An appreciation: Raquel's garden on 1st Avenue

[EVG file photo from July]

The First Avenue bike lanes arrived back in in July 2010 ... the new concrete pedestrian island and tree pit at First Avenue and East Seventh Street provided one longtime East Village resident with an urban garden that has been well-admired these past four years.

When sunflowers arrived in September 2010, Raquel Shapira noticed that no one was watering the plants.

So she bought a watering can across the street at Saifee Hardware. The Tile Bar, which is the closest business to the island, lets Shapira keep the can there and use their water.

Guerilla gardening hasn't always been easy here. (Case in point one and two.)

As the gardening season winds down, we asked Shapira a few questions about her work.

Why did you decide to start tending to the plot on a more regular basis?

After seeing the sunflowers not being tended to, I could not ignore them or watch them die. As other plants started to appear ... the mission was kept alive. The following years I started planting my own flowers.

What has been the most rewarding part of this? The most frustrating?

The most rewarding is having a piece of greenery in the middle of NYC cement no matter how small it may be. The sunflowers bring smiles to people faces and many stop to take pictures. It's a joy.

Of course, the most frustrating thing is or are the flower thieves. This past spring I saw a woman cutting tulips in broad day light. Luckily I was around to shoo her away. Sunflowers are usually stolen during the night, which makes me suspect that weekend drunks are most likely to be blamed.

I heard that you received a new watering can.

For my birthday this year, my friends at the Tile Bar gave me a larger watering can, and each of them signed it as a card. Was a beautiful gift that reduced my exercise routine.

What's in store for 2015 here?

Next year I'm hoping to get wildflower seeds and sow them early spring. I may venture to other islands along First Avenue and sow them there as well — although I will not be able to water those. Of course plants that exist in the plot will always be taken care of.

Any parting thoughts?

What I like about this garden is keeping it organic. I have seen small plots on streets between Broadway and Fifth Avenue where every few months new plants are being forced around the trees to make the rich tenants happy. This garden is not the same. I let every plant live to its fullest and I'd like to keep it this way even if it doesn't look like a Fifth Avenue plot.

And yes – it's pretty much the end of the season, except the cosmos decided to bloom quite late. Even the vine growing on the tree is showing signs of life with new flowers. So I'm keeping an eye as always.

Here's Shapira (center) with her friend Manny Verdi (far left) on First Avenue and East Seventh Street. As for the other two fellows, they were moving a couch and stopped for a rest. Photo last Friday by Lori Kohn.



For further reading:
the little garden that could
Loisaida Nest