This is the Spencer Street Block Association Community Garden, at 230 Spencer Street, between Willoughby & DeKalb, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This was the 6th stop on the third 2008 Green With Envy tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens last October.
Tour Bed-Stuy Community Gardens, Saturday, October 4
Flickr photo set
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One of the paths defined by hexagonal raised beds at the Green Acres Community Garden in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
Stop #4 of the third 2008 Green With Envy (GWE) tour of Brooklyn community gardens was the Green Acres Community Garden, at the corner of Greene and Franklin Avenues [GMAP] in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Tour Bed-Stuy Community Gardens, Saturday, October 4
Flickr photo set
View slideshow
The second of the stops on the third Green With Envy tour of Bed-Stuy community gardens this past October was the Cedar Tree Garden at 305 Greene Avenue.
Tour Bed-Stuy Community Gardens, Saturday, October 4
Flickr photo set
Winter is a good time to dig into my photo archives. October seems so warm right now.
This is a slideshow from the Madison Street Block Association Garden at 88-90 Madison Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This was the first stop on the third of the Green With Tours of Brooklyn community gardens I attended during 2008. GWE 2008 III visited gardens in Bed-Stuy.
Tour Bed-Stuy Community Gardens, Saturday, October 4
Flickr photo set
Round 3 of the 2008 Green With Envy Tours visits community gardens in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Saturday, October 4, from 10am to 2pm. This tour is organized by the Brooklyn Community Gardens Coalition with support from NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation, GreenThumb, GreenGuerillas and BBG’S GreenBridge.
Click for map biggeremization
Gardens on the tour:
Join us for this guided tour, visiting Community Gardens in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The tour begins with a 10am breakfast at the Madison Street Block Assn. Garden between Franklin & Bedford, then walk, bike, or ride the bus to visit some AMAZING Brooklyn Gardens.
Special THANKS to the Parks Department for generously providing bus transport for this tour!!! Space is limited… RSVP joncrow [at] earthlink [dot] net.
To get to the start of the tour, take the G to Classon, the C to Franklin, or from Downtown Bklyn, take the B52 or B26 to Franklin and walk to the Madison Garden.
Green Guerillas
GreenBridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
GreenThumb
Bed-Stuy Garden Tour, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
The Green With Envy Tour II at the Brooklyn Bear’s Carlton Avenue Garden in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The final stop on the Green With Envy Tour II was the Carlton Avenue site of the Brooklyn Bear’s Gardens.
Check the links below for photos from the other stops on both Tours I and II. And watch for announcements for the next Green With Envy Tour, which I’ll post on this blog.
This garden had the most-developed and luxuriantly planted streetscape of any community garden I’ve seen. This has a big impact even when the garden is closed.
Approaching the garden from the north, the first thing you notice is the three story mural painted on the side wall of the adjacent building.
Here’s a closer look.
As you get closer, the streetside planters demand your attention.
In the planter to the left of the entrance are the silver-white flowering bracts of mountain-mint, Pycnanthemum muticum. I recognized it because I grow the same species in my backyard native plant garden. In this garden as well as my own, at this time of year they are swarming with multiple species of bees, flies, and wasps, all important pollinators of food crops.
Opposite, to the right of the entrance, is another planter with a different design. Asymmetrical plantings like these entrance planters maximize the massing possible with a given plant palette. The greater variety of plants provide for longer, and more varied, blooms. All of these are strategies to attract both plant pollinators and insect predators close to the garden’s growing areas.
Every garden has a “garden is open” sign. This one includes several imperatives.
More ornamental plantings, including several mature trees, lie inside the fence.
The garden is built on a slope. The raised beds form terraces built into the hillside. This photo is the best I got to show this. I’d like to see this garden in the winter.
The picnic area, which appears in the opening photo, is part of the gathering area at the low side of the garden.
The mandatory composting area. This triple-bin arrangement was the most common. These weathered bins are still on the job. Signs moved from bin to bin let gardeners and visitors know where to add fresh material, and where they can obtain compost for use in their beds.
Marigold
Monarda
Achillea
Coreopsis
Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark’s Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2
Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3
Hollenback Community Garden, Clinton Hill, Green With Envy Tour, II.5
Classon FulGate Block Association Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.6
Clifton Place Block Association Community Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.7
The Greene Garden, Fort Greene, Green With Envy Tour, II.9
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
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10
Green With Envy Tour at the Greene Garden in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The Greene Garden is a shady green space across the street from Fort Greene Park. When I saw this, I imagined the wonderful shade gardens that could be created here.
There are no growing areas, just common areas for socializing, and relaxing, interconnected by wandering paths.
The gazebo is really nice. In my long-term vision for integrating the rear of my house with the backyard garden, I imagine something like this at the corner of a back porch, providing an entrance from the driveway and garage at the rear of the property onto the porch and access to the rear of the house.
