrued to the landlord, and that’s fair. None of us really mind. But occasionally, when he’s sort of unappreciative, he should be appreciative. You have to want to do it for love, because there is no profit motive here.

Cindy Ajredini

1982 I moved here. I’ve been the super for 30 years. Diapers, pampers, bottles of beer, everything tossed in here. It was too dull. It was nothing, blah. I mean, we had tenants here. Slowly, little by little, I got one side planted, then the other side. The more I did, the more I wanted to do. We started with pots, and we didn’t know if we were allowed to put the pots on the sidewalk. We were, so this is what happened.

There was a tenant who came to see the apartment at night, but there was no light. She saw the tulips; based on the tulips, she goes, “I don’t need to see the apartment.” And she took the apartment. Sometimes I fight with the landlord. He goes, “Oh, it’s so expensive. What do I get out of it?” I says, “What do you get out of it? You get awards. You get nice tenants.” You should see the TikTok, how many people put comments like they want to come live here, “Let us know if you got empty apartments.” People pay for that, to have that kind of writing.

Everyone coming from the train, they make sure they come this way to see the beauty, they get more energy when they pass by this way. It's every color—you got yellow, red, all the colors, purple. You see people taking pictures, and I’m like, “$5 a picture,” and they’re ready to give me the $5.

Little kids come up to me and say, “Hey, Miss Cindy, I love the plants.” Because we also have for the kids—they put their own plants in there, and then they come every day and “Look, oh, my plant grew.” Or they’ll bring a pot from their house. “Miss Cindy, how do I fix this?” “Don’t worry. Here you go. You don’t have soil. I’ll give you soil. I’ll give you pots, just come on down.”

It’s a lot of work. But the beauty of it, I come out sometimes from seven to seven at night. And the people that go to work, they come out here. And after working, they go, “Wow, you still here.” I don’t feel tired. I don’t feel nothing when I look at what I did.

For me, it feels good. I mean, love thy neighbor. Help somebody. It’s better than money. How do we convince other buildings to be like this one or better than this one? How do we convince other buildings to do the same as we do?

Bernice Moses

Drawing from Trinidadian traditions and a lifelong commitment to community organizing, Bernice Moses spearheaded turning a once-abandoned, fire-damaged lot into the Lefferts Place Community Garden with a block association, youth programs, and collective planting. Neighbors brought their traditions from other parts of the Caribbean and the American South. Today the garden is a place for planting, harvesting shared crops, and movie nights!

Bernice Moses

I bought a house on the block in 1981, and it was an abandoned house. My husband and my two sons, we fixed it up. When I came here first, the block was terrible, but I have always been involved in community activities, even in Trinidad. I’m from the West Indies originally, we had a youth development group in Trinidad called the Congress of Youths, so I had all that experience and expertise. So when I came here I saw the opportunity to get back involved with community.

We had to do an outreach program on this block, there were so many drugs and so many abandoned homes. I saw the opportunity to do something that I love, that is why I started the garden and the block association. I formed a youth group, then we had the block association, and then I saw the spot here, and I inquired about it, and I said I could do a garden here too.

Being from the West Indies, you’re used to gardening. You plant your little okra tree in the back. You plant your corn tree, your tomato tree, your pepper tree. We can do all of this here.

It was an abandoned house, because there was a fire, then nobody claimed it, and then the city took it. I was living right across the street, that’s where I still live, and I called the community board, and I asked the district manager, “There is a vacant lot on our block, and is there anything that you know we can do?” And he said, “Yes, you can apply to do a garden.”

Wherever you live, you want it to look good, right? I was just tired of walking home and seeing a bottle here and a can here. To me, it was kind of like degrading my block. I want to see beauty. Let me see some marigolds. Let me see some hibiscus plants. Let me see something pretty. So that is what we were doing.

[Fellow gardener] Garetta and I, we used to go from the corner to the other corner, and we had our pails and we will go and water each bed, each tree plot we were watering, planting flowers. We did the daffodils, the tulips. So come spring, everybody had loved it. So then we started to get people involved. Plan something, do something, and that is how we got more residents involved. Take pride in where you live. So that is how we were doing that. There wasn’t all these trees on the block, so we got the trees.

We get bulbs, and we walk up and down and we plant bulbs in everybody’s tree pit. And they come up in the spring. It looks pretty, right? And I think that once people see there is a positive side to something, they will get involved. And that is what we were doing, and that is why you will find that we are one of the block associations that has been in existence for 40 years and is still going because we do things, like our garden here, for 40 years. We are involved.

People see things and they like it, and you’re doing something good, they get involved. You can look in and you can see the beauty of what you’re doing. We have movie nights here for the kids and for the elderly, for any residents, so, it’s not only a spot for the garden, but it’s a community thing, anybody can come in. We have the benches. You could come in during the day, sit down under the shade, in the back, read and relax. Then we also have a hammock where the little kids come and they swing. And then we have the sitting area. We have the gazebo, the plants, the flowers, a big cherry tree, we do everything.

I think it’s a sense of accomplishment for us, because some of the kids pass by, “Oh, look at my tomatoes. I’m getting tomatoes. I’m so happy.” And they can eat their tomatoes. A lot of our seniors were from down South and they know about gardening. So they will come in and say, “Oh, can I get a spot? Because this is looking good. This remind me of home. The distance between the okras, that’s good. The collard green, that’s good.”

Then at the end of the season, when you have your harvest, you have little bags, you can send some collard greens and some cucumbers and some tomatoes for this one, send for that one. They were very appreciative, because they felt like it was back home, like they were down South, they were in South Carolina, they were in Georgia, they were in North Carolina. They don’t have to go to Key Food to buy cucumbers, they felt really good because it was grown right here.

