Fall Community Planting Day

Hundreds of community volunteers joined New York City Council Member Margaret Chin to plant tulips at Bowling Green Saturday during the third annual Fall Community Planting Day of the Alliance for Downtown New York.

“This weekend, we brought together the community to help green Lower Manhattan in a sustainable way and keep the planting cycle going at the city’s oldest park,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Downtown Alliance. “And what a fall scene it was—with pumpkin-painting, cider, pumpkin cupcakes and hundreds of families working together to beautify the community. We look forward to seeing everyone out for our Spring Community Planting Day in May at Mannahatta Park.”

Starting at 10 AM, families and area workers streamed into the park, grabbed tools and gloves, and got to work planting tulip bulbs and ornamental kale. Others painted pumpkins to take home. Staff from the Downtown Alliance and Nielson Elefante Nurseries handed out tools and provided planting advice.

You can view pictures of the event on the Downtown Alliance’s Flickr page and see a YouTube video from the event.

Planting Day came ten days after Adopt A Geranium Day, when the Downtown Alliance distributed more than 4,000 free, potted geraniums to people who live, work or were visiting in Lower Manhattan. Both events are part of the Downtown Alliance’s Going Green Downtown initiative, dedicated to building an environmentally sustainable Lower Manhattan. The series also includes Mulch Mania, a January event that grinds holiday trees into mulch for New York City’s parks, and Spring Community Planting Day, when Lower Manhattan residents, workers and visitors plant flowers in Mannahatta Park on Wall Street in early May.

Fall Community Planting Day was made possible with support from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Partnerships for Parks, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Council Member Chin, Community Board 1, Whole Foods Market and Crumbs Bake Shop.