Public Appearances, Spring 2024

Posted on 2024-04-12 by Flatbush Gardener

MY LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IS THIS WEEKEND, JUNE 1st!

June

Saturday, June 1st

1-3pm: Pollinator Safari, East 4th Street Community Garden, Kensington, Brooklyn

We’ll survey the garden looking for “pollinators”, i.e.: insects and others visiting the flowers blooming all around the garden.

Explore the garden’s plants and flowers, and learn how to see them in new ways with urban naturalist Chris Kreussling (aka the Flatbush Gardener). We’ll “hunt” for pollinators, and other flower visitors,around the garden. As we try to identify them, we’ll learn about the garden’s biodiversity and ecology.

Me hosting the NYCWW Pollinator Week Safari in my Front Yard, June 2014. Photo: Alan Riback

Previous engagements this season. It’s was a busy one, with something every weekend – except for Memorial Day weekend – from mid-April to the first weekend of June.

April

Sunday, April 14th

Bush Terminal Piers Park, Brooklyn

11:00 am – 1:30 pm: Removing invasives, planting native plants.

THursday, April 18th – Monday, April 22nd

Attending the Northeast Natural History Conference in Albany, NY.

Thiursday, APril 25th, 5:50 – 7:00 pm

CANCELLED ~~NYC Pollinator Working Group, Monthly Working Committee Meeting. This is a closed meeting for members of the Working Committee, only~~.

The meeting was cancelled, but if you are interested in joining and working with us, please fill out the Membership Application and let us know!

Friday, April 26th – Monday, April 29th

City Nature Challenge Observation Period!

Check out the CNC:NYC 2024 Event List. As a Brooklyn Borough Captain, I’ll be attending the following events in Brooklyn. Many of these events have limited space for participants, or require advance registration, so check the links if you’re interested.

Tuesday, April 30th – Sunday, May 5th

City Nature Challenge Identification Period. Results will be announced on Monday, May 6th.

May

Saturday, May 4th

10 am – 4 pm: GreenThumb GrowTogether, Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn.

Registration by noon May 3rd recommended, but walk-ins are accepted.

I’ll be co-presenting on creating habitat for pollinators (and others) in community gardens.

Saturday, May 11th

2 – 4:30 pm: The Great Flatbush Plant Swap, Flatbush Food Co-Op, 1415 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn (Q Train, Cortelyou Road stop).

I’ll be bringing native plants from my garden. And I’ll be on-hand to answer questions about gardening, native plants, and habitat gardening.

Sunday, May 19th

11 am – 1 pm: McGolrick Park Nature Walk – Gardening Ecology

Please Reserve Your Spot!

“Garden vitality and health are key to building a sustainable, nurturing environment for all living creatures. Please join us for a garden ecology session with Chris Kreussling (The Flatbush Gardener). We’ll study plants, insects, and animals and how they all work together to create a harmonious habitat.”

2024 NYRP Tree Giveaway

Posted on 2024-03-05 by Flatbush Gardener

The annual New York Restoration Project Tree Giveaway begins distribution on Saturday, April 13th, a little less than 6 weeks away. It runs for four weeks, ending on Sunday, May 12th.

Advance registration is mandatory. You select your preferred species when you register. Note that each location will only have 6-8 species. Some locations, especially smaller sites, may be “sold out” of some species. So, check the locations you can get to, confirm you can do it on their giveaway dates, and select from the species available at those sites.

Consider the mature size, after 30 or more years of growth, of each species. There are two lists below: one for smaller-medium sized shrubs and trees that max out at no more than around 50′ high and 30′ wide; the other for the larger trees that will grow too large for most urban yards. These sizes do not take into consideration existing vegetation, outdoor structures, etc. Your conditions will vary!

I’ve highlighted the 12 species that are NEW for 2024. The 6 species that aren’t available this year are crossed out.

