Sources of Plants for Brooklyn Gardeners

Posted on 2008-04-29 by admin

Left to right: Gowanus Nursery, Liberty Sunset Garden Center, Chelsea Garden Center, and Brooklyn Terminal Market

Flats and racks of annuals at Whitey Produce, Brooklyn Terminal Market

Just a timely pointer to my post from last year, Sources of Plants for Brooklyn Gardeners, May 24, 2007. Since Blogspot doesn’t give me any means of creating a standing topic page, I continue to keep that post up to date.

Liberty Sunset Garden Center, July 20, 2007
Brooklyn Terminal Market is NOT Closed, June 22, 2007
Chelsea Garden Center, June 16, 2007
Sources of Plants for Brooklyn Gardeners, May 24, 2007
Opening Day at Gowanus, March 31, 2007
A Visit to the Brooklyn Terminal Market, May, 2006

Governor’s Island: What Might Have Been

Posted on 2007-12-31 by admin

Governor’s Island, Detail, 1911 New York Dock Dock Company Lithograph

When we bought our house about three years ago, one of the attractions was “old house romance.” The previous owner believed the house had been in her family since it was built in 1900. I’ve written previously about finding a 1911 lithograph of the New York Dock Company in the basement. Earlier this week, Peter Miller, the new owner of Freebird books in Columbia Waterfront/Red Hook, contacted me by email asking for permission to use one of my photos of it:

Anyone living in the neighborhood, particularly Red Hook, will be familiar with the New York Dock Company’s remnants–hulking gray warehouses that must make Dumbo-drooling Corcoran agents weak in the knees. Seldom however do we get a chance to see a bird’s eye view of their domain, which once sprawled over two and a half miles of waterfront. The lithograph provides a rare peek at the commerce that transpired along the banks of Governors Island and Brooklyn.
– December 28, 2007, Peter Miller, Freebird Books

Miller goes on to write more about the history of Governor’s Island, and how it was nearly lost to infrastructure development.

In 1898 (the year Brooklyn became a borough of New York City), an assemblyman proposed using the island as a center span anchor for a bridge between Red Hook and the Battery. Proof that real estate value has never been far from New York’s beating heart, the assemblyman argued that the bridge “would cause a phenomenal development in South Brooklyn.”

That cheap promise would be reprised forty years later when Robert Moses demanded the very same public works project–but on a far grander scale. Given wide-ranging powers by La Guardia in 1938, Moses tried to reallocate the money meant for a tunnel to build a monumental (in all senses of the word) bridge that would hopscotch across Governors Island.

Today we have this view from Valentino Pier of both Governor’s Island and Downtown Manhattan.

This view was saved, in part, by opposition from community leaders in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, and, in part, by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt:

Moses’s threats and ultimatums cowed city and state officials into submission. All he needed was the federal government’s rubber stamp. But, unforeseen, Eleanor Roosevelt publicly questioned the bridge’s impact: “Isn’t there room for some consideration of the preservation of the few beautiful spots that still remain to us on an overcrowded island?” The bridge’s opponents had infiltrated the White House. FDR allowed the War Department to kill the project and favor a tunnel out of national security concerns (but more likely out of spite).

1911 New York Dock Company Lithograph

Links

Freebird Books, 123 Columbia Street (GMAP), Brooklyn, New York 11231

Gowanus Nursery under threat

Posted on 2007-09-04 by admin

Updated 22:00 EDT: Added links, maps, and legend.

Gowanus Nursery, as it appeared on their opening day this Spring

I received the following email this afternoon through the Gowanus Nursery mailing list.

On Wednesday August 22, a small group of business owners, employees and clients attended a city planning meeting that was to decide the fate of a few parcels of land located on Summit and Carroll streets.

The likely outcome is that Gowanus Nursery (45 Summit Street) will be forced to move, once again.

Remarkably, this change is a thinly disguised ‘spot zoning’ to allow for a residential development in a grandfathered commercial zone. This action, in the words of Community Board 6, has been the most aggressive use of ULURP (re-zoning) procedures that the current board has ever seen, forcing out active and flourishing businesses to make way for residential development.

Borough President Marty Markowitz’s recommendations suggest that the nursery occupied lot provides property owners the opportunity to lease under-developed land with minimal investment (part true since the only investment came in the form of our own labor and financial funding.) There seems something fundamentally wrong with labeling well-used open ‘green’ space as ‘under-developed’.

On a personal note, I am frustrated not only by the futility of the work we have already logged here, but also by the casual way that zoning change is happening in ‘our’ neighborhood. Last year, you, my customers and colleagues came to offer your services during the first move. Now, I ask for your help to help save this ‘green oasis’ from perishing in the changes affecting all of Brooklyn.

