About Us

Welcome to 6BC

Why ‘6BC’?

Our name –6BC–tells you where we are: on 6th Street in Manhattan’s lively East Village, between Avenues B and C. But there’s more to it:

‘B’ for Botanical

We call it a botanical garden because that’s the traditional name for a garden where visitors come to learn about lots of plants from lots of places. Our garden includes hundreds of plants, native plants as well as many that were immigrants to New York– and that makes our garden a lot like our community.

‘C’ for Community

Unlike many other botanical gardens, 6BC is also a community garden: East Villagers, all volunteers, started building it on a rubble-strewn empty lot in the early 1980s.

Since then, our garden’s story, like our neighborhood’s, has been one of constant challenge and change.

Today, after a period in which 6BC’s survival, like that of other New York community gardens, was threatened by the city’s exploding development, our garden’s land has been permanently set aside for public use as part of the New York City Parks system.

Even so, the garden is still completely cared for and run by community members, all volunteers. We are a Green Thumb garden, and we work with a variety of community garden coalitions and enviromental groups to ensure the continued health of all community gardens–and a greener future for all of us.

We invite you to join us and to support 6BC financially as well as with your time and talents.