Shrubs and Smaller Trees

Allegheny Serviceberry, Amelanchier laevis 25′ tall x 15-20′
American Hazelnut, Corylus americana 8-16′ x 10-15′
American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana 35′ x 20-30′
American Persimmon 50′ x 20-35′
American Plum 15-25′ x 20′
Beach Plum, Prunus maritima 4-10′ x 3-10′
Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis 20-30′ x 25-35′
Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis 5-12′ x 6-10′
I have one in my front yard. This is a suckering shrub that can spread much wider than 10 feet!
Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida 25′ x 15-30′
Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica 6-12′ x 4-6′
Gray Birch, Betula populifolia 25-40′ x 10-20′
~~Highbush Blueberry~~
Northern Bayberry, Morella pensylvanica 8-10′ x 6-10′
Pagoda Dogwood, Cornus alternifolia 25′ x 15-30′
Pussy Willow, Salix discolor 10-20′ x 4-12′
Smooth Alder, Alnus serrulata 8-12′ x 5-10′
Sweetbay Magnolia, Magnolia virginiana 50′ x 15-25′
Washington Hawthorn, Crataegus phaenopyrum 30′ x 25-30′
White Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus 12-20′ x 10-15′
~~Winged Sumac~~
Witchhazel, Hamamelis virginiana 25′ x 10-20′

Larger Trees

Brooklyn Locations

There are 8, two more than last year, Brooklyn pickup sites.

April 20: Wyckoff House Museum, East Flatbush/Canarsie
April 28, Green-Wood Cemetery, Greenwood Heights
May 4: Red Hook Farms (Red Hook, Brooklyn)
May 4: Brooklyn Public Library, Brownsville Branch
May 5: Java Street Community Garden, Greenpoint
May 11: Brooklyn Public Library, Marcy Branch, Bedford-Stuyvesant
May 11: Citizens Avenue U Branch, Homecrest/Sheepshead Bay
May 12: HELP USA, Brownsville

Links

New York Restoration Project Tree Giveaway

Saturday, August 12, Wave Hill, Bronx: Bees, Butterflies and Blooms

Posted on 2023-08-07 by Flatbush Gardener

Toxomerus marginatus on NOID Asteraceae, Wave Hill, June 2021

Saturday, August 12, join me at Wave Hill in the Bronx. I’ll be leading two Native Pollinator Walks, part of their Bees, Butterflies, and Blooms weekend of events. My walks will step off at 11am and 1pm from the Perkins Visitor Center, where the gift shop is located.

I’ll be staffing their Pollination Station information table between walks.

For a list of all that weekend’s events, Saturday and Sunday, August 12th & 13th, see:
https://www.wavehill.org/calendar/bees-butterflies-blooms-weekend

Upcoming Public Events

Posted on 2023-04-25 by Flatbush Gardener

Public events coming up over the next two months which I am hosting, leading, or otherwise involved.

Continue reading →

2023 NYRP Tree Giveaway

Posted on 2023-03-09 by admin

The annual New York Restoration Project Tree Giveaway starts in a month. This year, they’re offering the largest variety of native tree, and some shrub, species I’ve seen yet.

Consider the mature size of each species. The larger trees will grow too large for most urban yards. I highlighted shrubs and smaller tree species that max out at no more than around 50′ high and wide, without considering existing vegetation, outdoor structures, etc. Your conditions will vary!

Shrubs and Smaller Trees

Larger Trees

Here are this year’s Brooklyn sites and pick-up dates.

April 15: Red Hook Farms(Red Hook, Brooklyn)
April 15: Wyckoff House Museum and State Senator Kevin S. Parker (Canarsie, Brooklyn)
April 29: I.S. 318 Project Roots Community Garden and Councilmember Lincoln Restler(Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
May 6: BPL Marcy Library and Councilmember Chi Ossé(Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn)
May 13: BPL Brownsville Library(Brownsville, Brooklyn)
May 20: Citizens(Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn)

Links

New York Restoration Project Tree Giveaway

Sunday, May 22: Habitat Gardening Workshop for NYC Wildflower Week

Posted on 2022-05-02 by admin

2022-05-13 UPDATE: A second session is now available for Sunday, May 22, 12 noon to 2pm! Registration links below now point to the new event.
2022-05-09 UPDATE: Due to the rainy, windy, cold weather yesterday, we will be scheduling another session of this workshop for later this week, most likely for the afternoon of Friday, May 13th. Will update here when confirmed!

Sunday, May 22nd 6th, I will be hosting and facilitating a workshop on gardening for habitat with native plants in my home garden. The workshop is from 12noon to 2pm. Space is limited, so please register at the Eventbrite link below.