It keeps me very active, because it’s ten years now since I have retired, and I don’t even feel like it’s ten years, because every day I am still active. I have a purpose. I get up and I come over here and I do things in the garden.

Crown Heights Keepers

With shared herb and vegetable gardens, street furniture, and sustainable practices including self-watering planters, the neighbors of Crown Heights Keepers turned a busy stretch of Eastern Parkway into the 2025 Greenest Block in Brooklyn. One resident started planting pots, sparking a creative wave of participation to paint a mural and add street furniture. As gardening and shared projects drew in longtime residents and newcomers alike for planting, composting, and sharing food, the block became a place where people stop, talk, and support one another.

Ana Deleon ›

Debra Sweet ›

Kara Lesondak ›

Henry Noel ›

Ana Deleon

I’ve been living on this block for over 50 years, and I honestly never participated in doing any greening, but I seen them out here working hard and planting and then I also have my neighbor, Derek, he’s from Jamaica. He was doing landscaping in Jamaica, and he offered to help me because I wanted to get more color, because I like colors and that’s how it started, because I came out and I was like, “Oh, these flower pots could kind of use some color to make it pop.” So they was like, “Oh, do you want to paint them?” And I was like, “Oh, yeah.”

Derek initially painted one chair, then I started painting the flower pots. Next, I was painting everything on the block, it was ridiculous. And then we started doing a mural. And it just went from one thing to another. Then I got my bestie involved, and he started bringing me the furniture. And then he was helping me do the tree beds, so it just spiraled, and then that’s how I started getting the rest of the community involved.

A lot of people actually got involved that has never, ever got involved. And that’s what brought our community actually together, considering that we’re apartment buildings. And, so I got the rest of the community to come out. Kind of brought the community together, like in a whole, because with all the gentrification going on, things were getting tense.

I’ve been here so long, I got the older people to come out to collaborate with the newer people. And we mesh really well and it was a good feeling. While we were doing it, we were enjoying each other’s company. So now, when we come outside we can actually say good morning, and we can sit down, have a cup of coffee together. And these are all people that used to walk straight by each other, never used to say a word. So it’s a different feel, period.

I kind of push the issue, because I’ve been here so long, and they know me, and they respect me. And I ask them, “Hey, come help me. Come on, let’s do this together. Let's try this.” And I got quite a lot of people to come out. It was amazing. I was so proud of everything that we had done this year.

And the whole thing is that now I’m actually inspired by all what has happened this year, I’m very inspired to the point that I want to go and take some classes at the Botanical Garden and see if there’s something I can learn. The painting was cool, and painting is definitely therapeutic, for sure, because that’s what got me out here to begin with, and it turned into everything else. But I would definitely like to learn about the flowers, the plants, the names of them. I was just bringing so many plants and color to the block, that was my whole goal, and I feel like I accomplished it.

I know nothing [about plants], I know about people. I know about people and how to get them to respond. That’s what I know how to do. And give them a lot of credit and a lot of acknowledgement when it’s due. People like that.

Maybe three weeks ago, I came out, guys was on the corner, and they were sitting there, and I was walking by and he said, “Oh, can you buy me a cup of coffee?” I said, ”Absolutely.” It was two of them sitting there, and they struggle with issues. And I bought them both coffees, and they was so appreciative. And those are the same people that when I started cleaning on this area that was abandoned, they’re the ones that helped me move the cones and carry all the heavy stuff. So that's what I’m talking about, everybody pitching in, everybody jumping in.

The change in the community, it’s been a major change. At one point it seemed like it was mostly all black. And then it started getting drops of different ethnics coming by. And then now it’s a mixture, and it’s an economical mixture as well. And so that makes things very tense for people, believe it or not, especially for the ones that been here for a long time. So, I’m glad I feel that I served as a liaison, technically between both.

And I’m just proud that everybody was so receptive, because if they don’t agree, then I can’t do anything alone. So I definitely don’t take the credit. I give them the credit for having faith, taking that leap forward, taking that first step. And it turned out well.

Debra Sweet (not pictured)

I’ve gardened all my life, since a tiny child in one place or another. I have been on Eastern Parkway now for more than 25 years, and I’ve always gardened here somewhere.

Starting in 2018, we began to plant the tree pits as a project in sustainable native plant gardening. The whole community part of it developed a bit slowly. Two of us, Kara Lesondak and myself, began working together in a small way, and she got a grant to start with native plants, which was totally new for me, and so we’ve learned a lot about it and tried to bring in and keep that element of what we’re doing on the street garden, but it’s a big learning process, and I will say that this summer, the native plants were—after having been established for now, most of them, for six years—have been spectacular.

But it’s really the right choice, I think not the only choice, because we still use containers very heavily on the block to bring in color and diversity, as well as filling some of them with native plants. But it’s a good choice for the planet. First of all, they give habitat for uncounted numbers of insects and animals. They are sustainable. They could potentially feed people, but they’re also feeding so many organisms that we depend on.

The first year I lived on the block, our building has a front yard raised about three feet from the street, I began gardening, which put me, when I was kneeling, at eye level with a lot of people. And that, for some reason, makes one be immediately approachable. So I met lots of people walking by and kind of got established as the plant lady. So that was my first experience. But then all those kids that were tiny kids helping me are adults and parents now, and some of them bring their kids back. Some of them still live here. So there’s a couple generations.

In 2020 we had the idea of growing tomatoes and peppers in polyethylene bags, and that was mildly successful, but very hard to keep watered. So that same summer of 2020 and 2021 we invested in raised planters. And those were more successful because you have a bigger volume of soil and it was able to be kept moist longer.

