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.


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

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Flickr photo set

Green With Envy Tour II
Pacific Street Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1
St. Mark's Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
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
Warren-St Marks Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy, I.5
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10

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.

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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)

St. Mark's Avenue Community Garden, Prospect Heights, Green With Envy Tour, II.2

The Green With Envy Tour at the St. Mark's Avenue Community Garden in Prospect Heights, July 26, 2008.


Biking was definitely the preferred mode of transportation on this tour. I don't have a bike, so my feet and legs got a workout.

As soon as we arrived, our hostess proudly informed us that the garden was not only a butterfly sanctuary, but a praying mantis sanctuary.

Emptied egg case on the front gate


In the flesh.


This photo illustrates a pattern realized by many of the community gardens we visited: a common area, just inside the entrance, comprised largely of ornamental plantings. This is part of the "community" aspects of these gardens: putting your best face forward makes both the street and the garden more inviting, and helps keep good relations with the neighbors.


Seating in common areas.


I was charmed by this child-scaled seat composed of salvaged building materials.


Stepping past the threshold you come to the raised beds with vegetables.


Here's a detail of that window visible in the photo above. A church is next door.


The ubiquitous composting area was located at the rear of this garden, furthest from the street, another common pattern. I wonder what all the rear-yard neighbors think of this arrangement.




Glam shots.

Squash leaf.


Nasturtium.


Solenostemon (Coleus)


Wasp on Dill.

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Flickr photo set

Pacific Street Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
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
Warren-St Marks Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy, I.5
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10

Pacific Street Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, II.1

Green With Envy Tour Two at the Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear's Garden


Saturday, July 26, Tour Two of the Green With Envy tour of Brooklyn Community Garden's kicked off where it started two weeks earlier: at the Brooklyn Bear's Garden at Pacific Street.

We're building raised beds at the Flatbush Community Garden, so I was paying more attention to details of their construction at different gardens on this tour.


Amazing how quickly things change. Two weeks before, I didn't notice this cabbage. The fingerprints show how irresistible it must be to touch.


I didn't get any good shots of this "Office Al Fresco" on the first tour. Very organized.


The inside of the door shows photos of all the gardeners.


I love these exuberant Trumpet Vines (Campsis radicans) growing in several of the gardens. It's one of my favorite native vines, but there are few places where it can be grown effectively under cultivation, especially in compressed urban settings. It gets to be a huge in both height and mass, requiring a large, sturdy, long-lived structure to support it. Also, it's a bit of a thug and throws up runners everywhere, so weeding and cultivation of the ground around it must be considered before placing it. I also see this growing over backyard fences into the B/Q subway cut, which is as good a placement as any!


Oak-Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), one of my favorite native shrubs. Again, the species is too large for most urban gardens. Several "dwarf" cultivars are available.


The Zinnias continue their psychedelic bloom.

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All my photos of this garden (Flickr)

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26
Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1
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
Warren-St Marks Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy, I.5
Baltic Street Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.6
Lincoln-Berkeley Community Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.7
Gardens of Union, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.8
Green With Envy, Tour One, Final Stops 9 and 10

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