To keep the High Line vibrant and growing year-round, we need 50 friends like you to join as monthly members.
When you become a monthly member before Earth Day on April 22, you’ll receive our limited-edition water bottle!
Growing, Weeding, and Seeding with High Line’s Green Council
By D’en Vargas and Tia Hull | July 22, 2016
Summertime has finally arrived for Green Council! We’re excited to be working with our community partners, CultivateHKNY and P.S.33, again this year.
We partnered with P.S. 33 to help maintain their children’s garden by weeding and seeding it. The crops are then given to the students at the elementary school to learn from—and to have a tasty treat.
Green Council members weeding at P.S. 33’s school garden
For CultivateHKNY, we help them stock up their pantry with fresh produce we picked from their rooftop garden to provide neighbors with fresh, accessible produce. We do intensive weeding, mulching, and planting. Also, we’re currently brainstorming solutions to assist CultivateHKNY in coming up with a more effective way of composting.
D’en and Shahria pruning basil at Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project’s rooftop farm.
In addition, gardeners at Friends of the High Line have taught us how to sharpen our horticulture skills by teaching us new methods of weeding. We’ve learned how to identify plants that are weeds on the High Line, how to use the sifter to prepare compost, and have learned about new species of plants as we transplant them into different parts of the park.
Green Council and Friends of the High Line’s Horticulture staff analyze the results of bacteria in the compost.
We can’t wait until next month, when we’ll be working at Wanaqua Garden in the Bronx. We’ll be helping local community gardeners with their crops and preparing some beds that will be used by students at P.S. 43.
High Line Youth – part of High Line Community Engagement – is generously supported by Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Google Community Grants Fund of Tides Foundation. High Line Youth is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council – with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson and the Greener NYC Initiative.
TD Bank is a Supporting Sponsor of Green Council.