Hollenback Community Garden, Clinton Hill, Green With Envy Tour, II.5

Posted on 2008-08-08 by admin

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.

Street Entrance and Common Areas

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.

Composting

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.

Composting Toilet

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.

Water Collection

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.

Glam

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

Links

Hollenback Community Garden

Prospect Heights Community Farm, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.3

Posted on 2008-08-08 by admin

The Green With Envy Tour at the Prospect Heights Community Farm.

All the common patterns were present in this garden, writ large:

Common areas of ornamental plantings at the street entrance
Raised beds with individual planting areas, mostly devoted to food crops
Composting area

And something else in this garden that we’ll see more of later: rain-water harvesting.

Street Entrance and Common Areas

Nearly every garden has a charming, hand-painted “The Garden Is Open” placard that sits out on the sidewalk and invites passersby in.

Regular open hours are almost always also posted at the entrance. I think this is a requirement for gardens operated by the Trust for Public Land, locally represented by the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust.

Step inside, and you’re enveloped by the lushness of the garden.

At the rear of this garden is another common area for composting, tool storage, and relaxing in the shade.

Individual Plots

Composting

Demonstrating another common pattern, this production line arrangement of sturdy, uniform bins helps organize the work, minimizes the need to move heavy compost around, and keeps a steady flow of materials moving through the system.

Water Collection

The fact that something different is going on inside is announced by this big sign at the entrance.

This is the beginning of the water collection system, so well-camouflaged I almost walked past it. The downspout from the adjacent building is on the left, the storage tank is on the right.

This all leads to some serious tankage.

Glam

Just ’cause it’s not all compost and rainwater.

Echinops

Rudbeckia

Sunflower, detail

There were several chairs and benches placed in the shade of common areas, painted in bright colors, and adorned with a hand-painted, smiling sun.

Shed Door, detail

Boerum Hill, July 12, 2008

Posted on 2008-07-16 by admin

Buddy 50 Windowbox, 381 Pacific Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

The Green With Envy Tour One of community gardens last Saturday was a walking tour. Lots, and lots, of walking, Five hours of walking interspersed by standing around, and occasionally sitting, in the beautiful gardens.

It was also a street-side introduction to Boerum Hill, a neighborhood with which I’m not familiar. Here’s some things which caught my eye, including some gardens which were not officially on the tour.

“Flags” (T-shirts, actually), 485 Pacific Street

Gardens, North Pacific Playground, Boerum Hill

At first glance this building seems out of place, but take a closer look. The brick and wood relate to the dominant materials on the block. The detailed brick lintel across the width of the ground floor echoes details of its neighbors. The windows reflect the street trees and sky.

Fellow Flickrites luluinnyc and mayotic and I were all intrigued by this unusual building at 385 Pacific Street.

The frieze above the door – I thought it was a wood carving, but on closer inspection it could be terra-cotta – reads “Cuyler Church.”

It really was built as a church building. It has a fascinating history. It served an “immigrant” community of Mohawk ironworkers and their families that settled in this neighborhood starting in the 1930s. In Spring 2001 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The former Cuyler Presbyterian Church is located in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of northwestern Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Designed by Staten Island architect Edward A. Sargent, the building is an example of High Victorian Eclectic design with elements of both Gothic and Romanesque styles of architecture. The Cuyler Presbyterian Church began as an extension of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church to support its growing programs. The chapel was built one-half mile away from the Lafayette Church in the North Gowanus neighborhood (now called Boerum Hill).
– Cuyler Presbyterian Church

Here’s GRDN, a gardening store in Boerum Hill which I’ve been wanting to visit. It’s on the same block as the Hoyt Street Community Garden, but time did not allow me anything but the briefest entry into the front of the shop. I drooled over the hand-thrown Guy Wolfe pots. I want to go back.

Another beautiful building, this is the Brooklyn Inn, a local watering hole since the mid-1800s, at 148 Hoyt Street.

Rubbernecking at the Gowanus Community Garden, only time to admire it as we walked by.

Another lovely windowbox, this one at 218 Bergen Street.

Finally, here’s a different view of the Buddy 50 scooter and windowbox that opened the post. They were each so perfect and beautiful.

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

Boerum Hill Association

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

Posted on 2008-07-15 by admin

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.

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.

