Sheryll Durrant has managed the New Roots Garden, which sits between the Grand Concourse and the Metro North railroad tracks in the Bronx, with volunteers for eight years.

We have linked out to stories about urban farming plenty of times; it never gets old:

Vital Places of Refuge in the Bronx, Community Gardens Gain Recognition

Lawmakers in Albany voted to designate community gardens statewide as crucial to the urban environment, especially in the fight against climate change. The bill awaits the governor’s signature but the role of these gardens stretches back decades.

The Morning Glory garden in the West Farms section of the Bronx is among more than 500 community gardens in New York City.

Sheryll Durrant left her family farm in Jamaica in 1989 and embarked on a career in corporate marketing. But after the 2008 financial meltdown, she reconsidered her life.

She returned to her roots.

Now she runs a thriving urban farm wedged into a triangular plot in the Bronx, between the Grand Concourse and the Metro North railroad tracks. At her farm, New Roots Garden, membership consists of refugees and migrants, resettled by the International Rescue Committee, whose herbs and vegetables sustain their memories of home.

“Just putting your hands in soil is a form of healing,” Ms. Durrant, 63, said.

The plot she has managed with volunteers for eight years sits on city land and is among more than 500 community gardens in New York City. About a third of them have sprouted in the Bronx, where the gardens are emerald oases, providing residents a respite from hot, treeless streets clogged with traffic, as well as a bounty of locally grown food.

In a city whose climate has more recently been considered subtropical, these plots also try to temper the effects of climate change, absorbing water and carbon emissions as heat waves, intense rain and mostly snowless winters wreak havoc.

Lawmakers in Albany this year acknowledged those benefits, especially in the fight against climate change, voting to designate these kinds of gardens statewide as crucial to the urban environment. Passed with strong bipartisan support, the bill awaits the governor’s signature.

“What we do on every small piece of land really does matter,” said Jennifer Bernstein, the chief executive and president of the New York Botanical Garden, which has helped some 400 Bronx gardens since the late 1980s. “These gardens were ahead of their time in recognizing the role nature plays in making cities livable and resilient.”…

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