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New Green Space Trend In City Centers: Vertical Gardens
One of the major environmental problems we face today is air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, 8 million people die each year from air pollution-related causes
BY MEHMET EMIN BIRPINAR
OCT 27, 2020
Throughout history, the world's population has lived in rural areas by and large. In the 1800s, at least 90% of the world's population lived in the countryside, while the urban population constituted less than 10%. With the development of trade, people switched to urban life as cities became centers of trade.
As industrial production became widespread, migration multiplied and people moved to areas with more production, establishing new and large settlements.
Especially with the Third Industrial Revolution, rapid urbanization began and today, 54% of the world's population lives in cities. By 2050, the world's urban population is projected to rise to 66%.
At the heart of mass migration lies the anxiety of a comfortable life with transportation, communication, education, and health being the most obvious reasons for this. This puts pressure on the area where people migrate to, as the resources are limited but the number of people looking to take advantage of them increases every day. While cities offer people the chance to live a more comfortable life at the same time they create local, regional, and universal problems that are difficult to solve.
Population growth and rising income levels are another source of problems. In our country, the population has increased by 50% in the last three decades from 55 million to 83 million. In the same period, developments within the country, where national income per capita increased by about four times, also led to an increase in consumption. This excessive consumption has undoubtedly put pressure on the environment.
Currently, cities consume 75% of natural resources globally and are responsible for 50% of the waste generated while also producing on average 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Of course, cities should address needs, such as food, housing, clean air, water, and waste services but additionally should provide green spaces where citizens can go to be healthy, take a break, and refresh.
Silent Killer: Air Pollution
One of the major environmental problems we face today is air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, 8 million people die each year from air pollution-related causes.
Air pollution is an important environmental problem for Turkey, too. While developments designed to reduce pollution such as the spread of natural gas, the advancement of technology, the spread of public transport and alternative means of transport have been implemented and lowered pollution levels to some degree, pollution caused by public transport, in particular, continues to add to the issue.
The main factor affecting air pollution levels is vehicle density. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data, the number of vehicles on the streets in 1990 was 4 million, 8 million in 2008, 23 million at the end of 2019 and has reached 25 million currently. As with the population, about 20% of vehicles are in mega-city Istanbul.
A project carried out by Hacettepe University on behalf of Ministry of Environment and Urbanization revealed that about one-third of these vehicles are over 16 years old and equipped with old technology. This makes the application of green walls, which are becoming more and more common in the world, more attractive and necessary in order to prevent air and noise pollution caused by heavy vehicle traffic.
Refreshing green spaces
According to WHO assessments, the green space per person should be 9 square meters (97 square feet) for a healthy life. However excessive densities occur in some regions that can pose a number of difficulties for green space production.
The new garden trend was developed in order to prevent such problems in several developed megacities such as New York, Melbourne, London, and Paris, in order to alleviate the increased air pollution to some extent and to enable people to relax spiritually.
With the concentration of population density in certain regions within the scope of commercial activities, the space problem has become important in the world, and vertical growth has been achieved by developing multi-story buildings for housing. Vertical agriculture (multistory garden applications), which is also a new application in the agricultural sector which is gradually decreasing due to climate change and soil erosion, is becoming increasingly popular today.
Vertical gardens began emerging in the 1970s but now new types of green spaces are being cultivated that can be put to many different applications. Whether it be a rooftop garden, vertical garden, green or living wall, leading cities around the world including New York, Melbourne, London and Paris are incorporating a bit more nature into their concrete landscapes.
These gardens' most important trait is that they do not require additional space and are usually cultivated on unutilized rooftops or external wall surfaces. Even public transport stops, such as train stations, and the tops of the vehicles themselves are being used to increase the green view.
Benefits at hand
These gardening practices, which have been in our lives for the last 50 years, offer environmental benefits such as preventing air and noise pollution and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and economic benefits such as energy savings and reducing possible health costs.
Moreover, they act as a kind of filter for important air pollutants released from exhausts. According to research, a 60-square-meter garden wall can filter 40 tons of harmful gasses and 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of heavy metals. They also contribute to the air quality by absorbing harmful volatile organic compounds.
