Sunday: Bonus Daffodil Planting on Beverly Road

Posted on 2007-11-09 by admin

Sunday morning there will be additional Daffodil planting along Beverly Road. I’ve been in correspondence with a neighbor, Natasha, from Beverly Square East. She wrote me earlier today:

This is just a quick note to let you know that I’m planning to plant Daffodils on Sunday 11/11 starting at 10am. I’ll be meeting some friends on Beverley between 16th and 17th street. We’re going to start at 16th Street and head towards Flatbush. I borrowed some extra planting implements from a friend, so people should feel free to come even if they don’t have tools.

So Sunday you have two opportunities for planting Daffodil bulbs. Meet at 10am on Beverly Road between 16th and 17th Street; planting will proceed east along Beverly Road. Or meet at 10am at the library plaza on Cortelyou Road at Argyle; planting will proceed west toward Coney Island Avenue.

Reminder: Plant Daffodils on Cortelyou Road This Weekend

Posted on 2007-11-09 by admin

There’s also Daffodil planting on Beverly Road this Sunday.

Green Thumbs Up! Some of the crew of volunteers who planted Daffodils last Sunday.

Weather permitting (as long as it’s not raining), we’ll continue planting Daffodil bulbs in the tree pits along Cortelyou Road this Saturday and Sunday morning. We’ll meet up at 10am in front of the library at the northeast corner of Argyle Road. Please bring your own tools and work gloves, if you have them. If you don’t we’ll have enough on hand to keep you busy!

This weekend, we’ll begin working our way West from Argyle Road toward Coney Island Avenue. If you can’t join us at 10am, look for the folks digging in the tree pits! Last weekend we finished up by 12:30pm, so please feel free to stop by and see how we’re doing.

And if you come on Sunday, bring some shopping bags and pick up some seasonal fruits and vegetables at the Greenmarket, which is open through the end of the month.

The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, November 4

Links

The Daffodil Project

The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road

Posted on 2007-11-05 by admin

Parallel Pit Planting

We had a great turnout this weekend for planting Daffodils along Cortelyou Road. I couldn’t make it yesterday; I heard we had 7 or 8 people. Today we had 13, half of them children.

Yesterday all the new tree pits between Argyle and Rugby Roads were planted. Today we planted nine more: 8 between Marlborough and Rugby, plus the one tree pit between Marlborough and the train station, which has an Oak tree. With 13 people we finished up in a little over two hours.

This is my neighbor, Stacey, one of those who ordered and picked up the bulbs from the Daffodil Project and got this whole thing going.

Thanks to everyone who turned out this weekend, including (in alphabetical order):

Ben
Cecile
Chaakam
Emma
Faith
Hugo
Jan
Jonathan
Kaya
Liena
Natasha
Stacey
Tracey
Zariya

(If I’ve omitted or misspelled your name, please let me know!)

I’m bad with names, and faces, well, people, basically, but I’m pretty sure I’d never met any of the folks I worked with today. I’ve spoken with some on the phone, or corresponded by email. With most I’d had no previous contact. This is the remarkable community aspect of these kinds of activities. I hope we can do more of them.

Weather permitting, we’ll do it again next Saturday, November 10. We’ll meet at 10am in front of the library at Argyle and Cortelyou. We’ll plant the block from Argyle to Westminster, at least.

The following Sunday, November 11, if we still have bulbs to plant, we’ll schedule it later in the day. There will be another gardening-related community event that morning. I’ll post the details as they’re confirmed.

Links

The Daffodil Project
My Flickr photo set from today

Reminder: Cortelyou Road Daffodil Planting, This Weekend and Next

Posted on 2007-11-01 by admin

See 1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road for details.

We’re also looking for volunteers to plant along Beverly Road between East 16th and East 19th Streets. Leave a comment or send me an email if you’re interested.

