New Farmers Face Urban Elements
Professional and novice gardeners alike thought the biggest challenge faced by the new Urban Farm at the Battery might be the subway: Every few minutes trains rumble underneath the park, causing freshly mounded soil to shake around the fragile roots of seedlings.
But that was before the pigeons arrived…and the squirrels…and the rats …and the occasional dog.
The pigeons descended on the farm as soon as the flax began to sprout, helping themselves to an early spring harvest.
“An entire row was covered with them,” said Jodie Lustgarten, a volunteer with the Battery Conservancy, which oversees the project. “They are smarter than they look.”
Then there were the squirrels that tore through dirt in the shady section of the farm, and rats that burrowed their way into the soft soil of another.
Keeping such pests from ruining crops is not a problem faced by farmers in, say, Iowa. But here, in Lower Manhattan’s first farm in 400 years, a special urban solution needed to be found.
Within two weeks of the much-heralded opening of Urban Farm at the Battery, volunteers and Battery Conservancy staff had covered the berms with a white material called AgroFabric. Not only did it protect the tiny sprouts of broccoli, arugula and radishes, but it actually helped them along.
“The fabric keeps the soil warm,” Battery Conservancy gardener Camilla Hammer said. “Because it’s been so cold, things hadn’t been germinating as much as I would like. Now they are really growing.”
Studens from Claremont Prep plant peas. Theirs is one of eight Downtown schools that are using the farm in their curriculum.By the end of April, radishes were sprouting full leaves and broccoli plants were eight inches high. In June, plants are expected to cover the farm.
“Plants want to grow,” Hammer said, surveying the rows of vegetables and smiling proudly. “We’ve actually been surprised at how well everything is doing.”
Through experimentation, Hammer discovered that the pigeons don’t seem to bother the plants once they have begun to sprout real leaves, so as the seedlings change into plants, the white fabric will be removed from the plots.
For the next two years the farm, consisting of two sections meant to resemble a turkey, will cover an acre of reclaimed lawn in Battery Park, its soil coming from Long Island and protected from passersby with a fence made from thousands of bamboo poles.
The project, begun as an idea from students at Millennium High School, is aimed at returning the soil to public use and giving community groups and students from eight nearby schools hands-on experience growing their own broccoli rabe, tomatoes, eggplant, radishes, beets, peas and other edibles.
“I think the park truly wants to be a nurturing place,” said Warrie Price, president and founder of the Conservancy. “It wants people to eat fresh vegetables and for children to understand where food comes from.”
Teens like Dorothy Tsui, a 13-year-old from I.S. 89, understand that their teachers are trying to show them how to work with the natural environment. But standing in the sunshine, between the mounds of soil, Tsui had something else in mind.
“It gets you out of school!” she said, laughing."
Tsui and her friend, Claire Ho, hard at work building trestles for peas out of twigs and twine, said being one of the area’s first farmers since the Dutch cultivated the land was fun. Really fun.
“I love working with my hands,” Ho said. “And it feels good to be a part of environmental change.”
The farm will be dug up in 2013, when construction begins in the area on a bikeway that will connect the east and west sides of Lower Manhattan. In the meantime, it is expected to yield up to 10,000 small plates of vegetables by the end of this growing season, said Carolyn Zezima, a Conservancy gardener.
Although most of the new farmers will be kids, vegetable growing is something that organizers hope the whole community will dig into. This month the Conservancy is hosting weekly volunteer days when anyone can come get their hands dirty on the farm.
“I think this humanizes Battery Park,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “Everybody can relate to a garden.”
Thousands pass the farm daily, and members of Millennium High School’s environmental club said they like showing so many people that going—and growing—green is possible, even in a city as big as New York.
“It’s really awesome to see tourists walking by and taking pictures,” Millennium senior Rebecca Levin said. “People come to see such a big city and our technological advances, but to see we are advanced while still staying true to nature is amazing.”
For information on volunteering at the farm go to thebattery.org.