According to a 2012 article in the Environmental Science & Technology magazine published in the U.S., green wall applications on roads in the canyon structure (with buildings or walls on both sides) reduce harmful dust (PM10) by up to 50%. Again, similar results were obtained in studies conducted under an article published in ScienceDirect in 2016, where green wall applications were seen to prevent air pollutants by 24%-61%.
One of the important effects is the prevention of greenhouse gases. The greenery functions as a swallow space for greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. A living wall of only one square meter removes 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas from the air, while they also give 1.7 kilograms of oxygen to the environment, which is our source of life.
A study conducted at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the largest university in Australia, also stated that if green walls are constructed correctly they can act as an ecological buffer, preventing both air and noise pollution. The study's results show that green walls can combat up to 63% of carbon emissions, which would contribute to the fight against climate change.
One of the important benefits is the reduction of noise. Vegetation in vertical gardens allows the noise from vehicles to be dispersed in multiple directions, rather than reflected directly in one. It acts as a kind of noise barrier by dampening it within itself. Up to 40% noise reduction can be achieved depending on the selected plant type and planting frequency.
Vertical gardens also absorb the sunlight, stabilizing the temperature in the region and preventing the formation of heat islands in city centers, one of the major problems caused by global climate change. They also absorb the energy in the environment through plant sweat. However, if it is applied to the external wall of a building, it keeps the building cooler in summer and protects it against adverse weather conditions such as winds in winter, thus contributing to energy saving.
According to the report of the ninth National Roof and Facade Conference held in 2018, the studies carried out by the National University of Singapore showed that reducing the temperature of a building by only one degree leads to as much as 5% in energy saving. Likewise, according to the evaluations of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), which has a history spanning 120 years, green walls contribute to energy efficiency by 23% like green roofs and rooftop gardens and can reduce temperatures by up to 10 degrees.
In addition, they are more aesthetically pleasing in appearance and provide relief for people as well as acting as the natural habitat for species of birds and insects. In this way, they help promote biodiversity, which is one of the major environmental problems facing the world today.
On the other hand, research shows that they also increase productivity in business environments as cleaning the air eliminates complaints such as headaches, eye irritation, and fatigue caused by air pollution – allowing employees to feel more energetic. They also provide relief by reducing stress.
Watching a green space for 3-5 minutes is known to improve blood pressure, heart rhythm, muscle tension and brain activities. According to relevant research, a green working office increases productivity by 15%. Amazon Towers in Seattle hosts 40,000 plants of 400 different species while the Desjardins building in Canada’s Quebec province is home to the world's largest living wall with a height of 65 meters, housing 11,000 plants.
The 800-square-meter entrance surface of the iconic Musee du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris has been adorned with 15,000 plants. Paris has a target of covering 1 million square meters of roadside wall, roofs, and façades of buildings facing main streets with greenery.
As part of the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) project, 800 trees and 15,000 plants were planted on the balconies and rooftops of two 111-meter-high buildings in downtown Milan, overwhelmed by air pollution, bringing both fresh air and making it a beautiful site. Additionally, as part of the project, thousands of bird and insect habitats have been created in the center of the city, which has been landlocked by concrete.
A living wall was created in the passenger boarding hall at London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest airport, to create a healthy environment for passengers. In the section called Garden Gate, seven panels with an area of 4.5 square meters were created, each containing 240 plants.
The motivation to create the gate was customer satisfaction. Passengers reported 47% satisfaction prior to the living wall which increased to 72% once the wall was up and operating healthily.
Likewise, studies carried out by the U.K.'s Birmingham and Lancaster Universities in 2012 revealed that adding more green life to the streets could prevent air pollution by 30% on a cumulative basis. According to British experts, green walls reduce NO2 emissions by 40% and particulate matters by 60%.
In this respect, walls on both sides of a busy main road that runs through London have been converted into green walls. It is reported that a four-meter square wall can produce the same effect as 275 trees. It is predicted that a portion of the £500 million budget allocated for the development of the green infrastructure of the city will be designated for the development of living walls in areas with heavy traffic.
