Partnering to Grow a Greener Queens

With almost 27% of its land dedicated to public green space, New York City qualifies as the greenest big city in the country. However, the actual access to and funding of parks, gardens, and nature in New York City remains startlingly unequal along both racial and economic lines, precluding low-income New Yorkers from enjoying these benefits equally. This is especially the case for the communities we serve in Queens: of the 45 zip codes representing the bottom 25% of park access across New York City, 27 are found in Queens. Over 1.1 million New Yorkers reside in these areas with inadequate access to green space, making them even more at risk of the detrimental effects of flooding, extreme heat, and poor air quality.

This is why New York Restoration Project is committed to expanding access to green space throughout the borough, particularly in low-income central and southeastern neighborhoods. This year alone, we built two new gardens in the borough, gave away over 700 free trees to Queens residents, and supported a busy and successful season with our Queens community garden groups.

Building New Gardens in Queens

In addition to the three gardens that NYRP owns and operates in Queens, NYRP has completed 34 garden greening projects in the borough since we began our Gardens for the City (GFTC) program in 2012. This program works with community partners in some of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods to build gardens and revamp green spaces at no cost to the partner. Community centers like schools, existing community gardens, health clinics, homeless shelters, and houses of worship are examples of groups eligible to apply to the program.This past year, NYRP was thrilled to collaborate with our longtime corporate partners at Delta Air Lines – who share our commitment to the borough – to bring two new green spaces to deserving Queens public schools.

NYRP Director of Garden Horticulture & Citywide Greening Projects Jason Sheets received a GFTC application from a science teacher at Jamaica Children’s Magnet School with dreams of turning the school’s outdoor play area into a garden.

After learning more about the school’s vision, the NYRP crew joined forces with a stellar group of volunteers from Delta Air Lines earlier this May to build two shade structures; assemble four garden beds and fill them with soil; weed and prepare the ground within the tree pits with landscape fabric and woodchips; build one picnic table and six benches; install, mulch, and water 18 perennials and six shrubs; plant a holly shrub at the entrance of the school; weed the front yard area; prune shrubs; and create mulch rings around existing trees and shrubs.

The students and staff of Jamaica Children’s Magnet School were thrilled with the new additions and excited to start growing in the new garden beds. “It was a pleasure working with Delta Air Lines volunteers to help make Jamaica Children’s Magnet School’s outdoor area greener and more useable for their students” reflected Jason Sheets.

NYRP’s crew and Delta Air Lines volunteers returned to Queens again in the fall of this year to do another school garden build – this time at P.S. 102 in Elmhurst, Queens. With only 3.5 functional acres of green space per 100,000 residents, Elmhurst has some of the least access to green space in all of New York City.

P.S. 102’s parent association had reached out to NYRP through the Gardens for the City program in hopes of transforming the school’s outdoor space into a garden and making it

more usable for programming. “We didn’t want our school just to be a place where [students] came to school and left,” remarked Ferdie Lee, the former president of the P.S. 102 parent association. “We wanted it to be a place where parents and students alike felt like it was a community where they could feel welcome there, so that’s why we felt that the garden was a perfect way to amplify that.”

Our crew worked with volunteers from Delta Air Lines and members of the P.S 102’s parent association to assemble five garden beds and fill them with four yards of soil; build a large shade structure; assemble two picnic tables; install 26 shrubs and perennials plants; remove four yards of woody and herbaceous brush; water and mulch in new plantings; and spread four yards of woodchips along the strip and in front area of school.

The students, staff, and parents were delighted by the outcome of the garden renovation. “THANK YOU to New York Restoration Project and Delta Air Lines,” remarked a representative from P.S 102’s parent association, “It looks amazing!” With bulbs and tools provided by NYRP, the parent association planted 102 bulbs in the newly finished garden areas around the school in celebration of P.S 102’s 102nd anniversary. In the coming year, our Urban Agriculture team will work with the students to help bring the garden to life.

Giving away 700+ free, native trees in Queens

Since 2007, NYRP has given away thousands of free trees to New Yorkers across all five boroughs. The program began in partnership with NYC Parks as part of the MillionTreesNYC initiative, but since the completion of the million-tree goal in 2015, NYRP has shifted the focus of the tree giveaways to areas of the city with the least tree cover, which includes large sections of Queens.

This year, we held four tree giveaways in Queens: one in Jackson Heights with Jackson Heights Beautification Group and Councilmember Shekar Krishnan; another in Jamaica with Discovery Community Garden and City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams; another in Far Rockaway with RISE Rockaway, Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, National Grid and New York Islanders; and one last in Flushing with Queens Botanical Garden and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, Congresswoman Grace Meng, and Councilmember Sandra Ung.

“This beloved program continues to spread the undeniable benefits of our urban tree canopy to the neighborhoods that need them most,” reflects NYRP Executive Director Lynn Bodnar Kelly. “We must get more trees in the ground in New York City if we are to truly confront the climate crisis.”

Produce Giveaways, Volunteer Days, and Community Dinners in NYRP’s Queens Gardens

New York Restoration Project owns and operates three community gardens in Queens: Seagirt Boulevard Community Garden in Far Rockaway, Pembroke Avenue Community Garden in Little Neck, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Community Garden in Jamaica. This year, our Queens garden groups were bustling with produce giveaways, school supply drives, volunteer days, and community dinners.

At Pembroke Avenue Community Garden, our community partner Papai’s Garden engages individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the planting, harvesting, and selling of produce. This year, the employment training program culminated in a fantastic harvest and produce giveaway event where the gardeners distributed free greens and herbs to garden neighbors.

At Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Community Garden, the garden group held over 10 volunteer days throughout the growing season and inaugurated a dinner series where members of the community would gather in the garden to eat a feast including food harvested from the garden. They also hosted one of the NYRP’s annual and extremely popular school supply drives, giving away free backpacks, books, and supplies to the students in the neighborhood. For their efforts this season, NYRP awarded the garden group with the “Hero’s Harvest Award” in recognition of their exceptional work in fostering community, food access, and food production.

 

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We are so proud of our gardeners, community partners, and corporate partners for their dedication to expanding access to nature in the least green parts of Queens this year. We look forward to building more green space in Queens and giving away more free trees to residents in 2025.

We are deeply grateful to Delta Air Lines for their support of our Gardens for the City program and their commitment to greening Queens. We also thank our partners at Bloomberg Philanthropies, National Grid, and the New York Islanders for their support of our Queens tree giveaways in 2024, and Citizens Philanthropic Foundation for their support of our school supply giveaway at Curtis 50 Cent Jackson Community Garden.