Liz Christy Garden
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The Liz Christy Bowery Houston Garden, started in 1973, is the first and oldest
community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plo ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Located at the corner of the
Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...
and
Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River in t ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and running across to 2nd Avenue, it is now a part of
New York City Parks Department The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
.


History

The Liz Christy Bowery Houston Garden, originally named "Bowery-Houston Community Farm and Garden," was established in 1973 when neighbor Liz Christy successfully petitioned the City of New York for access to make the vacant lot a garden for $1 a month. In 1973, Christy founded urban community garden group, the
Green Guerillas The Green Guerillas are a community group of horticulturalists, gardeners, botanists, and planners who work to turn abandoned or empty spaces in New York City into gardens. Formed in the 1970s, the group threw " seed grenades" into derelict lots ...
, and in 1974 led the group in cleanup and creation of the garden. The Liz Christy Bowery Houston Garden was the first winner of the American Forestry Association's Urban Forestry Award. In 1985, the garden was renamed in Christy's honor upon her death due to cancer. In 2002, it became one of the protected community gardens by law. In 2013, it was included in the Bowery Historic District on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.


Garden

The garden feels like a private place despite the din of traffic with a varied terrain and mature trees and shrubs, and is maintained by approximately 20 volunteer gardeners. Magnolia and weeping birch trees are among the lush vegetation to be found there. Two ponds support fish and turtles, there is a perennial lotus, a native plant habitat, vegetables, herbs, and many flowering plants. The tallest Dawn Redwood tree in the city is located at the garden. The garden is open to the public on Saturday from noon until 4PM, all year, on Sundays from noon until 4 PM, May to October, and Tuesday & Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. until dusk from May until October.


Media

The garden is included in many broadcast programs, magazines and papers, it is also featured in the
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series, "
Around the World In 80 Gardens ''Around the World in 80 Gardens'' is a television series of 10 programmes in which British gardener and broadcaster Monty Don visits 80 of the world's most celebrated gardens. The series was filmed over a period of 18 months and was first broadc ...
" with
Monty Don Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is a British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series ''Gardeners' World''. Born in Germany and raised ...
.


See also

* Community Gardens in New York City * Community gardening in the United States


References


External links

*
Green Guerillas website
Bowery East Village, Manhattan Community gardening in New York City 1973 establishments in New York City {{Manhattan-geo-stub