Denniston Hill Abortion Garden

at the Denniston Hill Artist Residency, Rock Hill, NY 2021 - Present

The Denniston Hill Abortion Garden is a garden installation located at the Denniston Hill artists residency. Measuring 13 feet long by 13 feet wide, the raised bed garden is exclusively planted with plants and herbs that have historically been used for birth control, abortion, and reproductive health.

The planting plan was first inspired by a LUCA map (Last Universal Common Ancestor), a genetic map connecting all living organisms to the first common ancestor. Since the question of when life begins is crucial to debates between abortion supporters and their opponents, referencing this map questions the existence of a solid divide between all living and nonliving organic matter.

Resembling a knot garden, formal intersecting rows of sage and lavender define each planting area, with a perimeter of creeping thyme and pennyroyal. As the garden matures, the formal design yields to the natural migration and growth of each variety, until they merge, filling up the entire planting area, and even extending beyond it. 

This garden is a site of labor, of active challenge and care, of collaboration between plant and person, person and community, other life forms, weather, and environment. The current discourse around abortion rights and practices is filled with ignorance, misunderstanding, and cruelty. A garden responds to these conditions with hope and even promise.

As an ongoing project we aim to nurture the garden and we also hope to create a pavilion and archive at this site that places abortion in historical context. Learn more about our garden’s meanings here.

The garden was created by Landon Newton and Maureen Connor beginning in the spring of 2021.  The project has been facilitated by Rachel Carrigan, Eugenia Manwelyan, Megan Steinmann, and Lacy Romano as well as with support and engagement from the Denniston Hill community.