But we really didn’t feed that many people; we would take excess over to the two free fridges in the neighborhood. But as far as getting people to take the food that we were growing right there, people were very shy and respectful of what we were doing, and they were afraid, I think, that we’d lose something if they took the food. And so sometimes we would just stand outside, cut the greens, put them in bags and hand them to people and explain that with food crops, in many cases, the more you cut it, the more it’s going to grow, and that the plant needs that. So it was a learning experience on both sides.

And then what happened last summer, the first time we’d been able to pull off a big block party, is that neighbors who had lived here a long time also began to pay attention and see the gardening part as lending some interest and stability to the block that had been missing. And then a whole new layer of people got involved in the last year, in the sociability of it, and in thinking about what it should be, and the art part, painting a mural on an eyesore at the end of our block.

Community goes far beyond the block. In fact, we were doing our thing, it was noticed by neighbors who have become very good friends, who were part of the Greenest Block competition and winners, and they came to us, I think, in 2020, during the lockdown, when everyone was walking the neighborhood and said, “You should join the contest.” And we’re like, “Well, we’re not really into competition, but we like you, so we’ll do it.”

And we did get so much interaction with people at the Garden and people in other parts of Brooklyn that it’s been really important. So the community has been the main thing. And then we were glad to be recognized, because the side effect was that some of the neighbors and younger people in the building do care about competition. They were really happy that we won, and they felt deservedly so, that it’s an achievement.

Then the other thing that made such a difference, is that in two buildings, we set up seating areas three or four years ago, and by this year, we’ve had seating in front of every building, and the seating area faces the building, it does not face the parkway, so it feels more cozy and community, and they’re used every day by different people, residents, strangers, and that’s been really important, I think that’s the number one way that sociability and community has been established.

Kara Lesondak

We had a block party in 2024, and that’s how [Ana and I] met. Then we got into the gardening thing. That was where things really turned, because Debra and I started gardening about seven years ago, and then Henry joined in. We grew vegetables in beds in front of our building during Covid and then we got to know folks in the neighborhood just by being out here so much. Then I think the block party really brought people together, all these connections were made and then it just really changed the game.

The soil in the tree beds was like construction debris. But by digging it out, putting compost and soil, it’s so much better. And then we started thinking about what’s easy and what we can’t kill. We started with native plants. Then the more we got into it, the more we found how great they are and how they’re fantastic for the environment, and they attract pollinators. It’s just so necessary for our climate and for global warming to put more trees and more native plants in and just having native plants here.

And having this tree-covered neighborhood is just so beneficial for all our health. We’re part of this tree bed project, and they eventually want to connect all the blocks by having native plants in all the tree beds. And so they give out plants, and you monitor them. They see what grows best, and they figure out how to grow plants that are stronger in tree beds.

It gets folks out, and it gets people offline—you’re not on phones. I feel like there’s so many spaces now that are so negative and hostile, [as if] it’s okay to speak to people in ways that are really awful. You gotta talk in person. And that’s what’s happening here, which is really good. And there’s arguments on the chat, but it seems like the reason they get resolved rather quickly, because folks come out, folks talk about it and we work it out.

There’s a lot of people that are either unhoused or definitely have struggled for many years and they hang out on this corner a lot. And one time, this was in the summer, this older guy was sitting on the stoop, ready to pass out, and somebody from 348 came out, and that’s when I noticed him. And she’s like, “Hey, do you need some help? Do you want to come in for a few minutes?” And it was somebody she didn’t know. There’s this element of taking care of each other that is really cool, and it’s unusual.

It is a lot about the plants and the beautification of it, but everything’s tied in: taking care of the plants and taking care of each other. So it gets everybody out and you’re doing something together again. So this is what we come together to do, but what grows out of it is so incredibly valuable.

Henry Noel

Since growing up in the Caribbean, I always love planting, and in my country [Grenada], that was my career, growing vegetables. I won best vegetable farmer in the country in 1996. And then I came here, and I link up with Debra, and Debra like planting too. I start planting tomatoes, cabbage. Then we had more people come and they get involved. And then we take it from the vegetables to the flowers, and we start planting the block.

You connected with more neighbors. Everybody get to know you better. Everybody just used to pass one another [on the street], but as we doing the planting on the block, everybody kind of come together. There’s more unity, we have a better connection.

Growing vegetables is like a therapy too, watching your plants grow, it does motivate you. I still love to see the flowers grow, it's a mind relaxer. So that inspired me, give me good spirit. I love seeing it, it’s a therapy.

Geneva Collins

Inspired by the gardeners of Lincoln Place, Geneva Collins set out to transform her own street, despite never having gardened before. Guided by mentorship, curiosity, and community spirit, Collins and her neighbors on MacDougal Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant began planting together, learning as they went. Together they created a vibrant landscape of flowers, pollinator plants, and creative planters made from discarded objects. Tires, cans, bicycles, and found treasures became containers for plants. Children helped paint signs. The block is now a living example of how inspiration, resourcefulness, and care can turn city blocks into thriving nature.

Geneva Collins

This is my first year even touching soil. It’s just crazy how this all went. One day, I was riding my bike in Crown Heights, and I passed the block of Lincoln, and I stopped and got off my bike and I had to walk the block because I saw that it was just so beautiful. It was so many plants and flowers. I didn’t even feel like I was in New York. A gentleman was sitting in the middle of the block, and he said, “You have to meet the ladies.” It’s two ladies, Miss Perri and Miss Althea. And I told them how their block made me feel and I said, “I have to do this in my neighborhood.”

