From Unemployment to Urban Gardener: A Decade of Growth #

A decade ago, a woman found herself unemployed and seeking assistance. Through a caseworker, she learned about job training programs offered by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, including a six-month horticulture program. She promptly enrolled.

Growing up in the 1960s in a Brooklyn neighborhood, she spent much of her childhood in her backyard, attempting to grow vegetables with her father. This backyard also became the site of her first encounters with the city’s wild vegetation.

As a teenager, she recalls an incident involving an invasive plant growing over their fence. Her solution, though not recommended now, involved drilling holes in the plant and using a chemical drain cleaner to eliminate it.

Today, she works full-time for the Parks Department as a gardener at a historic 7.82-acre park in Brooklyn. She can often be seen navigating the grounds in a small truck filled with her essential tools - a weed whacker, leaf blower, and hedge trimmer. Her daily attire includes ski goggles and kneepads.

At 64 years old, she expresses great satisfaction with her job and has no immediate plans for retirement. “Each day I get here I want to be a benefit to somebody, to make somebody happy,” she says.

She currently resides with her adult daughter in a two-bedroom apartment in an affordable housing complex in Brooklyn, which offers views of Jamaica Bay.