Event, July 14: BBG Big Trees Celebration Day

Posted on by
1

Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Caucasian Wingnut, Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Caucasian Wingnut

Through August 26, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is hosting a special exhibit, Big City, Big Trees: Gentle Giants of the urban Landscape. This Saturday, Big Tree Celebration Day, from noon to 4pm, BBG is hosting several special events, including demonstrations, lectures, workshops, story-telling, and guided tours.

Trees do a tremendous amount for the urban environment. Their leaves absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, a culprit in global climate change, and use it in the process of photosynthesis. Trees clean pollutants from the air, all the while releasing oxygen back into it. The bigger the tree, the greater the benefits: A large mature tree can absorb nearly 70 times more pollution and give off much more oxygen a year than a newly planted sapling.
– Benefits of Big Urban Trees

Big trees help to cool cities in the summer, providing shade and reducing the air temperature around them. They soak up a lot of rainwater, which reduces storm runoff and soil erosion. Big trees break the force of strong winds, decrease glare from the sun, and reduce air conditioning and heating bills in buildings to which they are adjacent. Moreover, big trees serve as noise buffers, muffling the sounds of car horns and buses, and they provide habitats for wildlife, even in the midst of the busiest city.

The tree in the photo above is BBG’s Caucasian Wingnut, one of seven big trees highlighted in this summer’s exhibit. This tree is over 60 feet (6 stories) tall. Its trunk is 104 inches (nearly 9 feet) around. It’s over 85 years old.

Additional Big Tree activities are held each Saturday through August 18.


Brooklyn Blogging Highlighted in the NY Times

Posted on by
2

I’ve never seen or heard the word “Bloglyn” before this:

In the past year, the word Bloglyn has been cropping up a lot, a reflection of the fact that Brooklyn, particularly brownstone Brooklyn, has emerged as possibly the center of the placeblog world. Web forums serve as virtual town hall meetings (complete with hecklers), and bloggers peer with equal interest at controversial development projects, restaurant openings and the most minute of neighborhood minutiae.
– Cracker-Barrel 2.0

Most of the article is about Louise Crawford, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, and the Blogfest back in May. In addition to other heavy hitters, the article mentions a couple of specific neighborhood blogs. There is only the briefest mention of the Blogade, and not by name:

… as the newest members of the community introduced themselves [at the Blogfest new blogger shoutout], there was a conspicuous lack of representation from less gentrified neighborhoods. No Brownsville. No East New York. No Canarsie. To remedy this, several bloggers, including Ms. Crawford, have organized a series of blogger socials, the first of which took place last month in Flatbush, to encourage networking and, as she put it, to “take the show on the road” to underblogged neighborhoods.

And the next of which will be in Greenpoint on July 22, which the article omits. Nor did the article include any of the hundreds of photographs taken by the Times photographer at the Flatbush Blogade event.

I wasn’t interviewed for the article. I provided some info by email on myself and my blog. Flatbush Gardener is listed as one of eleven in a sidebar of “a few but by no means all of the Brooklyn blogs.” I have 137 listings in the “Brooklyn” category of my Bloglines feeds, so no, by no means all.

A brief bird note

Posted on by
3

Gardener’s Corner, the backyard, Flatbush.
Gardener's Corner

This week I’ve been cleaning up the backyard and rearranging things there to get ready for a garden party in a few weeks. It’s not all work. I also get to sit back and enjoy watching the visitors to my garden. The corner above is my favorite spot. At one point this afternoon, there were six native bird species present:

  • White-throated Sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis
  • Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens
  • Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
  • Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis
  • Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata
  • Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis (heard but not seen in the branches above me)

In the backyard I keep two birdfeeders, one with suet and the other with seed, and a shallow water dish. This attracts a variety of birds. The six species above are all common visitors to my backyard, but their simultaneous appearance was unusual.

American Dream

Posted on by
3

A post on Bay Ridge Blog reminded me of an incident I haven’t thought of in many years. Any romance street explosives might once have held left me on the afternoon of a hot, sunny 4th of July.

In 1980, within nine months of moving to New York, I had my own apartment, a fifth floor walkup in a tenement building in the East Village. The rent was cheap.

Across the street was – still is, for all I know – the NYC headquarters of the Hell’s Angels. My apartment faced the street. Every 4th of July, they closed off the street and had their block party. Fireworks and firecrackers were always part of the activities. After the first few years, the novelty wore off, then transformed into endurance trauma.

Over the years, the scale and scope escalated. More fireworks, more elaborate displays, larger booms. My least favorite was some kind of single-shot explosive. It was launched from a canister on the street, rose several stories, then exploded. It rose to just below roof height, right outside my windows. Even on a bright, sunny day, you could see the flash of light through the dirty plastic roll-up shades. Then you felt – not heard – the percussive shock wave pass through your body. Then you noticed your ears were ringing.