I asked them a couple of questions, like, “Was it hard?” They were so open. They just brought me in, like a mom, and Miss Althea wound up being my mentor. I set up a meeting with my neighbors, told them that this is what I wanted to do, and see who wanted to get on board. I just went into action. I had no idea what I was doing, I just did what I thought was good. I went with Miss Althea. She told me certain things, but a lot of it was just, I guess, the ancestors telling me what to do.

I’ve been on the block for 14 years, and then last year, I just was like, we got to get this block together. I started last summer. The first thing that I did was go pick up the daffodils that they give to commemorate 9/11. And I had to flip the soil over and plant the daffodils before the first frost. That was the first time really touching the soil. And that’s when I got into the books and really started asking Miss Althea what each thing does. I started learning. She was like, “You learned so fast.” To put myself in a competition, never touched soil before, and to get in third place and become Rookie of the Year, I’m doing something right.

It’s not even so much about just my block. I’ve been building relationships with every person on each block so we can come together as a unit. So it’s not like you see beauty on this block, and you get down that block and you like “What happened?” So that’s the goal and hopefully this can spread to other communities, because we need it. People come on our block and they say what it does for their mental health.

And we don’t have to travel out of New York City to have beauty all around us. I want people to always feel like what I felt when I walked down Miss Althea’s block. It just felt like a breath of fresh air, it was shady. You felt the sun, but it’s not like beaming on you, because the trees were well taken care of, and then the plants around me, it was beautiful. The day that I met her, I sat with her for three hours on her stoop. She really came to me at a time in need, and she’s taught me so much, we just feed off of each other. She’s always one phone call or bike ride away.

Kids are on the block. It’s not that many, but the four that we have, they help me out so much, and they learn. They get to get into the soil. I get to know what’s going on with them. Like, it's like a big auntie, like I could hear stuff. And it just brings back the childhood that I used to have, that we knew what was going on with everyone just by conversation. There’s so much to learn while you’re in the soil. As soon as they hear my speaker and my voice, the parents don’t even ask, I just see [the kids] coming up the block.

The thing is, I want pollinators. I want birds. I want butterflies. Things that belong here. I don’t want to see dog defecation. I want to see godly things.

A lot of this stuff you see is garbage. I’m a dumpster diver, so I will go either on my bike or take a walk around. People throw out such good stuff in New York City. It’s a shame. Well, it's not a shame for me, because I get to take it. But we still have more tires that we can use, I have ideas, I want to do some swings. I just got to figure out where I’m gonna put them.

But the ideas come to you. You can plant in anything, there is no such thing as garbage. If you can put holes in it, you can plant in it. This bike been here forever. And I said, “Hey, you getting plants.” And then painted it. These cans, from how big restaurants have cans of beans and stuff. They throw the cans out. Painted it—everything gets plants, everything.

So I was on my bike about to go get a haircut. I saw somebody throw this [toy car] out. I asked this neighbor. “I know you don’t know me, but I promise you, I’m coming back for this.” He was like, “You sure?” “I promise.” Went and got a haircut. He was like, “I don’t know how the hell you’re gonna get this home.” I called [my friend] Majida. I say, “Yo, come meet me. I’m gonna need help.” I guess I was on Stanwick, somewhere in Bushwick.

She came and met me, and we took turns. We dragged it three miles from Bushwick here. Had no idea what I was gonna do with it. It sat here for months, and I kept going, “I’m gonna plant in it.” So I asked our neighbor down the block. “I need you to help me put holes in it so I can get drainage.” And then threw soil in it. Plants go in anything that could get a hole: “You’re getting plants.”

Maria Garrett

For over 20 years, Maria Garrett has worked to protect and restore the Fresh Creek Nature Preserve in Canarsie. When responsibility for the Forever Wild site fell between agencies, her persistence and research led to a community- driven effort to clear invasive plants, restore native species, and advocate for coastal protection. These efforts helped inspire flood-resilience measures and renewed native plantings that absorb water and support migrating birds and other wildlife.

Maria Garrett

I live here in Canarsie. I oversee the Fresh Creek Nature Preserve and I run an organization called the Fresh Creek Civic Association, and I get people to come out and voice their concerns and issues. I've been doing that for over 20 years. I’m in the community now 30 years.

[This section of Fresh Creek Nature Preserve] is not supposed to have anybody on this area because it’s a Forever Wild. It’s only for the birds and wildlife. But who's going to maintain this area? Weeds would grow on the sidewalk as high as to your waist so you would not be able to walk on the sidewalk.

My neighbor got a petition and went to the community board, and the community board said no one is supposed to be there. So they started bouncing us around different agencies who supposed to take care of it. The [New York City] Parks Department saying that it's federal. Federal said it's state. State said it's city. The Parks Department said they're not supposed to go across this barrier.

So my youngest daughter, she’s a political science major, started researching. She went on the Parks Department website, she went on the DEC website, she went on the federal and they said you could clean this place up, but if you go through the Parks Department, they don’t need a permit.

So I kept coming out and going to different meetings. I went to the Parks Department. I met this young lady, she was from the Midwest, doing her thesis on environmental justice, and she took me under her wing to tell me certain things that I needed to do.

So I went to all of these workshops and meeting about what we can do as a community leader or resident. She said get in contact with the National Resource Group in the Parks Department. They came out, they checked it out. They was like, “You know what? This could be a capital project.” So they started taking out the phragmites, the mugworts, and the Japanese knotweed. That was 2009. They started putting in trees and bushes. Lo and behold, Sandy hit in 2012 and that just cut the whole project.

And so after Sandy, they was doing research about what they could do to stop the flooding, and I was on that committee, New York Rising, through the governor’s office. My biggest thing was coastal protection because if we would have gotten the place restored before Sandy, we would not have gotten hit as hard as we did. So after the Governor’s Committee, we decided that we was going to do coastal protection. Then in 2020 they put in these tide chambers.

