Event, June 15, Sustainable Flatbush: Urban Permaculture

Posted on 2007-06-11 by admin

The subject of June’s Sustainable Flatbush event is “Permaculture and its Applications in an Urban Environment”:

Featured speakers Joan Ewing and Wilton Duckworth are former Flatbush residents now living in upstate New York, where they host permaculture workshops, including a recent design intensive with Geoff Lawton of Permaculture Research Institute of Australia and Ethan Roland of Appleseed Permaculture.

After screening Lawton’s film “Greening the Desert“, which documents the transformation of a salty, arid expanse of sand into an abundant food forest, Wilton and Joan will discuss how permaculture concepts can be applied to NYC’s unique challenges and possibilities.

Before and after the talk we will enjoy music from resident DJ Drummerman, visuals by Keka, Vox Pop’s lovely assortment of food and drinks, and scintillating conversation with smart, charming people.

Event Details

Sustainable Flatbush Event #3
Friday, June 15th, 8pm until midnight
at Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore
1022 Cortelyou Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn
Q train to Cortelyou Road, walk 5 blocks west to Stratford

Note: Vox Pop is also the location for the first Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow meetup on June 24.

2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour

Posted on 2007-06-11 by admin

317 Rugby Road, Beverley Square West

This was the third year in a row I’ve gone on the house tour. This year was actually one of the best overall. There was variety in the houses shown, largely because nearly every neighborhood of Victorian Flatbush was represented on the tour. I was surprised, pleased and proud to see that three of my neighbors in Beverley Square West were showing their houses this year.

This year I felt bold enough to ask at each stop whether or not interior photos were permitted. At most of the houses this was allowed. In many cases the volunteers directed me to ask the owners themselves, and so I got to meet more of my neighbors than I would have otherwise.

So I have many more photos than if I had only been allowed to shoot exteriors. Still, there are only 182 photos from this trip. The battery on my camera gave out about 2/3 of the way through. There would have been 100 more. This is not the first time my battery has died in the middle of a shoot. I’ve learned my lesson. I’m going to buy a backup battery, and an AA battery adapter so I can use regular NiMH rechargables.

In the interest of time and timeliness, I’m just including highlights in this post. You can see all 182 photos in the Flickr set from my trip. Not all the photos are of houses on the tour. Many are of other houses, gardens and other sights along the way.

Midwood Park and Fiske Terrace, both of which had a house on the tour this year, are calendared to be landmarked as a single area by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Even with that, only five of the 11 neighborhoods of Victorian Flatbush will have been landmarked. 7 of the 12 houses on this year’s tour are in neighborhoods with no protection: Beverley Square West, Beverley Square East, Ditmas Park West, and South Midwood. Two of the four neighborhoods which did not show houses this year are also unprotected: Caton Park and West Midwood. Many of the houses in Victorian Flatbush are also at risk from inappropriate zoning: blocks with detached, single-family Victorian homes Zoned R6 for dense, townhouse development.

Stop #2: 1306 Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South

Stop #3: 85 Westminster Road, Prospect Park South

Stop #4: 209 Westminster Road, Beverley Square West

Stop #5: 317 Rugby Road, Beverley Square West

Stop #6: 352 Marlborough Road, Beverley Square West

Stop #8: 498 Rugby Road, Ditmas Park West

I have no interior shots of 498 Rugby. The owner wanted to show everyone through the house. This made it impossible to get any photographs of the interior, since it was always crowded with people. I could have gotten some shots if I had lagged behind the tour crowd, but I hate crowds so I was feeling a bit cranky.

Stop #9: 500 Marlborough Road, Ditmas Park West

Stop #10: 654 East 17th Street, Midwood Park

Interior photography was not allowed in this house.

The tour book incorrectly places 654 East 17th in Fiske Terrace. It’s in Midwood Park.

Members Reception in BBG’s Cranford Rose Garden

Posted on 2007-06-09 by admin

Calm before the storm in the Cranford Rose Garden

Wednesday evening, blog widow John and I went to the members’ wine and cheese reception in the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. During the summer, BBG stays open until 8pm on Wednesday evenings for members only, one of their benefits to members.

