Next Week: Plant Feeding Frenzy at BBG

Next week is the annual Plant Sale at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the largest on the East Coast. The Brooklyn Compost Project will also be on hand, selling compost bins and providing information about how to compost.

I’ve already bought waaaay too many plants this season, but I’m still planning to buddy up with a neighbor and be there for the Members-Only Preview portion of the sale. Part of the experience is just rubbing elbows with a couple hundred fellow plant-o-philes, ranging in knowledge and expertise from seedling to Ent. And I’ll pick up a few additions as well, I’m sure. I’m taking the week off to devote to gardening and catching up with my Spring cleanup chores.

Members-Only Preview Sale
Tuesday, May 6 | 4:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
Admission with BBG membership card only.

Open to the public
Wednesday, May 7 (9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.)
Thursday, May 8 (9:00 a.m.– Noon)

Admission to Garden & Plant Sale
Members: free
Adults: $8.00
Seniors (65 and over): $4.00
Students with ID: $4.00
Children under 12 accompanied by an adult: free

Note that, with each paid admission, visitors will receive a coupon for free-admission to use on a return visit to the Garden.

Special 50¢ Plants for Children
Conveniently located adjacent to the Children’s Garden. School classes may enter at 900 Washington Avenue or at the Flatbush Avenue gate. An ideal introduction to BBG’s Children’s Garden program. School groups are not permitted in main sale area. Admission is free for school classes.

FAQs

What do you sell?
Every kind of plant, both for indoors and outdoors: annuals, perennials, small trees and shrubs, roses, herbs, vegetables, all kinds of tomatoes (including many Heritage varieties), houseplants, orchids, hanging baskets…and more. Plants are the best quality at the best prices: unusually choice specimens, many rare varieties and native plants, handpicked and selected.

Will you have X (naming a specific plant)?
YES, we will have that or something very similar to it. Come to the sale, you’ll be sure to find what you want. There will be a huge selection, largest on the East Coast, better than a catalog because what you see is what you get.

Are all your plants grown at BBG?
All our plants are specially grown for the sale by selected growers, most of them local. [Short answer: No.]

Will there be lots to choose from on Wednesday and Thursday?
YES! There will be thousands of first-rate plants. There will also be free special events throughout both days of the sale—lectures and demonstrations (details above).

How can I get my plants home?
There will be a free checkroom where you can leave plants overnight and pick them up the next day.

Can I bring my own cart?
Yes, please do. [Done!]

Tell me about the Member-Only Plant Sale Preview.
Only members will be allowed in. You can join the Garden on the spot (annual membership starts at $40) to attend the Plant Sale Preview.

Thursday, May 8: The 3rd Annual Brooklyn Blogfest

Brooklyn Blogfest 2008 Banner

The 3rd Annual Brooklyn Blogfest will take place next Thursday evening at 8pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

The Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest 2008 is an event for bloggers, blog-readers, those interested in Blogging, and those passionate about Brooklyn. It is open to one and all and everyone is warmly welcomed. No need to RSVP or be personally invited.
The Latest Blogfest Details, May 2, 2008

The audience, assembled and ready, at last year’s Blogfest
Assembled and ready

This is a chance to meet the faces behind the blogs, learn about the state of blogging in Brooklyn, pick up some blogging tips, hob-knob with your fellow wizards, and all such as that. I’ll be at the tail end of the program, speaking about the mostly monthly Blogades, started after last year’s Blogfest.

Admission is $10, $5 for students.

WHEN: Thursday May 8th, 2008 at 8 p.m.

WHERE: The Brooklyn Lyceum. 227 Fourth Avenue (at President Street) [GMAP]

HOW: R train to Union Street

PROGRAM (subject to change):

  • Video: Place Matters: Blogging My World by Blue Barn Pictures
  • Brief Welcome: Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn (Louise Crawford)
  • Speaker: Creative Times (Eleanor Traubman)
  • Speaker: Bed-Stuy Blog (Petra S.)
  • Video: A Walk Around the Blog Promo by Brooklyn Independent Television
  • Speaker: New York Shitty (Miss Heather)
  • Speaker: Gowanus Lounge (Robert Guskind)
  • Speaker: Blogger Smackdown by Gersh Kuntzman, editor, The Brooklyn Paper
  • Video: A Word from WNYC’s Brian Lehrer
  • Speaker: Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers presented by So Good (Heather Johnson)
  • Speaker: Outside.in, a resource for bloggers who blog about where they live
  • Video: A Tribute to Brooklyn’s Photo Bloggers (produced by Brooklyn Optimist)
  • Speaker: Bloggers Reach Out: What is the Brooklyn Blogade? presented by Flatbush Gardener (Yours truly)
  • ANNUAL SHOUT-OUT: Your chance to share your blog with the world introduced by Luna Park Gazette

