Fort Independence Green and Bloom

In the summer of 2017, Jerome Park Friends and Neighbors began weeding the planting beds around Jerome Park Reservoir starting in Fort Independence Park. We quickly found our niche and by the Fall of 2017 we were meeting every Sunday morning to pull weed trees, put down mulch and meet our neighbors. In 2018, we have continued our work in Fort Independence and have started spreading to the planting beds along Sedgwick Avenue to the park at the southern tip of the Jerome Park Reservoir, Washington's Walk. We continue to meet most Sunday's from Easter to Halloween and we are entirely volunteer, with a diverse group of people who come regularly plus the additional support of students, community groups and lovers of gardening across the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.

In 2018, we secured a grant from the City Parks Foundation which allowed us to purchase tools and a storage chest to store them for easy access. This has sped up our work immeasurably. 

With your donation, we will be able to move on to the next stage which is replacing the plantings in Fort Independence which were killed by weeds and neglect. With this money we can fill in spaces where there is a bare patch of ground. This will make the park more beautiful and give the weeds even less space to grow!  

Fall 2018

• Plant alliums and bulbs and spring blooming perennials.
• Compost planting beds to prepare for the spring.
• Host a daffodil planting days for the children around Fort Independence and Washington's Walk

Spring 2019

• Plant perennials and shrubs
• Weed! Weed! Weed!

Summer 2019

• Water! Water! Water!
• Enjoy watching them grow

On it's face our project solves the very basic problem of making our neighborhood more beautful for the people who enjoy the parks around Jerome Park Reservoir. But on a deeper level, anyone who has joined us on a Sunday morning has met some neighbors they may not have met otherwise, has learned something about the plants around them that they might not have thought to ask and has enjoyed the simple pleasure that comes from making even a small patch of New York more beatiful. We look forward to our roots growing deeper and our branches growing stronger and wider.