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

Posted on 2008-07-14 by admin

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.

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.

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

Posted on 2008-07-14 by admin

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.

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.

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

Posted on 2008-07-13 by admin

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

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)

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.

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.

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

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

Mostly vegetables.

But also ornamentals.

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.

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.

Water, the latest Flickr photo pool from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Posted on 2008-07-08 by admin

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has created another new photo pool on Flickr. This one is called “Reflections: Water in the Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.”

Here are a few of my contributions, in order by date taken.

Two boys at the Lily Pool Terrace, November 6, 2005

Spring Bulbs in the Annual Border of the Lily Pool Terrace, April 23, 2006

Iridescence in stone basin in the Bonsai House, August 11, 2006. The occasion for this visit was the blooming of “Baby,” Amorphophallus titanum.

Palm House at the Lily Pool Terrace, November 4, 2006

Stone basin, Japanese Garden, December 28, 2007

Pond, Japanese Garden, December 28, 2007

Goldfish Under Glass, Lily Pool Terrace, January 19, 2008

Pair a Ducks, Rock Garden, March 8, 2008

Lily Pool Terrace, March 8, 2008

The Bog, Native Flora Garden, April 17, 2008

Links

Reflections: Water in the Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Flickr photo pool)

Some recent and current blooms in my garden

Posted on 2008-07-07 by admin

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008

Just some quick photos of plants recently or currently blooming in my garden. The first few were taken two weeks aga.

Daylilies

I don’t “collect” daylilies, at least not the way I try to collect Hosta or native plants. We inherited a few with the gardens when we bought the house. For that reason, I consider them to be “passalong” plants: dependable, sturdy, hardy, tolerant of neglect, vigorous, and so on. I gave away several clumps this Spring. I’ll have more to give away over time.

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008

Native Plants

Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, June 21, 2008

Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower, June 21, 2008. This photo was used to illustrate “Coneflowers: America’s Prairie Treasures”, by Barbara Perry Lawton, in the Summer 2009 edition of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Plants & Gardens News.”

The Shady Path

In this short section of the shady path on the north side of the house, I have my two big-leaved monsters: Rodgersia pinnata, on the right, and Kirengeshoma palmata, on the left. The Rodgersia has a lot of drought damage from our heat wave a few weeks ago, but it’s off-frame of this photo. I’m keeping a close watch on the Kirengeshoma, as it also crisps up at the slightest hint of drought. There are buds on it now, which mature very slowly into waxy yellow bells. It benefits here from its location next to my neighbor’s mixed border, which gets watered by soaker hose.

Both of these plants are several years old, possibly even a decade. I’ve lost track of when I purchased them. They’re slow-growing, but continue to increase in size every year, despite never being divided in all that time. They are well worth the wait.

I used to keep the Kirengeshoma in a large container, which I could never water enough. It’s much happier in the ground. Both of these plants would prefer constant moisture. I have long-term plans to build a rain garden in the shady part of the front yard. When the time comes, both of these plants will be very happy there.

Nestled between them in the foreground is a small, yellow-leaved, purple-flowering Hosta. I’ve lost the id for this. I think it might be ‘Little Aurora.’ Any Hosta aficionados out there who can weigh in on what this might be?

Heirloom Canna

Last to share with you today is the Heirloom Canna ‘Mme. Paul Caseneuve’ blooming in a large, glazed container in the front yard. This is the same specimen that I grew for the first time last year. I overwintered it in the same container in an unheated, but enclosed, section of the front porch. I’m surprised it came back.

It doesn’t look as pink as I remember it from last year. The color is more apricot/salmony this year. At least it’s got the same bronze foliage.

Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South featured in the Times

Posted on 2008-06-21 by admin

Albemarle Road, just east of Coney Island Avenue, April 2008

Tomorrow’s New York Times Real Estate section provides a brief history and profile of Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South, a block from my home:

Grandest of all the streets in Prospect Park South is Albemarle Road, a broad, esplanaded boulevard of stately neo-Classical, Queen Anne and Colonial style mansions. In fact, for the three blocks from Argyle to Buckingham Roads, Albemarle is one of the grandest residential streets in the whole city, even with some dings and dents.
– Streetscapes | Albemarle Road: Brooklyn’s Stately Esplanade , Christopher Gray, New York Times, June 22, 2008

I’ll say. Prospect Park South is the most photogenic neighborhood I know in Brooklyn. I’ve got over 100 photos of Albemarle Road alone on my Flickr site.

