This small, 2,500-square-foot garden is actively used by local gardeners and students from P.S. 45 – the Horace E. Greene School – located across the street. In this green space, community residents and schoolchildren cultivate significant quantities of vegetables – including peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, beans and basil. The garden also features benches located beneath the shade of a beloved crabapple tree and perfect for those seeking a spot to relax or find refuge from the summer’s heat.

Neighborhood gardeners have ingeniously recycled many found materials to construct pergolas, propagation stations and sitting areas. They have also made excellent use of wood left over from the construction of a rammed-earth wall at New York Restoration Project’s (NYRP) Heckscher Foundation Children’s Garden, also located in Brooklyn, to build raised planting beds – preventing what would have been waste lumber from becoming landfill.

To help ensure the garden continues to serve as an active green space and engages local residents for years to come, NYRP staff and horticulture crews work with community members to remove trash and provide ongoing maintenance, building assistance and plant material for the garden – including wood for raised planting beds, gardening tools, compost and vegetable seedlings.

Located in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, the Decatur Street Community Garden is situated amidst single- and multi-family homes in a neighborhood whose residents are primarily of Hispanic and African-American descent.