Endangered Coney Island Community Gardens

Posted on 2008-02-04 by admin

Update 2008.02.05: Added link to More Gardens! Web site. This is one of the topics on the agenda for their general meeting this Thursday evening. See my Google Calendar in the sidebar for details.

Community Gardens in Coney Island. Map Credit: OASIS

West of the subway stations and main attractions at Coney Island lie several community gardens, shown in light green on the map above. City community garden activists have identified three of them, highlighted on the Google Map below, as critically in danger of being lost to development.

View Larger Map

These three endangered gardens are under the jurisdiction of NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). They do not have the protection conferred to most other community gardens in New York City by transfer to Parks or purchase by the Trust for Public Land.

Surf Side Garden
2829 Surf Avenue, corner of West 29th Street

Unity Tower Tenant Association
1917 Surf Avenue, corner of West 20th Street
Founded in April 1993

Senior Citizens Block Association of Mermaid Ave
2917 West 20th Street, between Surf and Mermaid Avenues

Links

More Gardens!
Gardens To Close as Coney Prepares for Building Boom, Brooklyn Eagle, March 5, 2008

Where is Flatbush, Anyway?

Posted on 2007-12-01 by admin

Update 2007.11.04: For others’ reactions to the Times piece, see the Links at the end of this post, or check out the list on Brooklyn Junction. Also added a link to a 1998 letter to the editor about their invention of “Greater Ditmas Park.”

Map of Flatbush in 1873

Today, the “Living In” feature of the Real Estate section of the New York Times looks at Flatbush:

More than a neighborhood, Flatbush often refers to a sprawling community in central Brooklyn comprising multiple smaller ones.
… But many smaller neighborhoods traditionally under the Flatbush umbrella, including Ditmas Park and Prospect Park South, have asserted distinct identities. So, the character of what might be called Flatbush proper — a rectangle anchored at the south by Brooklyn College — has come into sharper focus.
– Note to City Dwellers: Steals Available Here

The article claims “the borders of Flatbush are ambiguous”:

Neighborhoods once considered part of it have reclaimed their more specific names. Today, its western border is generally considered Ocean Avenue, beyond which are the various parts of Victorian Flatbush. Its eastern border is New York Avenue, beyond which is East Flatbush. The northern boundary is Parkside Avenue; on the south it is the Long Island Rail Road tracks, just above Avenue I.

This is not the first time the Times has gotten confused about the boundaries of the area. In 1998, they invented the term “Greater Ditmas Park” to cover several other neighborhoods, and a West Midwood resident took them to task for it:

Ditmas Park, along with Prospect Park South, Beverley Square West, West Midwood, South Midwood, Fiske Terrace, and the other neighborhoods in the area discussed are not part of ”Greater Ditmas Park” but of Flatbush.

Maybe that’s where Corcoran picked up their bad habits.

Part of the ambiguity is that the name “Flatbush” is used at two different scales, at least. There was the old Village, then town, of Flatbush, located along what was a trading trail and became the Flatbush Avenue of today. There was also the Township of Flatbush prior to consolidation, with Brooklyn in 1894, then with New York City in 1898. The township included the farmlands to the west of the town of Flatbush. These were developed at the turn of the last century into the “many smaller neighborhoods” the Times mentions.

The Township of Flatbush also extended north of the Times designation, bordering the Township of Brooklyn. In the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a few hundred feet in from its southwestern entrance near the Carousel in Prospect Park, is a brass line and plaque marking this boundary:

The only substantial community garden in the area also gets a mention:

In 2002, the couple bought a one-bedroom co-op on Glenwood Road with an eat-in kitchen and spacious foyer … They started meeting neighbors through a residents’ association and the Campus Road garden, a community garden at Brooklyn College. In addition to the pleasure of tending their 10-by-13-foot plot, they enjoy summer social gatherings in the garden.

Forgotten Flatbush: The Albemarle Road Pedestrian Bridge

Links

Across the Park
Brooklyn Junction
Ditmas Park Blog
Fading Ad Blog
Hawthorne Street

Tomorrow’s Flatbush Community Garden Meeting is Cancelled

Posted on 2007-11-10 by admin

The public meeting about the nascent Flatbush Community Garden (The “Ex-Lax” Gardens), tentatively scheduled for tomorrow morning, has been cancelled.

The owner of the property is not available to meet tomorrow morning.

There are tentative plans for a community meeting before the end of the year. When those plans are confirmed, I will publish them here.

East 4th Street Community Garden

Posted on 2007-11-04 by admin

Updated 2007.11.04: Added Community section.

