Urban Agriculture: East New York is a documentary video in five chapters that explains how East New York’s urban agriculture movement evolved. Each chapter is dedicated to one piece of a complicated process: a portrait of a veteran local farmer in her garden; a trip to the East New York farmer’s market; a look at asset mapping analysis by the Pratt Center; land transfers from HPD to Green Thumb; and the investment in the neighborhood’s youth made by agricultural organizers and experts.
In this piece, we meet Johanna Willens, the first farmer to sell her produce at the East New York Farmers’ Market in 1998.
For all you budding urban farmers out there, here are some DIY tips to get you started on your own community garden:
First, the materials:
The New York City Compost Project
Gardens Alive
Then, some community workshops:
Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Gardening Page
Green Thumb NYC
And finally, some tip sheets and online resources:
The City Farms Tipsheet
OrganicGardening.com