Related content

My report from last year’s Blogfest
Back in the Day
My photos of last year’s Blogfest
All my Blogfest and Blogade posts

Links

The Brooklyn Blogfest “miniblog” on Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Brooklyn Lyceum

Sakura Matsuri this weekend

This weekend is Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The weather cooled down just in time. The cherries are still holding at peak in my neighborhood, but there are drifts of petals swirling around. With rain predicted tonight and through the weekend, we may just get a soggy mess. We’ll see if BBG’s main display holds up for the weekend. I’ll be checking in on them before Botany class this evening, weather permitting.

The purpose of the mysterious camera at the end of the Cherry Walk has been confirmed. BBG released a timelapse video composed of over 3,000 photographs taken with the camera.

2008 Cherry Blossom Timelapse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Vimeo.

This timelapse was created by Dave Allen, BBG’s Web Manager, from over 3,000 digital photos, one taken every 3 minutes from April 18 to April 26, 2008, of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famed Cherry Walk.

The original music is by Jon Solo, a Brooklyn-based musician and producer.

Related Posts

Hanami

Links

See the 2008 Cherry Blossom Timelapse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden in HD on vimeo
Music by Jon Solo, a Brooklyn-based musician and producer.

Sunday, May 4: Beverley Square West Bash

West side of Stratford Road, looking south from Slocum Place, Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn
Stratford Road, East side, looking south from Slocum Place

This is a reminder to all Beverley Square West residents that the occasional, not quite biennial, Beverley Square West Bash will be held this Sunday, May 4th, from 4:30 – 7:30 PM, at Temple Beth Emeth at the corner of Marlborough Road and Church Avenue. There will be two DJs, a magician and catered banquet food. The menu selection will include:

  • chicken marsala
  • sliced BBQ pork loin
  • baked ziti
  • baked eggplant
  • roast beef with gravy
  • linguine with clam sauce
  • a variety of cooked vegetables
  • salad
  • dessert (cake and fresh fruit salad)
  • cold and hot drinks

Note that there will be a separate table set up with foods that children will especially enjoy. Also, free feel to bring your own wine or beer to this event.

If you haven’t already, RSVP ASAP. The amount of food we order will be based upon the number of people who commit to the event, so be sure to note how many adults and children will be attending.

The admission price for the bash is $10 per family, but only if you RSVP. Price is $10 at the door with an RSVP, otherwise $20.

RSVP to BSWParty [at] gmail (dot) com

Saturday, May 3: Bay Ridge Narrows Botanical Gardens Spring Festival

Crabapple, taken last fall at the Narrows Botanical Gardens
Crabapple

This Saturday, May 3 (rain date Sunday, May 4), the Narrows Botanical Garden in Bay Ridge is holding their annual Spring Festival:

Join us for our 13th Annual Spring Festival on Saturday, May 3rd between 10am and 4pm (rain date Sunday, May 4th). Browse among our many Craft Booths where you are sure to find something that catches your eye. Stroll along the Shore Road Promenade and meet some of our talented artists whose Art Exhibits will be for sale along the fence line of the gardens.

If gardening is your love, you may just find that special plant, shrub or flower that would suit your taste just in time for spring planting at our Plant Sale! Or, maybe you just have a question that needs answering on plants or gardening, our NBG experts would be glad to help.

It’s a Family Event…so bring the kids! The NBG knows that kids are our future! What better way to introduce them to their environment then exposing them to the beauty of the gardens. Showing them how just a few people volunteering together made that difference.

Fun Stuff for Kids! Native Plant Tours: See who can spot a frog, turtle or fish in our pond! Paint a Flower Pot: plant it up in time for Mothers Day. Face Painting. Story telling.
– via email

Narrows Botanical Gardens is in Bay Ridge, along Shore Road between Bay Ridge Avenue and 72nd Street. When I visited it for the first time last fall, due to sidewalk construction along Shore Road, only the northernmost entrance, closest to Bay Ridge Avenue, was open. Unfortunately, the Native Plant Garden – and Turtle Sanctuary! – was also closed when I visited.

Nestled between beautiful Shore Road and the sparkling waters of The Narrows, in the welcoming community of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, four and a half acres of rambling parkland have been transformed by the inspiration and nurturing of a community of volunteers into the Narrows Botanical Gardens.