One of the questions asked by the city planning commissioners was “We have heard a lot of testimony about how this is the ‘best’ nursery, could you please give some definite examples to support this statement?” Well, we hope that our garden making has been successful; stimulating ideas and offering advice, suggesting different ways of seeing plants and how they affect our environment directly and indirectly. Of course, something akin to a mission remains: providing to gardeners experience-based knowledge and the broadest selection of perennial plants for Brooklyn gardens.

We hope that you can take the time to email the following parties to let them know in a few words what makes us an important part of the neighborhood and the whole Brooklyn experience.

Council representative – Bill de Blasio, deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us;
City Council Speaker – Christine Quinn, quinn@council.nyc.ny.us;
Land Use Committee Chairperson – Melinda R. Katz, katz@council.nyc.ny.us;
Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The following are some statements to paste into your appeal:

It’s impossible to run a nursery without land.

Businesses such as these provide necessary services to the community, and are the reason we choose Brooklyn.

Please help Gowanus Nursery to remain a Brooklyn institution.

I located a map of the proposed zoning change. This was certified to begin ULURP as far back as May 14th of this year.

The area enclosed by the dotted line is proposed to be rezoned by changing from an M1-1 District to an R6 District. The heavy solid lines indicate where the Zoning District Boundaries would like after the proposed zoning change. To become effective, the proposed changes must be approved first by the City Planning Commission, then the City Council.

Here’s a map, courtesy of OASIS-NYC, that shows the current uses of 45 Summit Street and nearby properties:

Legend:
Legend image 1 & 2 Family Residential
Multi-family Residential (3 or more Residential Units)
Mixed Use (Residential and Commercial)
Commercial
Institutions
Transportation & Parking
Industrial (corresponds to Zoning’s “Manufacturing” designation)
Vacant Lots

Comparing these two maps, it appears that most of the properties along Carroll Street within the proposed zoning change are already in residential use. The proeprties along Summit Street, however, are in industrial use, consistent with their M-1 Zoning designation.

The question of whether or not Gowanus is “the best” nursery is a red herring. This seems like a suspiciously convenient carve-out for someone. Who is going to reap the windfall from eminent domain-style tactics that strip privileges from one group and class of residents to benefit another?

Links:

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.

Sources of Plants for Brooklyn Gardeners

Posted on 2007-05-25 by admin

See also:

My Google Map of NYC Regional Gardens and Nurseries, zoomed in to Brooklyn
For native plants, my list of Retail Sources of Native Plants

Update 2011-06-13: Corrected address for Root Stock & Quade.
Update 2010.01.03: Corrected all links to the old Gowanus Lounge domain to the new memorial domain.
Update 2008.05.09: Added GRDN.
Update 2008.04.29: Added J&L Landscaping, Kensington.
Update 2008.04.18: Added Kings County Nurseries. Added link for Zuzu’s Petals.
Update 2007.05.25: Added Shannon Florist.

Gowanus Lounge called it:

Red Hook is turning into Brooklyn’s Gardening District. … No less than three garden shops are now open in the Hook. The Chelsea Garden Center Brooklyn has been operating for a couple of weeks at 444 Van Brunt Street, a block from the Red Hook Fairway. The Gowanus Nursery, which lost its space on Third Street, reopened last month at 45 Summit Street. And, this weekend saw the Grand Opening of the Liberty Sunset Garden Center on Pier 41 at 204 Van Dyke Street.
– Is Red Hook the New Gardening District?, Gowanus Lounge, May 14

And the Times plays catch-up:

A new group of large nurseries that have suddenly sprung up in Red Hook, Brooklyn — since March, three have opened within blocks of each other — is a welcome surprise for many of the city’s gardeners.
– New York’s Nurseries Try a Transplant, New York Times, Today

But Red Hook is not the only place for Brooklyn Gardeners to buy plants locally. (And isn’t Gowanus Nursery technically in Columbia Waterfront, not Red Hook?)

I’ve bought plants through mail order for years. It used to be that the only plants I bought locally were annuals from the Greenmarket at Union Square. Over time the growers at the Greenmarket began offering more interesting annuals, perennials and shrubs. I learned that I got more for the money buying locally than through mail order. And since the plants I bought locally were larger than those I got through mail order, they had a better start and were less likely to fail before becoming established. (Not to mention if it took me a couple of weeks or months to get around to planting them at all.)

