A Small Green Space was created to tackle challenges. The 11-year-old Jersey City landscape firm specializes in designing and building tiny oases of nature in an urban environment. But the pandemic has created a different kind of challenge, says Founder Emma Lam.

“Although landscaping was deemed an essential business and permitted to continuing working during New Jersey’s shutdown, we decided to only offer services to our open-access outdoor spaces,” Lam says. “This significantly reduced our business, as many of the city spaces we care for are only accessible by going through private homes or buildings.”

Despite these challenges, she says, A Small Green Space has remained open and busy—and Lam and her team are doing what they can to help the community, such as cleaning up a local school’s gardens so they can be used as outdoor classrooms when their socially distant learning program starts in the fall.