West Side Community Garden (New York City, New York)

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The West Side Community Garden was founded in 1975 on a large vacant lot filled with garbage and stripped cars locally known as "strip city" which fronted on Columbus Avenue between West 89th and 90th streets. The vacant lot was designated development Site 35 by the City and was part of the comprehensive West Side Urban Renewal Plan. The WestSide Community Garden was incorporated in 1983 as a New York State Not For Profit Organization with the help of the Trust for Public Land. The community garden members developed the concept for the public flower park and amphitheater, and landscape designer R. Terry Schnadelbach designed the permanent award-winning Garden design based on their concept. Construction finally began fall 1987 and the new garden was ready Summer 1988.

About two thirds of the property is devoted to flowers and one third to vegetables and herbs. In the gated vegetable garden area near West 90th Street, are 87 individual vegetable beds,6 school class plots, a berry patch and a Rose garden. Along the west fence is a community herb bed, and espaliered fruit trees. There are more fruit trees planted along 90th Street. Near 89th Street is a tiered floral amphitheater with 26 Flower plots assigned to individual Flower Committee members. In the middle of the Amphitheater is a sunken lawn oval- which serves as a playing area for the yearly children's Shakespeare Festival, and a seating area for the Sunday Summer Concert series,"Music in a Garden."

www.westsidecommunitygarden.org/