THE NATURALS: Meet The 6 Plant Aficionados Taking Over NYC

“A little bit of wild in the city can bring us some sanctuary,” says this landscape designer. Since 2015, her firm, Design Wild, has been working with local officials, community groups, developers, and homeowners to create lush, ecologically sound gardens for low-income housing, public spaces, private residences, and busy streets. As Nagel explains, the pandemic has thrown the need for accessible urban green space into high relief.”

DESIGN WILD: Turning the Streets of New York into a Garden

"Our work here is about dignity and beauty in the public arena, and by calling them gardens, we and our neighbors honor these landscapes as spaces returning to beauty. For me, it’s equal parts ecological health and human spirit health, and these plants are healers in both realms. American native plants are the ancestors on this land, even in midtown Manhattan.”

LANDSCAPES BRING BEAUTY & DIGNITY TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING

“Green space is a human right and a profoundly needed resource for sanctuary and peace. Through the Covid crises in NYC, we see how disparity and inequality affect our access to open space and a connection to spirit and land.”

A 19TH CENTURY PARK SLOPE ROWHOUSE GETS A MODERN UPDATE

“We totally redid the garden and worked with a dear friend, Shanti Nagel, and her landscaping company, Design Wild,” Cotton says. Nagel brought in nature from the penthouse to the basement level, seen here, and the parlor-level garden, which is accessed from stairs off the living room. “Tim loves to garden, and it’s a place where we spend a lot of time with the girls,” Py says. “Especially up on the roof. It’s also great to have a grill, a real luxury in New York.”

INTO THE WOODS: As the city closes in on us, Shanti Nagel is fighting the good fight for miraculous pockets of green. It could save our lives!

“Although we do sophisticated horticulture, we’re interested in the interactions between HUMANS and those designs and the way they make for a better community, a healthier neighborhood, and a better spirit for individuals. Wherever we bring plants, along comes pollinators and butterflies and all these little moments of WILD. If we can bring this into people’s everyday lives this has a transformative power on mental health.”

“Today Shanti is taking me on a tour of her recent public project in Hell’s Kitchen, where she’s reclaiming the Lincoln Tunnel Corridor as the Lincoln Tunnel Ecosystem. As we are assaulted by traffic and high winds we note “If you can make it here’ and this goes for the plants and the woman ‘you can make it anywhere”

“As Nagel walks me through the neighborhood, past tree pits parks, and window boxes, she talks about the plants, the people, and the history of the neighborhood. “I can walk around Hell’s Kitchen,” she says, “it can be 42nd Street and 8th Avenue (near Times Square), super-urban, total New York, and people stop me and recognize me and talk to me about plants.”

TEMOIGNANES: Les Fermieres Du Ciel A New York

"Les gamins veulent devenir fermiers" Elle a New York dans le sang. Pourtant, à 20 ans, Shanti Nagel avait fait le choix de s’installer "upstate", en rase campagne, pour se lancer dans le bio. Quelques années plus tard, cette belle brune des champs est redevenue citadine pour appliquer son savoir-faire en ville. "Plus on cultive loin du sol, moins les conditions sont naturelles", explique-t-elle sur le toit de l’église Metro Baptist Church, à deux pas de Times Square....

TESTIMONIALS: The Farmhouses of the Sky in New York

"Kids want to be farmers" She has New York in her blood, however, at the age of 20, Shanti Nagel had chosen to settle upstate, in the open countryside, to get into organic farming. A few years later, this beautiful brunette from the fields became a city dweller again to apply her know-how in the city. "The farther from the ground you cultivate, the less natural the conditions are," she explains on the rooftop of Metro Baptist Church, a stone's throw from Times Square.”