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

2008-08-08

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

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.