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, launched the initiative in 2018, covering columns on the roads with heavy traffic and the walls around the roads with green vegetation. The aim is to prevent vehicle-induced air pollution while beautifying the city.
More than 1,000 columns were covered with greenery and living material in an area exceeding 54,000 square meters and the project is expected to meet the oxygen needs of 25,000 people while absorbing 27,000 tons of harmful gases and about 6,000 tons of dust annually.
Turkey's efforts
Great efforts are being made both on a local and national front to increase green areas per capita in our country. As part of its vision project for 2023, the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning aims to bring 81 million square meters of green space to 81 provinces with the project of national gardens greatly contributing to this goal.
According to the municipal data, as a result of the investments made by the capital Ankara in the last 25 years, the green area per person has reached 20 square meters, marking a 10-fold increase with this figure standing at 6-7 square meters per person in Istanbul and 4-5 square meters in Izmir, another important big city of Turkey. Keeping this value in mind, when we look at other world metropolises, it is around 3 square meters in Tokyo, 5 in Barcelona, 10 in Paris, and 23 in New York.
These values are not the same for the entire province and differ in parts. According to international assessments, woodlands, green vegetation on roadsides, and green spaces on private property (including the gardens of public buildings) are not included in these values.
Therefore, due to space limitations, vertical and rooftop gardens are becoming a matter of greater importance with Turkey creating the necessary regulations in 2013, bringing the issue to legal ground.
The amendment to the Planned Areas Type Zoning Regulation paved the way for the building gardens on rooftops. Given the numerous benefits of green spaces such as air quality, energy saving, temperature balance, and contribution to biodiversity, this regulation is of great importance.
However, we cannot say that rooftop gardens and vertical gardens have become very common in our country.
Municipalities are implementing green initiatives especially in megacities such as Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul where local governments are cultivating roadside wall gardens in areas with heavy traffic.
Caring for a wall or rooftop garden is very simple as they require minimal interference as they are designed with an internal irrigation system but do need an annual pruning, some fertilizer, or, when called for, the removal of harmful pests. The walls offer numerous ecological, economic, and mental benefits, with municipalities decorating the panels with figures derived from recycled plastic - both reducing maintenance costs and decorating the area.
Istanbul municipality's move
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) administration is taking an odd position after it previously stopped investments in advanced biological treatment plants with a membrane system that would bring with it a new era in wastewater management in Istanbul, saving a lot of money. The 55,000-square-meter green wall application, which offers countless benefits, unfortunately, faces a massacre.
Developing and growing vegetation is being removed and replaced by graffiti using a synthetic chemical paint. The IBB claims the move is due to the walls' high cost as well as pollution caused by the chemicals used in the care of these areas. However, the plants used for the vertical gardens are no different from those in other public parks and gardens and are subject to the same care and chemicals.
People continue to visit public parks, even bringing their children, and do not experience any side effects from the pollutant chemicals used on the plants, so why should the case for the roadside be any different? Moreover, plants in public parks and gardens are prone to vandalism whereas vertical gardens on roadsides are not.
The graffiti process in these areas has negative environmental effects with an average of 11,000 to 15,000 liters of paint being used, meaning at least 5-10 tons of volatile organic compounds will be released into the air. In addition to destroying the benefits of green vegetation, volatile organic compounds are formed as a result of the painting that emits compounds into the air, which are extremely harmful to health. When these compounds interact with NO2 gas released from vehicles it causes the formation of ground-level ozone, which is extremely harmful. Ground-level ozone, whose effects will gradually increase with hot weather, puts those with respiratory conditions such as asthma at great risk.
Colorful graffiti is more likely to distract drivers with dark colors absorbing more solar energy than concrete would, causing temperatures to further rise. The murals decompose faster due to sunlight and other meteorological factors and therefore will inevitably need to be renewed – an inevitable financial burden that eliminates the benefits the vertical gardens offered.
The destruction of a beneficial, functioning system – instead of utilizing the one million square meters of available wall in Istanbul – highlights the lack of planning that has gone into the move.
In our world where the effects of global warming are increasing day by day as heat islands emerge and high air pollution makes city centers more uninhabitable the importance of greenery per square meter increases. Environmental investments should increase rather than eliminating the existing ones.
