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February 2009
Urban Farming
by John Cannizzo
Bailey Holt House has a small atrium. Outside the door the roof space has a view of the Hudson. Liza wants to make a garden there.
Once, organizations like Bailey Holt House had money for recreation. Competing priorities in the nonprofit community have left scarcely enough for necessities.
A Home Depot grant and a $500 board member donation lets us plant roses, herbs, vegetables, evergreens and a pear tree. Liza is an intern. Soon she will be hired. Many here are limited in their ability to leave. Bailey House is not just their home; it is their world. She needs a grant to make a better garden program.
St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center is near. Many from Bailey Holt House go there. St Vincent has an HIV program. There is a big run down garden there. They were bankrupt but survived.
There is a message from St. Vincent: “Does HSNY do garden work?”
Soon we are working there. We prune the dead wood while rats run over our feet. By the end of the year the garden looks good – hardly any rats. That summer Liza comes to work for HSNY on the urban farm at The Bridge. We approach United Way about an urban farm for Bailey Holt House.
“Urban farm” sounds almost ridiculous – an oxymoron. Farms stretch on like USDA newsreels – combines waving through thick swaths of wheat. That is relatively recent. Up until the 19th century most families were living within 25 miles of the city on small farms growing the produce for urban market.
In September the grant is approved, the site for the Horticultural Therapy Urban Farm -- St. Vincent. Our ancestors survived on 12,000 square feet – St. Vincent has half that. It is small.
With luck we can produce food for 30 meals per day during the two harvests by farming intensively. If not, then like the subsistence farmers do when the harvest fails -- we go hungry together. There is really no good reason why our ancestors preferred to each work their tiny holding except that they liked to live that way.
Horticultural Society of New York:
*All photos courtesy of John Cannizzo
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