A Walk in the Park

It was time to take a walk around the neighborhood.

We wandered to the Liz Christy Garderns. This was the First Community Garden in New York City founded in 1973; it is located on the northeast corner of Bowery and Houston Streets in Manhattan.

During the 17th Century, this site was then the corner of Bouwerie and North Street, the southern tip of a large farm owned by Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam. In the centuries following, this bouwerie (which is Dutch for farm) changed radically. It was in complete decline in the 1970's when many buildings were abandoned and torn down.

In 1973 a local resident named Liz Christy and a group of gardening activists known as the Green Guerillas were planting window boxes, vacant lots with ‘seed bombs’ and tree pits in the area. They saw the large rubble-strewn lot as a potential garden and in December went to the City to find a way to gain official use of the land. Volunteers hauled the garbage and rubble out, spread donated topsoil, installed a fence and began planting.

Done with our walk, we had a snack at Gemma up the street.
Till tomorrow,
Love, Maia