ReWild Community Gardens Program

Environmental awareness club & garden club

Located at East Hampton High School (EHHS), East Hampton, NY

The Environmental Awareness Club and the Garden Club at the East Hampton High School together have over 100 student members from 9th through 12th grades. Aubrey Peterson, a Social Worker at the school, is the Environmental Awareness Club facilitator and Karen DeFronzo, a Teaching Assistant at EHHS, is the Garden Club facilitator.

The Garden Club members have already had experience planting and maintaining a small pollinator garden in one of the high school courtyards. The Garden grant will help us expand the one we have and create another garden more accessible to members of our community.

The EHHS garden will be a tool to educate and experiment, with students playing an important leadership role in the maintenance and future growth of the project.

Ethical humanist society green committee

Located at the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, Garden City, NY

One of the key beliefs embraced by The Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island is in the interdependent connections to all humans, to nature, and to our inner values. We aim  to put “deed before creed” and with that in mind, our Board and membership fully  supported the plan to restore our backyard gardens with sustainable native plants, trees  and shrubs, providing a more balanced ecosystem and in the process supporting native  wildlife.  

EHSLI was initially inspired to abide by the concept of sustainable gardening practices when we faced a severe flooding issue in our parking lot. Solving the problem successfully with  environmentally-positive Rain Gardens, planted with native drought and water-tolerant  sustainable species, inspired us to look to the other areas of our grounds. As a result, a garden committee was formed in June 2021. 

We first resourced information and advice from ReWild Long Island in 2022 and worked with landscape designers who specialized in sustainable, native landscaping practices, who then cleared out the invasives and planted native species. The lawns were removed and replaced with environmentally friendly wood chips supplied at no cost by local arborists. The ribbon-cutting to what we now  call our “The Celebration Garden” was June, 2022. 

This past spring our volunteers, with guidance and funding from the ReWild Program, were able to plant and install irrigation to create a new 750 square foot native garden in a  featured section of our Celebration Garden, where we hope to host many events. Our garden highlights a focus on environmental stewardship. In addition to caring for others, we are also caring for the Earth--which also of course benefits humans and wildlife. 

Anitra Pavlico, member of the Ethical Humanist Society, says, “I personally have realized [through the rewilding process] I want to get more involved with environmental efforts on Long Island, and I recently went to a beach clean-up on Long Beach sponsored by another group. So the process has had ripple effects, you could say.”

Volunteerism and education are an important aspect of our philosophy. Our garden is  tended by volunteers and each month we have a featured article about our native  garden in our monthly newsletter which reaches over 500 people. With the support and  guidance of ReWild LI, we are able to broaden our outreach in educating and involving  our membership and the surrounding community in sustainable gardening practices. 

great neck high school environmental clubs

Located at William A. Shine Great Neck High School, Lake Success, NY

Great Neck South High School’s sustainable garden space furthers our mission of raising environmental awareness among students, so our next generation will make efforts to incorporate sustainable practices into their daily lives and keep our earth healthy. We will collaborate with the science, English, and art departments to continue building our garden, while also educating students about climate resilience and biodiversity.

Since March, students from South High’s AREA-C (Animal Rescue and Environmental Awareness Club) and TUGI Club (The Urban Garden Initiative) have been engaged in setting up and maintaining the garden through participating in plantings and volunteering to water and weed.

Our students’ enthusiasm indicates a good start towards our goal of encouraging environmentally-friendly practices, and we are looking forward to what’s to come!

The master gardeners

Located at Havens Homestead in Center Moriches, NY

The mission of the Havens Homestead is to preserve history. The pollinator garden with plants that are native to our area that were here before any European colonization, and designed in the Shingle-Style consistent with the Homestead provides the community with a visual, tactile example of “then and now”. The goal is to inspire and educate by example.

Creating this garden fostered community and learning. There’s more to gardening than “Does it look pretty?” The ReWild grant deepened our understanding of sustainable native gardening. With more than 1,000 square feet to plan, prep and plant in, 17 gardeners with varied experience worked together. All contributed expertise; soil preparation, critter barriers, root washing, plant choice and placement, and drip irrigation are some topics we tackled together. 

Gardening is a humbling experience. There is always more to learn. We continue to do so in an environment where it is safe to ask questions, and where we nurture plants and each other.

Creating an environment that will support native biodiversity and provide a lasting, healthy space for future generations is hard.   How to do this in a changing climate, how to transform horticultural practices are daunting questions.

The ReWild partnership underlined that sustainability is a hopeful, thoughtful process. It requires not only hard work and dirt under the fingernails, but also continuous learning, ongoing evaluation, open communication and dialogue.  And optimism- looking to improve the future one garden at a time.

NYS LEAH Homeschool

Located at the Ecological Culture Initiative in Hampton Bays, NY

East End LEAH is a 501(c)(3) Homeschool coop under the broader NYS LEAH (Loving Education At Home) umbrella. Our homeschool kids here on the East End were doing a study on gardening, growing vegetables, soil nutrition, and sustainability, and ReWild presented an opportunity for us to learn more about native plants and how they contribute to the environment.  

We often think of sustainability in regard to growing vegetables, but not about growing soil, air, and pollinators!  This has been a great learning experience for us and the kids have enjoyed being in the garden and seeing the fruits of their labors from preparing the ground to planting.  By partnering with ReWild, ECI and St. Joseph's Villa, the kids are able to participate with three organizations who are all about native plants, sustainable gardening, and pollinators.

