Jeanne Salchli, a science teacher at P.S. 376, slowly transformed a derelict lot into a flourishing community garden for area students.
In a community garden tucked between the elevated M train and Bushwick II housing projects, Jeanne Salchli considers whether to replant recently dug-up daffodil buds.
“They go through a restratification process, and if we disturb them right now,” Salchli said. “I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Salchli, a science teacher at P.S. 376, manages the Himrod Wilson Community Garden in Bushwick, a once-overgrown lot that she has transformed into a thriving green space over the past decade.
Now filled with raised garden beds containing budding tomatoes, peppers and magnolias, the garden is completely unrecognizable from the first time Salchli spotted the space in 2014.
“It was derelict, completely overgrown,” said Salchli, who saw the lot on her daily walk to work.
Now, the educator has turned the space where her students connect with nature.
Himrod Wilson Community Garden in Bushwick. Photo: Nika Schoonover for BK Reader
But it hasn’t been without its roadblocks – Salchli says it has been hard to raise funds and volunteer support has been inconsistent.
That said, armed with a grant from Edible Schoolyard NYC last year, Salchi said she’s been able to buy seats, garden supplies and pay for costly extermination efforts necessitated by the garden’s location in a rat hotspot.
“It’s a situation I think ultimately all of the community gardens in this neighborhood have to contend with,” Salchli said. “It’s a chronic problem.”
The 30 rotating volunteers typically help out on Sundays, when Salchli hosts open volunteer days.
Instead of maintaining a specific garden bed – a common way of dividing up work at other community gardens – the volunteers help Salchli with the entire lot by pulling weeds, laying mulch and watering the plants.
Salchli hopes the garden becomes a community hub for Bushwick residents, but said her primary goal was to create a space where her students can learn about gardening and interact with nature.
“They don’t get health instruction and they have no idea where their food comes from,” Salchli said. “That was really my initial thrust. I wanted to get kids outside and get excited about nature.”
Himrod Wilson Community Garden in Bushwick. Photo: Nika Schoonover for BK Reader
Some of her students have attended the garden’s volunteer days with their parents, helping pull weeds and water the plants.
P.S. 376 parents Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao, said they’ve noticed their daughter has become more comfortable with nature through the garden program.
“I think for a lot of kids probably growing up in the city, it’s so important to have access to as much close connection as you can with plants and being outside,” Chiao said.
Frezza and Chiao, artistically known as Chiaozza, have also contributed a sculpture series to the space. They hope the series, entitled Gemels, helps entice community members to get involved as they pass the garden.
“We’ve already witnessed the garden drawing people in,” Frezza said.
Salchli hopes that community involvement will increase, where parents, students and neighborhood residents can come together and enjoy the green space.
“I feel like people have more pride in their community,” Salchli said. “It just makes the community look nicer, it’s nice to walk by here.”
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