Parque de Tranquilidad
This is the first community park that we got to visit. The flowers and plants in this park didn’t seem grow organically and it was pretty well-organized. I think it’s supported by a strong community because the park is nice and clean. We were able to find bags of collected leaves when we entered the park so I assume there are people who will clean the park everyday. I think it’s a pollinator friendly garden because one of the manager at the garden mentioned that there were birds interacted with the mirror in the garden. The park was supported by The Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation to the Plant-A-Lot project of the council on the environment of New York City. We were able to talk to one of the managers at the garden who lives in that community for a long time. She talked about it was very valuable to have a community garden in one of the most expensive area in New York. The garden serves many purposes not only a leisure space for the residences to enjoy but also is important to the surrounding areas. I was able to find different kinds of plants and flowers in this community garden and I thought it was pretty interesting.
El Jardin del Paraiso
This is the second community garden that I visited. I remembered that there are signs in front of the park which said the park was “Neighborhood Grant Winner” in 2016 and 2018. However, when I entered the park I didn’t find many plants that were well organized. There are some random trees in the garden but I didn’t find a variety of plants. So I did some research on this garden, on their website, it says the garden is currently undergone major maintenance. I think this is the reason why it doesn’t contain many plants in it. I’m not sure if this is a pollinator-friendly garden or not because I hardly see flowers in it. There is a little creek in the middle of the garden but I think it’s not very interacting and interesting enough for people. This garden is right on the other side of Parque de Tranquilidad. In comparison, I think Parque de Tranquilidad gives people more opportunities to interact with the garden. I wasn’t able to find anyone in the park to talk with because it was kind of early in the morning. I assume people usually go to the park in the afternoon so it was hard to find any information for that.
LIZ CHRISTY COMMUNITY GARDEN
The third community garden that I went to is called the Liz Christy Garden. I did some research and the whole name of this garden is called The Liz Christy Bowery Houston Garden. It’s the first and oldest community garden in New York City. When we get to the garden, there weren’t many people in the park. We figured it out the reason might be it’s too early in the morning for people to hang out in gardens. The flowers and plants are well-organized in the garden and you can clearly see there must be people worked on building the garden. I think it’s supported by a strong community because the park is nice and clean. The garden feels like a private place for people with varied plants and mature trees and I did research that there are maintained by approximately 20 volunteer Gardeners. I think the park is very convenient for people to come because it’s located at the corner of the Bowery and Houston Street in Manhattan.