A tide chamber is a chamber inside of the water, and they put a flap on it, so if the tide is too high it’ll close off so that it won’t go into the sewer system, and it won’t go into the homes. So far, we haven’t had any more flooding since that happened, and now we just maintain it. After the governor’s project, they came in and they did planting. They planted native bushes and trees in there, so we don’t mess with that. Those are the things that the wildlife needs. We have different species of birds that migrate here at certain times of the year. It’s supposed to be Forever Wild, so that’s why we just leave it like that.

All the certain native flowers and bushes help to prevent the flooding, we won’t get rid of that. We got sumacs in there. Those are very good because they absorb the water, so that’s why we need these things. We can’t have people coming in there, tramping on them. And we got a few black-eyed Susans over there, locust trees. And so we have quite a few things in here that help to absorb the water if it is a flood.

We had a bunch of invasive trees. We had a lot of tree of heavens. It wasn’t doing anything but taking over. We had those mugworts in there. And the mugwort had the rhizomes under there and you just have to be pulling them up. And we got rid of a lot, we keep pulling it up, and I’m gonna have another volunteer team come out, and we’re gonna pull up the mugwort.

For the people that care about nature and plants, they love it. A lot of people thank me, “Because of you, Canarsie is back on the map.” And if you want to learn anything about wildlife and nature, and you don’t want to go upstate, you could come right here. If you like wildlife and nature, it’s a place to come and enjoy because it’s Canarsie’s best kept secret.

I was doing this when I was working, and now it’s a full-time job for me, because I don’t work anymore. So I come out here at least three, four times a week and just do a little bit, and it keeps me grounded. Feel a sense of accomplishment.

I don’t have nails, I’m not the one with the cutesy nails and stuff, because I put my hands in the dirt. I don’t mind getting dirty. And I love it. I wouldn’t change it. It’s keeping me young. It’s keeping me healthy. My grandkids and my children, they look at grandma, and they was like, “My grandma did that. My grandma is cool.” And my children, they just think, “You made a difference, and that’s what’s important.” If it’s nothing else, they understand that they mom love nature.

Olivia Avery

Before Brooklyn Botanic Garden had a Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest, neighbors of the Vanderveer Place Block Association in Flatbush created their own friendly competition. One side of the block competed against the other, comparing flower beds, pots, and stoops filled with blooming containers. And while one side seemed to win more often, the spirit was never about rivalry, it was about pride, beauty, and conversation among neighbors. Community leaders approached BBG gardeners to help judge—and when BBG launched its own boroughwide contest, Vanderveer Place was the very first winning block. What began as a simple neighborhood challenge helped spark this lasting culture of gardening and greening.

Olivia Avery

Well, a long time ago, we used to do this ourselves. We would have this side [of the street] against that side and that side over there, they always won. There was voting, but they always won. But they had good gardens over on that side. I don’t know what was wrong with this side, but that side was better than we are. But we enjoyed having flowers, talking to each other, and one day another person went to the community board.

We had the Garden come and look at our plants, and they would be the judge. They would tell you who won. That side over there was always better than this side, but we didn't get upset because it was only a flower contest. And that’s how we start having the contest.

It started with the community board, and then after a while, they took it from the community board and took it down to the borough president's office. After a while, we would ask the Garden to come and look at our flowers and do the judging. I have to tell you, Vandeveer Place won ten straight times, but you cannot win them all. I guess they saw how interesting it was, and they started one too.

When I moved here, that’s when I start planting. And I saw these people had beautiful flower pots, and they had beautiful flowers; they didn’t have a window box, but the yard was pretty. And I saw that, and I said, “That is gorgeous. I’m gonna put some on my step.” So I saw somebody else had it, and I wanted it, and I guess people see you doing things, and everybody just start doing it.

Once you do something and then you do it again, that’s how you learn. So that’s how I learned. Everybody else was gardening, and you saw beautiful gardens, and I guess everybody saw everybody doing it and everybody started planting. We were very happy, because it made your home look beautiful, like a home. When you walk up to it you enjoy coming home looking at your flowers.

So sometimes people say, Miss Olivia, “This a flower or a weed?” I’ll say it to you like this: “To God, it’s a flower, but to us, it’s a weed. Because, you know you have weeds. They do have pretty flowers, but they’re weeds. And when the Garden comes, they know a weed from a flower. So you know, you have to pull it up.”

Pamela Pettyjohn

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Coney Island resident Pamela Pettyjohn turned devastation into action. Neighbors rebuilt their homes but struggled with loss and uncertainty. Planting colorful flowers in local tree beds became a way to lift spirits. Pettyjohn founded the Coney Island Beautification Project and, with training from Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a Brooklyn Urban Gardener and Master Composter, helped grow a grassroots effort into a community-wide movement for environmental stewardship. Today, the work focuses on restoring native, salt-tolerant plants like seagrass, planting trees, and advocating for coastal protection.

Pamela Pettyjohn

All the work that I do now comes from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. Noticing that my neighbors were fixing their homes and not doing anything to their lawns or streetscape, and noticing the depression on people’s faces, we were trying to figure out, as neighbors, how could we lift the spirit of the community. So we started putting colorful flowers in the tree beds, and that was what has gotten us to where we are now.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden was our first supporter. We took the classes, I'm a Brooklyn Urban Gardener and a Master Composter. And so I learned and was able to teach in my own community, and we are now sitting in the mayor’s office, the governor’s office making design decisions. I’m teaching landscape students for NYU and Cornell. We realized that there was no environmental voice in this community, I didn’t have anyone to go to, so I just decided to be that person that the community could come to.

