Gardening for Coping and Community

By Phyllis Eckhaus

“We must cultivate our gardens.”

Voltaire’s sage advice for coping with an onslaught of 18th century horrors—from earthquakes and war to inquisitors and the public burning of heretics—has resonated through the centuries. And two West Villagers agree, tackling garden projects as a strategy of both sustenance and community.  

Jean Tucker of Bank Street has, since 2020, issued an open invitation for volunteers to garden Thursday afternoons at Saint John’s in the Village, both in the historic 1850s courtyard and the tree pits in front of the church on Waverly Place and West 11th Street.

The courtyard was “completely overgrown” until Father Graeme Napier, a gardening enthusiast “started cutting things down” upon his arrival in 2018. It has now become a local oasis with the help of volunteers. It is open to the public via the church’s Revelation Gallery (224 Waverly Place) and sometimes via the unlocked gate on West 11th Street through the arched narrow horse walk.  Diners from Taïm and Sogno Toscano are invited to eat there, al fresco.

Tucker says, “Gardening makes me happy.  It requires patience, and then there’s beauty.  You work intensely, briefly.  But then you have this long period of joy, a payoff.”

An ardent environmentalist, Tucker has more than flowers in mind.  “I want to create gardeners,” she says. “You learn to see.  You walk down the street and you notice color and then you go, ‘Oh, that’s pretty.’ But to see deeply you think ‘Oh, it’s spring.  This is a springtime flower. Or it’s late fall and look, we have mums.’  So you learn seasonality and [notice] weather conditions, like right now we are in a historic drought.” She also notes, “Group projects build communities.”

Tucker posted an invitation to gardening enthusiasts on Nextdoor and that’s how she met Ann Sherman, a fervent fan of attractive public space.

Sherman observes gardening is “fun” and need not be expensive. But what really motivates her is her conviction that an attractive, organized public space “is a signal someone cares.” That’s why, this fall, she took on derelict Mulry Square (the triangle park at 7th Avenue South and Greenwich Avenue), where the dead plants, overgrowth, trash and neglect seemed an invitation for further trash and neglect.  

She notes the unhoused and others would “leave all kinds [of garbage] because it looks like a place to camp out.” It had gotten “worse and worse and worse….It would just make me feel bad.  I thought I have a little time and I’m sick of feeling bad.”

So Sherman reached out to Councilmember Eric Bottcher’s office, where she was advised to use the 311 portal (you can also call or use the app) to register a complaint.  And it worked.  She said, “Six weeks ago Parks came and took away big dead plants and cleaned up the filth, [including] big bins of fetid water. It had been so bad I couldn’t get near it.” 

With assists from the city, Sherman has proceeded full speed ahead with clean-up.  One recent Sunday, as she was cleaning up leaves, she was delighted to witness a Parks Department truck remove “horrible big black bags of personal garbage,” which had stymied her.

“I’m so thrilled that progress is possible because you have to work against the lack-of-care entropy,” she declares.  And she is eager to have others join her in clean up and gardening efforts, scheduled for Saturday mornings.

Tucker and Sherman are also passionate advocates for tree pits.  Each has cleaned up and cultivated the tree pits in front of their buildings.

Sherman has planted tulips in hers.  Where once there was “trash and whatever was buried in the dirt,” now it has become “my pride and joy.  Nothing makes me happier than people taking pictures. I would see people practically lying on the ground so that someone would take their picture surrounded by tulips,” she says.

Another joy is getting to know her neighbors.  “People…stop by and talk….I never would have thought working in the tree pits would help me really get to know my neighbors on the block and in my building.”

What if somebody cares about tree pits but doesn’t know where to start? “Clean it up,” Sherman responds.  “You can pick up the trash and have a little hand rake. Make sure you have gloves, but clean it up and snip out what’s dead.” A derelict space will attract more trash. 

And Tucker adds, “don’t be intimidated.” Merchants and building owners don’t own tree pits, the city does. “Anybody asks you, you say ‘I’m with the city,’” she declares. She notes that you might ask yourself “‘Do I have permission?’ And it turns out you do.”

Sherman observes that “seeing an organized environment gives us feelings of safety, creating order when things break down.  Who’s going to care? I’m going to care.  And what am I going to do about it? You know, some people would do it [through] politics…attack it from other vantage points, but for me this feels like something I can do.”

To be alerted to gardening opportunities at Saint John’s in the Village, contact Jean Tucker at nyokie1@gmail.com.  To join clean up and gardening efforts Saturday mornings at Mulry Square, contact Ann Sherman at village.gardener24@gmail.com to confirm.