Hyde Park & Mattapan
Gardening for Empathy
Join us in stewarding the land; exchanging seeds and seedlings to create yards and streets full of plants and native pollinator-gardens.
Register Here: Fill-Out Form
Our greenhouse (8x16) features herbs, and veggies from our ancestral-lands; Haiti, Palestine, and El Salvador — as well as, other plants grown by community-residents.
What is Gardening for Empathy?
Prioritizing empathy for the land and other living-beings through gardening and stewardship — gardening sustainably in the soil to revitalize our connection back to Nature; acknowledging the micro-organisms & insects tending the soils beneath our feet and the natural-ecosystem around us; allowing space & empathy for the bees, birds, and other critters on Earth while gardening.
A collaborative-initiative with Bay Staters For Creative Well-Being, starting this Spring, to involve the community residents of Hyde Park and Mattapan, a largely working-class and immigrant-community (Haitian, Dominican, and Jamaican), about food-sovereignty (revitalizing our ability to grow our own foods,) and stewarding the land (understanding the value of environmental-conservation, and sustainability).
Our intentions are to empower residents to plant and grow sustainably in the soil, whether it is for fresh-vegetables, greens, herbs, or pollinator/habitat gardens. Through door-to-door, seminars, workshops and installations of free-plant-libraries on residential yards, we'll provide resources, free seeds, seedlings, tools, garden-beds, and space in our greenhouse for residents with limited-space. We’ll engage community-residents about how our freedom to grow from the soil; to raise new-earth, can be quite sustainable - e.g., creating seed-starter-kits from repurposed materials such as: egg-cartons, produce-packagings, etc. We'll learn about soil remediation, plant identification, land stewardship, native plants, native wildlife, and the importance of acknowledging the land
What are Plant Libraries?
Using the same approach as little-free-library (learn more here,) we’ll ask community residents attending our info-sessions, if they would be interested in being part of a little-plant-library network. In their front-yard, by the sidewalk, will be plant-libraries placed in pots, or dug into the ground (we’ll notify dig-safe first).
Inside the plant-libraries, us — and community participates will share and exchange seeds, seedling, plants, gardening-tools, and even books or information about the natural-world.
Starting our sprouts and seedlings inside the greenhouse, a mixture of flowers, herbs (Ashwanganda, Rosemary and etc,) greens (Lalo,) and peppers (Scotch-Bonnet).
Plant-library in our yard; built by upcycling old wood and polycarbonate panels.
Dimensions: 12”x10”x17”
When are Workshops?
Info-sessions begins late-April and early-May, at Weider Park in Hyde Park (131 Dale Street,) and Ross Park in Mattapan (99 Rosa Street).
Other activities such as: transplanting plants, creating raised-garden-beds, etc, will be held in the greenhouse, parks, or, forest reservations.
Involving Community-Residents:
Community participates within the first info-sessions will recieve seeds, seedlings, or growing-materials. As we approach mid-May, raised-gardens-beds will be given away, plant-libraries will be installed, and space in our greenhouse will be offered to community participates with limited-space.
Our Intentions:
We hope this initiative grow bigger than us, we hope this initative starts conversations, advocacy, plantings, communalism, and stewardship of the land — in turn, while nurturing land, we nurture ourselves.