Coney Island is only three blocks wide. Everyone knows Coney Island because of the rides, but there’s like 50,000 people that live here all year round, and so that's my targeted audience. What is going to be best for this community? We’re trying to get people to change their way of thinking, and look at things long term, and take ownership of their own community.

We are in Kaiser Park, which is the backyard of this community. If you look around, there’s a lot of high-rise and NYCHA complexes. You will come here to this park, and it will be packed with people. We have birthday parties, retirement parties, we have baptisms at the creek. I think that it’s important that it is beautiful and people enjoy themselves, but they also become stewards of the park.

This is King Neptune. We’ve named our trees—this is one of the largest trees in Coney. This park used to look like a forest, it had so many trees, and we lost so many after Superstorm Sandy. And now we’re working with the Forest for All in NYC. Their campaign is to increase the tree canopy by 30 percent by 2035. Rather than wait for somebody to give us trees, we started buying trees, and we put in nine trees for Arbor Day this year, and we plan on doing this every year.

We realized that there was a lot that could be done from this simple act of just adding flowers to the tree beds. I learned from the Brooklyn Urban Gardeners, ask your community before you do anything. Just because you have a great idea doesn't mean it’s the best idea or the community will support that idea. So when I asked the community about putting flowers in the tree beds, the first thing everyone said, “Oh, no, don’t do that, the kids will mess it up, it won’t last.” That was what I needed to hear, so I invited all the schools and all the students to do the work. And it was highly successful because the students took ownership.

The whole purpose was to empower the homeowners that this is an extension of your property. You always do such a great job in your front yard—extend it to the tree beds, and it would help lift up the community.

I was so grateful for the BBG workshops and the Brooklyn Urban Gardener program and the composting program and all of these educational programs that they offer. We learned what are the best plants or trees for this community. We use salt-tolerant plants, because we’re right here in the ocean, and also wind and drought; we have all of these things going on. We’ve taken all of that information, and we conduct workshops here in the community to teach the community how to choose and why. We give them a resource guide so that they can remember and look at it when they’re purchasing plants or buying a tree.

This community was hit with a 20-foot storm surge. From that devastation, we’re still recovering. These houses [in Seagate] that we’re standing in front of, the water had come up to the second story. We’re standing in front of Coney Island Creek, and that creek rose up and flooded all these houses. I’m a block over, and I had 10 feet of water in my house. We are a peninsula, so we’re surrounded by water. There are still homes where people never could come back.

The sand is constantly migrating into these houses. It’s right at their back door, it’s getting into their homes, it’s in their food. I have pictures of cars sitting up in the air with sand. Now the sand is up to the second story. There’s so much sand that we just cannot keep up with it.

The sand also gets into the storm drains and produces more flooding. It was also soil erosion, and we had these huge sinkholes. And I learned from the workshops there was a lot that we could do to kind of prevent this. First of all, reintroducing native plants back into the community, we could help mitigate flooding and soil erosion. These are things we taught the community, how important it was to reintroduce plants and flowers that were native to the community.

The Army Corps is looking to renourish. Every time they put sand on the south side, it washes up where we don’t want it on the north side. It was never like that before Sandy. We want it to stay on the south side so people can come to Coney Island and enjoy, but when it migrates it interferes with the people that live here. South side is the beach, the boardwalk, all the rides, the amphitheater, the Cyclones baseball stadium. So that’s where they need to keep renourishing, but there’s a problem with it coming over here.

We tried to protect these houses by putting the sea grass in, which has a rooting system that’s about 13 feet. The purpose of the sea grass is for the root system to grow and interlock like a web and hold back the sand from migrating into people’s homes, but the sand migration is faster than the plants can grow.

Every time there’s a storm it’s the Parks Department's responsibility for keeping the sand cleaned up on the highways and to try to hold back the sand from these houses, but it’s much more than they can handle, so they’ve asked the Sanitation Department to help. We’ve planted so much, but it’s all been covered over because of the constant migration and the constant bulldozing. It’s just migrating faster than we can keep up. It will cover these buildings in no time. It’s already up to the second story.

P.L.A.N.T (Preserving Lincoln’s Abundant Natural Treasures)

What began with a single window box grew into a vibrant, community-led effort to green an entire block. Neighbors on Lincoln Place in Crown Heights attended gardening workshops at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and residents adopted tree beds, shared plants, and transformed discarded objects into creative planters. As the effort grew, residents formed P.L.A.N.T (Preserving Lincoln’s Abundant Natural Treasures), creating a framework for neighbors to organize, share resources, and build community through gardening. Stoop nights, seed sharing, and block celebrations turned planting into a social tradition.

Lauren Wilson ›

Perri Edwards ›

Althea Joseph ›

Mary Schoen ›

Lauren Wilson

I grew up on a farm in North Carolina. I’ve lived in New York for 13 years, but having grown up in nature, and being in the city, I’m always drawn to where people are getting their hands dirty. It’s something that’s familiar to me, I find it to be very grounding. Althea and Perri set an incredible example and structure for me and others to plug into. And I’ve learned so much along the way. I know how to plant, but the concept of “thriller, filler, spiller,” for example—the secret to a winning window box—was new to me. And I like to think I’ve applied some principles in the tiny boxes that are in my realm, but it’s been a real joy to do it for reasons of beauty and community involvement too.

Watching Perri and Althea, it’s the gardening, but also just how they engage with people passing by. Having this here actually makes people really open up and ask questions and start a conversation, and it’s done in a lot of good faith, and I probably have interacted with more people on Lincoln Place than I did just living a block away. It’s like a community center. I walk around Crown Heights now, and I see people all the time who I know. It’s a very Sesame Street sort of creation facilitated by what P.L.A.N.T has done on the block.

