Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Central Queens Y needs a community garden

A few weeks ago, me and the guys at Sustainable Forest Hills - Erin, Aleks and Derek - along with Peggy from the Y set up a meeting to share ideas about local food and gardening in Forest Hills, Queens.  One idea that generated a lot of excitement was putting a demonstration garden in a back yard directly behind the Y facility on 108th Street.  The Y is still figuring out what pieces of lawn we can rip up.  It's late in the season, so the goal would be to put in a mix of mature plants and fast growing seeds so we can have a credible display by the end of the season - and perhaps recruit a few other yards-to-gardens in the area.  Soil test came back with medium lead, which is apparently in the normal range. 


The big back yard section, looking at the back of the Y facility, and the empty house.


From another angle.  The center of this yard is about 35' x 35'. 





And from another angle. 

The Y is also interested, to my surprise, of gardening on the sunny strip on the side street, which is open to full neighborhood viewing.  Great for us...


Project update, later in July: Our contact at the Y was all for this, but the boss kept delaying a decision...and delaying...finally it became clear the management did not have strong support for the project. And it was getting late in the season. And I'm overcommitted anyway. So no garden, and no plans to do one at the Y.

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