The MTA shut down the Ridgewood Community Garden last year, citing safety concerns and trespassing. Now, the local group wants to move on but is struggling to find greener pastures. NY1's Tanya Klich filed the following report.

What was once a lush garden in Ridgewood is now a dumping ground. 

"There were local plants, both vegetables and flowers. It was quite a beautiful site," said Ryan Richardson of Ridgewood Community Garden. "Now, if you look at it, it's like a desert. There's no life. It's just accumulated garbage."

"Now, homeless people just park their shopping carts here and there," said another Ridgewood resident. 

Last April, a group of locals cleared a strip of land underneath the M train on Woodbine Street and transformed it into the Ridgewood Community Garden. 

"Some residents would arrive with their children, and we would teach them about gardening," said Jacky Kuper​, who also used to garden at the Woodbine Street plot. 

The MTA told NY1 last year the group never asked for permission to use the lot and that they were trespassing. In July, the MTA locked the members out of the area.

"They would cite safety concerns or they would cite the need for maintenance," said Richardson. "However, we live in this neighborhood and walk past this plot every day, and we've never seen them conduct maintenance."

Now, the group wants to move on to greener pastures. 

"We have conducted a community research survey identifying plots in the neighborhood that would be amenable to a long-term home for this community project, a vision of a community garden right here in Ridgewood," said Richardson.

The local group hosted a walking tour of Ridgewood on Sunday to search for vacant lots. But Richardson says there are few options left in the neighborhood. 

"One difficulty for this project is, Ridgewood doesn't have that many vacant spaces," said Richardson. 

The group tried to contact the owner of a nearby space on Forest Avenue, but had no luck. 

"It's a lot of property. There's so much they can do with this. Of course they can make a beautiful garden," said Roxanne Alese, who has lived near the Forest Ave space for six years. "There's no one who keeps it clean. I don't know who it belongs to."

In the meantime, the garden advocates have scheduled a meeting with some other landowners in Ridgewood and plan on attending the next Community Board 5 meeting to ask for support in finding a new green space.