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
Campus Road Garden, South Midwood, Flatbush, Brooklyn
This Saturday, August 23, from 3pm to 5pm, the Campus Road Garden at Avenue H and Campus Road is hosting an art show and garden tour:
Come view the garden, sit among the flowers and butterflies, and see art created by your neighbors.
South Midwood Garden Tour, Sunday, July 30, 2006
My other posts about South Midwood
My photos of this garden (Flickr set)
Crabapple, taken last fall at the Narrows Botanical Gardens
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.
Narrows Botanical Gardens, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, October 22, 2007
Anemone blanda, Outside Clyde
This afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting with CC of Outside Clyde. I’ve been following his chronicles witnessing the succession of growth and bloom on the resident gardeners’ hillside. This is just my small contribution.
There’s no single vantage from which you can take in the entire hillside at once.
Daffodil Hill
The trails wander and intersect organically, having evolved over three decades of clearing, planting and gardening.
Over the hill, through the woods
The trails are rough, and steep at times. But it pays to stop often and look around, and up, and out.
Daffodil “Rip van Winkle”
Narcissus, cyclamineus tribe
Possibly “King Alfred”
Shelf fungus
Pulmonaria
The threatened thunderstorms never materialized. CC’s site is adjacent, and we hiked along another trail to get there. There was only a sprinkle of rain.
Lichens
Old foundation
Last year’s Goldenrod
Claytonia
A lovely afternoon.
Pier 44 Waterfront Garden, North Entrance, Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Saturday, when Blog Widow and I journeyed to Red Hook, he offered to drop me off at Pier 41 for the Liberty Sunset Garden Center before he went off to the Fairway. I told him I’d get out at Fairway with him, because I wanted to walk through a garden on the way to Pier 41.
I’d only seen this space in late winter, when I visited the Waterfront Museum as part of the Historic District Council’s Red Hook Walking Tour. The garden was closed at that time, but I could see some of its promise. That glimpse really didn’t prepare me for the summer lushness I encountered on Saturday.
Leaving the Fairway parking lot by the North exit brings you to Conover Street. Crossing the street brings you to a gated entrance with several signs for the Waterfront Museum and the Garden, the only hint of what lies beyond.
Continuing through the entrance brings you to a narrow corridor, fenced with chain link, and graced with industrial oil drum planters. We’re not there yet.
Ah, now we’re starting to see something.
Walking to the left brings us alongside this seaside meadow. This is mostly weeds right now, but has the potential to become much more over the years.
I continued walking to the left around the perimeter. The small grove of trees in the center will eventually provide shade for the benches and lounging boulders placed in the center.
Here’s the view in the other direction.
And we’re walking … and looking back whence we came.
Here we’re looking back along the “shortcut” path we could have taken from the entrance instead of walking the long way around the meadow.
Keep walking and look back again.
One of the gardeners was watering. I spoke with her briefly, and saw her again a little later, when she was working at the Liberty Sunset Garden Center. She said the gardens were about four years old. Just coming into maturity. The garden designer had worked on many other public projects, including gardens in Madison Square Park and Bryant Park in Manhattan.
I love big red Hibiscus. I want this.
Bzz. BZZ, BZZZ, BZZZZ!
All good things must come to an end. Ahead is the exit, and Pier 41 awaits us.
I went on the Ditmas Park Garden View this afternoon. Here’s a sample of some of the photos. Many more available in the Flickr set from my visit.
During my visit I was surprised, and flattered, by the number of people wanting to meet me. One woman walked up to me and said “I’m looking for the Flatbush Gardener.” She later explained that she was checking everyone with a camera until she found me. A couple I met from Kensington said they’d heard about the event through this blog. Overhearing some of the event organizers, it seems that this year was one of the best-attended. I hope I had something to do with that.
When I checked in, I asked again about taking photos. I was asked to check with each owner at each stop, and not to publish any addresses. I tried to ask. I don’t know any of the owners. After the first two stops, the intended order of a guided tour broke down, and it wasn’t always possible to identify the owner at each stop. Several other folks had cameras out and were taking photos. So I took photos as best I could without identifying locations. If any owner reading this objects to photos of your property, please let me know and I’ll remove them.
Update 2007.07.16: Read about and see some highlights from the tour.
Update 2007.07.12: The assemble point/first garden view is at 544 East 18th Street.
East 17th Street, Ditmas Park Historic District, Brooklyn, November 2006.
Announcement from the Flatbush Family Network.
Garden-loving neighbors near and far are invited to join this year’s Ditmas Park Garden View on Sunday, July 15. The strolling tour is from 4-6 pm, rain or shine, and will feature approximately a dozen gardens in private homes along East 16th to East 18th Streets, between Newkirk to Dorchester. The final garden stop will also include drinks and refreshments. A raffle drawing for three hand-held, battery operated sprayers (hot weather essentials) completes the event.
Suggested donation for the tour is $5.00 per person, and goes to support Keep Ditmas Park Green. Regretfully-but understandably-participants must be at least twelve years old.
For more information, or to secure a spot, contact Pamela at happihands at aol dot com, or Marion at ditlip at aol dot com.
[2007.04.05: Corrected some typos.]
[2007.04.02 21:00: Updated with my notes from Saturday’s visit.]
Locations of Gowanus Nursery (red outline) and nearby Community Gardens (labelled light green areas) in Red Hook
A pleasant discovery when I visited Gowanus Nursery on Saturday is that there are three community gardens within one block of each other:
I was able to visit the first two gardens before and after, respectively, I visited Gowanus Nursery. This post is about the Summit Street garden. I’ll have another for the Backyard Garden.
Let me walk you around the garden, roughly in the order I experienced it.