The greenscape is as impressive as the architecture:

Mr. Alvord created Albemarle Road as his main boulevard, with a planted strip down the middle and a dozen imposing houses east of Argyle Road, most built from 1899 to 1910. They created a most unusual place and were made grander by his main requirement — that no fences, hedges or plantings extend beyond the house lines, so the front yards combine into a unified majestic sweep.

Albemarle Road, looking west from Rugby Road, Prospect Park South, November 2007

The Times fails to credit the man responsible for designing and planting these grand grounds, John Aitkin (or Aiken, I’ve seen both spellings):

Thousands of Shrubs, Plants and Trees to Be Set Out in Flatbush

Dean Alvord, owner, and John Aitkin, landscape gardener of Prospect Park South, the new residence park of Flatbush, have just returned from a tour of the nurseries [of several cities], where selections were made of over five thousand five hundred [5,500] ornamental shrubs, plants and trees for planting this fall. The list comprises rare evergreens and deciduous varieties chosen with reference to symmetry of form, color of foliage and beauty of flower. A foreign order has also been placed for 10,000 Holland bulbs of early spring blooming flowers, tulips, hyacinths, crocus and narcissus [Daffodils].

The form of street decoration carried out in Marlborough, Rugby and other north and south roads in Prospect Park South, will be varied in Albemarle road, where the unusual width will admit of a parkway through the center, with an asphalt driveway on either side. The more dwarf growing ornamentals will be planted in the parkway, and rows of shade trees will line the inside of the sidewalks.

Altogether, this fine residence section will contain the widest variety of hardy ornamentals and herbaceous plants to be found outside of city parks.

– Suburban Ornamentation, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 17, 1899, page 10 [Note: The same item, with slight variations, appeared with the title “Beautifying the Suburbs” on September 4.]

The Flatbush Malls sit within the area known as Victorian Flatbush, named because of the dominant architectural style. In the early 1900s, private developers constructed malls like this one to make the neighborhoods they built more attractive. Malls are common in New York’s outer boroughs. Dean Alvord bought 50 acres of farmland in 1898 to develop Albermarle and Kenmore Terraces. He hired the Scottish landscape architect John Aiken to create a rustic suburban neighborhood within the constraints of the Brooklyn street grid, and the result was largely achieved through the creation of these malls. Extending down the center of Albemarle Road, the Flatbush Malls run from Coney Island Avenue to Buckingham Road, then round the corner and continue one block north on Buckingham Road.

Aiken looked to Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts for inspiration. His mall on Albemarle Road is narrower than the malls on Commonwealth Avenue, as it does not include a central promenade like the one along the Boston street. The original landscaping of the malls featured shrubs and flowers, but did not include trees. The malls are now lined with a mixture of pine and oak trees, holly bushes, and other trees and shrubs, as well as seasonal flowers that grace the intersections. As part of the streets, the malls are owned by the New York Department of Transportation while Parks is charged with the planting design and maintenance.
– Flatbush Malls, Historical Sign, Parks Department

1305 Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South

The Times article highlights a handful of individual homes, including 1305 Albemarle Road, the house I picked out as a good place for a haunting last Halloween:

The most unusual of these dwellings is the one built in 1905 for George E. Gale at 1305 Albemarle, at the northeast corner of Argyle Road, in white clapboard with a colossal two-story Ionic portico. Designed by an architect known only as H. B. Moore, the Gale house has a striking assortment of windows, among them roof dormers with a kind of webbed sash, topped by ebullient broken pediments. On the second floor, there are spider-web-type windows with Gothic-style sashes, and on the rear are leaded glass windows.

Links

Streetscapes | Albemarle Road: Brooklyn’s Stately Esplanade , Christopher Gray, New York Times, June 22, 2008
Flatbush Malls, Historical Sign, Parks Department
Suburban Ornamentation, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 17, 1899, page 10

Street Entrance and Common Areas

Composting

Composting Toilet

Water Collection

Glam

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Street Entrance and Common Areas

Individual Plots

Composting

Water Collection

Glam

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Daylilies

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The Shady Path

Heirloom Canna

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