Afternoon Morning Glory, East 4th Street Community Garden (Windsor Terrace Kensington Veterans Memorial Garden), Kensington, Brooklyn

This afternoon a couple of Flatbush neighbors and I visited the East 4th Street Community Garden. It occupies .184 acres at 179 East 4th Street, between Caton Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway in Kensington. It also serves the neighborhood of Windsor Terrace.

The dedicated local residents of the East Fourth Street Garden Association have tended this site, formerly known as the Windsor Terrace Kensington Veterans Memorial Garden, since they first organized it in 1979. The garden, incorporated in 1981, has come to serve a central role as a gathering place in this community. The East Fourth Street garden has funded its operations and special projects through dues collection, flea markets, and two Mollie Parnis Dress Up Your Neighborhood Awards.
– Parks Sign, East 4th Street Community Garden

The purpose of our visit was to meet with our gardening neighbors to the west, get ideas from their gardens, and learn from their experience.I arrived around 3pm, before anyone else showed up. That’s when I took most of these photos. I met one of the gardens, Mary Beth, who had brought her pumpkin for composting. We were then joined by two of my neighbors, Gary Jonas and Nelson Ryland. Michael O’Hara, who’s been with the garden for six years, arrived, then Susan Siegel.

Established on city property, the East Fourth Street Garden uses land originally cleared of homes for the construction of the F subway line in the 1930s. Transit builders changed their plans, running the line underground where the Windsor Terrace branch of the Public Library now stands. In 1998, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) surrendered the Fourth Street garden between Fort Hamilton Parkway and Caton Avenue to Parks. This arrangement safeguards the garden’s status as a green space while leaving the administration largely in the hands of its community developers.

You can see the grates for the subway in the sidewalk in front of the garden. During our visit, we heard, and felt, the subway rumbling beneath us every few minutes. The future home for the Flatbush Community Garden is adjacent to the open-cut B/Q line; the sounds and sensations of subway trains will be frequent there, as well.

Individual Plots

Here’s a view from the rear of the garden, looking West toward the entrance and East 4th Street. The individual plots are in the center of the photo, extending off-frame to the right. I counted 26 plots.

Here’s a view from the North, from the shelter of the shady path which is one of the common areas in the garden.

The plots are edged with untreated, exterior-grade boards. These are concessions to decorum; as Michael explained, “Plots tend to expand.” Well-defined plot edges, like good fences, make good neighbors. They also keep the plants from spilling into the paths, which need to be mowed regularly, and keep people walking the paths from trampling the plants and plots.

Plot Signs

Common Areas

Common areas wrap the garden on its south, west, and north sides. Here are some views of the common areas along the front/street side of the garden.

One of the features which interested us today was the north side of the garden with several mature trees, including some old apple trees. The Flatbush site, with its forest of 50-year-old trees, has lots of shade. Here a path enjoys the shade from the trees, leading from the front to the rear of the garden, toward the compost area and pond.

Necessaries

I met Mary Beth, one of the gardeners, here by the composting area. She came by to contribute her spent Jack-o-lantern. She lives in an apartment in the area. She told me she “always loved the smell of dirt” growing up. She now has an individual plot in the garden.

Composting area

I thought the signs were a great way to encourage people to use the compost. They distinguish the finished product from that still in-process, and explicitly grant permission to people to use what they need.

Also important are clear signs detailing what can and can’t go into the compost.

Salvaging building materials for reuse in the garden is a way to keep costs down and keep construction and other building debris out of the waste stream.

There’s no free source of water for the garden. Their water bill runs about $400 a year. So collecting and storing rainwater is another sustainability practice that saves the garden money.

I want to build a bat house. Some of the Flatbush visitors wanted to know “where do you get the bats?” They didn’t know that bats are already native residents of Brooklyn, and “if you build it, they will come.”

Community

When we visited, the day was overcast and buffeted by winds from tropical storm Noel passing off-shore. We were there after the normal visiting hours, and the garden was empty except for the six of us. Michael told us that we would “have to come here on a busy day in the summer” to see the community in evidence in the garden.

According to Michael, the garden was “a well-kept secret for a long time.” Today there are about 60 people on the mailing list, and 20-30 active members, with a 1 year waiting list. Dues are about $20/year.

Members come from within a four or five block radius of the garden. Maintenance requires weekly visits over the summer, so geographic proximity is important. Members also need to sign up for shifts for shared responsibilities, such as seasonal cleanups and keeping the garden open to the public during scheduled hours. They encourage members who don’t yet have individual plots to plant and maintain containers, or sign-up for the numerous gardening tasks in the common areas. This gives them a feel for the time commitment it takes, especially important for those with little gardening experience.

