Local Leafin': Street Tree Walking Tour Sunday 10/24

Japanese Maple leaves (red), with Linden in the background (yellow), at the corner of Rugby Road and Cortelyou Road in Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn, November 2007.


The Sustainable Flatbush Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour will be this Sunday, October 24. Tours begin at 11am and 12noon. I'm proud to once again be one of your guides. Your other guide will be Sam Bishop, Director of Education of Trees NY. As in the past, tours will start at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, our other community partner. This is also listed as a NeighborWoods Month event.

After a dry summer, October brought ample rains just in time to salvage some fall foliage. Dogwoods, Locusts, and Ash Trees are showing strong color. The neighborhood should be at near-peak foliage conditions for the year for the tour.

On the tour, you can see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
• Amelanchier, Serviceberry
• Betula nigra, River Birch
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
• Fraxinus americana, White Ash
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
• Ulmus americana, American Elm

... and many more.

Map

Not just for Tree-Huggers: Street Tree Tour Sunday, 5/2

RESCHEDULED: The Tree Tour has been rescheduled for the rain date of Sunday, May 2, same times and location.

---

340 Argyle Road, Beverley Square West, April 2007


Sustainable Flatbush's 3rd Annual Spring Street Tree Walking Tour will be Sunday, May 2. I'm proud to once again be one of your guides.

Sustainable Flatbush Street Tree Walking Tour, Arbor Day 2009. That's me in the middle, next to the tree. Photo by Keka (Flickr)


Tours start at 11am and 12noon from Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Road, between Cortelyou & Dorchester Roads, and loop through the historic neighborhoods of Beverley Square West and landmarked Prospect Park South. In addition to architectural beauty, the area boasts a rich variety of street trees, as well as ornamental trees and shrubs.


View Sustainable Flatbush Spring 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour in a larger map

On the tour, you can see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
• Amelanchier, Serviceberry
• Betula nigra, River Birch
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
• Ulmus americana, American Elm

... and many more.

The suggested donation for the tour is $5. From the Sustainable Flatbush Web site:

Holiday Lights 2009

A slideshow of houses in my neighborhood.

Prospect Park South Halloween Parade 2009

Slideshow

Saturday, October 24: Meet the Trees

Fraxinus americana, White Ash, one of the street trees that will be on the tour.


On Saturday, October 24, Sustainable Flatbush will host its first Fall Street Tree Walking Tour. And I'm looking forward to once again be one of the guides for the tour.

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brooklyn, NY October 16, 2009

SUSTAINABLE FLATBUSH FALL 2009 STREET TREE WALKING TOUR
Saturday, October 24, 2009—Rain or Shine

Based on the success of the annual walking tour events in celebration of Arbor Day and spring in bloom, Sustainable Flatbush is now introducing the inaugural Fall Street Tree Walking Tour. The tour guides will be Tracey Hohman, professional gardener, and Chris Kreussling, aka Flatbush Gardener, both neighborhood residents.

Flatbush Tree Tour, Saturday, April 25

2009.04.23 IMPORTANT TRANSIT SERVICE ADVISORY: The Manhattan-bound Q train will only stop at Church Avenue between Kings Highway and Prospect Park this weekend. Coney Island bound trains will make all stops.

---

Argyle Road in my neighborhood of Beverley Square West in Flatbush, Brooklyn, one of the blocks that will be on Saturday's tour.


This Saturday, April 25, join Sustainable Flatbush in our second year of celebrating Arbor Day and the magnificent street trees of Brooklyn's Victorian Flatbush. The Sustainable Flatbush Arbor Day 2009 Street Tree Walking Tour reprises last year's route, visiting the Victorian Flatbush neighborhoods of Beverley Square West and Prospect Park South.

Tours will depart at 11am and 12noon from Third Root Community Health Center at 380 Marlborough Road, just south of Cortelyou Road. [GMAP] Take the Q train to Cortelyou Road and walk one block west (left) to Marlborough Road after exiting the station.


View Sustainable Flatbush Arbor Day 2009 Street Tree Walking Tour in a larger map

Your tour guides will be my neighbor, Tracey Hohman, a professional gardener, and yours truly. Throughout the tour, we will:

• identify trees and their characteristics
• share interesting facts
• explore local tree history
• discuss the many ways street trees benefit the environment
• explain how to obtain and care for street trees
• and more

This FREE tour is a little over a mile in length and lasts approximately 90 minutes. Tours will take place rain or shine. Please gear appropriately for the weather and walk: sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes, water, and so on.

The area boasts a rich variety of both street trees and ornamental trees and shrubs. On the tour, you will see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
  
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
  
• Amelancier, Serviceberry
  
• Betula nigra, River Birch
  
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
  
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
  
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
  
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
  
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
  
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
  
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
  
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
  
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
  
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
  
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
  
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
  
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
  
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
  
• Ulmus americana, American Elm
  
• ... and many more
  

For more information about the tour, please email garden AT sustainableflatbush DOT org.

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to discuss, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.



[bit.ly]

Related Content

Arbor Day posts

Links

Sustainable Flatbush

Resources

Web

To request a free street tree, fill out the form at http://www.nyc.gov/freetree

Million Trees NYC
Trees New York

Online Tree ID Guide, Arbor Day Foundation

Books

Dirr, Michael A. Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Timber Press. ISBN-13: 9780881924046

Albemarle Road, Local Landscape

One block from my home, in the landmarked Prospect Park South Historic District, Albemarle Road spans six blocks, from Coney Island Avenue to the B/Q subway cut. Albemarle Road is part of the Flatbush Malls, an extended series of streetscape gardens created by some of the developers who carved suburbs out of Flatbush farmland starting in the late 1890s.