This garden is a work in progress.
No glam in this garden, yet. It has the potential to become a showcase shade garden. Meanwhile, there some artificial color is scattered about.
Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark’s Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2
Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3
Hollenback Community Garden, Clinton Hill, Green With Envy Tour, II.5
Classon FulGate Block Association Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.6
Clifton Place Block Association Community Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.7
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
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10
Green With Envy Tour at the Clifton Place Block Association Community Garden in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
The usual raised beds, but laid out in an unusual manner, almost mazelike.
Here’s a view from the street entrance area.
Here’s a view from inside, near the rear of the garden.
A hint of the maze.
They had some brand-new, still-shiny compost bins.
Are we sick of sunflowers, yet? I hope not.
Bee on Sunflower
Kale. Almost looks good enough to eat. Almost.
Moss on Rock
I know, you’re sick of Echinacea by now. But it’s hard to take a bad shot of them. They reward close inspection.
And the bees like them some Echinacea, too.
Lily. As fragrant as it looks.
Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark’s Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2
Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3
Hollenback Community Garden, Clinton Hill, Green With Envy Tour, II.5
Classon FulGate Block Association Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.6
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
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10
Green With Envy Tour at the Classon FulGate Block Association Garden in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Classon FulGate was the oldest community on the tour, possibly the oldest in Brooklyn. The unusual name derives from its location: Classon Avenue between Gates Avenue and Fulton Street. It’s been in operation for more than four decades, under the guidance of this man, whose name I cannot recall. I’m better with plants than people.
Street entrance
Most of the common area is located at the rear of the garden, beneath the only tree. As you can see in the opening photo, the shade was a welcome relief, as were the refreshments at this stop.
A community mural depicting residents of the block covers the back wall. The smaller portraits along the top of the wall depict deceased residents.
Nearly all the space of this comparatively small garden – the area of two townhouses – is devoted to growing food crops.
The growing beds are sunken rather than raised, relative to the central path. Everything is grown in impeccably neat rows in one of two large communal growing areas, one on each side of the path.
Watermelon leaf
Bee on Canna
Marigold
Zinnia
Hibiscus syriacus, Rose-of-Sharon
Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark’s Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2
Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3
Hollenback Community Garden, Clinton Hill, Green With Envy Tour, II.5
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
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10
The Green With Envy Tour gets an explanation of the water collection system at the Hollenback Community Garden.
Skipping over stop #4 (we’ll wrap that up with some other short stops at the end), we come to Hollenback Community Garden, stop #5 on Tour 2 of the Green With Envy tour of Brooklyn community gardens. Hollenback is another large community garden. They have the largest and most sophisticated rainwater collection system I’ve seen yet. They have an community composting program. They provide multiple channels for folks to contribute, including their so-far-unique composting toilet.
Compared to the lush Prospect Heights Farm, in this garden, the common areas near the entrance are spartan.
Ornamental plantings line the paths leading into and through the heart of the garden.
I was impressed with the scale of these open silos, and the temperatures they achieved.
Each silo was carefully labelled.
And monitored.
The silos were out in the middle of the garden. They had a sweet aroma. There was another composting area, located in the rear of the garden, as is more common.
The finished material is beautiful.
This custom-made compost-mobile is an important element in their collection system. They partner with the GreenMarket, NYC’s farmers’ markets, at Fort Greene Park. They have drop-offs there on the days the Greenmarket operates. They load up garbage cans in the front crate and pedal them back to the garden for composting.
They also have garbage cans at the entrance, just inside the gate, where neighbors can come by and drop off their kitchen scraps even when the garden is not open.
This high-end outhouse addresses all the concerns you might have about a composting toilet. There was absolutely no odor around or in this, even when they opened the “basement” lid so we could take a look at the “nightsoil” they’ve collected so far.
The woman on the left seems not so sure of the whole setup.
This sign reminded me of the scene in 2001 regarding the zero-G toilet.
Beneath the base is the finished product. The lid is necessary for periodic maintenance, mainly raking and leveling out the, um, “material”, as well as eventually harvesting the compost. The black lid on the left covers another trap for removing excess liquid. The gray box and white plumbing provide ventilation.
Massive tanks collect water off the flat roof of the adjacent brownstone.
This big “U” trap behind the main tanks is an important part of the system. It collects the initial flush of water off the adjoining roof, which will have the most airborne contaminants. Only when the trap fills does the flow begin filling the tanks. The trap can be drained independently of the tanks.
Bee on Sunflower.
Very familiar, some kind of Hibiscus, but I can’t place it.
Echinacea and Bee
Rose
Elephant Garlic, I think
Gomphrena
Hollyhock in bud
Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark’s Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2
Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3
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
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10