A garden that honors the memory of loved ones

At the Tremont Community Garden there is a black line on a wall next to the garden that is twelve feet high. It is a reminder of the height of garbage, debris and junk that was stacked on the vacant lot before the space was cleaned up and transformed. Today it’s hard to imagine anything but vegetables, flowers, and fruit trees in the Tremont garden, where the gardening members wear orange t-shirts with bold print that proudly says La Familia Verde.

In the late 80’s the community garden, like many others, had been in jeopardy of being reclaimed by the city for future development of affordable housing. Bronx residents were skeptical of the idea of housing projects and for those whose hard work had gone into transforming the abandoned lots into positive social areas where viable food production and floral beauty brought the community together; there was a feeling of anger and resentment.

For La Familia Verde, gardener unity and resistance began with Karen Washington, a Bronx gardener and physical therapist by trade, whose charisma, passion and conviction helped save many Bronx community gardens from urban development.

It took a year of learning laws and fighting countless court battles before Karen and La Familia Verde won the right to protect the fate of their gardens and their placement in the communities.
Today the Tremont Community Garden is vibrant and alive with perennial flowers and vegetables like tomatoes, collards, cabbage and peppers. There are strawberries and grapes; and fig, apple and peach trees.

But it is more than a garden where vegetables flowers and fruit trees grow. It has become a place where memories are honored in ways that can only be done so in a community garden. The two weeping cherry trees that flank the garden entrance were planted in honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11. There is a juniper tree that marks the memory of one of the founding gardeners who has long since passed away. A rose bush was planted for a boy who died from leukemia. Each year his family releases balloons next to the rose bush on what would have been the boy’s birthday. Perhaps the most touching tribute to memories is the quilt that La Familia Verde has sewn in honor of all the gardeners and supportive community members who are no longer alive today to see how the garden continues to bring the community together.