NY Daily News: Sherwood Village Community Gardener

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Garden an oasis of free veggies
BY JONI CARRASCO
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Tuesday, August 24th, 2004

There's no Robin Hood in Corona's Sherwood Forest, but there is the giving spirit of Robin Hood in its creator, Kenrick (Trini) Lewis.
A modest garden at the end of 98th Place in Corona exists where there was once just an empty corner in the Sherwood Village housing complex playground.

Lewis created the garden about seven years ago, and yesterday it was officially given the name Sherwood Forest in a ceremony attended by State Sen. John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights) outside the garden honoring Lewis and his gift to the community.

"We don't really ask anybody for anything," said Lewis, who is the green thumb and the primary financier of the community garden.

Anyone who passes by while he's in the garden can take some tomatoes, corn, collard greens or any of the other dozen or so items grown, he said.

"This is why I have all these beans on the outside [of the fence]," Lewis said. "They don't even have to ask."

Sabini presented Lewis with a copy of the Senate resolution that makes the garden "official and on the books, so to speak," said Shams Tarek, spokesman for the senator.

Sabini called the garden "a nice oasis in an urban landscape."

"It just brightens up the area," he said. "Kids see someone who does something positive in the neighborhood. They see Trini volunteering for the community instead of perhaps maybe learning from the wrong folks."

Lewis came to Queens from a gardening community in Trinidad 15 years ago, so gardening just comes naturally, he said.

Lewis, who is 53, works as a skycap at LaGuardia Airport, so he keeps up the garden in his spare time, which is usually around 6 in the morning.

Why does he do it?

"It's mostly for the love [of gardening]," he said. "It is a lot of work - a lot of work - but I enjoy it."
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