As we have always said, the environment is an issue that cannot be politicized. Since all environmental investments will prevent health costs, we consider a healthy environment a form of preventive medicine. In this respect, we call on the authorities to do their duty. Let us not destroy the refreshing living walls but rather increase their number as it will benefit us all.
*Deputy Minister at the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, chief climate change envoy
Tags: VERTICAL GARDEN ISTANBUL ISTANBUL METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY ENVIRONMENT
This Sustainable Neighborhood of The Future Is Designed To Manage Both Climate Change And Pandemics
A proposal for a new city in China is designed to be as green as possible—and also makes it easy to isolate in the case of another outbreak
09-04-20
A proposal for a new city in China is designed to be as green as possible—and also makes it easy to isolate in the case of another outbreak.
[Image: courtesy Guallart Architects]
Eighty miles southwest of Beijing, the Chinese government is planning a new five-million person city as a model of sustainability—powered by clean energy, featuring huge green spaces, and unsullied by many cars. A new design shows what neighborhoods in the city, called Xiong’an New Area, might look like.
City blocks would surround courtyards with native plants and garden plots. Apartments, designed for people of all income levels and ages, have large balconies with built-in boxes for gardening; greenhouses with vertical farms sit on the roofs, next to rooftop homes with gardens of their own. The wooden buildings, designed to use 80% less energy than typical buildings, use on-site solar power. Most streets are designed to prioritize people on bikes and on foot, not cars.
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US: NEW YORK - What If Central Park Were Home To A Massive Urban Farm?
A corner of Central Park was once home to a thriving Black community. Amber Tamm wants to honor the legacy of that neighborhood with a farm to feed New York’s neediest
08-04-20
A corner of Central Park was once home to a thriving Black community. Amber Tamm wants to honor the legacy of that neighborhood with a farm to feed New York’s neediest.
In 1825, downtown New York City was growing crowded. Then, as now, racism made New York an uncomfortable place for Black Americans, so Andrew Williams, a Black shoeshiner, took an opportunity to move north, away from the hubub of lower Manhattan. For $125 he bought three parcels of land between what is now West 85th Street and 86th Street and where once there was just farmland. Shortly thereafter, a church bought up a plot with plans to create a cemetery for African Americans. Other Black Americans soon followed.
That was the beginning of a neighborhood called Seneca Village. Residents there, like Williams, were largely laborers. But land ownership provided an opportunity for upward mobility and Black landowners with property worth $250 or more could vote in elections. By 1850, there was a school, three churches, gardens, livestock, some 50 homes, and roughly 225 residents, the majority of whom were Black.
But the New York Williams had tried to escape was growing too: The city doubled in population between 1845 and 1855, and citizens began clamoring for green space to be set aside for recreation. Though several sites were up for consideration, including a tract of private land along the East River, the city decided on a large swath at the center of the island. Though the media of the time painted the region as a largely empty save for some poor squatters, Seneca Village fell right inside its bounds.
The 1868 plan for Central Park. [Image: Wiki Commons]
The city acquired the land through eminent domain, paying owners “just compensation,” (though letters from the time reveal that Seneca Village residents did not always feel the compensation was actually fair). Seneca Village was razed and subsumed into what is now Central Park. Amber Tamm, a farmer for a nearly six-acre New York rooftop farm called Brooklyn Grange, wants to give part of the park back to that history, by taking 14 acres of the 55-acre Great Lawn and turning it into a community farm that would feed under-resourced Manhattanites, many of whom are Black. It would also serve as an educational resource for teaching New Yorkers about urban farming. Tamm wants to call it Seneca Village Farm. “I think calling out Central Park is powerful because it’s the biggest park in New York City and it has the most flatland,” she says.
Tamm is hoping to reclaim Central Park’s narrative and make it a more inclusive one. Her vision is that one person would farm an acre each and people would apply for one of the 14 spots. Tamm envisions running a training program where she and a small team would teach people how to farm their acre with room for creative innovation. If there is someone interested in herbalism, Tamm says she would find a mentor to teach her how to grow herbs. “But also what does it look like for her to exercise creativity? Does she want to grow in rows? Does she want to grow in circles and spirals? Let her flesh out what her vision is and let her work through what it’s like to revitalize soil while also supporting community through what she yields,” says Tamm. Another example she gives: What would it look like to grow rice in New York City?