I’ve never seen anyone like these two who can look at truly any object and be like, Well, that could be a planter like this, or that can be an object like this. Both of them will look at something out on the curb and just be like, “Well, if you just did that, then it’s a planter.” It’s really inspiring.

I think the opportunity that tree beds present for a lot of people—and I've supported Althea and Perri in doing classes with the Botanic Garden about the opportunity of tree beds—but people walk through and they’re like, “Oh, how could I ever get started?” Or “That just seems absolutely impossible, if this is the greenest block, how could I ever participate?” And I think that gets back to what Perri was saying that on any block, a tree bed represents an opportunity for something.

Perri and Althea are all over the place, they’re either mentoring people or, people are coming by and asking about stuff. They’re very central to a neighborhood-wide sort of motivation. The care is consistent from both of them. And they’re very attuned, they’re still very invested and committed. And seem to take a lot of joy out of it. I’m inspired by how their approach to gardening is rooted equally in beauty and community.

Perri Edwards

I’ve lived on the block since the 1980s. There wasn’t much gardening, it was just my stoop, my mom’s stoop, a gentleman named Jamie down here, and one other person.

So my mom put us in the contest. And to tell you the truth, when they [the judges] look, I would be out here and I would see them go by, and it was almost like a drive by, because they really didn’t have really much to look at. So I went to a class, I found out that everything I was doing was wrong for our tree.

We had ivy growing up the tree. And when I went to the first class, they said you should not put soil in the tree bed. You should open up the tree bed, if it’s tight, and remove any ivy, because it’s like a rat ladder. So I came home and I told my mom, “We love this tree, but everything we’re doing is wrong.” So we immediately rectified that, and then I continued to go to the classes.

I’m really proud of our block. I’m proud of the participation, getting to know our neighbors and even getting to know strangers. They like to stop and talk and we listen to what they have to say. Any questions, we’ll look it up if we don't know the answer about greening.

I love upcycling, that’s my favorite. I like to find things that people have discarded and make something beautiful out of it. I choose the right plants, most of the time, from trial and error. The colors and the design and everything is really to catch the eye. You can even see it across the street, and so once somebody sees that, they’ll come over and they'll be interested in other things over here.

I want people to know when they come through the block, if they think they can’t do it, that they said, We could never get our block this way. And I have to tell them, the block didn’t start this way either. Over years, this came about, and your block can also do the same thing.

Propagation is when you are able to get a lot of something from one source. There are different types of propagation, but the biggest one that I like are seeds. By the end of the year, maybe around September, October, we will go through and collect the seeds, and then we’ll label them and keep them for spring. I will start to plant them in the house, maybe about March, I will plant the seeds, and I'll put them in the dark for maybe about a few weeks, and then I'll continue to check on them. Once I see a little sprout comes up, then I’ll bring them out and I have plant lights, and then I’ll have a fan, so I’m getting them ready to deal with the elements in the street. Like the fan is the wind, the plant light is the sun.

And once they get a good size on them, then I will put them outside for a little bit, and then I’ll bring them in until they’re able to handle the sun. And then I just move them to bigger pots. And it was very successful. I had about 200, I had them in my kitchen, I had them in my living room, and things really turned out really well. The biggest thing is rainwater. I collected a lot of rainwater, and I used that to water the plants. I found that to be very helpful.

For the hothouse effect, when I first start them, I would get discarded containers, like vegetables that come in those clear containers, and I can close it, and that makes it sweat. It makes it hot, like a hothouse.

When we first moved here, we went to the block association meetings, back in the ’80s. And the president then said, stand up and say your name and where you’re from. So my mom stood up and she said a thing, and I stood up and I said my thing. Then I said I would like to join the beautification committee. They said We don’t have that. And I said, “Well, can we start one?” “No, we don’t need that, because this block had gotten Model Blocks. They felt they didn’t need a beautification committee. But once Althea and I connected. I said, Finally, we can do what I always wanted to do.

I’d like this to be contagious throughout Crown Heights. I would like every block in Brooklyn to look like this.

Althea Joseph

I didn’t know about the Greenest Block in Brooklyn until it was announced that I won third place of the Greenest Block window box in 2017. I would always plant, but I didn’t know someone had entered us. So after that, I got interested after meeting Nina Browne, who told me what the program was about, and her passion for it inspired me to do this, but my gardening influence came from my mom.

After letting Perri know that I won third place she said, “Oh my god, people would come to see your window box. I have to give you more plants to add to it.” And we started talking and sharing the plants. And the next year, we said, maybe we should delve into it a little deeper. And we started attending the Botanic Garden’s classes, which the main focus was about the tree beds. So 2018 we started a tree bed adoption to get people connected to the beds that were in front of them, and that’s how we started getting the neighbors involved.

We got to know the neighbors, and there was a shift in dynamics. A lot of the houses were being sold, maybe it was like 30 percent, 40 percent or more, and so we were greening, but also welcoming the new families into the neighborhood, and they were so excited to start the greening with us. It’s a shift in culture, so our greening helped bring the shift together.

It was very positive for us, but we were almost like the bartender, the psychologist type, because sometimes we had to diffuse slight tensions by having different events to bring everybody together, and by teaching the classes on how to green your fronts, we got to know each other. We’d have stoop nights where everybody would come out and hang, bringing your wine, your favorite dish. And then we moved into celebrating the Greenest Block, Sip and Celebrate. So we always had something that connected people. And some of the people moving in came to start their families, so P.L.A.N.T did a baby shower for six new babies coming in.

During Covid, we still planted. So people would come by, and cry and talk. They wear their masks talking about how they would walk maybe five, ten blocks just to come through this way, to walk through the green space and some of them would be on the phone with relatives in other countries, showing them the greenery and talking and finding that happy space in a time when it was all turmoil.

