Learn It, Grow It, Eat It spring interns talk nutrition

April 26, 2011

Learn It, Grow It, Eat It started it's annual spring break internship five years ago after hearing from high schoolers how bored they were during their week off. Last week, 8 students from 3 high schools (Bronx International, Bronx Regional and LaGuardia high schools) worked together for 2 days in Wishing Well Community Garden getting veggie plots ready for spring and then putting together a nutrition education label reading workshop which they presented to staff at the Novetel Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The presentation featured the debut of LGE's latest interactive display, "Chubby Comes to America," a look at the mind-boggling amounts of sugar in favorite children's drinks and foods. Staff at the hotel were truly surprised by what the teens had to tell them and asked if they could come to their children's school to do the same. Intern Alhassan Yaya said, "I feel very proud that i had the opportunity to teach adults things that they didn't know." Another intern, Kassandra Ramos, really enjoyed "doing something positive with students from other high schools."

Get your soil's pH tested

March 21, 2011
Posted in Community Gardens

We are no longer accepting soil for testing. See the link below for other testing facilities.

GrowNYC will be offering $5 soil pH tests from now until Friday, April 1st.

Interested gardeners can send a tablespoon of soil from the first 6 inches of their garden, in a plastic bag, to:

GrowNYC
Attn: Soil Test
51 Chambers Street, Room 228
New York, NY, 10007

Make checks or money orders payable to GrowNYC.

Please note that we will only be testing your soil's pH. More information on where to get your soil tested for toxins and chemicals can be found at Grow to Learn NYC's soil testing page.

GrowNYC Annual Report released

February 9, 2011
Posted in Community Gardens | Tagged photos

GrowNYC is proud to annouce the release of our 2010 Annual Report, a comprehensive guide to all of GrowNYC's programs and activities from the past year.

The front cover features a gorgeous photograph of New York City's 5 boroughs rendered with Greenmarket fruits and vegetables. The photo was made possible by our new board member Everard Findlay and Everard Findlay LLC.

Check out our annual report below, or send us an e-mail if you'd like a hard copy.

Click to view our Annual Report

Community garden survey released

January 6, 2011
Posted in Community Gardens

In 2009 and 2010, GrowNYC hosted Compton Mentor Fellow Mara Gittleman. Mentored by Open Space Greening Assistant Director Lenny Librizzi, Mara's first project was updating the community garden information on OASIS, a powerful GIS-based online map that allows users to view details about every block and lot in the five boroughs. This was the first full-scale update to the community garden information in many years.

This updated information gave us the opportunity to collect and analyze data and create charts and maps highlighting all the benefits of community gardens. Nearly half of the city's 500 community gardens responded to the survey, answering questions like:

How many community gardens are there today?
How many grow food, and which crops?
How does one join a garden in my neighborhood?
What kinds of partnerships with schools and community groups do gardens have?
What types of events take place?

The results are astounding! 80% of responding gardens grow food, 65% compost, and 43% partner with at least one local school.

Read the report (PDF 6.92 mb).

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A new stage and mural for JDD Garden

December 1, 2010

Recently, the roof on the stage/gazebo at JDD Garden had fallen into disrepair. In addition to providing gardening space for some of our Learn It, Grow It, Eat It students, the garden plays host to community events, meetings, and parties, so a solution was needed.

Thanks to generous support from Morrisania Revitalization Corp. and BASICS Inc., GrowNYC has spent the last month demolishing the old structure and building a new one, suitable for performances, shaded sitting, and a new rainwater harvesting system. GrowNYC staff was assisted by volunteers from BASICS and the Sustainable South Bronx Best Academy.

Gazebo/stage reconstruction

Mural

Learn It, Grow It, Eat It on LunchNYC

November 22, 2010

NYC Media, the official television, radio and online network of the City of New York, recently profiled Learn It, Grow It, Eat It on LunchNYC.

Our part starts at 6:40. Check it out!

Learn It, Grow It, Eat It students in the garden and at market

October 20, 2010

We started our Learn It, Grow It, Eat It (LGE) program in 2005 as a collaboration between our community garden and environmental education programs. LGE students, from four high schools in the Bronx and one in Manhattan, take part in a three-part program: growing food in local community gardens; receiving nutrition education, which they then use to perform health-related outreach activities in their schools and neighborhoods; and operating a Youthmarket community farm stand where they sell the food they grow. Today was the second to last day at their Youthmarket, but the market was still full of produce from their garden. The last market day of the season is next Wednesday, October 27th, at Boston Road and 169th St from 10 AM to 2:30 PM. Take a look at some photos from their garden at Wishing Well Community Garden and from their Youthmarket.

Collecting Sunday night's shower

October 12, 2010

Last night's downpour covered New York City in an inch of rain and caused flooding in some neighborhoods. Storms place a huge burden on the city's sewer system, the effects of which are felt by the local watershed. GrowNYC has helped build over 60 rainwater harvesting systems in community gardens throughout the city. These systems help mitigate stormwater runoff, reduce the demand on the public water supply system, and make it easy for gardeners to water their gardens. But just how much water do they save? The general formula we use for calculating rainwater harvesting potential is that one thousand square feet of catchment area (like a roof) will yield 600 gallons of water per inch of rain. We also take into account the efficiency of the systems and say that 75% of potentially harvestable rain is actually collected. If a typical building's footprint is 20' x 50' (1000 square feet), that means 450 gallons of water could have been harvested by last night's one inch rainfall. A typical 10' x 10' shed could have harvested 45 gallons. For reference, a typical watering can is about 2.5 gallons. More information about GrowNYC's rainwater harvesting program is here. For a PDF guide to building your own system, click here.

A garden grows on Randall's Island

October 8, 2010

For the past 6 months, GrowNYC's Open Space Greening program has been hard at work building a Children's Garden on Randall's Island. The garden features over 30 raised beds, currently growing kale, collard greens, carrots, four varieties of tomatoes, and many other vegetables and herbs. Under the guidance of GrowNYC's Gerard Lordahl, children from the Stanley Isaacs Community Center have been growing vegetables and receiving cooking instruction as part of the Isaacs Center's "The Growing Place" project. The Randall's Island Children's Learning Garden is located within the Icahn Stadium complex. School groups interested in visiting or working in the garden should contact our School Gardens Coordinator.

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