The first day of spring is just weeks away, and to celebrate, one Brownsville native is stretching her green thumbs to revamp the neighborhood’s community garden.
Vernice Walters, a self-professed tree hugger, is leading the revitalization project of the green space at 754 Thomas S Boyland St. on the corner of Livonia Avenue by pooling financial support through crowdfunding and setting up a volunteer workday with the New York City Parks Department.
“The vision is to make it a community garden, bringing in the youth, connecting with the schools and politicians,” she told Brooklyn Paper. “It’s exciting, it’s a new adventure.”
According to community members, the garden used to be a vibrant scene of life but became dormant over the past two years. But to Walters, this rundown area didn’t represent her neighborhood well. As a champion of “economic solidarity and true sustainability,” she felt she had to become the point-person for reviving the space.
The do-gooder has since partnered with Parks and its Green Thumb program, an urban community gardening initiative, to set up volunteer days, including an upcoming workday dubbed It’s All About Brownsville on March 30. Participants will learn basic gardening and carpentry skills, clean out overgrown flower beds, move soil and build raised beds.
“It’s not that it takes money to run the garden [but] you need the support,” she said. “Once people support it and buy into it, they become a part of it.”
So far, Walter has raised $1,025 through GoFundMe, which she said will be used to purchase a new generator, leaf blower, wood paneling, a back fence and starter necessities.
“I love community and I’m old school. Born and raised in Brownsville and I remember when the garden was beautiful and when it was a community,” Walters said. “I just want to bring it back to life.”
To find a community garden near you, or to volunteer to help Walter bring Brownsville’s “back to life,” visit nycgovparks.org/greenthumb.