The Turtle Sanctuary in the Native Plant Garden. Since 1995, this verdant collection of hills, pathways, and gorgeous harbor views has blossomed into a lush conservatory of nature’s beauty and brilliance, providing an unequaled opportunity to stroll amid fragrant blossoms bustling with butterflies, a bubbling brook where turtles sun on the rocks, majestic Redwood trees that seem to touch the sky, and delicate orchids growing wild in a Native Plant Garden. Linger at our city’s only roadside lily pond, or promenade through the towering Linden Tree Allée. Snap portraits at the picturesque Rock Wall bench, or find meditative calm in the Zen Garden.

… And, when you have visited the Narrows Botanical Gardens, strolled its pathways and smelled its roses, you will be amazed to learn it is wholly created by, built by, and nurtured and maintained by volunteers, making the Narrows Botanical Gardens one of the largest community gardens in our great City of New York.

Related Posts

Narrows Botanical Gardens, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, October 22, 2007

Links

Narrows Botanical Gardens

May 3-10: NYC Wildflower Week

Dicentra cucullaria, Dutchman’s Breeches, with Onoclea sensibilis, Sensitive Fern, poking through, in the Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Dicentra cucullaria, Dutchman's Breeches

This Saturday, May 3, the Torrey Botanical Society kicks off NYC Wildflower Week:

NYC Wildflower Week celebrates all things green and wild in the Big Apple—the hundreds of native flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses that call NYC home. It’s a week of inspired environmental learning, with dozens of free activities, walks and talks for all New Yorkers to enjoy.

The week of events actually kicks off this Friday evening, with the first of a series of lectures, at NYU:

Friday May 2nd, 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
New York University
“Native Wildflowers of New York City”
Discover the City’s 25,000 green acres—filled with majestic trees, wildflowers, grasses and ferns— the wild, unplanted thread in the Big Apple’s ecological fabric. Learn what makes a plant native and why local flora is important. Explore how life in the five boroughs means it’s not easy being green due to characteristics of urban forests and threats to indigenous flora. We’ll also discuss what you can do, including how to go native in the garden.

Speaker Marielle Anzelone is a botanist, landscape designer and founder of NYC Wildflower Week. This introduction to the flora of the five boroughs will be hosted by the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at NYU.

Space is limited.
RSVP by email to kathleen [dot] oliver (at) nyu [dot] edu or call 212-992-9362.

Saturday May 3rd, 8am to 3pm
Greenmarket Events

Free NYC Wildflower Week Bags!
Pick up a NYC Wildflower Week bag for your shopping and get information on the week’s events and why gardening with native plants is the way to go.

Gardening Advice and Demonstrations
Look for our tent at the south side of the Greenmarket. Marielle Anzelone will provide native plant gardening advice and demonstrations throughout the day. Find out what makes a plant native, how to attract butterflies and birds, and the best ways to start a native plant garden.

Greenmarket Native Plant Initiative
As a result of this unique program, Greenmarket vendor Oak Grove Farms will offer certified NYC native plants for sale for the first time starting Saturday May 3, 2008!

Sunday May 4th, 8am to 3pm
Native Plant Display Garden

Wildflower Giveaway
Come by the Native Plant Display Garden (15th St. & Union Square West) from 12 to 3 pm to get a free native plant seedling while supplies last.

Related Posts

Natives
Invasives

Links

NYC Wildflower Week
Torrey Botanical Society
Marielle Anzelone

Help me select the BBG Visitors Group photo for June

Lavender border along the Cranford Rose Garden, taken May 28, 2007, by TheGirlsNY

Update 2007.06.08: I selected the photo above as the BBGV group photo for June 2007. Thanks to everyone who weighed in and contributed suggestions.

Be sure to check out the comments to this post and follow the links for an interesting blog conversation about why there are so few people in these photos.


I’m a co-admin for a Flickr group, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitors photo pool. In May I thought I would start rotating the group photo which represents the group in Flickr. I’m trying to pick the photo for June.

Pink Snowcherry laneBrooklyn Botanic Gardens #2WisteriaIMGP2055

It’s a tough decision. Over 200 photos were posted in May, out of over 1,100 photos since Paul-M started the group last year. And May is such an explosion. There was the Cherry Blossom Festival, of course, but there are also tulips, azaleas, wisteria, and even roses that have started blooming.

So, help me pick. Here are a few of my favorites of the 200, in order by the date taken. Leave a comment and let me know your favorites. Or you can nominate another one from the pool. The only criteria are that the picture was taken during May 2007, and that it’s not one of my photos. I’ll make a decision over the weekend.

