PlantxChange connects mental health and ecology through gardening in Sunset Park

PlantxChange was one of many organizations that joined forces on Saturday, October 8, for “City of Forest Day” in District 38, with events stretching from Dyker Heights to Gowanus.

The group began in 2020 during the lockdown. “We wanted to connect mental health with gardening because it’s very important. It’s very good for your mental health,” said cofounder Makayla Marchese-Svetnik. “There’s a lot of disconnect in the city, and I think it’s really important for us to be reconnected in any way that we can.” She added that it was vital to “rehabilitate and create a relationship with our ecosystem.”

In Sunset Park, PlantxChange hosted tree bed restoration activities — cleaning, adding mulch and bulbs, and planting native seeds. Beyond the fun of gardening, these efforts help the neighborhood by improving water and oxygen flow in the soil, benefiting trees and preventing flooding. As Marchese-Svetnik explained, when tree beds are cleaned and mulched, rainwater can soak into the soil and reach the roots, rather than running off the surface and picking up pollutants, oil, or garbage.

PlantxChange cofounder Russell Rovira noted that Sunset Park below Fifth Avenue has less than 11% tree-canopy cover, among the lowest in NYC, while nearby Windsor Terrace is around the mid-20s. As a local resident caring for an elderly parent, he said the lack of shade makes outdoor time difficult for seniors during hot weather.

“Not everybody has that luxury, so there’s been more effort to plant trees in Sunset,” said Rovira. “The problem is, we can plant as many trees as we want, but if we don’t keep them alive, it’s not going to do anything.”

Participants threw themselves into the work and the learning process. Volunteer Abby Banks, who discovered the event through a Sunset Park plant group on Facebook, said she grew up in East Tennessee and witnessed the impact of Hurricane Helene on her hometown. Having lived in New York for ten years, she said she’s personally witnessed the effects of climate change in the city. “In those ten years, we’ve gone from a couple of pretty heavy snowstorms per year to, we’re lucky if we get one, which is kind of alarming.”

Like many others, Banks said she joined the event to help her community and support the environment. “Taking care of the plants in our neighborhoods is pretty important to me, not just from the climate change perspective, but also for what our communities can enjoy in terms of shade and being able to just enjoy the environment.”