John overheard another visitor say “Well, the roses are beautiful, even if the people aren’t.” Free cheese and crackers seemed to stir visitors into a feeding frenzy. Maybe it was the free wine, of which John and I don’t partake. Away from the food, things were more pleasant, though still crowded in the rose garden. Away from the rose garden, the gardens were lovely.

Entrance to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Duck Family

Lily Pool Terace

Lily Pool Terrace

Water Lilies

Busy Bees on Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum "Adriana"

Water Lily

Mixed Perennial Border

Lily Pool Terrace Fountain

ID REQUEST: What is this plant?

Cranford Rose Garden

Also Pink

Rose Garden from the Overlook

View Through

Palm House Reflected

News: A Meadow for Columbia

Posted on 2007-06-08 by admin

The city’s Green Thumb parks program has paired with a team of local landscape designers to create a lush, wildflower-dotted meadow on a long-vacant corner of President and Van Brunt streets, next to Mother Cabrini Park in the Columbia Street Waterfront District.

The storefront-sized meadow — now an unmanicured thicket of knee-high grasses and rangy wildflowers — should be open for neighborly grazing by the end of the summer.
– A little green pocket, by Ariella Cohen, The Brooklyn Paper

The new greenery is expected to clean the air of approximately 33 pounds of pollutants annually, according to a study of the soot-sucking capabilities of the .18-acre site. Scientists from Columbia University also found that the store-front-size meadow will absorb the run-off equivalent of 60,000 toilet flushes, or 240,000 gallons of rainwater.

Where are all the people?

Posted on 2007-06-08 by admin

Bonsai paparazzo

Julie, who authors the daily journal, Human Flower Project, recently commented:

It interests (and surprises) me that there are so FEW photos of people in the garden. Any idea why?

She went on to write her own post on this topic:

One might say that since gardens—and photographs, too—are men’s, women’s and children’s creations, they embody a kind of humanism. It just takes a penetrating eye to see the human mind at work in a glorious perennial border or a well-framed foxglove. That’s surely so. But gardens are both by and FOR people, so why are do so few of the Brooklyn Garden’s visitors show us what people are doing there, how they interact with this glorious environment? The same holds true in most gardening magazines and websites. Among the many that feature fine photos of home, public and commercial gardens, one rarely sees a hand pruning or a vagrant snoozing. Why is this?

I hadn’t responded yet to Julie’s comment when I read her post today. So this is my response.

I know I’ve contributed just a handful of photos to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitors pool with people in them. I’ve included a few of them in this post. Most of my photos don’t have people in them. I have some ideas why that might be.

Often the people I end up photographing are other photographers. Why? Because they’re in the way of my shot! Making lemons from lemonade (or something), they become the subject, or at least part of the composition.

Reflections

More often, people are are incidental to the shot, or unavoidable, so I include them anyway.

Entrance to the Native Flora Garden, April 2007

Most rarely for my photographs, people are the subject.

Alessandro Chiari, BBG’s Chief Propagator, And Titan Arum “Baby”, August 2006

Mark Fisher and Titan Arum “Baby”

Forsythia handouts, April 2007

I’m not generally a sociable person. I’m bad with names, faces, and people. I’ve never been comfortable photographing people. There are so many great faces and characters in New York City, I wouldn’t know where to begin photographing them. Not to mention I avoid confrontation. A telephoto lens helps.

Lily Pool Terrace, November 2005

Anyone is welcome to join the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitors group and contribute photos of the gardens. I also actively search for photos of the garden and invite their contribution, especially from folks who are not already members of the group and don’t know about it yet. There’s no formula for what I look for. But one of the criteria is “unusualness”: an unusual perspective of a well-photographed site, or an ephemeral moment.

I think part of the reason why there are so few photos with people in them is that they are not usually the subject of the photo. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is located in a dense urban area and gets a lot of visitors. We don’t normally go to a garden to see other people. For example, the Cherry Blossom Festival at BBG is packed with thousands of people. So a photo of cherry trees in full bloom, without a soul in sight, is unusual!

Meta: Finding Flatbush Gardener

Posted on 2007-06-08 by admin

In the past few days, people have found my blog when searching Google for:

dwarf colony in staten island

A colony of dwarves? A very small colony? Does such a thing exist? Ask Google …

This turns up my March archive, which happens to have the words “dwarf”, “colony” and the phrase “Staten Island” in it, though all on separate posts. It’s low on the list; I’m surprised they clicked through.

a boy’s soul taken to heaven by angels

When I checked, my blog was the FIRST site returned for this phrase. They get one of my “Blog Against Theocracy” posts. Probably not what they were looking for! Though remarkably on-topic.

happy-corpse

I don’t want to know what they were looking for. Of course, this turns up one of my Corpse Flower posts. My Dad wrote: They’re looking for Arum Death Plant which was a happy article.

where rabies is popular

Addams Family seeks perfect vacation spot.

Saturday, June 9 is Brooklyn Pride

Posted on 2007-06-07 by admin

Working it, Brooklyn Pride 2006

I still have my Marshal’s T-Shirt from the very first Brooklyn Pride March on 5th Avenue in Park Slope. I don’t know if I’ll be able to enjoy any of the festivities this year. I’ll be busy cleaning up the garden following the completion of the roof job, just in time for Sunday’s Victorian Flatbush House Tour. If I do make it, there will be lots of photos!

All events take place in or kick off from Prospect Park near the Bartel-Pritchard entrance at the corner of Prospect Park West and 15th Street/Prospect Park SouthWest.

5K Run (9:30 AM Registration)

Multicultural Festival (11:00 AM – 6:00 PM)

Kids Space (12:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

Night Pride Parade (8:30 PM Kick Off)

Parade Route
15th Street to 7th Avenue
Right on 7th Avenue down to Lincoln Place

Prospect Park West will also be closed for assembly of the marchers prior to kickoff.

Contingent from the Hetrick-Martin Institute in the 2006 Brooklyn Pride March

Event, Sunday July 1 and 8: Grand Opening for the Cortelyou Greenmarket

Posted on 2007-06-06 by admin

Updated 2007.06.15 with hours of operation and dates of the Grand Opening.

Apples from Red Jacket Orchards at the Cortelyou Greenmarket, June 2006

On Sunday, July 1, the Greenmarket resumes operation for 2007 on Cortelyou Road. This year, the Greenmarket will be located on the north side of Cortelyou Road between Argyle and Rugby Roads (in front of the library) [Google Map]. July 1 and 8, will be Grand Opening celebrations, with lots of activities including cooking demonstrations, musical performances, children’s events, and more.

The Cortelyou Greenmarket and those in Sunset Park and Borough Park are the three Greenmarkets furthest out in Brooklyn.

The Greenmarket will operate every Sunday, 8am to 4pm, from July through November; in recent years it operated on Saturdays. It’s hoped that this year’s location on Cortelyou will be more visible – resulting in more business for the vendors – than recent years’ location in the P.S. 139 schoolyard on Argyle Road.

Note: As of today, June 6, the official Greenmarket map (PDF) still lists last year’s location.

As of June 5, the following vendors are confirmed:

Meredith’s Bakery
Amantai Farm, vegetables
Bread Alone (Note: Lousy Web design, forces Shockwave/Flashpage on you.)
Red Jacket Orchards
El Mirador Farm, vegetables
Muddy River Farm, vegetables
Butternut Valley Organics, organic vegetables, fruits, baked goods, dairy, eggs, and meat

Pies from Meredith’s Bakery at the Cortelyou Greenmarket, June 2006

Business owners on Cortelyou Road have expressed concern about the impact this will have on their businesses. In particular, the Flatbush Food Coop has reported that their sales dropped when the Greenmarket was open. In addition, the location on Cortelyou Road will take up some potential parking spaces for folks who drive into the neighborhood to do their food shopping.

I’m not a business owner, but I don’t buy into this scarcity model: that more business for some means less for others. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to buy fresh, locally and organically grown produce, and not have to choose between local or organic. The past two years, when the Greenmarket was in operation, we ate out less and cooked at home more. We went to the Greenmarket to see what’s fresh, and planned our meals around that. That meant more local shopping for us, not less.