1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road

Posted on 2007-10-27 by admin

Two weeks ago I put out a call for volunteers to plant Daffodils along Cortelyou Road, from East 17th Street to Coney Island Avenue. My neighbor Stacey had arranged for 300 bulbs from the Daffodil Project.

Well, she got her order increased to 500 bulbs and received them today. And Friends of Cortelyou and the Cortelyou Road Merchants Association (CORMA) is getting another 500 bulbs for the effort. So we have 1,000 Daffodil bulbs to plant this season which will bloom along the new streetscape of Cortelyou Road next Spring.

The dates for planting are the first two weekends in November, Saturday and Sunday, 11/5 and 11/6, and 11/11 and 11/12. To help us estimate how many hands we’ll have on deck, please fill out the survey in the sidebar, “What date could you help plant bulbs along Cortelyou Road?” To join us, meet at P.S. 139 at the northwest corner of Cortelyou Road and Rugby Road at 10am. You’ll need to bring your own gardening tools for planting: trowels, gloves, gardening forks or spades. But if you don’t have tools of your own, don’t let that stop you; how about bringing some hot chocolate?!

Seeking bulb-planting volunteers for November weekends

Posted on 2007-10-13 by admin

Planting bulbs from the Daffodil Project in my front garden, Fall 2006

Thanks to the initiative of one of my neighbors, Stacey, in Beverley Square West, there will be 300-500 daffodil bulbs available for planting on the grounds of P.S. 139 along Rugby Road, and in the new tree pits along Cortelyou Road.

The bulbs will arrive at the end of October, in time for November planting. Stacey and I thought we would try to coordinate some plantings the first and second weekends in November. Stacey will be at the Greenmarket TOMORROW, October 14, from 10am to 12noon, tabling with free 9-volt batteries for smoke detectors. If you can stop by, you can sign up for one or more days. If not, you can “vote” in the poll at the top of the sidebar on this blog to let us know which day(s) you could help out.

Changes on Cortelyou Road, March 2007
The Daffodil Project, November 2006

The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5

Posted on 2006-11-26 by admin

Today I planted bulbs in the front yard, including daffodils I received through the Beverly Square West Neighborhood Association, which were donated through The Daffodil Project. With this act, our front yard becomes part of a living memorial to those murdered on September 11, 2001.

The Daffodil Project was originally created to commemorate September 11. …
The Daffodil Project is made possible in part by the generosity of a Dutch bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, who has pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. More than 20,000 volunteers have responded to his challenge so far. And thanks to their efforts, nearly 3 million yellow daffodils bloomed in over 1,300 individual sites across the five boroughs in the spring of 2006.
– The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

… This act of immense generosity has been coupled with that of Joseph Temeczko, a Minnesotan handyman who willed his entire life-savings of $1.4 million to New York City, $300K of which will pay for the shipping of these precious bulbs for the following 5 years. Temeczko, who is said to have been a Nazi prison camp survivor, entered the U.S. through Ellis Island and lived for a time in New York City where he worked at the Statue of Liberty. Following September 11th, 2001, he redirected his estate “to honor those who perished in the disaster.” An avid gardener, himself, he loved to share his garden’s harvest with others, and passed away only a month later while working in his own garden.
– My Community Hero: The Daffodil Project, Claudia Herrera Hudson

This Daffodil Project is distinct in that it involves no particular site. All public parks and community gardens are potential sites for the Daffodil Project. After 9/11, New Yorkers turned to their parks as a common ground where they could congregate, debate, memorialize, grieve, and find spiritual and physical renewal. The Daffodil Project is a lasting tribute to the people that died and the heroes that were born that day, it is a symbol of remembrance and rebirth in the heart of what is common ground for all of the citizens of New York: their public parks.
– The Daffodil Project, The Living Memorials Project

Here are some more photos of me in the act this afternoon, graciously taken by my neighbor, Jeff Tolbert. (Since this is my photographic debut on my own blog, I decided not to upload the flattering butt-crack photos.)