Guerilla Gardeners turn Toxic Soil into Eco-Oasis

An award should be given to the city officials who decided not to mess up. That’s awesome gardening project.

Can't imagine walking thru a grey and drab cityscape and stumbling across this lush greenery.

Seeing projects like these gives me hope for humanity.

Lovely! Andrew, years ago I used to ride the Long Island Rail Road to work every single day and on the way, I would look at the sidings and see tons of vines and weeds growing up and thought, nature will find a way if we just leave her alone. I have a degree in biology and have been a permaculture enthusiast for many years. I have a huge hugelkulture in my garden that is decomposing a 100 foot oak tree that sadly was ringed with concrete blocks that were buried before we moved here. The tree was well over 150 years old (counted the rings) and the cross sections are over five feet near the base. It's covered in mushrooms right now and of course produce, so I know the biome is healthy~ So glad to see you sharing about urban permaculture and I just might try and visit this site some time soon~

Safely dealing with toxins and other remnants of the site's hisory must be the biggest challenge. Props for picking up the fight! 👌🏻🌱

I love those railroad bridges that turned into long strip gardens over the main roads.

Thank you Andrew for visiting us and sharing the story of this amazing community and farm!

I spent my childhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in a house located in the heart of what used to be a neighborhood for steel workers. This city shares a lot of similarities with Detroit, especially the significant impact both cities faced when the steel and automobile industries began to decline. Growing up adjacent to large, mostly deserted factories, I was able to observe directly how nature can recapture these spaces. Nature seems to be much more adept at this task than humans, which has always intrigued me and made me wonder how this process could be made more efficient. It's fascinating to witness the effects of this transformation for these people. Thanks for the video :)

To the people who did the New York restorations (and anyone else who might benefit from my experiences): In my families old house we had an old deck that was built during an era where they added arsenic to outdoor deck paint and we wanted to restore our local backyard to a heavy metal healthier status. There is one plant that does transform heavy metals and that is willow but in our research we also found out Purple Lu-strife (a flower considered "invasive" and banned in many places. But one thing biologists noticed is that lu-strife only "flairs up" where the soil is toxic with heavy metals and dies back when the locality (usually roadside ditches) are clean. the third thing we planed was ferns as they also uptake heavy metals. :) This concludes this "free information offering ~Empress Pyra

I keep thinking about Maui and how having permaculture in place over that burn area could be such a game changer. Andrew, you could be that change!

Permaculture is a bird just ready to fly. She'll be fully flying free very soon. We're all getting the idea. It's so exciting. My 20 y.o. permaculture forest is still evolving. Still exciting. Still accepting new members, plants, pollinators, critters, birds, trees, even some people. Thanks for sharing your work. It's so fantastic to know we're a growing community. Someone should start a permaculture association! Cheers

With so much content on the youtubes these days, I'm trying to be more intentional about what I'm watching. I've been subscribed to Andrew Millson for a couple years now, and his videos are always A+ quality. Stories, courses, etc. Please keep 'em rolling!

That is an excellent project in middle of the city. And to have children involved with it is even better because they learn right away what they can do with their time when they're outside. Create food. Very interesting about the creosote breaking down to arsenic and still being able to create a soil above it so you can grow food. Great job.

the temperature there must be such a game changer in a concrete city

I watch a ton of gardening channels, in different states and countries but never have I seen one from NYC. Never. This is beautiful.

Nature creates relationship and people are a lot calmer in a friendly environment. Thank you from Belgium

Getting back to nature - it's a therapy so needed by all right now.

Birch trees, Dandelion and Sunflowers do an amazing job at cleaning and making the soil healthy.

Learning about this project reminded me of the Materials and Resources component of LEED Green Building Design, which in some ways (similar to permaculture), really drills down into viewing 'waste' as something entirely different.. not something to just get rid of and forget about but, rather an opportunity to take responsibility for what we consume and turn leftover materials into resources for other uses. I love that this project has been able to reclaim so many resources from the wastestream around them and then use that to create beautiful life giving soil. The potential for abundance was there all along.. it just needed a few special people to see it 💚

Aloha! I AM a senior and as a child I rode the train on that track. I AM inspired by this creation of a better world for New Yorkers. As I live and learn this green space on the rail tracks proves humanity is running towards Harmony. Asante 🌄🌍🌙