Java St Garden Collaborative PHASE II

We are a group of Greenpoint, Brooklyn residents working collaboratively in the HPD-governed public land at 59 Java Street, which was vacant for a decade or so, to create an open green space for the community and for learning about urban gardening and sustainable ecology.  Since September 2011, we have grown to 20+ members as a registered group of the Green Thumb program of NYC Parks Department.  Our efforts were inspired by a public awareness campaign launched by the organization, 596 Acres.

Since March 2012 we have been working regularly, laying the groundwork for our overall design scheme of gardened, landscaped and small structural areas.

We will be laying the foundations of our design with brick pathway paving with purchase of supplemental supplies; continuing to salvage bricks and other building materials; fill in raised bed areas with purchases of soil for growing herbs and vegetables; plant bulbs for spring and shrubs and trees before first frost.

We seek to serve the community and city at large by becoming not only a space for personal enjoyment but for education on various environmental levels.  With the growing popularity in urban farming and sustainable ecology, we are providing our local Greenpoint residents with an arena for participating in this exciting “green” revolution.  For example, the soil content of Greenpoint’s waterfront area tests poorly, owing to toxic ecological events of the past so we have a ready laboratory for phyto-remediation; and this neighborhood is rapidly expanding and changing from industrial wasteland in some parts into residential and retail growth, and with that comes a desire for more green space as a quality of life issue.