Start a Garden
For those interested in starting a garden project, please keep in mind that there are over 600 community gardens throughout the five boroughs.
Here are a few steps to getting a community garden started:
- If you do cannot locate a garden in your neighborhood of interest, look around for lots that are overgrown or “vacant.” If you have been living on the block for a long time make sure to choose sites you know have not been used in years. Pinpoint the site’s location and write it down. Be sure to note where the lot is if it is on a corner (i.e. northwest, southeast).
- Get the community involved by planning a meeting that brings together as many of your neighbors as possible to discuss the project. Publicize your meeting with posters, phone calls, and in local papers or newsletters. Use multi–lingual announcements to get the word out to the whole community. As a group, make decisions about issues that are important for you and develop a comprehensive project proposal. This document should include the following:
- Mission/ vision statement listing benefits to the community
- List of community members interested in the project (at least 10 names, addresses and phone numbers and emails)
- Sketch or rendering of project
- List of partners/sponsors/endorsers (including churches, school, local business, city agencies, etc)
- Find the Block and Lot number and contact the property owner/manager. You can visit www.oasisnyc.net and use the mapping system to find this information using the indentify lot function or www.propertyshark.com. If you cannot find the landowner on either site, visit your borough’s Records Office. For $0.50, you can buy a copy of the block map, which gives your surveyor’s dimensions of the garden and the block/lot numbers. With these numbers, you can also approach your community board to determine who the property owner is.
- Once you determine who the property owner/manager is you have a few different options.
- If it is private, you need to contact the owner/manager and submit your proposal. You must request a written permission to use the lot. This permission letter should include detailed outline setting the parameters of use and a set timeline in which the letter is valid. However, this letter is not legally binding. There is generally no security for such garden sites; they can be bulldozed and developed at any time without notice. Zoning restrictions also prevent gardening on several sites.
- If it is City–owned, contact the agency with jurisdiction over the lot and submit your project proposal. Examples of City agencies that maintain jurisdiction on registered GreenThumb lots are: DOT (Dept. of Transportation), DOE (Dept. of Education), JOP (Jointly Operated Parkland) and HPD (Housing Preservation and Development) among others. You need to ask for a licensing or lease agreement detailing the parameters of use.
- Contact your Community Board. Many Community Boards have Open Space/Land Use Committees that directly address their area’s public space issues. Having these committees endorse your project is very instrumental and gaining support from other agencies and organization. Please check this link to find your community board.
- Register your group with GreenThumb when you have written permission from the owner or a license agreement from the City agency. You will receive our quarterly Program Guides that lists community education workshops, which also act as access points for supply distribution.
Contact our office for information on registering your group by calling (212) 788–8070. You should also look to other agencies or organizations for assistance visit our ’Links’ page for a list of partners.