Tamm’s introduction to the existence of Seneca Village started young and was driven by her mother’s persistent interest in the village. In 1993, a book about Central Park, The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, spurred archeologists Nan Rothschild and Diana diZerega Wall, a professor at City College, to consider Seneca Village’s old plot as the site of an archeological dig. Seventeen years later, the city approved it. The excavation yielded a small glimpse into a place that captivated certain New Yorkers.
[Photo: Jermaine Ee/Unsplash]
“There would be these excavations where they were finding bones of our ancestors and my mother would always be moved to tears and be investigating how she can go see it, how she can go experience it on her own,” says Amber Tamm, a farmer for Brooklyn Grange, who grew up in East New York. She says her family has lived in Brooklyn for four generations. “Once Seneca Village became a thing and once they started to find the walls and the teapots, she was deeply invested in talking about it.“
The Seneca Village Farm idea was born out of COVID-19. In the early days, food was constrained. Tamm remembers going to the farmers’ market and seeing a bleak array of produce stalls. She and a friend who works on the rooftop garden at Cooper Union began a conversation about what it would look like for New York City to have food sovereignty or sustainable access to healthy, culturally appropriate food grown locally. What kind of food a person can access in New York City depends largely on where they live: Some neighborhoods have big grocery stores with expensive produce trucked in from all over the country. Others have corner stores with selections of packaged goods and small produce sections.
The unequal food distribution in New York has led some food activists to start urban farms that cater to individual communities. East New York Farms, for example, operates a plot and sells to local residents in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The group has also helped others to start their own community-led farms, like the one at the Louis Heaton Pink Houses, a New York City Housing Authority project in Brooklyn.
During the pandemic, food access, at least initially, was even more constrained for those who already have difficulty accessing fresh food. Soup kitchens and groups like Harlem Grown, which uses abandon lots to set up urban farms, stepped in to fill the food void with fresh vegetables and prepared meals. Tamm wonders what such efforts would be like with a bigger piece of land.
The pandemic also provided Tamm with a precedent for converting Central Park to more essential uses: Within the first three weeks of the pandemic, after New York City shut down normal operations, field tents with 68 hospital beds went up in Central Park to support Mt. Sinai hospital as it treated COVID-19 patients. Tamm says, if New York City is willing to set aside land for treating sick New Yorkers, why would it not set aside that same land for ensuring that city residents have access to good nutrition.
“Farmers and doctors are deemed, essential workers. So why couldn’t we have the juxtaposition of on one side of the park they have the COVID hospital and on the other side they have farms, because that would be tackling both sides of health,” she says.
Sam Biederman, systems commissioner for community outreach and partnership development at New York City Parks, works closely with the Central Park Conservancy and also with New York City’s Green Thumb community gardens. He says that given the size of New York City’s population there is physically not enough available land in New York City to grow enough food to feed all its residents. However, he does think community gardens contribute more quality food to certain neighborhoods. Unfortunately, he says, the Central Park Conservancy, in partnership with the city, manages the park with strict rules that may make such a project difficult to undertake.
The Central Park Conservancy is a nonprofit that was founded in 1980 after the park had suffered years of decline, to rejuvenate and manage the park. The city pays about a tenth of the conservancy’s annual $85 million budget, and conservancy raises the rest through private sources. The organization works in tandem with the parks department.
“The undergirding philosophical approach is as much land should be available to all people,” says Biederman. He says that using Central Park as anything other than purely recreational space requires event permitting. The Great Lawn in particular has a lot of limits, he says, because any time an event takes over that space, it is taking it offline for recreational use. The longest a person can get a permit for the Great Lawn is two days and there are only seven permits given out a year. “Turning a significant amount of that space over to agriculture that’s a significantly different use—it’s a tall order.”
