A group of Cambria Heights residents are working to revitalize their community garden.
In late July, the small group gathered to begin working on reopening the 227th Street Community Garden located at 116-98 227th St. Sam Riddell, the garden’s general coordinator, said the green space has been defunct since 2019 due to the passing of the previous stewards and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riddell said the stewards planted literal and metaphorical seeds that have helped usher in the next generation of caretakers. “ They’ve planted so many beautiful things that still exist. There’s a key lime tree, and there’s a grape patch, and there’s an apple tree, Riddell said. “ I’m very thankful for the land they laid out. One, for keeping up with the garden for so long, that space is actually one of the original farms that existed in Queens,” she said.
Riddell, a lifelong Cambria Heights resident, said she has always been interested in volunteering at a community garden. “ I’ve been to other community gardens in Brooklyn, and I always knew we had one on Linden, but I always thought it was closed,” she said.
Riddel lsaid that upon further research, she discovered that the garden was managed by the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT). BQLT is a non-profit organization that works to ensure the conservation and preservation of open spaces and provide accessibility to the public. The 227th Street community garden is one of 34 gardens that BQLT presides over.
“I went to Brooklyn Queens Land Trust’s Instagram and saw they were having this open work day. I was like, let me just show up, and that’s how I got involved,” she said.
Riddell credits fellow Cambria Heights resident Alicia Spears with spearheading the revitalization process. She said Spears took it upon herself to start cleaning up the garden and first contacted the BQLT, which led to restarting the community group and BQLT’s open work days.
Riddell explained that the group is still creating a schedule that would allow the garden to be open to the public on a more regular basis. For now, they are hosting monthly meetings open to the public to encourage community members to join and engage in the process.
Although the garden has yet to have set operating hours, the garden volunteers began partnering with the Cambria Heights Library and other community organizations for one-off community events in the garden space.
Riddell said that Cambria Heights Community Garden members hosted a successful Halloween carnival on Saturday, October 26, with over 90 attendees, including local parents and kids. “We passed out informational flyers about when we’re meeting next and how to get involved,” Riddell said. “ We want to be open for open hours, but we also need a solid membership to have people manning the gate.”
Once the open hours are established, the members plan to implement various environmental components, including a food drop-off for composting and planting more fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants.
“We’re very close to Farmbria, but we also think it would be nice to just have people growing stuff, getting their hands dirty, and then also giving that excess bounty that we grow to folks in the neighborhood,” she said
Riddell hopes that the garden can become a vital third space for the Cambria Heights community. “ We want this to be a space where people feel like they have a space to go and stay in Cambria Heights and have fun and be outside… and also not have to pay to do those things,” she said.
If you’re interested in volunteering with the garden, complete the volunteer inquiry form. For more information and to join the garden’s monthly meetings, follow @cambriaheightsgarden on Instagram.
