On Saturday, I attended part of the 2013 Harlem Green Garden Tour. Did I mention it was free? It was an all-day affair but I joined in at the Harlem Rose Garden at 6 East 129th Street. But Meister, this doesn’t sound like a concert. Not exactly—but there was harmony in the various layouts of the community gardens, and that harmony works, for me, for this tour to be included as a blog post.
The tour was a blast. Community gardens are vacant lots that have been reclaimed by community organizations and turned into gardens—some just for flowers, some with paths, a bridge here or there, and others for flowers and vegetables. Of the 13 in total, I saw the aforementioned Harlem Rose Garden, the West 132nd Street Garden, Margrichante Community Garden, Success Garden/Harlem Grown, the Morris-Jumel Community Garden, the Convent Avenue Garden, and the William B. Harris Garden. I traveled from East 129th Street to as far north as West 162nd Street, ending up at West 153rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. They even had a barbecue waiting for us!
I walked the tour, with the exception of the W. 134th St. to W. 162nd St. leg. But there was a bus providing transportation from stop to stop for all of the other gardens. The gardens that made the greatest impressions on me were the Rose Garden, Margrichante, and Success Garden/Harlem Grown. The Rose Garden impressed because of its calming nature. Margrichante was interesting because of its communal nature. There are 25 individual plots within the garden, with one person responsible for his or her own plot. There’s also a waiting list of 25 people. I saw cucumbers, Swiss chard, collard greens, spinach, cabbage, pole beans, tomatoes-tomahtoes, green and purple basil, etc. And eggplant. I can’t remember for sure but I think this was the first time I’d ever seen eggplant on the vine. The secretary of Margrichante was there and even provided mint tea, rosemary lemonade, and basil lemonade, using herbs from that very garden.
Harlem Success Garden (as I found it listed on the Web) is a community garden that is also associated with P.S. 175. So, here’s the deal—the students from the school across the street come over to the garden. There’s a seating area where the lesson of the day takes place. Then the children have a hands-on lesson where they do the actual gardening. And here’s the best part—the produce they harvest goes home with them, with recipes provided by one of the teacher/gardeners. How cool is that?
The community garden program gets a big green thumbs-up from me. This was the eighth annual garden tour, and I’m going to be sure to keep my eyes open for the ninth, next year. Just one of the little wonders in this big city. Thank you, community garden volunteers, and thank you, Harlem Green Garden Tour!
ConcertMeister
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