Rewild garden at dodge

Located at the Thomas Dodge Homestead in Port Washington, NY

Our vision for the ReWild Garden at Dodge was to create a community space where the residents of Port Washington can learn about the historic and environmental importance of native plants while also understanding their role in sustainable landscaping today. When we started in March 2021, the grounds of the Thomas Dodge Homestead needed a lot of restoration. Invasive vines, poison ivy and emerging trees had choked several areas and threatened historic structures. The fencing and architecture of the space restricted volunteer and public access. The layout of the organic farm was not conducive to the community activities we conduct there including our annual native plant distribution and youth activities.

ReWild embarked on a transformation project developing a broad vision that is now crystallizing as the ReWild Garden at Dodge.

Our volunteers (adults and students) worked tirelessly to remove invasives, place cardboard and mulch to suppress regrowth, plant natives and create a beautiful garden. The design of the garden was spearheaded by Dianna Facci, a volunteer with design skills and an eye for detail. This evolved over several years as we experimented with the actual use of the space.

Our current mature design has an herbal plant wheel in the center of the garden to honor the contributions of native people and native plants in preserving biodiversity. On one side of the garden, we grow organic vegetables fed by compost made from local kitchen and yard waste. On the other side of the garden, we are trying out different ideas for landscaping aesthetics around native plants.

Our garden, like ReWild Long Island, is ever-changing, ambitious, experimental, and created by a lot of people who care deeply about working together!

Rocky point gardening committee

Located at the Rocky Point Historical Society, Rocky Point, NY

The Rocky Point Historical Society's mission is to educate our community about the people and events that took place here. We are located near the shore of the Long Island Sound on an old "landing road" used by the early settlers.  Our property includes the 1721 Noah Hallock Homestead, where eight generations of Hallocks lived and worked.  Many local residents today do not know Rocky Point was a farming town for over two hundred years.  Our gardens help tell the story of the people who lived here and also to encourage visitors to take up gardening and sustainable practices themselves. Many of the native and historical plants in the Historical Society’s garden were used by the colonists and Native Americans for food, medicine, fragrance, dye and insect repellent.

 We are hopeful that this garden will trap some of the stormwater that flows past our property on its way to Long Island Sound.  We can see the clear water of the Sound from the garden.  We know the health of the Sound was important to the first generation of Hallocks and should be just as critical now, 300 years later.  The garden helps bring our mission out of the house and right out front so that even passersby can stop and learn about native plants and history. We realized the importance of native plants to support the pollinators and birds and to protect our environment and food source.

This big, beautiful and purposeful garden set in front of a popular landmark should draw attention to sustainable landscaping and invite our neighbors to learn more.

Sustainability Garden Sponsored by Liberty utilities

Located in Merrick, NY

Willow road elementary school

Located adjacent to the Willow Road Elementary School building in Valley Stream, NY

Our mission with the Gardens Program was to facilitate a sense of responsibility, foster a curiosity for learning, and motivate students to participate in their community. Educational goals include (1) providing all children educational opportunities in a garden and outdoors; (2) engaging children in special education with life skill activities; and (3) promoting social-emotional learning and skills through gardening. 

We believe that our main success is student involvement. Elementary-aged students are excited and take pride in their participation in the garden. In this process, the students have learned what plants need in order to grow, what insects are good and bad for the garden, and the life cycle of plants.  They truly enjoy watering the flowers and tending to the garden. In addition to the irrigation system and hose system, Ms. Jeanette Walters purchased watering cans for all her students to help water the plants. 

With the help of club moderators - Dr. Kristina DiLauro, Speech-Language Pathologist, and Ms. Jamey Schechter, Social Worker, the Willow Road Best Buddies Club, which includes general education students in sixth grade and students in self-contained classes, worked on decorating rocks to outline the garden space. Additionally, Ms. Walters’ class painted rocks to help outline the garden.

We had a few students comment on the bees in the garden. Due to our learning from ReWild, we know that bees are an essential part of the ecosystem where plants and animals work together. We have a further understanding that animals and insects have an essential impact on the ecosystem and nature.

Sands-willets house

Located at The Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society, Port Washington, NY

The Sands-Willets house falls under the umbrella of The Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society. The historical society is a supporter of ReWild Long Island.

The Sands-Willets house ca. 1735 has been undergoing restoration and renovation of house and grounds over the past few years. We have been removing invasive plants and re-imagining spaces with native plants using sustainable garden practices. We currently have a bird friendly garden in association with North Shore Audubon, a shade garden and a four-square colonial garden. 

The historical society’s mission is to educate the community on local history and to understand a sense of place, how we interact with the house, grounds, and our peninsula, and how we learn about ecosystems and species and its relationship to the site for a more sustainable future.

Zion garden team

Located at the Zion Episcopal Church, Douglaston, NY
Zion Episcopal Church in Douglaston has stood proudly on a hill in northeastern Queens for 193 years.  We believe that the Earth is a gift that God has entrusted us to care for and love, and that our well-being is inextricably linked to the health of this planet. 

When we installed a new roof last summer, it created the opportunity to re landscape the flower bed outside the church. Zion received a grant from ReWild Long Island's Gardens Program this spring and in June we planted a garden full of native and pollinator-friendly plants. It is our hope that the bees who live in the hives kept on our property will appreciate our garden! 

Our historic churchyard is open to all. We have a playground, a labyrinth, bee hives, a cemetery, and now a native garden! We invite our neighbors to learn along with us as we discover new ways to love and care for God's creation