helping community gardens and gardeners thrive

The fiscal crisis of the early 70’s saw the original band of Green Guerillas rally people to use community gardening as a tool to reclaim urban land, stabilize city blocks, and get people working side by side to solve problems. The current economic crisis will present a new set of challenges, and community gardeners will respond as they did in the early days: using ordinary pieces of urban land to do extraordinary things. They will bring people together to grow food, cultivate colorful gardens, celebrate cultures, and give city kids safe places to spend the summer.

Green Guerillas will work hard to help community gardeners sustain their gardens and strengthen their collective action.

Our staff, interns, and volunteers are currently engaged in activities to:

Get information on critical issues to New York City’s 600+ community garden groups.

Distribute plants, materials, and advice to 200 community garden groups to help them grow more food, strengthen their gardens, and manage healthy, vibrant green spaces.

Provide organizing assistance and organizational assistance to dozens of groups to help them recruit new members, hold effective meetings, engage the community, organize events, and ensure the long term viability of their community gardens and their grassroots groups.

Serve as the fiscal sponsor for 20 community garden groups to help them obtain and manage grant funding that supports events, garden improvements, and outreach campaigns.

Help the Phoenix Community Gardeners on Fulton Street in Brooklyn continue to establish their large site as an urban farm, a community garden, and an outdoor educational center. See a slideshow.

Rally community members to revitalize up to 3 inactive community garden sites, including continued work at Shiloh Garden on Monroe Street.

Lead the Harvest for Neighborhoods Campaign: a comprehensive, coordinated campaign of organizing assistance, horticultural help, plant and material giveaways, and volunteer workdays to help 55 central Brooklyn community garden groups produce and distribute a healthy, bountiful harvest. Click to see a map of H4N community gardens.

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our history & mission

Our history
In 1973 Liz Christy, a Lower East Side artist, gathered her friends and neighbors together to clean out a vacant lot on the corner of Bowery and Houston Streets. Calling themselves the Green Guerillas, these visionaries created a vibrant community garden and sparked the modern community gardening movement in New York City.
The Green Guerillas tapped the time, talent, and energy of their members. They took on projects as varied and interesting as the city itself - they threw seed “green-aids” over the fences of vacant lots, installed window boxes, planted flowers in tree pits – and helped people transform city-owned vacant lots into community gardens that serve as botanic gardens, vest pocket parks, urban farms, and as expressions of art, ecology, and culture.
More than three decades later, Green Guerillas is a vital 501c3 nonprofit organization, and there are 600 community gardens with a whole new host of challenges.

Our mission
Green Guerillas uses a unique mix of education, organizing, and advocacy to help people cultivate community gardens, sustain grassroots groups and coalitions, engage youth, paint colorful murals, and address issues critical to the future of their gardens.

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         our first garden

Founded in 1973 by Liz Christy and the Green Guerillas, this is New York City’s original community garden. Maintained by a group of dedicated volunteers, the Liz Christy Garden serves as an inspiration to gardeners of all skill levels and as an urban oasis for residents of the Lower East Side and the East Village. The garden is a colorful stop for birds, bees, and tourists from every continent
The garden is located on the northeast corner of Bowery and Houston streets.The beauty of this urban green space can be enjoyed in every season, including winter during the weekly open hours.
To see the Liz Christy gardeners’ website

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         2008 program highlights

Green Guerillas had another successful year helping community garden groups grow food, engaging youth, recruiting new community gardeners and urban farmers, and strengthening important community gardens for the future.

Improving Gardens
GGs provided soil, seeds, seedlings, rain barrels, advice, and assistance to 136 community garden groups to help them strengthen their community gardens as parks, urban farms, and community centers. We also organized and led 50 volunteer workdays to make vital improvements to important community gardens.

Helping Gardeners Organize for the Future 
GGs organizers and organizing interns used outreach campaigns, events, and garden workdays to help more than 40 community garden groups get activity into community gardens, recruit new members, and become sustainable for the future.

Helping Garden Groups Become Sustainable
In 2008 we provided fundraising assistance and fiscal sponsor services to 15 community groups to help them raise and manage a total of $18,000 in funding from the Independence Community Foundation and a local councilperson.

Continuing the Development of the Phoenix Community Garden
Once informally known as the Fulton Street Farm & Garden, the newly-named Phoenix Community Garden continues to grow.  New members continue to join and the plant life and infrastructure of the garden improve. In the past year, our organizers helped recruit 33 new dues-paying members, led garden group and design committee meetings; provided soil, plants, and materials; organized volunteer workdays; and helped the Phoenix gardeners grow and distribute a bountiful harvest. 

Engaging in the Harvest for Neighborhoods Campaign
With the support of numerous stakeholders, Green Guerillas increased the supply of fresh, locally grown food in Central and East Brooklyn by helping community gardeners grow food, improve their food-growing community gardens, and engage hundreds of people in the harvest.

Green Guerillas provided 55 community garden groups in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Ocean Hill, Clinton Hill, Bushwick, Brownsville, and East New York with a coordinated menu of horticultural assistance, organizing assistance, volunteer help, plants, and materials.

With help from Green Guerillas Harvest for Neighborhood garden groups grew and distributed more food, received information and gained skills, and made important partnerships with local nonprofits.

Green Guerillas added to the bounty by planting and harvesting 15 different types of fruits and vegetables in 16 harvest beds in 7 different food-growing community gardens. Food production at Phoenix Community Garden was tripled with the addition of 17 of new and larger vegetable beds. 

Engaging garden stewards
Our annual meeting and annual benefit party again served as energetic, educational, and celebratory opportunities to inspire our members, supporters, and board of directors to support the work of community gardeners.

Creating New Leaders
Our Youth Environmental Fellowship Program helped youth get job skills, and gain real job experience as organizers, garden apprentices, and program associates. 6 college students engaged in internships as community organizers and program coordinators. 7 teenagers – the “youth tillers” - spent a summer helping gardeners grow food, building compost bins, installing water harvesting systems, and helping teach other kids about urban agriculture.

Creating Youth Powered Works of Community Art
Green Guerillas helped local youth engage in 3 colorful community art projects in community gardens in East New York, and the Bronx.  These projects celebrated community gardening and helped diverse groups of young people become gardeners, artists, and leaders.

Bissel Gardens: neighborhood youth created and painted a multi-panelled mural that told stories about all the ways this large community garden and educational center improves the environment and builds community.

Garden of Youth: a group of Bronx children and their parents told stories about their garden and their experience with in this mural that graces the walls of a casita.

Green Gems: East NY children and teenagers painted colorful garden signs as part of ENY Gardeners Association children’s day.

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