History
Liberty Community Gardens (LCG) is Battery Park City’s neighborhood community gardening project, currently located at the corner of Albany Street and West Street. LCG was established in 1987 by local residents, with assistance from the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. LCG is part of a long tradition of NYC and national community gardening – in NYC alone, thousands of residents participate in hundreds of community gardens, with thousands across the country, under a variety of organizational structures. Our local inspiration was the community garden at nearby Washington Market Park in Tribeca, which opened in 1983.
LCG members literally “broke ground” in the fall of 1987. The BPC Parks Conservancy (BPCPC) had lifted the sod from the north and south edges of the Rector St lawns and provided topsoil and donated cobblestones to edge the plots. Gardeners took the raw materials and laid out their plots, approximately 6 by 8 feet, according to a mapped plan. Initially there were about 12 plots each on the North and South sides of the lawn. By the next year an additional 6 -8 were added on each side. Eventually, to meet popular demand, 20 more plots were added along West Street.
After the devastation of 9/11, Liberty Community Gardens, which are only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center site, faced an enormous challenge. Gardeners were displaced to unknown locations, and the gardens themselves were covered with smothering ash, dust and debris. And in short order, the north section of the gardens was appropriated for the base of a new temporary highway crossing, the Rector Street Bridge.
Neighborhood advocates worked with local groups to restore the gardens. The BPC Parks Conservancy staff cleaned the plants, leaf by leaf, in what was then a restricted area. The Liberty Court condominium offered the use of their lawn space for garden plots, so that the project could continue with its full complement of gardeners in the spring of 2002. Tully Construction donated thousands of dollars to replace destroyed plants and tools. Meanwhile, community gardeners in Seattle had composted the plant materials from that city’s 9/11 Million Flower Memorial. In the fall of 2002, they sought the community garden closest to the World Trade Center site and shipped more than 1,000 pounds of this “Million Flower” compost to NYC to celebrate the rededication of Liberty Community Gardens. The compost arrived with a delegation of Seattle gardeners, songwriters, musicians and a City Council member, who participated in the rededication of Liberty Gardens with their NYC counterparts.
From the archives of The Broadsheet, Lower’s Manhattan’s local newspaper:
Kathy Gupta, one of the original founders of the Liberty Community Gardens, looked around at the 50 people gathered to rededicate the gardens, and told of guerrilla action taken by an unnamed gardener last fall, when debris still littered the ground and the future of the entire neighborhood was uncertain. “I knew we were going to be okay when he came by night, jumped over the fence, evaded the National Guard, and planted tulip bulbs so that there would be flowers this year,” she said to appreciative applause.
Taking his turn at the podium, Battery Park City Authority president Tim Carey recalled the uncertainty of a year ago. “The buildings were empty,” he said. “The gardens were covered with ash and paper. All night and all day we smelled the burning fires. But there was hope.”
An emotional Tessa Huxley, executive director of the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy and known as the “patron saint” of the community gardens, said, “These gardens to me are very special. People need contact with the earth. People need a way to create life.”
The Broadsheet, October 6, 2002
The story of the rebirth of Liberty Community Gardens was also told by author Joy Carol in her 2003 book Journeys of Courage: Stories of Spiritual, Social and Political Healing of Communities.
Eventually, the strip of land between West Street and Battery Park City was rebuilt. After advocacy by the community gardeners, the longtime parking lot at the intersection of Albany and West Streets was unpaved, redesigned, and reopened in 2010 with rich organic soil, becoming Liberty Community Gardens' new permanent home. By then, there were 50+ gardeners. Ten years after that, the Rector Street Bridge and ramp were dismantled, and LCG was able to expand west and add about 30% more plots. Today, 86 LCG plots are maintained by single gardeners, couples, families, and local schools.
LCG Details
Liberty Community Gardens Inc. (LCG) was incorporated as a New York not-for-profit corporation on March 4, 2008. LCG is a social club, providing residents of the neighborhood an opportunity to participate in a community garden, to socialize with fellow gardeners, and to discuss gardening in general. To foster these goals, LCG organizes social events such as group gardening days, occasional picnics, and education lectures, and operates a table at the annual neighborhood block party.
Membership is open to members of the Battery Park City community. Each member is required to sign an annual contract and pay dues (currently $20 each year). The contract sets forth the rules and regulations of the Gardens, including the primary obligation of gardeners, to actively cultivate and maintain their plot during the entire growing season. Gardeners are also obligated to participate in community cleanup days, to help with upkeep of the garden by weeding pathways and other common areas of the parcels, maintaining the compost pile, or through other LCG duties such as organizing or working at social or community events. LCG maintains a compost pile and provides gardeners with tools and supplies.
LCG’s primary source of funding is the collection of annual dues ($20) from each plot. Dues are used to fund the operation of the gardens, including providing tools, equipment, storage, etc. Contracts may be cancelled and a gardener’s plot forfeited if a gardener fails to adhere to the terms of the contract after written notice. LCG has a waitlist of eligible residents who would like a plot (and who have signed a contract and paid a non-refundable fee of $5); the waitlist is updated each year. If a plot is forfeited, or if a gardener elects not to renew his or her plot or fails to return their contract or dues by a certain deadline, LCG will assign that plot to the next person at the top of LCG’s waitlist.
Gardeners vary in age (from young adults to retirees) and ability (from never having gardened, to professional landscape designers). While membership is limited to the BPC community, the gardens are open for anyone to look at and enjoy.
LCG is managed by an Executive Committee of its gardening members. LCG is grateful to the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy (now part of the Battery Park City Authority) for its ongoing support including: donating surplus plants and gardening supplies, making meeting space available to LCG, offering horticultural advice, maintaining potable water supplies, removing rubbish and plant debris, and trimming trees and bushes in and around the gardens. Excess plant debris is added to the BPCA composting program, which fertilizes plantings throughout the neighborhood.