Nearly every country in the world is represented in the 18-acre green space nestled between the United Nations Secretariat Building and the East River in New York.

Former UN worker Arif Khan first hatched the idea for a secret garden when he noticed a “neglected rubble area” on top of a storage unit, and the seeds of his idea were first planted in July 2015.

There are now 10 volunteers tending the garden, gathering twice a week to harvest, plant, water and churn compost.

The main goal is, by setting a hands-on example, to bring awareness to the overall UN Sustainable Development Goals, like food security and small-scale agriculture.

It’s important to show how easy it can be to grow food, especially in a big city: this particular garden, in fact, features some 10 corrugated-steel plant beds surrounded by three hawthorn trees and several benches. There are also two compost bins, which the gardeners use to create nutrient-rich soil. The food is all grown organically, and the plants are watered with a micro-drip irrigation system. The gardeners have created a “biodiversity bed” featuring plants that draw beneficial insect species, and have started a composting program to supply the garden with nutrient-dense humus and keep food scraps from the UN facility out of local landfills.

This exotic garden is currently growing Korean chives, Indian ghost peppers, Caribbean callaloo, Cuban oregano, Italian basil, Japanese shiso mint, Mexican blue corn, as well as more traditional grub like cherry tomatoes, chard, eggplant, cherries, cucumber, fava and garbanzo beans, lemongrass, turmeric and ginger.

“I thought it would be a great symbolic garden where people would come together and share ideas around growing food,” Khan said, “It’s meant to showcase urban gardening, but also to bring people together over something that is basic to being human.”

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