One year, I think in the late 80s, my neighbor across the hall invited me to look after his apartment and his cat while he escaped for the 4th. This was a vacation for me as well: he lived in the back of the building, away from the explosions. And he had air-conditioning and cable television, both inconceivable luxuries to me at the time.

I was up on the roof for a while, looking down at the street, watching the people and their barbeques. People were talking, laughing, playing their radios. This year the Angels were loading up metal trash cans with boxes of god knows what, M80s? Then they set fire to them. The first few would go off, sounding like nothing more than loud firecrackers. Then more would catch, firing closer together, then they were firing all at once in a roar magnified by the metal in the can, smoke and flames rising out and up, then dying down, slowly, then silent. The devil’s Jiffy-Pop.

When I’d had enough, I went back downstairs, into the A/C. I could still hear explosions, but they were muffled, distant. I watched TV.

I felt the shock wave pass from the front of the building to the back. Through me, through every piece of furniture in the room, through the building itself. I felt the pressure wave pass through and around me. There was no other sound.

I ran to the roof, to the front of the building, and looked down. On the street, where the trash can had been, was a metal ring. It was smoking. It took me a moment to realize it was from the bottom of the can. The bottom of the can, the rest of the can, was gone. The asphalt of the street beneath where the can had been was on fire.

The scores of explosives, which had crescendoed and subsided like sulfurous popcorn throughout the day, this time had exploded all at once. The trash can was instantly converted into shrapnel slicing into the crowds at street-level. The people on the street were shocked and dazed. People shut off their radios. At first the street was silent. Then strained voices, crying, and screams. From five floors above, I saw blood.

A young man had been hanging out with friends, with family. He was staying with relatives who’d journeyed here before him. Maybe he’d come here to stay, maybe he was thinking of it. He’d only been in this country a month. I didn’t know him. I didn’t even know he existed until a piece of trash can propelled halfway down the block found him. It sliced his jugular. He was dead in minutes.

As I said, I haven’t thought of this in a long time, maybe 20 years. All these images, these sensations, are vivid in me right now. Before I read the post from Bay Ridge, I was going to go to sleep. It will take me a while to get back to that place now.

Event, July 22: Brooklyn Blogade in Greenpoint

Posted on by
Reply

The Second Brooklyn Blogade event will be in Greenpoint on Sunday, July 22, from 2 to 5pm. The inimitable Miss Heather is our hostess for this event, and complete details are available on her blog.

This meetup will be held at Casa Mon Amour, a Dominican restaurant at 162 Franklin Street in Greenpoint. Food will be provided. Kevin Walsh, Forgotten New York, is scheduled to give a presentation about North Brooklyn. Miss Heather promises additional surprises. There will be a $10 fee to cover costs.

You need not be a Brooklyn blogger or blog about Brooklyn to attend. If you are interested in attending, please R.S.V.P. via email to blogade.rsvp@gmail.com, and indicate whether you are interested in eating shrimp, chicken or straight vegetarian fare.

Event, Sunday, July 15: Ditmas Park Garden View

Posted on by
1

Update 2007.07.16: Read about and see some highlights from the tour.
Update 2007.07.12: The assemble point/first garden view is at 544 East 18th Street.

East 17th Street, Ditmas Park Historic District, Brooklyn, November 2006.
East 17th Street
Announcement from the Flatbush Family Network.

Garden-loving neighbors near and far are invited to join this year’s Ditmas Park Garden View on Sunday, July 15. The strolling tour is from 4-6 pm, rain or shine, and will feature approximately a dozen gardens in private homes along East 16th to East 18th Streets, between Newkirk to Dorchester. The final garden stop will also include drinks and refreshments. A raffle drawing for three hand-held, battery operated sprayers (hot weather essentials) completes the event.

Suggested donation for the tour is $5.00 per person, and goes to support Keep Ditmas Park Green. Regretfully-but understandably-participants must be at least twelve years old.

For more information, or to secure a spot, contact Pamela at happihands at aol dot com, or Marion at ditlip at aol dot com.

Festival of the Trees #13

Posted on by
1

Festival of the Trees #13: Putting Down Roots is up on Wrenaissance Reflections. WrenaissanceWoman subtitle her blog “Notes from a Backyard Wildlife Habitat” and it’s always an interesting read. You can also find a link to it in my Gardening blogroll in the sidebar.

This is the first anniversary issue of Festival of the Trees. WW writes in her introduction:

Trees are inextricably linked to places, perhaps because it takes them so long to reach maturity and majesty. When we become very attached to a place, we liken ourselves to the trees, and say that we have put down roots. This month’s Festival of the Trees looks at places where trees have taken hold, including places in our hearts.

WW has found lots of good reading, stories of trees from all over the world. Go check it out and leave her a comment about your own “trees of the heart.”

I submitted a recent press release from the Parks Department about the planting of a new Tree of Hope in Harlem, on on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard between West 131st and 132nd Streets. The stump of the original Tree of Hope, an elm, greets performers on the stage of the Apollo Theater:

The Tree of Hope came to symbolize the promise that Harlem held for so many African Americans and performers such as Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson and Eubie Blake were said to have visited it. But in 1934 what was then called the Boulevard of Dreams was widened and the tree was removed. Today, thanks to the suggestion of the Copasetics Connection, a new tree stands near the original site to commemorate this important piece of Harlem’s history. Although an American Elm, the original type of tree, could not be planted because it is susceptible to disease and pests, the new tree is a member of the elm family, a Zelkova.
– A New Tree of Hope Takes Root

I was surprised and pleased to see that WW also picked up one of my posts from earlier this week, the most recent addition to my Grief and Gardening series. I wrote about revisiting, for the first time in nearly 15 years, my first garden in NYC. The centerpiece of that garden is a maple tree.

News: First images of noctilucent clouds from space

Posted on by
4

A view of the North Pole. White and light blue represent noctilucent cloud structures. Black indicates areas where no data is available.
Credit: Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment data processing team at the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

These are the first images of noctilucent clouds from space.

The first observations of these “night-shining” clouds by a satellite named “AIM” which means Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, occurred above 70 degrees north latitude on May 25. People on the ground began seeing the clouds on June 6 over Northern Europe. AIM is the first satellite mission dedicated to the study of these unusual clouds.

These mystifying clouds are called Polar Mesospheric Clouds, or PMCs, when they are viewed from space and referred to as “night-shining” clouds or Noctilucent Clouds, when viewed by observers on Earth. The clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the mesosphere during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season which began in mid-May and extends through the end of August and are being seen by AIM’s instruments more frequently as the season progresses. They are also seen in the high latitudes during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is basic research in earth science. One thing is already known: the clouds are changing.

Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. [emphasis added] AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time.

“It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means,” stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. “These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed.”

PMCs occur 50 miles/80 km above Earth’s surface. This is at the top of the mesosphere. It’s almost at the thermopause, the boundary between the mesosphere and thermosphere. In the United States, if you travel to this height, you’re considered an astronaut. Just above this is where auroras form. Far below, at 15-35km altitude, in the stratosphere, is the famous ozone layer.

We are so screwed.

Event, Flatbush, July 1: Flatbush Avenue BID Street Fair

Posted on by
Reply

The Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) will hold their annual street fair this Sunday, July 1, from 10am to 6pm. Flatbush Avenue will be closed from Parkside Avenue to Cortelyou Road for this event.

Flatbush Avenue will be closed all day along those blocks for the Festival. This will backup traffic several blocks north and south, and on all adjoining streets. Flatbush Avenue is a challenge to navigate on the best of days. It will be impassable on Sunday, so walk or take the subway!

It’s a busy weekend in Flatbush, with both the Electronics Recycling and the Grand Opening of the Cortelyou Greenmarket going on as well.

News: Burglary, Trespass, Theft and Vandalism Mar a Community Garden

Posted on by
Reply

Bed-Stuy Blog reports on a recent theft from the Clifton Place Memorial Garden and Park:

This garden, located on the corner of Bedford and Clifton Place, is so enjoyable to me because the members there are friendly and the place is beautiful. I held a special place in my heart for this garden because it has a koi pond visible from the sidewalk. …
– Vandals Can’t Take Garden Members’ Spirit

I don’t know this garden, but it’s a lovely place, judging from the photos of it.

Earlier this week I stopped by to do my routine goldfish gazing and I noticed that the pond was no longer set up and the fish were mostly gone. There was only one koi in the pond and he was gulping for air trying to survive. I thought that the members were probably in the process of moving the pond, and that someone had accidentally forgotten this little fish. I immediately emailed Melvin, who heads up their garden club, and he responded promptly. He told me that they weren’t moving the pond; the pond had been vandalized and the person or persons who did it took the pond filter and all of the goldfish except one. He assured me that they had since taken that one abandoned goldfish out of the pond and moved him (or her) to another location.

Unfortunately, theft from urban gardens is an ongoing problem. (I just couldn’t bring myself to write “perennial problem …”) I’ve known gardeners to weave barbed wire through the branches and root balls of shrubs they plant to deter the casual snatch-and-grab. Tactics like these will impede and reduce the risk of theft, but nothing can completely deter the determined criminal.

When we moved to our new neighborhood, we heard stories of containers stolen and plants ripped from the ground. Our next-door neighbors had someone pull up on a bicycle, dig their Japanese Maple out of their front yard, and cart off with it. Stories like these made me reluctant to plant anything, let alone containers, in the front yard. I’ve been lucky so far.

This episode sounds like someone cased the garden before they hit it. I can imagine a visitor, welcomed into the garden, gave thanks by coming back to break into the garden, trespass, and steal from the community for their private pleasure. The vandalism was inflicted out of rage or spite when they couldn’t manage to get everything they wanted, such as the pump.

I hope it’s reported as a crime, and that anyone with information comes forward to return to the community what was taken from them. Has anyone noticed any new water gardens make a sudden appearance in the past few days?