Learn how to garden with native plants to create wildlife habitat, even in small urban gardens. In this interactive garden tour and workshop, Chris will use his garden to highlight the importance of native plants for sustaining urban wildlife, and how to create and maintain a garden for its ecological value. With nearly 200 NYC-native plant species, and over 400 documented insect visitors, you are sure to learn something new and find inspiration for improving habitat wherever you garden.

Presented by Chris Kreussling. Chris is an urban naturalist and advocate for urban habitat gardening with native plants. He has led numerous native plant and pollinator walks and workshops, for NYC Wildflower Week, Wave Hill, the High Line, and others. His garden is a registered habitat with the National Wildlife Federation, Xerces Pollinator Society, and other organizations. He’s documented this ongoing transformation on his gardening blog, Flatbush Gardener and on Twitter as @xrisfg.

– Eventbrite

Links

Eventbrite registration page
NYC Wildflower Week

City Nature Challenge 2022 – New York City

Posted on 2022-04-25 by admin

The annual City Nature Challenge (CNC) is this weekend, from Friday April 29 through Monday May 2. I put together a presentation on Slideshare with a brief overview of New York City’s participation in CNC.

I’m one of the Brooklyn Borough Captains for the NYC Battle of the Boroughs, a friendly inter-borough competition among the boroughs to promote CNC participation across NYC. Following is a list of all the planned events and participating greenspaces in Brooklyn. You can also find this list on the Brooklyn CNC 2022 iNaturalist Project Journal.

Friday, April 29, 2022

Calvert Vaux Park

CNC BioBlitz: Birds, Plants, and Pollinators!
Time: 12pm-2pm
Host: Torrey Botanical Society
Description: Calvert Vaux Park is an under-explored park in Brooklyn with several trails and a waterfront view of the Verrazano Bridge. The event will take place during low tide to take advantage of the exposed shoreline. Participants of all levels are welcome! Local naturalists with expertise in plants, birds, and insects will share their knowledge on the biodiversity of the park and how to make meaningful observations. The bioblitz will be led by Chris Kreussling, Jen Kepler, and other local urban naturalists.
Registration: Eventbrite
Starting Location: [Pollinator Place Garden](https://goo.gl/maps/sZL2cotYE5vJ7cXt9), Calvert Vaux Park, near the pedestrian bridge over Shore Pkwy

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Ridgewood Reservoir (Highland Park)

Birds and Insects Walking Tour
Time: 10a – 12p
Host: NYC H2O
Description: Let’s put Highland Park and Ridgewood Reservoir on the map! Our first walk will be led by Ken Chaya – a consultant for the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), perhaps best know for mapping the location of all 19,933 trees in Central Park to produce the prolifically illustrated “Central Park Entire” map.
Registration: Eventbrite
Starting Location:

Plants and Herbals Walking Tour
Time: 12p – 2p
Host: NYC H2O
Description: Let’s put Highland Park and Ridgewood Reservoir on the map! Our second walk will be led by Jocelyn Perez-Blanco – a local educator, conservationist, and Herbalists Without Borders (HWB) NYC Queens Chapter Coordinator.
Registration: Via Eventbrite:
Starting Location:

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Green-Wood Cemetery
City Nature Challenge: Green-Wood BioBlitz
Time: 10am-12noon
Host: Green-Wood Historic Fund
Description: Join Sigrid Jakob and Potter Palmer, the project leads of Green-Wood’s Fungi Phenology Project, and Sara Evans, Green-Wood’s manager of horticulture operations, on a guided bioblitz.
Registration: https://www.green-wood.com/event/city-nature-challenge-green-wood-bioblitz/
Starting Location: inside the Main Entrance at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street

Fort Green Park

City Nature Challenge: Spring Blossoms
Time: 11a-12:30p
Host: Urban Park Rangers
Description: NYC Parks is participating in the City Nature Challenge and is recruiting you to help. Join the Rangers as we walk the park to observe and collect data for the City Nature Challenge, a friendly competition taking place April 29-May 1 between cities around the world to see which is most biodiverse. This program will focus on identifying spring blossoms. Participants are encouraged to download the iNaturalist app to collect data.
Registration: None needed. For more info, visit: https://www.nycgovparks.org/events/2022/05/01/city-nature-challenge-spring-blossoms
Starting Location: Fort Green Park Visitor Center

Monday, May 2, 2002

Prospect Park Nothing scheduled, but if you want to meet up for an informal CNC, let me know.