The garden hosts the Kensington/Windsor Terrace CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). This CSA is supplied by the Garden of Eve farm on the East End of Long Island. In a recent survey of CSA members, 100% of those responding said they were happy with the garden as a distribution site.

Links

Flickr photo set
East 4th Street Community Garden (OASIS page)
East 4th Street Community Garden (Parks page)
Kensington/Windsor Terrace CSA (Blog)
Garden of Eve
[where: 179 East 4th Street, Brooklyn, NY]

The Future Home of the Ex-Lax Gardens

Posted on 2007-11-02 by admin

Updated 2007.11.03: Updated with more history from Erin’s comment. Added photos of the site I took last April.

This map highlights the future location of a new community garden to be created in Flatbush, in the neighborhood of Prospect Park South. The red border outlines part of the property, which also includes the smaller wedge of land to the east, next to the B/Q subway line. The underlying image is aerial photography from 2004. The gray shapes are the outlines of buildings. The gray box within the red border is a garage, which you can see in the photos below.

The total area is .8 acres, huge by city standards. You can see from the photo that the property is covered by trees. The property is vacant, but not abandoned. It’s owned by a resident of the area who wants it to benefit the community, as a community garden.

Susan Siegel, outgoing Executive Director of Flatbush Development Corporation, has been in communication with the owner of the property for some time. I first heard about this project in February of this year from Jan Rosenberg of Friends of Cortelyou and Brooklyn Hearth Realty. I attended a meeting of some interested community members. Things have been quiet until this week, when Susan let us know that the owner has given us the go-ahead.

The site has an interesting history. As my neighbor, Erin Joslyn, notes, this was originally the home of Dean Alvord, the developer of Prospect Park South, later purchased by Israel Matz:

One of the most impressive homes in Prospect Park South, was the enormous mansion purchased in 1920 by Israel Matz, founder of the Ex-Lax company. After years of neglect, it was consumed by fire in 1958.
– Forgotten Flatbush: When Flatbush was Greenwich, Victorian Flatbush, An Architectural history

The forest which lives on the site now is just 50 years old, grown since the building burned down in 1958. “Forgotten Flatbush” includes an old aerial photo of the area from 1908, a hundred years ago, which shows the old “Ex-Lax Mansion”, and the future location of the community garden. The trees for which the neighborhood is known are absent from the photo; they were just a few years old.

Here are some views of the site, taken last April.

This is the view south down the central drive into the site. The garage is on the right. There’s a lamp post on the left, with Daffodils blooming at its base. Not visible in this photo, the house foundation is to the right.

This is a view southwest, to the right of the central drive. The garage is to the left. The area in front of the garage and extending to the right is where the house stood.

The sunken area in this photo is part of the original foundation of the house.

This view is southeast. You can see the garage in this view, too. Somewhere between the garage and where I stood, behind the fence on the right, is the foundation of the house which stood there.

Most community gardens don’t start with a forest. This presents unique opportunities and challenges. The southern end of the property is already partially cleared and cultivated as gardens. For more residents to grow vegetables, more trees will need to be cleared.

I hope that the northern end, at least, can be kept forested. Many of the trees are likely “weed” trees, invasive species, which can and should be removed. There is already wildlife there, and this part of the property could be preserved as a wildlife and bird refuge and sanctuary. There could be wildflower walks and native plant gardens, cool ferny sanctuaries, shady refuges, and story circles.

The foundation of the old house is largely intact, now largely filled in by a half-century of leaf litter and plant growth. This could be cleared and restored. This could become an educational part of the site, evidence of its history. I have visions of developing it as a sunken garden, a grotto of native plants and ferns, which can fulfill other important educational purposes.

Now that the owner has given their go-ahead, there will be many community meetings and other events for those who want to participate and contribute. I’ll post these here on this blog and add them to the calendar in the sidebar.

Links

Backyard of the Day
Forgotten Flatbush
OASIS online mapping service
Ditmas Park Blog
[where: 1522 Albemarle Road, Brooklyn, NY 11226]

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

Posted on 2007-06-28 by admin

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?

Event, April 26, NYC: First Annual Community Gardens Awards Dinner

Posted on 2007-04-06 by admin

On Thursday, April 26, the New York City Community Gardens Coalition will hold its First Annual Community Gardens Awards Dinner and Fundraiser.

This event is designed to raise awareness about the importance of community gardening, parks, and open space, as well as to serve as our annual fundraiser to provide support of our mission – advocacy for community gardens preservation in New York City. Awards will be presented to four(4) outstanding New Yorkers who have made exemplary contributions to New York City community gardens in 2006.

