Tag Archives: Events

Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6

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One of the gardeners shows off his bed.
Green With Envy Tour

I lived in Park Slope for 13 years before moving to Flatbush. The Baltic Street Garden, facing busy 4th Avenue, is a garden I knew of but never got to visit while I lived there. Driving along 4th Avenue during the summer, it’s hard to miss. The two-story Campsis radicans, the native Trumpet Vine, qualifies this as a 50 mile-per-hour garden.

Baltic Street Community Garden

Baltic Street Community Garden

The interior of the garden used to be screened from the street by hedges. Although you can now see the garden from the sidewalk and street, it’s a different experience viewing it from the inside.

The plots are large, raised beds. Gardeners grow a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and ornamentals.

Baltic Street Community Garden

Awesome.

Baltic Street Community Garden

Baltic Street Community Garden

Some glam shots.

Hemerocallis

Echinacea and Sedum

Peaches were falling off this tree. Perfect fuzz.

Peach

Even the “necessaries” were photogenic.

Supplies

I got a kick out of this sign just inside the entrance. That’s just how I feel. They missed a view of my “love to hate” though. What would you add to their list?

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Related Posts

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26
Brooklyn Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2
Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.3
David Foulke Memorial Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.4
Warren-St Marks Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy, I.5

Warren-St Marks Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy, I.5

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Warren-St Marks Community Garden

We’re now halfway through the Green With Envy Tour One from last Saturday. We cross the thoroughfare of 4th Avenue, leaving Boerum Hill and entering my old neighborhood of Park Slope.

The Warren-St Mark’s Garden spans Warren Street and St. Mark’s Place between 4th and 5th Avenues in Park Slope. The contrasts with the gardens we visited in Boerum Hill were striking. First, there was just so much space, and more openness and sunlight. Second, food was being grown here.

Warren-St Marks Community Garden

Of course, my eyes were still drawn more to the ornamental plantings.

Warren-St Marks Community Garden

Warren-St Marks Community Garden

Warren-St Marks Community Garden

This big, yellow Asteraceae demanded attention. I didn’t recognize it. I thought at first it was a Heliopsis. The flowers remind me more of a Coreopsis, but I’ve never seen one so huge as this. This specimen was about 6 feet tall. Anyone know what it is?

Big Yellow
Big Yellow and Horsetail
Unknown Asteraceae

I also admired the subtle beauty of the Horsetails in the foreground above.

Horsetail

The composting area is off to one side at the middle of the garden, near Big Yellow, peeking in at the lower right. The big bag contains sawdust for folks to throw in when they’re adding vegetables.

Composting Area

There’s a nice area of stadium seating toward the St. Mark’s end of the garden. They show movies there, using the side of an adjacent building as the screen.

Warren-St Marks Community Garden
Warren-St Marks Community Garden

Related Posts

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26
Brooklyn Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2
Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.3
David Foulke Memorial Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.4

Links

Warren St. Mark’s Community Garden (Web site and blog)
Warren St. Mark’s Community Garden (Yahoo Group, requires membership)

David Foulke Memorial Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.4

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David Foulke Memorial Garden

Another lovely, ornamental garden in Boerum Hill. It may sound strange, but the first thing that really wowed me about this garden was the sinuous brick path winding from the front entrance to the back seating area.

David Foulke Memorial Garden

David Foulke Memorial Garden

Solid, perfectly bowed from the center to the margins for drainage. A herringbone pattern, with each marginal brick perfectly cut to fit the curve of the path. A professional job, which makes sense, considering that this garden is owned by the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust, which has access to the resources for a job like this.

There was also plenty of vegetal eye candy, as well.

Wall Planter

Solenostemon (Coleus)

Daucus carota

Strobilanthes

Related Posts

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.3
Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2
Brooklyn Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.3

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Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

I didn’t get many shots of this one, another ornamental green space. There’s only one narrow path which loops like a shepherd’s crook from the entrance into the heart of the garden. It was hard to assemble everyone on the tour into the garden at once.

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Many trees and large shrubs shade the rest of the property, much of it not accessible to the casual visible. (Gardeners, of course, make their own paths.) I imagine it must be a paradise for birds.

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Viburnum, detail

Hosta and Coreopsis

Related Posts

Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2
Green With Envy Tour, Tour One, Stop 1
Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2

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Hoyt Street Garden

On busy Atlantic Avenue, at the corner of Hoyt Street, lies the green oasis of the Hoyt Street Garden. This was our second official stop on the first leg of the Green With Envy Tour yesterday morning.

Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

Metasequoia, Hoyt Street Garden

Dominated by a large Metasequoia and an oak, this is a shade garden, so no vegetables. The center circle is used for story-telling on the weekends. Funds from an annual plant sale funds micro-grants for projects that benefit the Boerum Hill community.

Salvage Path

Variegated Solomon's Seal, Hoyt Street Garden

Our Lady of Milk Crates

Related Posts

Green With Envy Tour, Tour One, Stop 1
Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

Brooklyn Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1

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The Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden at Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. That’s the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower behind.
Brooklyn Bear's Garden

Today I attended the first leg of the Green with Envy guided walking tour of some of Brooklyn’s numerous community gardens. Today we visited 10 community gardens in Park Slope and Boerum Hill over 5 hours. Yes, my feet hurt.

I also took hundreds of photos, which will take me a few days to get through. Here’s the first batch, from the Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden at Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. There are many more on my Flickr site.