The new Cortelyou streetscape is coming along beautifully; people are already using the new benches. By the end of the summer, in addition to the existing restaurants, coffee shops, food stores and supermarkets, there will be another coffee shop and a gourmet food shop. All of this will make Cortelyou a mecca for Brooklyn foodies; the Greenmarket will be one more reason to “Shop Cortelyou,” as the banners implore. It’s my hope that there will be more business than ever and Cortelyou will thrive as a commercial strip.

PS: I hate the CENYC Web design. There’s no need for frames. All the Greenmarket information is only available as a PDF. They make it impossible to link to specific topics within their site. That’s why there are no useful links to them from this post.

Reminder: First Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow on Sunday, June 24

Posted on 2007-06-05 by admin

To continue the networking which began at the Brooklyn Blogfest in May, Brooklyn bloggers are taking on the road to a different neighborhood each month. The first event is in June, the neighborhood is Flatbush, the location is Vox Pop on Cortelyou Road.

Please read the announcement post for full details, including how to RSVP for this event. That post will be kept up-to-date with any changes and additions as we learn about them.

The 10th Annual Brownstone Brooklyn Garden Walk

Posted on 2007-06-04 by admin

Update, 2007.06.07: All the Prospect Heights photos are up as of this morning. Clinton Hill photos are up as of Tuesday night.

I made it to all 16 stops on the Brownstone Garden Walk today. I think I should get some kind of prize.

I took about 350 photos today. I’ll be uploading them as I can. Here are the placeholders for the photos from each neighborhood, in the order I visited them.

I had no time to visit any of the community gardens. It was all I could do to visit each garden on the walk. I was going to bail out after Clinton Hill, but I started getting requests from some of the organizers for photos, since they had no one “official” taking photos and had no time themselves to do so.

Some general observations.

There was a lot of imagination demonstrated in the approaches taken and solutions to the challenges of each site. Making the best use of limited space is a common challenge, but so is shade, competition from tree roots, where to store your garden necessities, and so on. Yet even with these common challenges, the solutions were different. Lots of ideas for techniques to apply in similar situations.

I also gained an insight into why a garden-only tour would be preferable to a mixed house and garden tour. On a house tour, though I might get some ideas about what to do with my house, what if I don’t own a house? The gap between what I’m seeing and what i could imagine doing myself is more likely to be insurmountable with a house tour than a garden tour.

Even if it’s a single plant in a pot, everyone can garden, even those who don’t own any land. And the gardeners I met today were talkative. Everyone had some insight to share, some experience, some history. It just had a warmer feeling than I get when I’m on a house tour. Maybe it’s just how gardeners are. Maybe it’s just that I like gardens, and gardeners, more than “house people.”

Overall the event was well-organized. They had ample volunteers covering each stop. Most of them also seemed to be avid gardeners, and I had several enjoyable conversations with them, as well as owners and gardeners at several gardens. I gave out all my remaining Flickr cards. I need to order another set for the upcoming Brooklyn Blogade meetup in three weeks on June 24.

Some things I hope they improve upon next year:

The promised “free shuttle van service” didn’t materialize. It took me over four hours to cover all three neighborhoods. But the neighborhoods are well served by bus service, at least better served than my neighborhood. The map provided showed the bus routes, which was a big help, since I hadn’t brought my own Brooklyn bus map.
It wasn’t clear ahead of time that there were multiple locations to purchase tickets the day of the walk. I don’t know why, but somehow I thought that the BAM Triangle Garden was the starting point for the tour, and that you had to purchase tickets there the day of if you hadn’t purchased them in advance. Only when I got my map did I learn that there were ticket locations in all three neighborhoods. I would have planned my trip differently had I known that in advance.
For someone who is not familiar with the neighborhoods, some things were confusing. It took me a half-hour just to find the BAM Triangle Garden. Once I did, I found this sign:
.
Well, I have no idea where St. Felix Street is. A simple arrow drawn on the sign might have sent me in the right direction. Just some additional wayfinding for out-of-towners such as myself.

But those are my only complaints. The event was otherwise well-organized, the gardens varied and all worthwhile. I got lots of ideas for my own gardens, and how we might be able to organize a garden-only tour for our area.