This year’s event will be held at the Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem, 2116 7th Avenue (W. 126th St.) from 6:00pm to 9:00PM. The program will include a presentation by our keynote speaker, Mr. Gerard Lordahl, Director of Open Space and Greening Program at the Council on the Environment of New York City, and recent President of the American Community Gardening Association, live music entertainment, a delicious dinner/dessert, and the Community Gardening Award presentations. The program will close with remarks from James Austin, President, NYCCGC Board of Directors. A “tax-deductible” contribution of $50 per ticket will admit you to this memorable event and includes a 1-year NYCCGC membership. …

We would like to have as many representatives of our community gardens as possible. … It will be an exciting event and a great opportunity to meet and network with your fellow gardeners. Exciting items also will be raffled during the evening.

Other Gardens: Red Hook’s Summit Street Community Garden

Posted on 2007-04-02 by admin

[2007.04.05: Corrected some typos.]
[2007.04.02 21:00: Updated with my notes from Saturday’s visit.]

Locations of Gowanus Nursery (red outline) and nearby Community Gardens (labelled light green areas) in Red Hook

A pleasant discovery when I visited Gowanus Nursery on Saturday is that there are three community gardens within one block of each other:

Summit Street Community Garden, at the corner of Summit Street and Columbia Street
Backyard Garden, at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Van Brunt Street
Amazing Garden, at the corner of Carroll Street and Columbia Street

I was able to visit the first two gardens before and after, respectively, I visited Gowanus Nursery. This post is about the Summit Street garden. I’ll have another for the Backyard Garden.

Let me walk you around the garden, roughly in the order I experienced it.

The garden is surrounded by a simple and attractive green steel fence. A really nice inviting feature is the round, head-sized hole interrupting the vertical bars in the gates. Yes, I tested them; they really are head-sized. You can stick your head through and look around inside without the bars in the way. It’s a simple touch, a grace note, but it says, to me, at least: Sorry we weren’t here when you were. Please come back again.

Entrance Gate

But the gates were open when I got there. Just inside the gates is a dry-laid bluestone landing area, with dry-laid brick paths guiding you forward. The walls of the adjacent buildings ahead of you are at the North side of the garden. We’ll see the border there in a bit.

Entrance Path

I got to meet and speak with two of the gardeners, Kevin King and Claire Merlino. They explained that all the brick and stone used in the garden came from the buildings which used to stand here.

Note to all demolition sites: There is no excuse for throwing out brick and stone in dumpsters destined for landfill. Every garden wants brick and stone. Gardeners, community and others, have lots of creative uses for these durable and attractive materials.

The Rock Garden

To the right of the entrance is the rock garden. Whenever you have to clear a building site for gardening, you will have building debris which is unsuitable for paving, wall-building, and so on. This got piled up near the edge of the property, with the thought that it would eventually get cleared away. As time passed, it also got put to creative reuse, and became a rock garden.

Rock Garden

Iris reticulata in the Rock Garden

Erica carnea, Spring Heath, in the Rock Garden

Community in the Garden

The garden got its start in late 1993. The first clean-up was in Spring of 1994. Trash and rubbish had to be removed, but they also needed cleanfill.

There are three building lots here. With the buildings collapsed, there was a large central depression which had to be filled. Gardeners used rocks to tag piles from the nearby Snapple warehouse excavation which they could use for fill in the garden. One of the workers on the site went one better and selected the darkest material he could find and delivered it to the garden; darkest, because it was contaminated with oil from the excavation site. With that teachable moment, the workers came back and removed the “good” stuff and replaced it with the real soil the gardeners had tagged.

Every community garden also needs to balance common and individual planting areas. I like these raised beds as a flexible solution for private planting areas. They’re rectangular with 2:1 proportions; I’m not sure if they’re 4×8 foot or 3×6 foot. Members can subscribe to a full- or half-bed. I also like that the beds are aligned but not on a regular grid, which creates interesting paths through the garden.

Planting Beds

Every community garden also needs to coordinate the needs of the garden with the availability of its members. To the left of the entrance is this sign-up station. The book and pencil are protected, and the stand itself is an attractive garden feature.

Sign-Up Station

The West Border

Along Columbia Street is the West Border, one of the common areas.

West border

Daffodils and Crocus

The North Border

Opposite the entrance on Summit Street, against the adjacent building, is the North Border.

The North border

Hellebores and Narcissus in the North border

There seemed to be hundreds of Iris reticulata in bloom when I visited. Claire said that there would have been more except that the squirrels considered them a delicacy and devoured most of what had been planted last fall.

