Art and the Community Garden

Decorative Iron Gate at the El Sol Brilliante in New York


If you visit a community garden in the winter it can look quite barren - a winter landscape. It does make me think about how art in the garden can bring beauty and winter interest to a community garden.

Art in and about community gardens can take many forms. Sculpture, murals, art from found objects, decorative fencing and structures are just some of the types of art found in community gardens.

Garden art is often ephemeral. Artist Noah Baen created such a piece many years ago, a Bulldozer fashioned from mugwort stems. Sorry I don't have a picture. Noah has also created a number of murals in community gardens.

Garden art can be moveable. Artist Tattfoo Tan creates moveable gardens, gardens on anything with wheels like a shopping cart or skateboard and a garden classroom on a bicycle. He also creates other garden based art.

Garden art projects can be everything from a medicinal herb garden, to guerilla garden seed packets, to a community garden / herb sanctuary in Charlotte, North Carolina with ceramic bird houses by artist Joan Bankemper .

In North Philadelphia artist Lily Yeh created the Village of Art and Humanities, 12 vacant lots that were transformed by art including many mosaic murals, benches, pathways and other structures.

Mural in Aspen Farms in Philadelphia

Bottles and Pavers artistically arranged at Diaz y Flores Garden in New York

Ladybug Rainwater Harvesting Tanks at New Vision Garden in Brooklyn, NY

Fantastical Creature mural painting on Rainwater Harvesting Tank in

the PS 4 Paradise Garden in Brooklyn, NY

The Garden itself can be art when viewed from above