The Bedford Library, a historic branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, sought a community garden to engage patrons around food justice, climate crisis, urban gardening, and ecological reciprocity. Now patrons can enjoy programming around harvests, stewardship, farm and garden study, and simply building a relationship with nature. We chose tall beds to allow for greater accessibility—making it easier for wheelchair users and others for whom bending down would be a challenge—and made sustainable choices to fill the depth of the beds by drawing on an ancient regenerative agricultural technique using mound gardens, also known as conucos or hugelkulturs, by piling logs, branches, wood chips, compost, and soil. This reduced the resource and financial cost of so many cubic feet of soil and offered a learning opportunity for the community. We look forward to the many ways this garden will grow.

Many thanks to the library staff and volunteers for supporting this project.