Flatbush Gardener: August 2008

2008-08-19

Brooklyn Bear's Carlton Avenue Garden, Fort Greene, Green With Envy Tour, II.10

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.

Street Entrance

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.

Common Areas

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.

Composting

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.

Glam

Marigold

Monarda

Achillea

Coreopsis

2008-08-18

South Midwood Garden Tour and Art Show

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.

2008-08-14

Pakistani-American Festival, Sunday, August 17

via the NYC DOT Weekend Traffic Advisory:

Coney Island Avenue between Avenue H and Newkirk Avenue will be closed Sunday, August 17, from 11am to 6pm for the Pakistani-American Festival as permitted by the Mayor's Street Activity Permit Office (SAPO).

The event is sponsored by the Pakistani-American Merchants Association. Today, August 14, is the 61st Anniversary of Pakistan's independence.

2008-08-13

Mosquito Spraying in Southeast Brooklyn overnight

via Brooklyn Eagle.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will spray for mosquitoes in several areas of Brooklyn and Staten Island tonight between 7:45 p.m. and 6 a.m.

In Brooklyn, the affected areas include Canarsie, Paerdegat Basin, Georgetown, Flatlands, East Flatbush, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach and Canarsie Cemetery.

People in these areas, especially those with respiratory conditions, should stay indoors. Also, they are urged to remove children’s toys, outdoor equipment and clothes from outdoor areas during spraying.

For this spraying, the Health Department will use Anvil 10 + 10, a synthetic pesticide.

Links

Mosquito Control Notice, August 13, 2008 (PDF)
Spraying Schedule
Heath Department Reminds New Yorkers to Protect Themselves against West Nile Virus, DOH Press Release, August 13, 2008
West Nile Virus home page, DOH

2008-08-12

The Greene Garden, Fort Greene, Green With Envy Tour, II.9

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.

2008-08-11

Invasive Species in NYC highlighted in Gotham Gazette

Today's Gotham Gazette highlights the issue of invasive species in New York City as their "Issue of the Week":

Grounding their roots, literally, in our soil, invasive species come from far and wide, via barge or souvenir-stuffed suitcases, in what horticulturists and biologists across the city call a serious threat to our habitat. Deceiving to the common eye, these foreign born pests and plants raise significant challenges for the city's Department of Parks and Recreation: monitoring, controlling and even eradicating top the list.
...
For centuries, New York has been inundated by foreign-born plants and wildlife. Even creatures we now consider common -- like our subway or sewer rat -- are invasive species. We may have adapted to some of them -- whether we wanted to or not -- but other more contemporary wildlife pose a serious threat to the sanctity of our natural flora and fauna, say city scientists.
- Invasion New York, Gotham Gazette, August 11, 2008

The article provides a broad overview of some of the most damaging, or visible, invasive species present in New York City. I especially commend Gotham Gazette for taking on what I call Brooklyn's most charismatic invasive species, the Monk Parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus:

The birds have attracted the ire of Con Edison and other electric companies for building huge nest for their colonies on light poles. In Connecticut, a power company, United Illuminated, is seeking permission to kill the birds, while in Florida researchers have proposed mixing contraceptives in with bird seed to limit the parrot population.

The article itself doesn't use the scientific names of the species mentioned in the article. They are, however, provided for many of them with an accompanying feature, the Know Your Invasive Critters "trading cards."

My posts on Parrots, including my 2006 letter to the NY Times.
Invasives

Links

Gotham Gazette, August 11, 2008:

Clifton Place Block Association Community Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.7

Green With Envy Tour at the Clifton Place Block Association Community Garden in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Planting areas

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.

Composting

They had some brand-new, still-shiny compost bins.

Glam

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.

2008-08-10

Classon FulGate Block Association Garden, Green With Envy Tour, II.6

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 and Common Areas

Street entrance

Classon FulGate Block Association Community Garden

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.

Growing Area

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.