It gave me an opportunity to be outside and still see people and not be so isolated. And it was good for mental health, that we could talk behind a mask in a distance, and see people, their hurt subside for a minute because of the beauty and the interest on the block. So I think it was a beautiful thing, it wasn’t fearful, having people come through.

Mary Schoen

I am actually a very beginner gardener. I just moved to the block in January, and I knew I was moving to the greenest block in Brooklyn, so it was very exciting. So I thought I have to get a little bit into gardening, so I did my first window box.

I just absolutely love coming home. If I’m really hot walking down Nostrand, as soon as I turn on Lincoln Place, it just cools me down. And there’s so many strangers that walk through the block taking photos. And just the overall involvement of all the neighbors on this block is really amazing. I don’t think people could really appreciate it until they walk through the block and see it.

I just want to say one thing about Althea and Perri is they’re unbelievably dedicated. Every morning, at six o’clock, they are out here, watering, going through the plants, like picking out dead stuff or whatever it is. They are extremely dedicated.

Robyn Glenn

For three decades, lifelong East New York resident Robyn Glenn has gardened on Hinsdale Street in East New York. As president of her block association, she helped revive community spirit during times the block struggled. Inspired by childhood memories of her father’s garden on the block, she plants flowers and trees, including a thriving peach tree that neighbors eagerly await each summer. These plantings attract butterflies and bees, and encourage conversation among neighbors.

Robyn Glenn

I am in East New York. I’ve been here 59 years. I’m president of the Residents of Hinsdale Street Block Association that we had for about 20 years, and I’ve been trying to beautify the block forever. Being here so long you see it go from good, not so good, bad, really bad, coming back to good. But I think when you unite a community, go out there and pull people in, you tend to strengthen it, and the bad seeds seem to know the good seeds, and they will stand back somewhat. So I’m really happy with that.

My parents moved us on the block when I was one. I’m one of 10 children. I’m number nine baby girl, and I’ve always seen my dad work hard. We always had flowers in the garden. He always had a peach tree. That’s not the same peach tree, though. And we didn’t have a lot of room, but we had a lot of love.

And we were very united. We had a block association at the time. And as the neighborhood started turning, people moved out. People died. Homes got dilapidated, they knocked them down. We had a lot of vacant lots on the block at one time, and then the Nehemiah Houses came, so we had no more block association, nothing. And I said to myself, We need to get this going. I want to be able to pull the neighbors together. And that’s what I went out and did. So I held it down for about 15 of the 20 years. I knew things needed to be done. I did the time because I wanted to see it gain some kind of strength here, and it did.

Growing up in the neighborhood, I knew a lot of people, I just want it to be successful out here in East New York. I’m always out there doing something, trying to do something beautiful on the block. I like people contact. I go out. I’m constantly out. I don’t have enough time in the day and I love being out there.

We want more green greenery on the block. We try to put as many trees as we can. I’ll probably put another tree, possibly a fruit tree, in my front yard. We have a lot of sun on this block, that’s why my peach tree is so successful every year. I want to see the bees. I noticed a lot of butterflies coming. Beautification is a process. It’s not an overnight thing, and it’s very expensive.

People are totally amazed that this is a peach tree on the street, it’s not even in the backyard. When I had about 200 peaches on it, it hangs, the peaches bring the tree down, but the people will either duck under it or go around it. I’ve had a lot of people picking, but some of the people, I tell them, “Look, if you can wait till late July, early August, I’ll give you a peach or two, but they're not ready yet, okay?” And they come back, they want their peach, right? So I was able to give quite a few neighbors some of them. When it’s ready to really produce, they’re beautiful. I’m happy with that peach tree, and I think it might need a friend. So I’m going to do another fruit. Might be plum, it might be peach, it might be a nectarine, I don’t know, but I’ve always had fruit trees around me.

Virginia Webster

Raised on a farm, Virginia Webster carried a love of growing to Brooklyn, filling tree beds and shared spaces with unusual native plants from New York State. As a curious neighbor, she was drawn to the newly emerging three vacant lots that grew into the Prospect Heights Community Farm, a collaborative neighborhood garden shaped by patience, cooperation, and care and the belief that a community garden thrives only when people support one another. Tending the soil offers neighbors a place to feel rooted, welcomed, and at home.

Virginia Webster

I was raised on a farm, so when I moved to Brooklyn, I just had to start growing. My brother owned a huge, massive landscaping business down in Pennsylvania. And so I bought massive amounts of all these bizarre, weird, native plants, like cool little irises reticulata, and prostrate phlox that was divaricata. And people were like, “Where does that come from?” It actually comes from New York State. I had so many that I went around all the tree wells. I started taking over everybody's tree wells, running back and forth, and I started planting in people's tree wells.

The garden is only as kind as the least kind person in the garden. So we try to really be a very positive, happy, healing place. There’s a real, honest resonance with your feet on the earth. This is a beautiful garden and it took us a long time to get here. A lot of work, a lot of cooperation. We all have to work together. Not one single person does this, although it does help to have a very loud, energetic person attend every meeting.

It’s home to me. I have a sense of ownership here, but I don’t own anything. I’ve invested so much time and love in this that it’s hard not to feel safe, and that people that join and stay, care. And if you can make them see that it’s better for them to be in the garden than not be in the garden then they’ll be in the garden. You’ve got to find that angle.

But you begin to have some ownership to it, some sense of responsibility, of belonging, that they always have a home, that they're not alone. So I think that’s really important. It just enriches your life. It makes you a better person. It humanizes you. If you don’t see, if you don’t appreciate beauty, you build a golf course.