A photograph of Albemarle Road as viewed from the train tracks 100 years ago, in 1909.


One of the class projects for my Urban Garden Design class with Nigel Rollings at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a written project, for which there were several options. I chose to write about a "local landscape." And Albemarle Road certainly is that. I've been captivated by this landscape since we first started househunting in the area. The more extensive stretches of Flatbush Malls lie south and east of me, along Glenwood Road and East 17th Street. Albemarle Road is a 2-minute walk from my home. It's given me a chance to inhabit and study this landscape close-hand.

I've been photographing Albemarle Road since we moved to the area. I'm compiling more reference material on the history of this landscape and its designer, which I'll save for a future post. In the meantime, please enjoy these views of Albemarle Road in all four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and - saving what I think is the best for last - Fall.

Much of the character of Albemarle Road is, by design, imparted by the deep private gardens of the front yards. So I've also highlighted two properties I've photographed at different times of the year, each of which captures, in its own way, the seasonal beauty of Albemarle Road.

Winter

Looking west from Buckingham Road, similar to the view in the 1909 photograph, January 2009.


1306 Albemarle Road, December 2008


Composite panoramic view from the corner of Westminster Road

Spring

Western end of Albemarle Road, at Coney Island Avenue, April 2008


Rugby Road, East side, South of Albemarle Road, April 2007

Summer

1314 Albemarle Road, September 2006


1510 Albemarle Road, September 2006


131 Buckingham Road, September 2006

Fall

Corner of Albemarle and Marlborough, looking east, November 2007


Corner of Marlborough and Albemarle Roads, looking northwest November 2007


Albemarle Road, looking west from Rugby Road, November 2007


1406 Albemarle Road, October 2006


1423 Albemarle Road, November 2007


1510 Albemarle Road, November 2006. The trees at the left in the adjacent vacant lot were all downed by the Brooklyn tornado of August 2007. It's now the location of the Flatbush CommUNITY Garden.


On the same block, looking from the other direction, with the vacant lot on the left, on August 8, 2007.

1305 Albemarle Road

Winter

Spring

Summer

1505 Albemarle Road

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Related Content

Winter Wonderland, 2009.01.19
The Flatbush CommUNITY Garden, Brooklyn's (and NYC's!) newest community garden, 2008.09.16
One Year Ago [Tornado recap], 2008.08.08
Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South featured in the Times, 2008.06.21
Forgotten Flatbush: The Albemarle Road Pedestrian Bridge, 2007.11.25

Winter Wonderland

The south side of Albemarle Road looking east from Rugby Road around 10am this morning.


After shoveling and de-icing the steps and sidewalk this morning, I walked over to the landmarked Prospect Park South Historic District for the photo op. I'm glad I did. I was rewarded with these beautiful, snowy images.

I concentrated on Albemarle Road as part of my research into the history of its design and documentation of the current landscape for my Urban Garden Design class at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Somebody has to do it.

Looking toward the northwest corner of Albemarle and Rugby Roads


Albemarle Road, South side, looking west from Buckingham Road. Behind the chain link fence on the left lies the Flatbush CommUNITY Garden.

Details

The border of Prospect Park South is delineated by these brick posts surmounted with concrete planters. The street labels have been replaced at least once, having been weathered to near-illegibility from a century of exposure. The monogram is "PPS": Prospect Park South.


Some of Brooklyn's famous parrots were flocked high up in the top of this snowy American Elm tree on Albemarle Road. There are three parrots in this cropped image. If I were to produce an invasive species calendar, this would be a good image for it.


Oak Leaves


Holly, Flatbush Malls, Albemarle Road


Branches, Flatbush Malls, Albemarle Road


Lantern, 131 Buckingham Road, "The Japanese House"

Houses

1203 Albemarle Road


1305 Albemarle Road


1406 Albemarle Road / 135 Rugby Road, Prospect Park South, Flatbush, Brooklyn



1505 Albemarle Road


1510 Albemarle Road


143 Buckingham Road


131 Buckingham Road

Related Content

Flickr photo set

Happy Holidays

The MTA thwarted our plans to attend a concert of a women's choir this evening. So Blog Widow and I turned back and walked around our neighborhood, taking in the snow-beings and holiday lights.

Enjoy this slideshow of my Flickr set of photos from the evening. For best viewing, click the play button, then click the icon with four arrows in the lower-right to view it full-screen on a black background.

Related Content

Flickr set

One Year Ago

Trees snapped in half on Marlborough Road at Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South, on August 8, 2007. This area incurred the most dramatic damage in Flatbush, with scores of trees downed on the street and private property.


The Brooklyn Tornado of 2007 struck one year ago today.

1510 Albemarle Road

I featured this house in Conservatory Envy in September 2006. I took this shot in November 2006.


The tree on the right was a casualty of the tornado.


Here's how it looked from across the street in November 2006.


And after the tornado.

Related Content

Tornado Damage in Prospect Park South, Caton Park and Beverley Square West, August 8, 2007
Tornado Damage, Victorian Flatbush, August 8, 2007 (Flickr photo set)