Finally, Claire is looking for someone to adopt this Castor Aralia tree. Leave a comment if you or someone you know is interested.

Kalopanax septemlobus (syn. K. pictus), Castor Aralia

Other Gardens: South Midwood Garden Tour, Sunday, July 30, 2006

Posted on 2006-08-03 by admin

[2006.08.03-11:40am EDT: See bottom of entry for link to article describing history of the Avenue H Station House.]

This post is rather lengthy. I’m hoping to make up for my numerous small and seemingly scattered, though all intricately interwoven in my mind, posts.

Google Map image of South Midwood area of Victorian Flatbush in Brooklyn. North is to the left in this image. The neighborhood is bounded by Foster Avenue (diagonal road) on the north (left), Brooklyn College (large ballfield) on the south (right), East 21st Street on the west, and Bedford Avenue on the east. South Midwood is one of about a dozen distinct neighborhoods of Victorian Flatbush.

On Sunday, July 30, I attended the South Midwood Garden Tour. I was invited by a fellow gardener from that neighborhood whose husband I had met at a “new neighbors” event last year, after we bought our house. We invited them to our house opening party last fall, and I got to sketch out the “garden in my mind” which was forming out of the weeds and dust which came with the house.

The Avenue H Subway Station, just a few blocks from the start of the tour at the community garden. This station was recently granted landmark status. At the turn of the last century, it was a real estate office for the new developments arising along the old Coney Island RR line, now the B/Q lines. It’s the only wood-frame station house in the subway system, and the only one which was not originally built for a railroad purpose.

My journey began by taking the Q train from my local station a couple of stops south to Avenue H. The tour began at 11am at a community garden, the Campus Road Garden at Brooklyn College. This is located at the western end of the Brooklyn College campus, near the ball fields.

The light towers surrounding the playing fields have large nests of Monk Parakeets. Their calls were constant. Dragonflies were swarming over and around the gardens. Butterflies were everywhere.

Campus Road Garden, looking north.

Campus Road Garden, looking west back toward Avenue H.

The house of the first garden on the tour. The garden in the backyard was lovely, but I really liked the look of these vines embracing the turret.

The backyard garden of the same house. The gardener was not available for interrogation, but the tour guide told us that everything had been designed and built over several years by the owner.

Second garden on the tour. The cool shade and sound of the waterfall was a welcome relief from the oppressive heat that day. The owner is standing with her back to the camera. This garden was just built in June of this year.

The next four photos are all from the same house and gardens. It’s on a double lot, 100ft x 100ft, a rarity in Brooklyn, but South Midwood has several of them. This garden was one of the highlights of the tour for me.

Skipping ahead a few gardens, these next two photos are different views of a well-designed and inviting accessible garden. The raised beds were customed designed and built for the gardener, whose mobility had become restricted over time. The integral seating is a terrific feature, providing both a place to sit and work the beds, and inviting visitors to get up close and personal with the plantings. This was another garden at the top of my list of favorites. I have so many ideas for my own gardens from this one.

Another backyard garden.

At this stop it was the house, and not the gardens, which was featured on the tour. But the gardens make their own statement, which I would not want you to do without.

A couple of flower portraits from two other gardens.

I have a special fondness for large, red Hibiscus. It takes me back to my childhood in space-age Florida. I picked flowers just like this from the monstrous, garage-sized shrubs outside our house to dissect, study, and learn all the parts of the flower. I even put together a presentation on flowers and pollination for my grade school classmates and school. Yes, I was a curious child, in all the meanings of the word.

At the penultimate stop, the gardener invites his guests to enjoy the sensual pleasures of his herb garden.

The last, but not least, stop on the tour, home of the tour guide. The food and refreshments were raved over. And the gardens were nothing to sneeze at, either.

Links:

The Little Station in the Woods tells the whole story of the Avenue H Station House.

Flatbush Gardener

Urban Habitat Gardening with Native Plants

Tag Archives: Community Garden

Endangered Coney Island Community Gardens

Links

Where is Flatbush, Anyway?

Related Posts

Links

Tomorrow’s Flatbush Community Garden Meeting is Cancelled

East 4th Street Community Garden

Individual Plots

Common Areas

Necessaries

Community

Links

The Future Home of the Ex-Lax Gardens

Links

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

Event, April 26, NYC: First Annual Community Gardens Awards Dinner

Other Gardens: Red Hook’s Summit Street Community Garden

Other Gardens: South Midwood Garden Tour, Sunday, July 30, 2006