Pink Snow, taken May 6, 2007, by Abizeleth
Pink Snow

Cherry Lane, Taken May 9, 2007, by Keith Carver
cherry lane

Tulips, taken May 12, 2007, by James Prescott
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens #2

Wisteria, taken May 15, 2007, by PaulS
Wisteria

Borage?, taken May 29, 2007, by amg
IMGP2055

Back in the Day

2008.03.10: Welcome – I guess – New York magazine Intelligencer readers. I encourage you to read my post about the BlogFest itself, which inspired this “hyperniche nostalgia,” as NY characterizes it. (Shouldn’t that be hypo-niche? sub-niche? micro-niche?)


Crazy Diamond, aka Flatbush Gardener, circa 1980s.
Crazy Diamond, ca. 1980s

I wrote the following as part of my Brooklyn Blogfest coverage. I now find myself in the position of being one of the coordinators of the first Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow, which it is hoped will take the spirit and energy of the Brooklyn Blogfest on the road to different neighborhoods in Brooklyn. I hope to provide details of the inaugural event later tonight or this week.

I’m highlighting this bit of autobiography and technology history in its own post here because it expresses what I’m trying to bring of myself to this first event.


[Written 2007.05.11]

Back in the Day

Gather round me, children. Close your eyes, and try to imagine it. It was long before the Web, when the Internet existed only in military and select academic settings. It was the time before GUIs, before mice and color monitors, when MS-DOS and 1200bps dial-up modems roamed the Earth.

There were these things called computer bulletin board services, BBS for short. Your computer told your modem the phone number of the BBS. Your modem dialed, their modem answered, and both modems connected with each other. Then your computer could talk to their computer. Directly. No Web, no Internet. Machino a machino. You could leave messages for other BBS members; the precursor of email. You could even chat with someone else who was also logged in; the precursor of IM today.

I was a member of a BBS based in New York City called The BackRoom. It was, as one might guess from the name, a gay BBS. It was an online community of gay men, mostly, living in NYC, mostly. We had handles, like CB radio users (1970s technology). My CB handle in the 1970s, 30+ years ago, was Green Thumb. My BackRoom handle was Crazy Diamond, after the Pink Floyd song, “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond.”

Donor Recognition plaque on the wall of the second floor landing of the center staircase of the NYC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.
In Memory of Art Kohn

We were an online community. A community of humpy nerds, of which I was one. We were not only virtual. We also met, face-to-face, at a periodic event called the Backroom Bash. Sometimes we met at a bar, sometimes at the home of a member or the Backroom founder and sysop, Art Kohn. We built community online, with handles and anonymity. We met in person, still with our handles, and less anonymity, and built community there as well. Our virtual community was enriched by our interactions in 3D, and vice versa.

Last night [the Blogfest] reminded me of that.

Happy (?!) Endangered Species Day

On May 18th, America celebrates [sic] Endangered Species Day! The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution supporting Endangered Species Day, a national celebration of America’s commitment to protecting and recovering our nation’s endangered species. Americans young and old will learn about endangered species, including the American bald eagle, peregrine falcon, gray wolf, grizzly bear, humpback whale and many of our nation’s wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of extinction.

For the next week, millions of Americas [sic] will celebrate Endangered Species Day at parks, wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, environmental agencies, conservation organizations, schools, museums, libraries, businesses, and community groups across the country. For a list of Endangered Species Day events and activities, visit the Endangered Species Day webpage.

Links:

Event, Brooklyn & Queens, 5/19 & 5/20: Compost Giveback

[Updated 18:15 EDT: Corrected dates!]

Compost This Way

The Brooklyn-Queens Compost Giveback continues this Saturday and Sunday, May 19&20 at the Spring Creek Composting site [Google Map]. Blog Widow John and I went last Saturday.

I was not allowed to take pictures at the event. Rumor on the ground was that the property is being examined for development. I took the one photo above before I was told photography was not allowed.

Fortunately, there’s Google and satellites. Check out the piles of compost!

Google Map of Spring Creek Composting Site

I armed us with two broad-faced shovels, a pitchfork, a plastic bushel-sized bin, and heavy-duty plastic contractor’s bags. We backed up to a rapidly dwindling yet still impressive long row of compost and had at it. The Queens Botanical Garden was on hand to provide advice and literature.

I also picked up two Garden Gourmet composters at $20 a pop. I put one of them together on Sunday. I’ve used Smith & Hawken BioStacks for many years. I’ll come back with a comparative review of the two designs later.

Garden Gourmet (left) and Biostack (right)
Comparison of Garden Gourmet (left) and Biostack (right)

Links:

Related posts: