New York City is home to hundreds of community gardens. The majority of them were once trash-strewn vacant lots transformed by volunteers.

WNYC is catching up with some of the people committed to making sure these neighborhood green spaces exist for years to come.

Sonia Ferraro founded Paradise Community Garden in South Jamaica, Queens in 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold. She said it was a ripe time to start a garden.

“The city was turned upside down … quality food was definitely scarce and everybody was fearful. And when we found this space, we just saw a lot of opportunity to grow food and bring our friends and family here to grow with us.”

Ferraro said her journey to cultivate a community garden in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens began with doing research on available plots of land that the city’s GreenThumb program provided. It’s far from a simple process, but GreenThumb has a handbook that provides information on policies, guidelines and protocols for establishing a community garden. 

Ferraro, a registered nurse, said she visited dozens of locations during her free time over a two-month span, until she stumbled on what’s now Paradise.   

When she first saw the space, it was filled with trash and debris, but Ferraro said she saw “a lot of potential” in it. Because she was working to get the garden off the ground during the pandemic, Ferraro wasn’t able to leverage the resources typically afforded through the GreenThumb program. But, she said COVID-19 didn’t stop the community from coming together. 

“The people came in and volunteered,” she said. “We didn’t have any tools, they brought their tools with them.” 

Ferraro says gardening is “second nature” to her. She is a native of Queens, but comes from a “farming family” from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. She said her childhood is filled with memories of visiting the farm, as well as gardening with her parents in New York. 

“We just [found] pleasure in watching a plant sprout, waiting for weeks and then all of a sudden it bursts through the soil," said Ferraro.

Ferraro said Paradise Community Garden grows everything from potatoes to watermelon, and is playing an important role in educating the community about agriculture, food and nutrition. 

“From the time we started the garden … we knew that a lot of people weren't comfortable with the soil and just putting their hands in the dirt, and some people didn't understand where their food came from,” she said. 

Ferraro said the garden is a vital resource for what she described as an “economically disadvantaged” neighborhood, and not only for providing a space to grow your own food. The garden also holds workshops on topics that have nothing to do with fruits and vegetables to help low-income members of the community, like how to repair your own front door. 

“A hinge might cost a dollar versus paying $150 for a carpenter to come in and fix it,” Ferraro said. 

Ferraro is keenly aware that her community garden, like many others, is at risk of development, calling it a “real fear,” but she said it also makes her want to work harder to solidify its place in the neighborhood. 

“I remind my gardeners and my volunteers that if they love this place, we have to continue the good work that we're doing," she said.