Parks and other Green Spaces

Other Brooklyn Parks and Green Spaces that are participating without any scheduled events:

Naval Cemetery Landscape
Shirley Chisolm State Park (SCSP)

NYC CNC iNaturalist Projects

City Nature Challenge

NYC CNC iNaturalist Projects- Past Years

Battle of the Boroughs – Past Years

2019
2020 – skipped
2021

Parks and Green Spaces

2021

iNaturalist Workshops at GrowTogether, 4/22 & 4/23

Posted on 2022-04-15 by admin

Eristalis arbustorum (left) and and Syritta pipiens (right), thick-legged fly, on NOID Lamiaceae, 6&B Community Garden, East VIllage, Manhattan, July 2012

It’s a busy season for me this Spring! NEXT WEEK is New York City NYC’s GreenThumb community gardening program annual conference, known as GrowTogether:

Part 2 of the GreenThumb GrowTogether conference will be hosted in-person in community gardens in all five boroughs in celebration of Earth Week. Join us for workshops about growing food, healthy eating, native pollinators, flower arrangement, planting seeds, screen printing garden swag, volunteer projects, and more. All the activities are free and open to the public!

… The theme of this year’s GrowTogether is “Deeply Rooted: Growing Community Connections.” Community gardeners from across New York City have been gathering at the GrowTogether conference each spring since 1984 to celebrate the start of the garden season with a day of learning, networking, and reconnecting with friends. – Ibid.

– 38th Annual GreenThumb GrowTogether Conference Part 2 Conference Guide

As noted above, all GrowTogether workshops are open to the public. Please register, as some workshops have limited capacity.

This is my first time participating in GrowTogether. I’ll be giving two different workshops on how to use iNaturalist, Friday in Brooklyn, and Saturday on Staten Island.

Using iNaturalist for Community Gardens and Gardeners

Friday, April 22
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
(Rain Date: Saturday, April 23, same time)
Location: Vernon Cases Community Garden, 42 Vernon Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Description:

iNaturalist is a community/citizen science platform where anyone can record their observations – photos or audio recordings – of any living thing anywhere in the world. Community gardeners and visitors can use iNaturalist to document and keep records about their gardens, such as flowering and fruiting times; identify and keep track of common weeds; and identify insect visitors, whether pests, predators, or pollinators.

In this workshop, we will use iNaturalist “in the field” to make observations of plants and insects and upload them to iNaturalist, creating a record of the biodiversity in a community garden. If you have access to a smartphone, please download the iNaturalist app in advance and bring it to the workshop!

Meet and Greet New York City’s Native Pollinators

Saturday, April 23
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
(Rain Date: Sunday, April 24, same time)
Location: Hill Street Community Garden, Staten Island
Description:

New York City is home to hundreds of species of pollinating insects. While butterflies and bumblebees are easily-spotted inhabitants of our community gardens, meet a few of New York City’s lesser known pollinators—including wasps, flower flies, and specialist bees— during this workshop with Sarah Ward from National Wildlife Federation and Chris Keussling (aka Flatbush Gardener). During a walk through the garden, participants will learn tips and tricks for observing pollinators and welcoming them into our gardens. Participants will also learn how to use the community science app iNaturalist to identify pollinators and contribute valuable data about pollinators in New York City.

Torrey Lecture, Wednesday March 30

Posted on 2022-03-17 by admin

2022-04-07: The recording is online on the Torrey Botanical Society YouTube channel.

I am proud to announce that I will be co-presenting, with Zihao Wang, a Lecture of the Torrey Botanical Society on Wednesday March 30 at 6pm. The title of the talk is “City Nature Challenge (CNC) 2022: For Plant-lovers and Botanists Alike.”

Note that the information we present will be applicable to iNaturalist users and City Nature Challenge observers and identifiers anywhere in the world! So, whereever you are, please join us if you can.

