Itty Island: 2 Chelsea Residents Build Community Spirit in Tiny Garden
A feature on the two neighbors who planted the median and what the island has come to mean on the block — "it's not just a garden, it's an anchor."
Press
Word gets around a small block.
Itty Island is fifty square feet of pollinator garden on a median at West 24th Street and 10th Avenue, planted and looked after by neighbors. Here's where it's turned up.
BSA Images of the Week: 06.21.26
Jaime Rojo's weekly survey of art in the streets closed out the summer solstice edition on a traffic median in Chelsea — the playoff basketballs, the yarrow, the hand-lettered plant tags — in a run that also included Derek Fordjour, Jerkface, and Onur.
The senator who asked for the dirt came back to see what grew
A gas line under the median rules out street trees, so Bottcher — then the district's council member — asked DOT to fill part of it with soil instead, on the chance somebody would plant it. He came back with a camera.
Also on Facebook →
Itty Island on 24th Street and 10th Avenue is what it's all about
The block association walked the island one weekend in July and wrote it up — the gazing ball, the bamboo fence, the bergamot and coneflower and moonshine yarrow, and the fact that nobody asked permission first.
Their walkthrough video →
We started planting a neglected traffic island in Chelsea. It's now the loudest block on the street.
Nine photos, the whole story from bare concrete forward. It became the highest-ranked post in that community's history. The gazing ball got its own thread over on r/streetart.
"They did not ask questions; they did not ask permission."
High Line 28 Block Association
For writers and editors
Happy to talk, and we have photographs.
If you're working on something about the garden, the gazing ball, or small public space in New York generally — get in touch and we'll send you images and answer whatever you need.
Or find us at @ittyislandnyc.