It got even better when I moved from the East Village to Park Slope. I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 15 years now, and I’m still learning about new local sources of plants. I’ve bought plants at all of the following locations except for J&L Landscaping and Kings County Nurseries Chelsea Garden Center and Liberty Sunset. Each has something slightly different to offer for variety, expertise, and access to transportation. Prices vary widely. The Brooklyn Terminal Market generally has the best prices, but requires a car to get to it.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Garden Shop, 718-623-7280

Brooklyn Terminal Market, several independent vendors, Foster and Remsen Avenues, Canarsie, 718-444-5700
Chelsea Garden Center, 444 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, 212-727-7100
David Shannon Nursery & Florist, 3380 Fort Hamilton Pkwy, 718-436-4521
Gowanus Nursery, 45 Summit Street, Red Hook/Columbia Waterfront, 718-852-3116
Greenmarket, Grand Army Plaza, Saturdays (The one at Union Square is the best place for plants. Lots of selections, and accessible by subway.)
GRDN, 103 Hoyt Street (between Atlantic and Pacific), Boerum Hill, 718.797.3628
J & L Landscaping, 702 Caton Ave, Kensington, (718) 438-3199
Kings County Nurseries, 625 New York Avenue, (718) 493-2363
Liberty Sunset, 204-207 Van Dyke Street, on Pier 41, Red Hook, 718-858-3400
Root Stock & Quade, 471 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11205 718-832-1888
ZuZu’s Petals, 374 5 Avenue, Park Slope, 718-638-0918

Liberty Sunset Garden Center, July 20, 2007
Brooklyn Terminal Market is NOT Closed, June 22, 2007
Chelsea Garden Center, June 16, 2007
Opening Day at Gowanus, March 31, 2007
A Visit to the Brooklyn Terminal Market, May, 2006

1911 New York Dock Company Lithograph

Posted on 2007-04-14 by admin

Greetings, visitors from Maritime NY Cultural Resources. If you find this post interesting, you may also want to check out my other posts about Red Hook.

I’ve notified Community View that at least one of my photos, Pier 41, has been copied to and is being used without attribution on the same page. This is a violation of the Creative Commons under which I make my photos available. If you are the author of the page, please remove the copies, link to the photo page instead, and provide correct attribution. If you know the author of the page, please let them know about this situation.

[Updated 2007.04.14 22:40 EDT: Mystery building identified!]

1911 Lithograph of the New York Dock Company holdings on the Brooklyn Waterfront

This is one of the items we found in the basement of our house after we bought it. I’m calling it a “lithograph” just because I don’t know what else to call it. It’s in poor condition, as you can see from the closeups. I wanted to photograph it and share it in case others know more about what this is. Here’s a contemporary view from roughly the same perspective using Google Earth.

It provides an interesting snapshot of the working Brooklyn waterfront owned and operated by the New York Dock Company early in the 20th Century. It ranged from East Red Hook, Atlantic Basin and Columbia Waterfront, North to Brooklyn Heights and Fulton Ferry.

Downtown Manhattan.

Mystery: I don’t recognize the tallest tower here. My first thought was that it was the Woolworth Building. However, the details and colors of this tower are nothing like the Woolworth.

Update: Josh Jackson of Built Environment Blog identified it as the Singer Building, which was the tallest building in the world for a few years, from 1906 to 1908. It looks like it was a magnificent building. It was demolished in 1968 for One Liberty Plaza.

The Woolworth Building opened in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. If this view was of that time, it should be visible here. It’s not, so that places this image before 1913, consistent with the copyright notice of 1911 in the applied label at the lower right.

The label reads:

Bird’s Eye View
of Property of
New York Dock Company
““The Premier Warehouses and Terminal””
New York, U.S.A.

Copyright 1911, by
New York Dock Company

Some details of the waterfront from South to North.

East Red Hook

Atlantic Basin

Columbia Waterfront

Columbia Waterfront to Brooklyn Heights

There are some nice details of New York harbor as well.

Statue of Liberty. You can really see the condition problems here.

Ellis Island

Governor’s Island

Cinder Block & Razor Wire: Opening Day at Gowanus Nursery in Red Hook

Posted on 2007-03-31 by admin

It was a beautiful day to visit Gowanus Nursery. I bought six plants, just enough to fill the two shopping bags I brought. They threw me off when they gave me an extra Columbine, a survivor from their old location which they were giving to customers today to celebrate their re-opening. They also had some beautiful pre-planted trough gardens. If I’d had personal transportation I would have given them more attention.

This space is on a much wider lot than their old 3rd street location, better suited to wandering amongst the generous displays of plants. They have lots of elbow room to bring in more plants, and spread out their stock as it gets larger during the season. Construction of shelters and other structures was still going on when I visited. Will be interesting to see when everything’s put together.

Many more photos below. Or visit the Flickr set.