However, he also notes that the Central Park Conservancy is very aware of Seneca Village’s history and is trying to honor its legacy in various ways. Last year, the organization put up a temporary installation that highlights the work archeologists have done and their learnings about Seneca Village in the time they’ve been investigating it. It also released a series of materials that help guide teachers who want to use the exhibit to teach students about Seneca Village. Biederman says NYC Parks is also looking into renaming other parks to honor New York’s Black history. “Negotiating what it means to live on and operate and be the custodian of land that once belonged to someone else is a moral responsibility that you have to tend to in perpetuity,” says Biederman. “The way people interact with public spaces evolves from generation to generation—that’s clear.”
Tamm, who has separately recently raised more than $100,000 to start her own farm, is meeting with a member of New York City Parks to discuss the project further and has high hopes for the conversation, she says. “It would be there to pay homage to the ancestors of Seneca Village—that’s the number-one goal.”
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify the Conservancy’s role in managing Central Park.
Lead Photo: [Photo: johnandersonphoto/iStock]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth Reader is a writer for Fast Company. She covers the intersection of health and technology.
As The Pandemic Continues, Urban Gardening Is Growing on New Yorkers
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns over the food supply chain began increasing nationwide as popular food items flew off the shelves and grocery store lines grew to alarming lengths
JULY 27, 2020
BY MILI GODIO
Samuel’s Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)
Samuel S. T. Pressman had wanted to build a food garden on the rooftop of his Clinton Hill apartment for years. The artist and sculptor had lived on a farm when he was younger and had studied Sustainable Environmental Systems at Pratt. But in a city with a “time is money” mentality, he never found the right moment to start his passion project.
That changed when New York underwent a statewide Pause order in mid-March. Now, Samuel’s Food Gardens is tackling the city’s food insecurity problem by providing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to community gardens that advocate for food security. “I wanted to explore what most people’s living situation is here,” Pressman said, “where they don’t have any land and have hardly any outdoor space that they own, and how they can still be able to grow some food using a system that is designed to actually make it possible to grow more food than you think per square foot.”
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns over the food supply chain began increasing nationwide as popular food items flew off the shelves and grocery store lines grew to alarming lengths. This panic, along with a sudden abundance of time and collective distress over going to crowded supermarkets, contributed to a surge in backyard gardens and private farming initiatives. Even as the apocalyptic anxiety began to settle down, the gardening craze didn’t seem to stop. With at least 10 million more people unemployed in the United States compared to pre-COVID figures, feeding families continues to be at the top of everyone’s priority list.
Samuel’s Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)
Despite its tiny living spaces and skyscrapers galore, NYC is no exception to the gardening trend. Residents like Pressman have begun to utilize spaces on rooftops, patios, and even the edges of classic Brooklyn-style buildings to create more green space in the area.
Having previously worked with Friends of Brook Park Community Garden in the Bronx and having designed and led construction for Newkirk Community Garden in central Brooklyn, Pressman has always found ways to support underserved communities and advocate for inclusive community food growing. He began Samuel’s Food Gardens not to sell the food that he grows, but to continue his work with community gardens and help individuals with private gardening areas maximize their spaces and get the most out of their crops in the long term.
New Yorkers are engaging with food in new ways. That has led to a spike in produce sales at the three green roofs operated by Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, and an increased demand for their services designing, installing and maintaining private green spaces. “I think that there’s, to some degree, a process of reconnecting with simple pleasures and when it comes to the kitchen, that means really high-quality, fresh ingredients that are good for you,” said Anastasia Cole Plakias, the urban farm’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “I think that there’s this realization that supply chains have a role to play in our recovery here.”
Brooklyn Grange (Photo courtesy of Anastasia Cole Plakias)
In its ten years of operation, Brooklyn Grange has sold over 400,000 pounds of produce through weekly farmers markets located in Sunset Park, Greenpoint, and Long Island City, a CSA program where people obtain the farm’s harvest through a seasonal subscription plan, and a seed-to-plate initiative that provides food to local restaurants and retailers.
Cole Plakias says Brooklyn Grange was set to sell roughly 100,000 pounds of produce this year, but once restaurants began closing across the city and in-person events came to a halt, the farm’s business model had to quickly shift away from restaurant crops and towards feeding and nourishing the community.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest from people in having us convert their outdoor spaces to food-producing spaces, or more habitable green spaces,” said Cole Plakias. “We’re seeing a tremendous amount of interest in garden maintenance services because people are recognizing the value of urban green space.”
