In a city teeming with people, Robert Urban takes this time to be by himself at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 95th Street.
“I enjoy being with plants and animals,” Urban said. “I’m in Manhattan and I see people all the time. It’s — it’s nice to be alone.”
What You Need To Know
Robert Urban started the first of his street intersection gardens five years ago
Urban is a professional gardener
He now cares for four spaces on the Upper West Side
Urban is the caretaker of four small tree bed gardens on the Upper West Side corner. Greenery has been a lifelong passion for Urban.
He started growing plants as a boy alongside his father in Connecticut.
“One day he took me out into the backyard and he said, ‘Rob, that one is going to be yours,’” Urban said. “I was about four.”
Fast forward to 2021, Urban, who was working as a professional gardener, was walking by an empty tree bed in his neighborhood.
“It’s plantable,” he thought. “It would look really nice.”
He started planting a small garden free of charge. When one of his neighbors could no longer take care of her green space across 95th Street, he put down his mat and got to work.
“She saw me doing mine, and she asked me if I would take over and do hers,” he said. “Oh, I was honored.”
Then he started another garden, and another garden after that. During the summer, Urban can often be found hauling water cans to the corner.
It’s a big lift, but one he’s happy to make.
“It’s something instinctual in me,” Urban said. “I see a space and I go, that could be a garden. And I just start to imagine it, and I plant it up.”
And even though this is a bit of alone time for Urban, he can’t help but smile when his neighbors compliment him on his work.
“That’s really nice. It’s Manhattan and nobody does that,” he said.
“I just want the place to look nice. You’ll see that there’s a certain charm to each garden and that that’s its own reward. Is that too corny?” Urban added.
For giving his neighborhood some pops of urban green, Robert Urban is our New Yorker of the Week.