A new urban garden was opened today in the Bronx, in a once blighted backyard strewn with trash. With five decrepit buildings on Kelly Street in the South Bronx being rehabilitated, the Workforce Housing Group got together with the DEP’s Green Infrastructure Grant Program and GrowNYC to build a new garden oasis.

The WHG received funding from the DEP, which explains:

Kelly Street Green is one of 29 organizations DEP’s Green Infrastructure Grant Program has partnered with since 2011 and has the capacity to capture as much as 13,500 gallons of stormwater each time it rains, or more than 250,000 gallons annually, and reduce pollution in the East River. The five buildings along Kelly Street were severely distressed and in foreclosure prior to WHG partnering with HPD to acquire and preserve them as affordable housing; a process which completed early last year with a celebration welcoming the original tenants home to newly renovated apartments.

DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd said, "Investing in green infrastructure is a cost-effective way to improve the health of New York City’s local waterways, but it also brings many additional benefits to communities including a greener landscape, cleaner air, increased shade and cooler temperatures during the summer,. In addition to supporting community gardens like this one through our grant program, DEP’s Green Infrastructure Program will transform the city’s streetscapes as we begin to install the first of thousands of specially designed curbside gardens that will not only manage stormwater, but beautify neighborhoods as well."

And WHG principal John Crotty said, "Affordable housing is critical, and of vital importance to people, but helping grow that community and laying deep roots is what keeps a community grounded and sustainable for future generations. The garden is a community development tool, it’s a positive affirmation of building community based on the principal that residents should be given a real choice, and have agency over their lives. Rather than enforcing a policy by banning and preventing, the garden provides the opportunity to create and grow. The garden provides residents a real opportunity to make informed and healthy choices."

The garden is 13,000 square feet, and besides having landscaped areas, it will produce $43,000 in fresh food a year.