The garden is surrounded by a simple and attractive green steel fence. A really nice inviting feature is the round, head-sized hole interrupting the vertical bars in the gates. Yes, I tested them; they really are head-sized. You can stick your head through and look around inside without the bars in the way. It’s a simple touch, a grace note, but it says, to me, at least: Sorry we weren’t here when you were. Please come back again.
Entrance Gate
But the gates were open when I got there. Just inside the gates is a dry-laid bluestone landing area, with dry-laid brick paths guiding you forward. The walls of the adjacent buildings ahead of you are at the North side of the garden. We’ll see the border there in a bit.
Entrance Path
I got to meet and speak with two of the gardeners, Kevin King and Claire Merlino. They explained that all the brick and stone used in the garden came from the buildings which used to stand here.
Note to all demolition sites: There is no excuse for throwing out brick and stone in dumpsters destined for landfill. Every garden wants brick and stone. Gardeners, community and others, have lots of creative uses for these durable and attractive materials.
The Rock Garden
To the right of the entrance is the rock garden. Whenever you have to clear a building site for gardening, you will have building debris which is unsuitable for paving, wall-building, and so on. This got piled up near the edge of the property, with the thought that it would eventually get cleared away. As time passed, it also got put to creative reuse, and became a rock garden.
Rock Garden
Rock Garden
Iris reticulata in the Rock Garden
Erica carnea, Spring Heath, in the Rock Garden
Community in the Garden
The garden got its start in late 1993. The first clean-up was in Spring of 1994. Trash and rubbish had to be removed, but they also needed cleanfill.
There are three building lots here. With the buildings collapsed, there was a large central depression which had to be filled. Gardeners used rocks to tag piles from the nearby Snapple warehouse excavation which they could use for fill in the garden. One of the workers on the site went one better and selected the darkest material he could find and delivered it to the garden; darkest, because it was contaminated with oil from the excavation site. With that teachable moment, the workers came back and removed the “good” stuff and replaced it with the real soil the gardeners had tagged.
Every community garden also needs to balance common and individual planting areas. I like these raised beds as a flexible solution for private planting areas. They’re rectangular with 2:1 proportions; I’m not sure if they’re 4×8 foot or 3×6 foot. Members can subscribe to a full- or half-bed. I also like that the beds are aligned but not on a regular grid, which creates interesting paths through the garden.
Planting Beds
Every community garden also needs to coordinate the needs of the garden with the availability of its members. To the left of the entrance is this sign-up station. The book and pencil are protected, and the stand itself is an attractive garden feature.
Sign-Up Station
The West Border
Along Columbia Street is the West Border, one of the common areas.
West border
Daffodils and Crocus
The North Border
Opposite the entrance on Summit Street, against the adjacent building, is the North Border.
The North border
Hellebores and Narcissus in the North border
There seemed to be hundreds of Iris reticulata in bloom when I visited. Claire said that there would have been more except that the squirrels considered them a delicacy and devoured most of what had been planted last fall.
Finally, Claire is looking for someone to adopt this Castor Aralia tree. Leave a comment if you or someone you know is interested.
Kalopanax septemlobus (syn. K. pictus), Castor Aralia
Okay, other than the occasional glance over a fellow commuters’ shoulder while riding the subway, I do not read the New York Post. I heard about this story this morning on NY1‘s In The Papers segment. The most impressive thing about this story? These guys are growing climbing hydrangea in a tree pit!
A bushwhacker has become a thorn in the side of residents who love two sidewalk gardens on East 79th Street. The mystery woman has become the street’s Public Enemy No. 1 by ripping down climbing hydrangea vines, which produce brilliant white flowers in summer.
– Vandal’s Vine Mess, East Side Anti-Plant Spree, New York Post, March 15, 2007
And, my spidey senses (aka gaydar) tell me this story fits the Gays in Gardening meme.
Fed up with the vine villain, Charles Dean and Skip Wachsberger, who tend the gardens, have posted signs politely ordering her to stop.
Two guys cooperatively gardening. That could be innocent enough.
“MADAME, your attacks on our climbing hydrangeas are VANDALISM. Please stop it! The gardener,” the sign reads.
Okay, they adddress the vandal as “Madame”. That’s kinda gay.
The gardens are in front of 225 E. 79th St., a high-rise between Second and Third avenues. Each [gardener?] has a tree.
Joe Cinni, the building’s super, has seen the uptown vandal and said she claims the vines are choking the trees.
“No! No! Absolutely not!” responded Dean, 58. “Hydrangeas are grown in gardens all over the world. They are not dangerous like that,” he said. “She thinks she’s doing something to protect the trees, but she’s misguided.”
Said Wachsberger, 62, “The vines co-exist with the trees. Climbing hydrangeas are very slow-growing.”
Wachsberger is a landscape designer and he and Dean edited “Of Leaf and Flower,” an award-winning book of poems and short stories about the emotions that plants inspire.
Okay, that’s really gay.
The dispute took root a year ago when Cinni saw the hydrangea snipper, a woman in her mid-50s, pulling down the vines. He stopped her. … Six weeks ago – in what appeared to be a pre-emptive strike – the “vigilante” popped up and began ripping the vines down.
“All of a sudden, I see this woman pulling down the vines with her hands. When I tell her, ‘Stop,’ she starts yelling at me that these are going to kill the trees,” Cinni said.
“I told her to stop pulling them and call 311 if she had a problem. She walked away from me and I haven’t seen her since.” Dean said he tied the vines to the trees with string, but two weeks ago the woman cut the string. He tied the vines up again.
“She has good intentions, but she’s misinformed,” Wachsberger said.
Strong words.