Trees Not Trash: An Interview with Kate Gilliam, Founder and Director

Kaarin Patterson | Apr 22, 12:43 PM | digg del.icio.us

Topophilia: I was really excited to find out about Trees Not Trash (TNT) and your mission to get people involved with “growing their own food and to tree line each of the Bushwick streets” in this light-industrial Brooklyn neighborhood.  It seems like there is a bit of a community/urban gardening renaissance happening here in NYC and maybe even elsewhere in the country. Some projects that come to mind are the Red Hook Farm and the Bed-Stuy Meadow project and of course Trees Not Trash, as well as the highly visible projects that receive a fair amount of media chatter: last year’s PS1 Public Farm, the White House garden, and the fact that Michael Pollan is becoming a household name.  I realize it may be a bit too soon to tell, but are you seeing this happening in Bushwick? Are you finding this year or as TNT evolves that your membership and funding opportunities are growing perhaps as a result of the aforementioned?

Kate: Trees Not Trash is in it fourth year, and we have definitely seen more support and awareness in the past year than we had previously. Certainly on a local level, Mayor Bloomberg’s Million Trees NYC initiative has seen New York City become more aware and involved in various environmental projects, but yes, it does seem that green is the new black, so to speak!

Topophilia: Do the various neighborhood groups do similar type projects meet to share resources and find ways to collaborate or is it basically an archipelago of neighborhood gardening/farming/greening groups?

Kate: Many neighborhood groups come together to share resources, but this is something Trees Not Trash is working on more for the coming year. We are partnering with the Bushwick Public Library this summer to build a community garden for the patrons, and we’re excited for other groups to get involved.

Perhaps because neighborhood groups and community gardens are so often struggling to stay afloat financially and keep on top of the unique needs of their neighborhoods, it is difficult to dedicate time to networking and organizing with other groups. Of course it makes complete sense to join forces though, as the more people are involved in a project, the more successful it will be.

Topophilia: I read through the TNT PDF (see attached link) and there are a lot of great initiatives and exciting projects that TNT is spearheading in the neighborhood at various scales and that serve a range of the population e.g., working to establish a farmers’ market, the bike rack tree guards grates, and the greening of Jefferson Street. I’d love to know what the status is for these projects, and how TNT decides which projects get prioritized, initiated and implemented. About how long does it take from conception to implementation?

Kate:  Generally speaking, we tackle 3 or 4 projects a year.When we created our main community garden on Bogart Street, we worked at least 2 or 3 days a week for 2 months to clear it of weeds, garbage and broken glass. Depending on the project, it usually takes 2 – 3 months from conception to implementation, but there is an ongoing element of maintenance to our projects as well. This is where it is most useful to have other community members involved, so that the watering and upkeep of the gardens is taken on by a lot of people, rather than a select few. This element is key to community gardening: people need to be involved in the neighborhood beautification efforts, because involvement fosters a sense of responsibility and community.

We are limited to what we can do by time and mostly funding, so often the projects that get prioritized are the ones that we procure funding for. That being said, the Jefferson Street Kid’s Garden became a top priority because the street was in such a sad state of disrepair. It is a high traffic street in an industrial area, but it is also where the neighborhood kids play handball in the spring and summer. It doesn’t take much time or money to get a bunch of people together and clean up garbage, makes signs and plant a few (donated) trees, but the benefit of that kind of change is enormous. The reaction to a beautified space is really interesting; if people can see there has been time and energy put into making something beautiful, more times than not they will respect it. For instance, we planted about 150 daffodil bulbs on Jefferson Street, and no one has picked the flowers. We got the neighborhood kids involved and if residents and passersby can see that children are working on a garden, they recognize it as something worthwhile and worth protecting. The Jefferson Street Kids Garden will be completed by the end of July 2009.

The other projects that we have slated for 2009 ,the Bushwick Public Library and the Love Your (NYC) Block Contest, will both be completed by the end of the summer 2009.

Topophilia: What are some of the long term projects for TNT? Or what do your hopes for the future of TNT?

Kate: We are currently working on becoming a nonprofit 501c3 organization. My hope is that as a nonprofit we will be in a position to accept more grant money and expand our operations to include more areas in need in Brooklyn. We are also very keen on developing more programs for youth, as the majority of our volunteers are kids. It is enormously important for young people to learn the benefits of community gardening and taking responsibility for their neighborhood, and they love doing it! Many of the neighborhood kids had never seen a tomato growing before, or picked up an earthworm, and now they are gardening pros. We regularly send them home after a day of gardening with a bag full of fresh produce that they have harvested, as well as a tomato or pepper plant to grow in their kitchen window. There is such a distinct interaction with nature in Bushwick, and many other parts of New York, but it is vital to reconnect with it. Community gardening is a great way to get your hands back into the earth.

We are also working towards an independent farmers market in Bushwick for 2010. This is definitely something that the neighborhood needs, and there has been an enormous amount of interest in it so far.

Topophilia: While living in Berlin, I found a lot of outdoor community and commercial spaces that utilized and to a degree exploited the abundance of urban land in transition: neglected lots, vacant buildings, undeveloped waterfront. An attitude evolved, in part because of the political and economic conditions of the city, amongst city officials and residents to be “space pioneers” (Junge-Ryer) or to create programs and projects that occupied these urban voids with the intention of “temporary interventions to shape urban development” for an interim.

Would you say that it’s Trees Not Trash’s objective to acquire permanent green/open spaces for the neighborhood or to implement a strategy that colonizes the empty/abandoned lots and transforms them into neighborhood greenspaces with the acknowledgement that they will again transition into something else at a later time, ideally according to the neighborhood’s needs?

Kate: Some spaces Trees Not Trash has transformed will most likely be reabsorbed as the neighborhood changes; for instance, we planted trees and bulbs in a tiny triangle of land in the middle of Flushing Avenue, but if road work had to be done, or the citydecided to expand the road, our little garden triangle would most likely be destroyed. In the interim though we have created a little bit of greenery and the neighborhood can only benefit from that.

The impermanence of guerilla gardening has its benefits. In many ways, empty or abandoned urban space is like a blank canvas, and there is definitely that appeal in metropolitan areas like New York and Berlin. I support the reclaiming of public space by planting or seed bombing, largely because it demonstrates to the general public that they have the ability to instigate change in the city they live in. Too often we are confined to our little apartments or offices and don’t interact with the streets and space around us; if there is a bare stretch of land that is being unused, plant an armful of daffodil or tulip bulbs in it. There is no harm in making something bloom.

It is difficult to imagine our community garden becoming part of a different landscape, as it serves a really important function in this neighborhood. The garden provides a meeting space for residents and community members, as well as a learning center for kids. We grow vegetables that are given back to the community, and encourage people to enjoy the garden on their own time. In provides many of the same benefits as parks do, but is more focused on building relationships and encouraging participation. I met a woman called Julia from Berlin who interviewed me for her dissertation on guerilla gardening, and she ran the most amazing community garden called Rosa Rose in Berlin. Unfortunately the city reclaimed the garden and bulldozed it to make room for development. I can only imagine how traumatic that must have been for the community, as Rosa Rose was a real center for the neighborhood. Cities need to recognize the important work that community gardeners are doing, and allocate more space and support for these gardens.

Topophilia: As a fledgling landscape architect, I often experience a disconnect in my own practice between what happens in the world of developers, city officials, and actually what’s happening on the ground. What have you experienced or what do you see as the relationship between these professional entities and community gardening movements? Can there/is there a potential for collaboration?

Kate: I think there is enormous potential for collaboration between community gardeners and larger entities; we just have to explore these relationships. There are organizations that are doing a great job of identifying grass roots groups and getting funding to them, such as Citizens Committee for NYC. Larger organizations are actually a lot more supportive of community gardening efforts than you might think; gardeners lessen the clean up and maintenance work for city agencies, and as such are welcome additions to the neighborhoods. If there can be acknowledgement that we are all working towards similar goals of cleaner, greener neighborhoods to live in, the potential for partnerships are most certainly there.

Topophilia: Lastly, is TNT participating in any Earth Day events this year?

Kate: I may be in labor for Earth Day! So it remains to be seen how much gardening we will get to do today, but we are planning on spending some important time in the Jefferson Street garden clearing up garbage.