New Yorkers Going Green at Gardening Festival in Union Square

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By Alexandra Beggs


New Yorkers can’t seem to get enough green. Going green—from composting, to green roofs, to year-round container gardening—was the focus of a festival for National Garden Month in Union Square on Sunday.

The festival, NYC Grows, was a celebration of gardening in the city where backyards are on rooftops, and choosing what to plant is a strategy against shade, wind, and ruthless winters. But the festival was also an opportunity for new, ecologically-conscious horticulturalists and business owners to inform the public about new ways to live greenly.

Martha Desbiens, a principal landscape architect for VertNY, designs green roofs and urban gardens.

“In the city you have to be more creative to be green,” she said. Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC has tax incentives for people with green roofs, which Desbiens said has sparked the interest of many New Yorkers.

The gardens cost more, she said, but they last a long time, reduce water run-off by 50 percent, and reduce heating and cooling costs. The ecological designs have been utilized by many apartment tenants, as well as larger companies such as the Lichtenstein Foundation.

Kristi Stromberg Wright, also a principal designer at VertNY, does not think green roofs will be a transient public interest.

“Chicago is good example because they have amazing tax breaks for green roofs, so many people do it; it won’t be a fad because the environmental benefits are so great.”

Alex Feleppa, Director of Horticulture at The Horticultural Society of New York, described the society’s mission to foster the community and improve life through horticulture. Feleppa said the society has several programs of community outreach, even an interning program at Rikers Island, where inmates learn skills such as woodworking and horticulture in order to help them find job placement after they leave.

“It’s really gratifying getting people empowered and excited about doing it themselves,” said Feleppa. He noted that more visitors are posing questions on his blog, and visiting the society’s library with inquiries about becoming greener.

“[The Horticultural Society] is like the glue for all the green groups in the city,” he said, because the society offers resources and basic knowledge of horticulture, which then leads to ideas ranging from conservation to composting.

The subject of composting brought many curious visitors to the booth of the Composting Council of Canada.

Doug Hill, the General Manager of the Environmental Division, explained the process of composting.

“With a backyard composter, you put your kitchen scraps in the machine and it grinds them up. Then you can use it for your flowers, vegetables, whatever you’re growing.” He also pointed out that the curbside composter, a specially designed trashcan that many Canadians use is another way to compost. The contents are picked up in the same way the trash is, but instead of going to a landfill, they are turned into compost.
Hill noted that in Toronto, 92 percent of the citizens have curbside composting. In the United States, citizens in California and parts of Minnesota are also growing in participation.

“But because the curbside composting is not very profitable, it becomes a question of political will,” Hill said. Many visitors to his booth were eager to receive a compost bucket, which is for the scraps that are taken to composting locations.

Con Edison has also taken an active stance in reducing carbon emissions in the city. Bob McGee, a spokesperson for the company, said that “vampire electricity” is a new way New Yorkers can realize, and take efforts to reduce their energy usage.

“Vampire electricity is when common things in your home, such as computers and handheld devices, use power even when you’re not using them,” McGee said. Con Edison has proposed several summer energy efficiency programs, including a lighting program that installs Energy Star fluorescent lights in homes and an incentive program for homes with Energy Star heating and cooling systems.

Presenters at the festival also tried to spread the word about the differences individuals can make by changing small aspects of their lifestyle, such as buying groceries locally.

Chef Colin Alevras from The Tasting Room, a wine bar and café, brought his family to help him discuss the benefits of buying from local farmers while he tossed a salad of greens purchased at the Union Square Green Market.

“We find ourselves in unchartered water with these ingredients,” Alevras said about the often unfamiliar produce at the market. He held up a leaf and laughed, “I bought this the other day and I have no idea what it is.”

“It’s important for me to stay regional,” he added, encouraging the audience that buying from farmers’ markets stimulates the local economy and helps the community.
Joanne Wessel is a part of a community garden, Dias y Flores, which is located on the Lower East Side.

“Most people don’t know much about gardening” at the garden, “but once it becomes a part of your routine, it becomes a part of yourself,” she said. “[Gardening] rooted me spatially in the community, especially in New York because people are so territorial, I’ve become more open.” Many of these gardens make up a larger coalition of public gardens in the city, where volunteers dedicate their time for the upkeep of the gardens.

In regards to the Green Movement, Wessel expressed amazement at the growth of organic grocery chains and her own visitation to the Green Market.

“Now 14th Street is a Mecca for foodies! I come to the market at least twice a week and religiously on Saturdays,” she said. She added that she visits the market “to support the community, it’s vital, you eat better, and you’re preserving a way of life.”