smiling-hogshed-ranch

We asked Paula Z. Segal, the founder and director of 596 Acres, to fill us in on all the community garden action happening around Queens. 596 Acres specializes in helping communities transform empty lots into community garden spaces. You can search all the public vacant sites in Queens through the 596 Acres website. Here’s what Queens residents have already gotten started on:

  • Some folks in Sunnyside who thought they were trying to simply start a garden on their corner at 39th Avenue and 50th Street were told to contact the owner, and the plans for this controversial development surfaced. 596 Acres is working to more actively support communities working for access to vacant privately owned land.
  • Smiling Hogshead Ranch (pictured) is a super active site on MTA-owned land in Long Island City that is growing food while negotiating for long-term tenure with the Authority. Here are more details about that site, also follow the garden’s Facebook page to keep up with the progress.
  • Currently, this lot in the Rockaways is in the first round of Gardens for Healthy Communities sites and is being licensed by the Parks Department for a four year term through the GreenThumb program. That means this lot will be funded through the Mayor’s Obesity Task Force initiative — the initiative seeks to establish gardens that provide fresh food in neighborhoods that have limited access to it.
  • A few garden-hopeful private lots include this space in Corona, in partnership with Immigrant Movement International and this CityLine lot, in partnership with the Bangladeshi American Community Development and Youth Service.
  • Check out all the existing gardens on public land in Queens right here.

Any readers out there working on community garden projects of their own?


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