
“I have spent many hours at NBG, usually visiting at least twice a week. So I know my favorite parts well. After I received the grant, I had a very special visit with the intent to identify the first plants to be drawn/celebrated. It was so much fun to walk into the garden and have the mullein plant jump out and speak to me. This is a plant I have known and loved most of my life. Its lush green leaves stood out in the brown of autumn. It was November at the time, so the flowering plants had dried out and were standing as sentinels of the promise for a renewed garden in the spring. I have a long standing fascination with the gesture and color of dried plants. The Inula caught my eye and bingo, I was off to the races.”
1X1 Footprint Digital Map

One by One Native Plant Project
Our founder Jimmy Johnson, has worked for years on rewilding projects to restore healthy ecosystems by creating wild, biodiverse spaces. He created the One by One project several years ago to educate and involve the community in expanding the native plant footprint. It only takes one (1) square foot of space to make a significant difference in helping to restore the ecosystem for our pollinators and birds.
The ConEd Community Partnership grant we received last year made a huge difference to our mission. The grant enabled us to create kits for both gardens and window boxes. Homeowners and apartment dwellers are now to be able to participate and learn more about native plants. We created and distributed over 150 kits with 3-4 native plants, for free. Additionally we were able to create a resource library for our volunteers.
We had our One by One Native Plant Giveaway this weekend, made possible by the ConEd Community Partnership grant and it was a great success!
Over the past few months we were able to purchase and cultivate 10 different varieties of native plants and we gave away over 150 kits to households in 4 boroughs ,and 2 states. We also conducted an educational talk and tour of the native plant projects we have at the garden. We will be expanding the native plant collection with our volunteers over the next few weeks. Lastly, we were also able to start a resource library for our volunteers!