Community Spotlight: Zhenia Nagorny (@zhenia.valerie)

Before she became a Compost Captain or a mentor to many of us, Zhenia Nagorny (she/her) was someone who noticed what needed doing in the garden and stepped in. She’s a woman of action like that.

In fact, Zhenia’s first memory of MSCG is not a grand introduction or a long-term plan.

Picture this, it’s a Wednesday in April 2016. Tom LaFarge, an elderly member, is shoveling food scraps into a large wooden compost bin. The sound catches the attention of a neighbor passing by. Zhenia pauses at the gate and watches for a moment before asking if he wants help.

He does.

They begin meeting every Wednesday afternoon. Turning compost together. Talking about life, community, politics. The kinds of conversations that unfold slowly over busy hands. Months later, Tom steps down as compost committee coordinator, and Zhenia is asked to step in.

Tom LaFarge showing off the old compost sifting bed, photo submitted by Zhenia Nagorny

This is how Zhenia tells the story of her meet cute with Maple Street Community Garden. With reverence for the people who came before her and a clear understanding that stewardship is never just about the task at hand. She is the first to admit that composting was not the initial draw. “I wasn’t particularly interested in composting or gardening when I initially joined,” she says. “But something deeper spoke to me.”

That deeper pull has shaped nearly a decade of work. Communing with nature, even in an urban context, became both healing and nurturing for the body and mind. Compost, she explains, is not just waste management. It is a collaboration made visible. “Composting is an infinitely collaborative process to witness. There is intelligence in it.”

Lory Henning and Zhenia Nagorny, Harvest Festival 2023, photo submitted by Zhenia Nagorny

She talks about decomposition the way some people talk about philosophy. Organic matter breaking down with the help of small and larger organisms. Cycles that repeat whether we are paying attention or not. “They are showing us the cycle of life and death, death and rebirth, rebirth and sustenance.” Being part of that process has guided her to move with the wisdom of the seasons. To loosen her grip on urgency and control. To listen inward. To lead without ego.

If you have ever worked alongside Zhenia, you know. She is calm without being passive. Steady without being rigid. Someone who knows when to intervene and when to let things unfold. A supportive, not suffocating leader who builds with encouragement, knowledge, and tenderness. Over time, the garden has become a place where she has grown as a leader, compost educator, and sustainability teacher.

New York Cares corporate volunteer day with Barclays Bank led by Zhenia Nagorny & Arlene Roberts, August 2019, photo submitted by Zhenia Nagorny

Zhenia’s work has never been about efficiency for efficiency’s sake. It has been about people. Early on, one of her mentors, Aaron Lee from NYC Compost Project, told her something that stuck. “Sustainability is for people too.”

That sentence shifted everything. It reframed her responsibility toward volunteers and community members. Care, interdependence, and joy took priority over overwork and burnout. Under Zhenia’s leadership with co-captains Teal Nottage and now Bryen Pittner, compost systems became gathering points. Places of learning, yes, but also places of laughter, celebration, and belonging.

NYC Compost Project field trip to MSCG 2017, Aaron Lee is 3rd person from the left in hat and green shirt, photo submitted by Zhenia Nagorny

“In the past ten years, I’ve worked with others to create a system that brings our community together in joy and celebration,” she says. “That opens doorways for heartfelt engagement, belonging, and deep care for each other.”

This work has rippled outward. In late March, Zhenia will lead a three day training for GreenThumb gardens focused on building sustainable volunteer culture rooted in deep love and care. Maple Street Community Garden has been her training ground, equipping her to now support gardens across the city. (Read more here!)

This season also marks a shift where Zhenia is placing her energy. Alongside Chelsea Bravo as co-coordinators of the newly established Arts Committee, she is helping shape a new layer of life at MSCG, one rooted in creative expression and joy. Her steady, behind-the-scenes work was instrumental in securing a successful Citizens Grant award, giving the committee the resources to move from idea to action.

In 2026, the Arts Committee will be busy hosting workshops and events throughout the season that invite people to engage with the garden in new and imaginative ways. It feels like a natural extension of her work here. Building systems that support people. Making space for connection. Letting creativity, like compost, prosper.

Ask her about her favorite memory, and she does not hesitate. The end of the season. Right around the Winter Solstice. A perfect day to take a pause, and come together. The compost volunteers gather to celebrate the season, honor each other’s contributions, and reflect on what they have built together.

“Seeing the joy in people’s faces and hearing how being part of our garden has helped them feel more connected to the Earth, their community, and each other makes my heart sing,” she says. “This is truly a moment where I feel like I’m flying.”

It is easy to picture: cold air, full hearts (absolutely delicious bagels). A sense of completion paired with the quiet knowing that it will all begin again.

Winter Solstice Compost end of season 2024, photo submitted by Zhenia Nagorny

Zhenia & Bryen continue to look for ways the compost committee can extend care beyond the garden fence. In 2025, she helped launch a new Street Tree Care initiative in collaboration with Big Reuse. Together, volunteers prepared fifteen street trees around the garden for winter, cleaning tree beds and filling them with mulch and compost. The work will continue into 2026, expanding care for the neighborhood one tree at a time.

And because no spotlight is complete without a fun fact: Zhenia is a fermentation junkie. Every other month, she makes two and a half gallons of kombucha and around twenty pounds of kimchi. She loves pickled cabbage, gherkins, and miso. You may have tasted some of these delights at a Compost Potluck!

Zhenia Nagorny’s presence at Maple Street Community Garden is not loud. It is lasting. It is the kind of leadership that teaches by example, that honors lineage, that understands sustainability as something lived and shared. The soil is richer for it. The garden is richer for it. So are we.

Written by Jess Frost, MSCG Communications Co-Coordinator

Portraits by Nancy Treuber, MSCG Communications Committee