Want to be a Green Volunteer in New York City's Parks & Gardens?

After volunteering in Tompkins Square Park for Earth Day, a number of my fellow volunteers commented that if they knew about more opportunities to volunteer in the city's parks, they'd do it. And to that end, Planet Green and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation comes to the rescue. Here are some ways to get your foot in the green volunteering door:

Parks & Rec's Volunteer Calendar

If you want to volunteer to help keep New York City green, the Parks & Rec department publishes a calendar of upcoming volunteer opportunities in the city.

There are events going on pretty much every day, and this week you can help out doing =18648&c=2009-05-11&id=165748"]maintenance work in Fort Green Park, find out how you can green =18648&c=2009-05-11&id=168385"]Prospect Park, connect with your neighbors in =18648&c=2009-05-11&id=168426"]Remsen Park and =18648&c=2009-05-11&id=168742"]Coffey Park.

Partnership for Parks

Partnership for Parks has links to a number of volunteer opportunities, including a very useful list of contact info for who to talk to for volunteering in all the city's flagship parks, with the green streets and street trees programs, and with the urban park rangers.

Greenbelt Native Plant Center

Want to develop your green thumb in a greenhouse? Check out the Greenbelt Native Plant Center. Volunteers are needed to transplant herbaceous and woody plants, collect seeds, weed nursery stock, hand water in the greenhouses, and more.

Green Thumb NYC

Does the idea of working in your local community garden sound more your speed? Then head on over to the Green Thumb NYC website. It's got lists of all the community gardens in the city (although frankly the search engine is a bit wonky in its implementation), events happening in them, as well as resources to help you make your garden the best it can be.

Green Guerillas

Want to help out with the group which essentially started the modern community garden movement in New York City? The check out Green Guerillas. They can help you connect with other community gardeners in the city and have tips on how to go about choosing the right community garden for you, as well as how to join in.