Trees Not Trash volunteer Cynthia Lovan plants a shrub in one of the group’s gardens on Bogart and McKibbin last Saturday. — Photo by Diego Cupolo

Five years ago, Kate Gilliam moved to Bushwick and noticed something important was missing: trees. There was only one near her apartment on Jefferson Street and she walked around the neighborhood in despair as the summer sun baked the shade-less, trash-strewn sidewalks.

"Since I had made Bushwick my home I figured I should do something to improve it," she said. "I started collecting old tires from around the neighborhood and planting bulbs and perennials in them, and then progressed to building proper wooden planters with two friends for the neighborhood businesses."

Along Bogart Street, her tree planter-benches still accommodate coffee drinkers, smokers, and people who simply want to sit down.

Soon after, she began advertising her efforts and asking the neighborhood to pitch in — 50 people signed up immediately. Trees Not Trash was born. 

The Bushwick-based group is now 400 volunteers strong and describes itself as a neighborhood beautification project, where all work is done under the motto "Putting the Bush Back in Bushwick." Operating mostly on donations (many are from The Sprout Home) and fundraisers, Trees Not Trash has planted more than 100 trees in the neighborhood with help from the NYC Parks Department and maintains several community gardens like the "Bogarten" on Bogart St. – which used to be an open garbage lot full of syringes before Kate got to work on it.  

Trees Not Trash is preparing for a variety of spring projects, including a young gardeners program at the Bushwick Library. (Anna D’Agrosa)

Most recently, the group helped get hundreds of new trees for a stretch of Central Avenue and nearly the whole length of Starr and Troutman Streets — the pits are dug and filled with soil, awaiting the planting crews. But their biggest project yet will start later this spring when they launch a young gardeners program at the Bushwick Branch Public Library. The plan is to convert an unused 1000-square-foot lot behind the library into a vegetable garden and outdoor educational facility for local kids this summer.

"The city’s public libraries are so underfunded now that they are struggling just to stay open," said Matt Lorenz, volunteer coordinator for Trees Not Trash. "But, by putting together their outdoor space and our volunteers we’ll have the resources to start a program where we teach children about gardening and where their food comes from – basically, to reconnect city kids with nature."  

Since the program requires more resources than the standard Trees Not Trash DIY/guerrilla-gardening project, the group is currently raising funds through ioby.org, an online "micro-philanthropic" initiative that connects donors with various environmental projects around the city.  So far, they are less than $200 shy of their $1,150 goal for the program. If all goes as planned, afterschool workshops will start in May and children will be able to grow their own vegetables by June. 

Taina Solano, children’s program coordinator at Bushwick Library, said the library wouldn’t be able to fund such a program on its own and she’s excited to work with Trees Not Trash.  

"This is the perfect program," Solano said. "This is such a great big, big help to us that they can get so many people involved. It couldn’t have come at a better time." 

In the near future, Kate said she’s hoping to properly establish Trees Not Trash as a non-profit organization.  But for now, the group is keeping busy and collaborating with Million Trees NYC to distribute free six-foot-tall trees to the public for planting on private property on May 1st and 2nd at Grand Street High School.   

All the new trees and gardens aside, Kate said she is most proud of Trees Not Trash’s impact on locals – particularly children – and their relationship to their neighborhood. 

"When there are no trees in your neighborhood, you become accustomed to it, and where you live becomes somewhere you travel through but rarely engage or care about," she said. "But when people see someone cleaning up the garbage and putting greenery in its place, their relationship to their surroundings, or at least their perception of it, changes."