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A photographer captures the people behind NYC’s community gardens
By
Amanda Rozon
Published Sep 4, 2023
Modified Sep 5, 2023
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Courtesy of Zachary Schulman
By
Amanda Rozon
Published Sep 4, 2023
Modified Sep 5, 2023
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This story is part of our series on community gardens. There are hundreds of community gardens in the New York City area and we're telling some of their stories. We'll end the series on Sept. 8 with a live broadcast from Hattie Carthan Community Garden in Bed-Stuy on WNYC. Listen on 93.9FM or wnyc.org.
There are more than 550 community gardens across the five boroughs, according to NYC Parks GreenThumb, the agency that runs the city’s community gardens. They serve various purposes, from providing space to grow fresh food to creating community among neighbors.
And a good portion of these spaces are on land that once looked incredibly different from the lush, green plots we see today.
Zachary Schulman, a New York City-based photographer, set out to capture this transformation through his lens. He focuses his work on the volunteer gardeners who saved plots of land from abandonment and built green havens for local community members, many of whom are still volunteering at the gardens today. Soon, his work will also be displayed inside a Brooklyn garden to help local residents put faces to the people who help keep their gardens vibrant and productive.
Leila Jamison at Good Shepherds Community Garden in East New York.
Courtesy of Zachary Schulman
The gardeners “feel a deep sense of pride and character that comes through in the photos,” Schulman said. “The community that they build, the history and the legacy of the gardens, and to some extent where they see the gardens going in the future.”
Schulman says he has photographed and interviewed over 115 gardeners in more than 25 neighborhoods across the city since 2018.
Schulman has also been involved in community gardens for over 20 years. He grows arugula, herbs and green leafy vegetables that don’t require much sunlight out of a garden box in a shady spot at the Walt L. Shamel community garden in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he’s been a member since 2009. He’s currently working on the community compost committee there and is preparing for a photography show at the garden called "Community Gardeners of Brooklyn," which is coming up on Nov. 11.
Mark Leger at Phoenix Community Garden in Ocean Hill-Brownsville.
Courtesy of Zachary Schulman
It’s part of his larger ongoing series called the “Community Gardener Portrait Project” that’s funded in part by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. He'll showcase a series of solo portraits of some of Brooklyn's community gardeners in their spaces, paired with quotes about how they first got involved. He says he wants to help keep the visual legacy of the gardens, and the growers, alive.
“I like to see that interface of beauty between the physical space of the garden and the people who have created and maintained these spaces,” he said.
Schulman says he’s recently noticed a change in people's relationships with green spaces: More people cite their mental health as part of why they visit or maintain a community garden.
“Sometimes it comes through being in a quieter, cooler, shadier green space,” Schulman said. “For some people it comes through growing food with and for their neighbors, then eating it.”
Fossie Herbert at All People's Garden in BedStuy.
Courtesy of Zachary Schulman
The highlight of Schulman's gardening experience is growing horseradish at the Walt L. Shamel garden. He nurtures the root vegetable every growing season so that he has a fresh dish available to set on the Seder table during Passover.
Schulman is still loyal to the garden despite relocating from Crown Heights to Sunset Park in recent years. Like many community gardeners across the city, he says that once you find a garden you love, you’re in it for the long run.
“As long as I’m living in New York City, I can’t imagine leaving that garden,” he said.
The parks department has an interactive map of every community garden in the city, which includes links to their websites and contact information. You can use it to find your nearest community garden, or you can do what most other New Yorkers do: step off the busy sidewalk and stumble into one that might be right under your nose.
For more information about the “Community Gardeners of Brooklyn” showcase, visit Zachary Schulman’s Instagram.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the name of the agency that runs the city's community gardens. NYC Parks GreenThumb runs the program.
Amanda Rozon
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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