The Last Acre: This Roxbury garden reconnects locals with the land and community

Photo by Lolita Parker, Jr.

Deep in the concrete streets of Roxbury, a hidden paradise embraces community love as residents reconnect with the earth through an age-old practice: gardening.  

The United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury Community Garden (UNLRCG) serves as one of few greenspaces in the area where residents can escape the hustle and bustle of city life to immerse their hands in the earth and feel nature’s growth. Born from an empty lot in the late 1970’s, local activists fought hard to save the land from the Interstate 95 highway project and reclaim its soil for the community. Now, the UNLRCG is one of the last open acres of the neighborhood and has a deed to guarantee its status as a local greenspace for the next 35 years, starting in 2023. 

“We’re at a really redefining moment about how we’re going to go forward,” said Lolita Parker, Jr., Co-Caretaker of the UNLRCG. “As the garden has been reimagined for use for the next 35 years, we’re really at the initial stages of what it’s going to look like going forward.” 

Enter the garden today, and your soul is instantly nourished as tomatoes, habanero peppers, garlic, cilantro, butterfly weeds, onions, zinnias, and more burst from the lavish land. Here, the trees cleanse the air, the sun bakes the soil, and the insects buzz in earnest as they relish their tiny cosmos. 

Photo by Lolita Parker, Jr.
To sustain such vibrant scenery in the middle of a city, friends at Roxbury and Northeastern University’s Student Garden Club must join forces from February through November to tend to the vegetation. These dedicated students immerse themselves in a variety of gardening tasks, from planting seeds and weeding to harvesting crops and maintaining the health of the plants. Their involvement aids in fostering the lush, thriving greenspace.  

“I find it really important to immerse yourself and be a part of the community that you live in, even if you’re a college student,” said Sneha Vaidya, third-year Environmental Studies and Political Science major and President of the Student Garden Club. “Gardening and urban agriculture is one of the ways to do that.” 

Parker Jr. deeply values the efforts of Northeastern students who cross into Roxbury and support their neighbors. “The Student Garden Club – they show up,” she said. From planting seedlings to weeding and harvesting, the Student Garden Club has been “the backbone” of this greenspace as they support UNLRCG’s mission to foster community through gardening.  

Since the gardeners at UNLRCG are predominantly senior individuals, the physical help provided by the young students, sometimes up to twice a week, is essential. As older community members of Roxbury learn and exchange experiences with the younger voices of the volunteers, gardening continues to thrive in the neighborhood. Regardless of the transient relationship that students hold with their community in their 4-year period at Northeastern, the fresh passion, energy, and enthusiasm inspires senior gardeners, who in turn, pass on their wisdom and traditions.  

Together, they form a powerful unit of earth-lovers who seek to reconnect neighbors to their land.   

Photo by Lolita Parker, Jr.
Steve Schneider, Director of Horticulture and Grounds at Northeastern’s Planning, Real Estate, and Facilities (PREF) Division serves as an advisor to the Student Garden Club, and reflects on the importance of their collaboration. “The most important concept is the concept of building community, especially in this very electronic world that we live in,” he said. “There is no digital way to grow tomatoes or to cultivate cabbage. You have to be out there physically working the soil.”  

The fresh food cultivated by these caring hands is then shared with neighbors at the United Emmanuel Holiness Church or the Mosque for Praising Allah. Parker Jr. and co-caretakers Born BiKim and London Parker McWhorter work to tailor the garden produce to local taste buds, so that people are getting what they really want – scotch bonnet peppers or green tomatoes are always a hit.  

“I want people to feel more connected to where they are. I want people to feel like there is no separation between us and the environment. We are a part of it, it’s our job to take care of it,” Vaidya said. “What I like about community gardens is that it actually forces those spaces to remain as community spaces and it’s a way of creating greenspaces that are actually active.” 

The conversation on greenspaces has been expanding as people realize that urban environments are not separated from our natural environment. The nature enveloping the UNLRCG on 90 Windsor Ave offers a unique opportunity for residents to return to their earthly roots, but it is also critical within the climate justice movement. In fact, heat maps illustrate that just two blocks over it could be 10 degrees hotter than in the UNLRCG shaded by the trees on Melnea Cass; that’s why one activist coined the term “lungs of the neighborhood” to refer to these them. 

Despite the importance of gardens and other greenspaces, not everyone is as eager to reconnect with nature as the Student Garden Club volunteers. “People that don’t work in the soil or don’t get into the woods often will look at it as something that’s dirty, that they’re afraid of,” Schneider explained. “And when you begin to get disconnected from where your food comes from you really get disconnected from a huge chunk of society. I mean think about it. In every household, what’s the most busy room? It’s the kitchen.”  

Photo by Tula Jiménez Singer

While many of the Northeastern’s garden club members come from suburban areas where they can easily interact with nature, most city residents have never touched soil, held a hose, or harvested their own food before. “For many black and brown people who were forced to bend their backs and pick food for their livelihood in the South…they don’t see gardening or farming in the same light,” Parker Jr. explained. That’s why she resorts to what she likes to call “slow, over-the-fence organizing,” where she works to build a dialogue among community members and encourage them enter the garden over time.  

“One of the people it took them ten years to come in the gate. Ten years!” she chuckled. “But now they’re in.” 

As summer rolls back around, the UNLRCG is full of activity as they plant and harvest to share with the neighborhood. Lucky for them, the Northeastern Student Garden Club is excited for another lively summer as they come together with the garden’s caretakers to tend to this cherished Roxbury greenspace. 

“I want to emphasize the patience and generosity of their time,” Parker Jr. said. “They show up in the driving rain, they show up in the blazing heat. They love it, and it shows.” 

Written by Tula Singer, June 26th 2024