The company has managed to secure multiple partnerships that not only keep their farms in business, but also keep restaurants open and ensure food accessibility. Tasmanian footwear company Blundstone funded a full season of produce donations and kept farmers and staff employed. To deliver emergency food relief, Brooklyn Grange partnered with Rethink (their Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors) and Food Issues Group, both organizations dedicated to providing equitable food systems in NYC and keeping restaurant workers employed, especially during a global pandemic.
With more New Yorkers cooking at home, the demand for fresh produce at farmers markets and through CSA programs has steadily increased during the pandemic, Cole Plakias says. Add to which, there has been a dramatic boost in demand for the farm’s virtual farming and composting workshops.
There have been a variety of online learning opportunities for prospective gardeners in the city. GrowNYC, which has been teaching city folks how to maintain urban gardens for years, offers virtual classes, and the New York Botanical Garden began hosting virtual workshops after it closed in March (the garden is set to reopen on July 28).
Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)
The Union Street Farm, near the corner of Union Street and Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights, also offers free, in-person gardening classes and open volunteering, giving local residents hands-on experience with growing and maintaining a full-functioning garden. “We’ll do some tasks that need to be done in the garden and through that work, we talk about gardening,” said Garrison Harward, who began his work at the Union Street Farm in 2016. “It’s open for whatever anybody wants to learn.”
Harward’s love for gardening was influenced by his own family’s garden in his California hometown. In 2010, as a sustainable agriculture volunteer for the Peace Corps in Senegal, he began investigating regenerative agriculture and different methods of agricultural systems for economic gain and food security. The freelance lighting technician has maintained the Union Street Farm for the past five years, after it was given to him by two fellow neighbors who were too elderly to maintain it.
Harward favors no-till gardening, meaning he doesn’t turn over the soil or disrupt the structure built by bacteria and fungi. Aside from being healthier for plants, it leads to really great water infiltration, according to Harward. “Every drop of water that falls on the plant bed stays exactly where it is – I have zero runoff that goes into New York watersheds, which is environmentally friendly. Not putting nitrates into the watershed, all those ways in which agriculture contributes to algae blooms and fish die-offs.”
Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)
Harward believes there has been a marked increase in gardening since the pandemic, which leads to more people reaching out to him for advice and resources. Initially providing seedlings to neighbors that were interested in growing their own food, he soon began giving them away to people all over the country. So far, he’s sent out eight varieties of seeds to roughly 120 people who reached out to him on Instagram. He even launched a Facebook group titled “NYC Gardening Resources,” where he virtually assists new and experienced gardeners alike.
The Union Street Farm’s harvest is free for anyone that visits or casually stumbles upon its gates. Although Harward holds free farmers markets every Sunday for people to take home the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that he grows, he welcomes people to take as much as they need, whenever they need it.
“I think there’s a lot of realization that we don’t have to tie everything to a financial transaction,” Harward explained. “There’s so many different ways that we can support each other. Like, we’re exchanging goods, we’re exchanging culture, we’re exchanging connections within our neighborhood and if it doesn’t have to be monetized, then why should it?”
This ethos is not uncommon in New York City green spaces, where avid gardeners like Harward and Pressman hope to make their hard work and agricultural talents accessible to all. Pressman and his Circular Communities team are currently developing projects such as the Micro Food Hub, which promotes social equity in the agricultural sphere and facilitates the production and exchange of food by connecting community gardens, food producers, restaurants, and consumers via a digital platform, and he hopes to host school tours at his food garden where he can spark a passion for food growing within students and young people. Pressman also intends to ship out DIY planting kits in the future and provide teaching tools that instruct the basics of utilizing small spaces – including greenhouses during the winter – to maximize food growth efficiently and cost-effectively.
“There’s this special relationship you have to have with the plants to be able to help them and train them,” said Pressman. “It kind of opens up a whole new door for how humans actually emotionally feel around nature and I think people are seeking that out right now, they just might not know exactly how to get it into their home.”