Caton migration garden

Located on Caton Avenue between St. Paul’s and Ocean Avenue, the Caton Migration Garden was created in the fall of 2021 as a collaboration between Q Gardens, the Haiti Cultural Exchange, and Madjeen Isaac, the artist who created mural Migration in the summer of 2018. Together, we transformed the “hell strip” under the mural into a new green space.  

Initial plantings that fall included mostly native and  pollinator plants as well as ground cover to enrich the soil. The plan always was to invite neighbors to shape and steward the new garden, but in 2022 problems with rats made that difficult. After applying several pest control methods, the rat situation has become manageable and we are ready to open up the garden to community envisioning once more.  

As Madjeen Isaac explains, the mural Migration “visualizes the journey of Caribbean immigrant residents to the Flatbush neighborhood and how they carry the legacy of their ancestors.”  As we reimagine the plantings at the garden, we would like to build on the vision of the mural with plants. 

For as long as people have been around, we have had relationships with plants—we’ve looked to them for food, for medicine, for shelter—and as people have moved across the world, they have brought plants with them wherever they’ve gone. With this in mind, we are redesigning the Caton Migration Garden with plants that have been brought from the Caribbean through migration and blending them with plants that are native to this land.  We would like to focus on plants that heal us, so the garden will primarily consist of medicinal plants.  

We would like to infuse the garden with stories about how people and cultures use plants to heal.  To that end, we are hoping to engage members of the community who are plant enthusiasts, gardeners, herbalists to share their plant experiences and participate in the garden’s redesign. 

Please help us redesign the Caton migration garden!

If you’re interested in getting involved, please fill out this contact form, or send an email to hello@studiohumelim.