Touristas (mostly)
Touristas

The garden occupies a wedge of land at the intersection of Pacific Street and the every-busy Flatbush Avenue. There’s an entrance on each side.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue

Here’s a view of the Pacific Street side. The entrance is just past the raging Capmsis radicans, Trumpet Vine, which dominates this fence during the summer.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Pacific Street

Here’s the entrance on Flatbush Avenue, from outside, and in.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Flatbush Avenue entrance
Flatbush Avenue entrance

As you enter from Flatbush, the individual plots are to your left.

Brooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's Garden

Mostly vegetables.

Cabbage leaves

Squash blossom

But also ornamentals.

Zinnia
Zinnia
Zinnia

Common areas are devoted to ornamental plantings. They’re attractive to all kinds of insects, which satisfy the vegetables’ needs for pollination. View these flower portraits in their larger sizes to see which insects they’re attracting.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden

Roses and guests

Water Lily

Groundcovers

Rudbeckia

Milkweed

I also had the pleasure of meeting two fellow Flickrites: luluinnyc and mayotic. I’m looking forward to seeing their shots of today’s tour.

Related Content

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26
Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden, February 13, 2008
All my photos of this garden (Flickr set)

Weed Cortelyou some more this weekend

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This weekend Flatbush residents have two more opportunities to weed, clean up, and mulch tree pits along Cortelyou Road:

  • Saturday, July 12, 9am to 12 noon, between Rugby and Marlborough Roads. Meet at the clock at the northwest corner of Rugby and Cortelyou, by the school and playground.
  • Sunday, July 13, 9am to 12noon, between East 16th and East 17th Streets. Meet at the corner of East 16th and Cortelyou.

One of the tree pits on Cortelyou Road between Rugby and Marlborough, across the street from the Food Co-op, June 28, 2008. The weeds were as high as the parking meter then. They’re even higher now.
Major Weeds

We will be there both mornings from 9am to 12noon or when that block is weeded, whichever comes first. No gardening experience necessary! We will show you what to do.

Bring your own drinking water, sunscreen, and gloves and be ready to get dirty.

Thanks to Flatbush Development Corporation for buying mulch for the tree pits! And many thanks to my neighbor, Tracey Hohman, for jump-starting this cleanup!

Related Posts

Links

Cortelyou Weeded (Partly)

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Before: Weeding Cortelyou
Before: Weeding Cortelyou

This morning I joined about a dozen neighbors to weed, clean up, and mulch the tree pits on Cortelyou Road between Argyle and Rugby Roads. Many hands made light work of the 15 tree pits on the north and south sides of this one block. We got them all done in about 2-1/2 hours.

They look great. If you visit the Greenmarket tomorrow, or visit the block during the week, take a look and thank your neighbors. Thanks to Tracey Hohman for organizing this. And thanks to Flatbush Development Corporation for buying mulch for the tree pits!

After: Cortelyou Weeded
After: Cortelyou Weeded

Weeded and mulched tree pit
Weeded and mulched tree pit

We could only do this one block. There’s more to be done. If you’re available to help out on upcoming weekends, please let us know by responding to the poll in the upper-right of the sidebar, or email me at the address in my profile.

Related Posts

Weeding Cortelyou

Links

Flatbush Development Corporation
Invasive and Noxious Weeds of the Northeast, USDA PLANTS Database

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

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Map, Green With Envy Tour, July 2008

On Saturday, July 12 and 26, visit Community Gardens in Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights. On both guided tours, you can join us for a 10am breakfast at the Pacific Street Bear’s Garden on Flatbush Ave, then walk, bike, or drive the routes below. More info: 718-636-4273.

Special thanks to the Brooklyn Community Gardeners’ Coalition, GreenThumb, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s GreenBridge.

Tour One, Saturday, July 12

  1. Pacific Street Bear’s Garden at Flatbush Avenue, Park Slope
  2. Hoyt Street Community Garden at Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill
  3. Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill
  4. David R. Foulke Memorial Garden, Bergen Street between Nevins & Bond Streets, Boerum Hill
  5. Warren St. Marks Community Garden between 4th & 5th Avenues, Park Slope
  6. Baltic Street Community Garden at 4th Avenue, Park Slope
  7. Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Lincoln between 5th & 6th Avenues, Park Slope
  8. Gardens of Union, Union between 4th & 5th Avenues, Park Slope
  9. Gil Hodges Garden, Carroll between 3rd & 4th Avenues, Gowanus
  10. GreenSpace at President Street, corner of 5th Avenue, Park Slope

Tour Two, Saturday, July 26

  1. Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Garden at Flatbush Avenue
  2. St. Marks Avenue Blk. Assn. Community Garden btwn Carlton & Vanderbilt
  3. Prospect Heights Community Farm, St. Marks btwn Vanderbilt & Underhill
  4. Fulton Revival Garden, Vanderbilt at Gates
  5. Hollenback Community Garden, Washington btwn Gates & Greene
  6. Classon Ful-gate Community Garden, Classon btwn Fulton & Gates
  7. Clifton Place Community Garden, Grand btwn Clifton & Greene
  8. Pratt/Clinton Hill Community Garden, Hall St at DeKalb
  9. The Greene Garden, DeKalb at Portland
  10. Carlton Avenue Brooklyn Bear’s Garden between Fulton & Greene

Look for more “GWE” Tours coming up this fall in Bed Stuy and East NY, once again sponsored by the new (and still forming) Brooklyn Community Gardeners’ Coalition. There’ll also be a bike tour in August sponsored by the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust! Lots of opportunities to see Brooklyn’s beautiful gardens!

Related Posts

Brooklyn Bears Community Garden, February 13, 2008

Brooklyn Parks’ Events, July 4th Weekend

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Lots of activities in Parks all over Brooklyn this weekend: