The LAYOUT

Next up, garden boxes and layout! The tape measurer came out and the boxes placed down. We are starting off with about 7 boxes this year with the potential of about 25 eventually. There was a lot of thought put into the layout for now and the future of our garden. It definitely wasn’t a 1, 2, 3 here place boxes downs. While we were in the garden, more onlookers and neighbors are showing interest and offering words of encouragement towards OUR project. They are happy that the lot is being beautified into a community garden. Be sure to stop by and take a look, we are at Garside Ave and 3rd Avenue. See you soon!! 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

I am contacting you today on behalf of North Newark Urban Garden. North Newark Urban Garden is a city-owned lot that we adopted directly through the city of Newark, NJ. The garden is geared towards providing the inner-city community with fresh fruit and vegetables, while beautifying the neighborhood. We are a committed to build a group to improving the appearance of our neighborhood and creating a bond with our neighbors, and teaching children the importance of where food comes from.

We are very excited about the implementation of the garden and providing the neighborhood with a healthy community. I am contacting you to inquire if YOU would be interested in donating a service towards the program. We would like to make more space for the garden, by getting rid of some of the dead trees on the property, purchasing more boxes, dirt, and pavers. We would like some help in the removal of the trees, clean up, setting up the garden, and ensuring a successful 2012!

We are also documenting our efforts and progress of the garden by film and online media sites, on our blog, Facebook and Twitter pages. YOU would be included as a sponsor of the program.

I hope that you have an interest in the program and look forward to hearing from you soon. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email

Spur of the moment we were able to get a delivery of soil from Greater Newark Conservancy, which meant Saturday plans to check out the House Music Festival weren’t anymore. We have all realized to have our North Newark Urban Garden get off and thrive, we all need to make sacrifices, so this will be one of many more to come.

So after the morning judging of (link to blog post), we got changed and all met at the garden to move the soil. Unfortunately, the gates opening is 4-feet instead of 8-feet so the truck wasn’t able to fit into the gates entrance to make the drop inside the garden area. The drop was made mostly outside of the gate. Regardless of where the soil was dropped, we were happy and grateful for it. We rounded up our helpers and started shoveling the soil onto the tarp.

Besides the soil drop, we also cleaned up the weeds and macheted some tree’s down. Well it started off as being macheted and quickly turned to using the chainsaw. Neighbors have been very curious in what we are doing in the lot and interested in being a part of it. We are happy with the progress and without the teamwork we wouldn’t be!

What is Adopt - a - Lot Program?

The adopt-a-lot program is where residents, neighborhood/block organizations, and non-profit organizations in the community commit to caring for City owned vacant land throughout the City, which in turn increases property values, improves the appearance of your neighborhood and could possibly deter illegal activity. 

North Newark Urban Garden attempts to do just that by taking care of the property located on 248-250 Garside Street,  we hope to forge a good bond between the residents creating a healthy community! 

The lot has been rented and now I want to specifically grow vegetables, and create an opportunity for children to learn and grow where their food comes from.