At The Commons, Community Grows in the Rooftop Garden

A Rooftop is a priceless commodity. And in the case of The Commons, a Boerum Hill community center, it is a garden and an education center.

The 2,200-square-foot roof of The Commons is bursting with useful plants. A couple dozen types of fruits and vegetables (including strawberries, watermelons, greens, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and broccoli) plus about fifty medicinal herbs grow out of three kiddie pools and almost 100 water-conserving Sub-Irrigated Planters (SIPs). Add two beehives, a composter, and a rainwater harvest system, and you’ve got a thriving urban farm.

But the primary purpose of the freshly installed oasis atop 388 Atlantic Avenue, according to building owner and Commons founder Melissa Ennen, is to grow community.

It’s “a place to gather,” Ennen said. “People feel like they can just come and hang out. It’s open to the public. Everyone’s welcome."

“It’s a nice place,” she said.

The rooftop garden, built this past spring, was a community effort. Neighborhood volunteers helped lay the recycled-rubber-tile flooring.

“On Sundays we invited Foodshed Farmer's Market shoppers or anyone in to get things done,” said Ennen. “Various Commoners helped get everything upstairs – that was quite a project.”

The building of the rooftop garden was used as a teachable moment, too.

When it was time to install planters – some acquired at Liberty Sunset Garden Center’s clearance sale, others homemade from plastic tubs, burlap and recycled soda bottles – The Commons hosted a workshop on sub-irrigated planting.

The rooftop garden had a grand opening of sorts on June 21, when The Commons threw a solstice celebration featuring food, music and a solstice ceremony led by members of New York Shamanic Circle.

The mission of the Commons is to focus on building connections and bringing people together.

“The connection between healing ourselves, healing our communities and healing our planet," said Ennen.

Community groups hold meetings on the roof.

Children enrolled in Butter Beans Kitchen’s Farm & Garden Camp have picked food from the roof for their lunches, and learned about bees and beekeeping by inspecting the hives.

And some produce grown on the roof has gone to the Foodshed market downstairs.

For Ennen, buying local and fresh produce is important.

Selling food that’s as fresh as it possibly can be, she said, provides “another opportunity to explain how quickly produce loses its nutritional value after it’s picked."

“Mothers want the best nutrition for their kids but buy cheap produce at Trader Joe’s, which comes from so far away that it’s lost most of its nutritional value by the time it’s served," she said. "You get much more nutrition for your buck if you buy local.”

Future plans for the garden include a supper club featuring local chefs, who will be challenged to develop dishes using seasonal ingredients from the roof and the Foodshed.

When the weather cools in September, The Commons will host rooftop yoga and tai chi classes, as well as workshops on topics such as fermentation and planting for the fall.

Also in the fall, Commons staff will bring planters growing cool-weather crops (such as arugula, lettuce and mesclun) down to the Foodshed and let customers pick their own.

Many of the workshops included in The Commons’ July 30 Healing Arts Festival will be happening on the roof, and will make use of the garden’s wide variety of medicinal plants.

Mosab Qashoo, Foodshed Director and Commons gardener, wants to help locals grow food on their own rooftops and patios in SIPs by putting together a guide book of materials. The book will tell people about the growing technologies the Commons uses, he said, and will educate on irrigation systems and soil resources.

Gowanus teen Danny Camacho, who helps tend the garden, said he likes the breeze, the lack of noise and the fact that “the work is not too hard.”

“It’s peaceful,” he said.

The Commons’ rooftop garden is open to the public on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., during the Foodshed Market. For updates on the supper club, the July 30 Healing Arts Festival, and other events visit The Commons website.