Take a look at our journey from a space filled with ‘dirt’ to a place filled with food!
2015 - Grand Opening
The garden was opened on Nelson Mandela International Day with support from the Secretary General’s office, Brooklyn Grange and GreenThumb, a New York City Department of Parks and Recreation initiative. United Nations staff volunteered to plant, joining people around the world devoting 67 minutes to community service in tribute to Nelson Mandela’s 67 years of public service.
2016 - Focus on Youth
Focusing on Migration and Urban AgriCULTURE, we hosted our annual Youth event in collaboration with FAO - inviting 100 young gardeners to discuss their visions with representatives from Member States, agencies such as WFP, FAO and IFAD as well as representatives from the City of New York. Other focuses we’ve had are The relationship between youth’s work in urban agriculture and the achievement of the SDGs & Food Security and Nutrition; a youth perspective.
2017 - New neighbors
Early on we realized we needed to attract pollinators to the garden. By re-purposing soil, growing cover crops and adding compost, we could establish native wild flower beds. And soon after we welcomed bees, bumble bees and beneficial insects back to our area
2018 - On a world tour
Given the diverse staff at the United Nations we dedicated the 2018 season to all our amazing colleagues. The best way we knew how was to grow produce from all over the world and let staff come and donate seeds and plants! As a result we added many new varieties to the garden; Korean Perilla Leaves, Mexican sunflowers, Japanese eggplants, Serrano Peppers from Sierra Mountains, Peruvian Amaranth, and Bhut Jolokia (a.k.a. hot hot hot ghost peppers!)
2019 - Indigenous People
As we entered our fifth season (!) we dedicated the 2019 growing season by raising awareness about the unique and vital contributions of indigenous women to sustainable stewardship and healthy communities.
We very gratefully received seeds generously donated from the Hopi, Tesuque and Laguna Pueblos, Diné (Navajo) Nation, and medicinal plants from Grandmother Flordemayo of The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.
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