Abstract

Unlike most other citizen science platforms, iNaturalist allows anyone to record their observations of any living thing anywhere in the world. As it approaches 100 million Observations worldwide, it has become increasingly important to botany and other biological sciences. City Nature Challenge, based on iNaturalist, engages community members in cities and urbanized areas around the world to make observations, and provides opportunities for taxonomic experts to identify them, all over the world. Last year over 400 cities participated, with over 50,000 people documenting over 45,000 species with over 1.2 million observations, the largest bioblitz in the world. In this Torrey Talk, two iNaturalist experts will show how you can participate in iNaturalist and this year’s upcoming City Nature Challenge.

Registration

Date: 2022-03-30
Time: 6pm EDT (GMT-04:00)
Duration: 1 hour
Registration: Zoom

The talk will be recorded and made available on the Torrey YouTube channel sometime after the event. Please subscribe to our channel and enable notifications so you get updated when we publish new recordings!

Links

Torrey Botanical Society

iNaturalist Workshops, The High Line, Saturday September 25

Posted on 2021-09-13 by admin

Updated 2021-09-25: Added Links and QR Codes to “Getting Started with iNaturalist”.

I’m pleased to announce that Saturday, September 25th, I will be leading two iNaturalist Workshops “in the field” at The High Line. This is one of several workshops, and many other events, they have scheduled for Insectageddon, which runs from 3-6pm that Saturday afternoon.

Self-Portrait of an iNaturalist as an old man

I’ll be doing two walks:

3:15-4:15 pm
4:45-5:45 pm

When not out on one of the walks, I’ll have a table in The High Line’s Chelsea Market Passage, between 15th and 16th Streets. Please sign up there for one of the two workshops, as space will be limited. Each walk will start out from that location.

iNaturalist Workshop
Hosted by Chris Kreussling, aka “Flatbush Gardener”
Join Chris Kreussling for a walk on the High Line to explore plant and insect interactions and learn about the citizen scientist observation gathering tool iNaturalist. Tours begin at 3:30 and 4:45; please sign up upon arrival at Chris’s table in Chelsea Market Passage. Chris is a Brooklyn naturalist and gardener specializing in gardening with native plants to create habitat for pollinators and other invertebrates.

Visiting the High Line

Note that there are weekend restrictions in place for visitors to The High Line. You must register for timed entry; pre-registration is highly recommended. The only weekend entrances open are at Gansevoort Street, 23rd Street, and 30th Street.

Please give yourself plenty of time to get to my table in Chelse Market Passage for the start of the walk. The 14th Street entrance is exit-only on weekends. The closest weekend entrance is Gansevoort Street, at the corner of Washington Street, the southern end of The High Line. This entrance is just three blocks south of 14th Street.

Getting Started with iNaturalist

Sign up at https://www.inaturalist.org/signup
- You must be 13 or older.
- You can link to your existing social media account, such as Twitter or Facebook
- If you don’t have an existing social media account you want to link to, you can create a new account with a valid email address
If you have existing photos you want to identify, you can begin uploading them to iNaturalist through your Web browser.
Recommended: Also install the iNaturalist app on your Android phone or iPhone or other Apple device. Be sure to link it to the account you just created. You can then take photos on your phone and upload them directly to iNaturalist.
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.inaturalist.android

Apple/iPhone:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inaturalist/id421397028?mt=8

June

Saturday, June 1st

April

Sunday, April 14th

Bush Terminal Piers Park, Brooklyn

THursday, April 18th – Monday, April 22nd

Thiursday, APril 25th, 5:50 – 7:00 pm

Friday, April 26th – Monday, April 29th

City Nature Challenge Observation Period!

Friday, April 26th

Saturday, April 27th

Sunday, April 28th

Tuesday, April 30th – Sunday, May 5th

May

Saturday, May 4th

Saturday, May 11th

Sunday, May 19th

Shrubs and Smaller Trees

Larger Trees

Brooklyn Locations

Related Content

Links

Shrubs and Smaller Trees

Larger Trees

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Friday, April 29, 2022

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Monday, May 2, 2002

Parks and other Green Spaces

Related Content

NYC CNC iNaturalist Projects

NYC CNC iNaturalist Projects- Past Years

Related Content

Links

Abstract

Registration

Related Content

Links

Visiting the High Line

Getting Started with iNaturalist

Related Content

Links

iNaturalist