Help Envision a New Garden: Sunday, June 6

Update: June 16: Community Visioning Workshop for a new Communal Garden

Update, 2010.06.04: Added information about the site.
Update, 2010.06.03: Added registration link.

---

The Parsonage, Flatbush Reformed Church, 2103 Kenmore Terrace, corner of East 21st Street, Flatbush, Brooklyn

Thus Sunday, June 6, from 4-6pm, we'll be holding the first of two Community Visioning Workshops for a new communal garden on the grounds of the landmarked Flatbush Reformed Church. One site is a small, fenced-off area. The other is the front lawn of the Parsonage. This landmarked historic building was built in 1853 - though portions of it may be even older - and moved to this site in 1913.

Front lawn, looking east from East 21st Street


The main area is the front lawn of the Parsonage. It's a large area, about 25-feet deep, from the fence along Kenmore Terrace to the porch of the house, and about 85-feet long, from East 21st Street to the Church parking lot. There are opportunities to further develop the buffer plantings, 3-1/2-feet between the fence and the sidewalk, that Church members have already established.

Buffer Plantings, looking from the entrance gate toward East 21st Street


The site is dominated by large, mature Oak trees lining the fence on Kenmore Terrace and East 21st Street. These cast dense shade, and working with this constraint will be one of the challenges for designing the garden and plantings. I have a lot of experience with urban shade gardens, and see the potential in this site.

Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier x grandiflora

Jump to How to Plant a Tree.

---

Today I planted Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance', Apple Serviceberry, in my backyard native plant garden.


I chose my backyard as my final class project for Urban Garden Design at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last year. Serviceberry is one of the two key plants I specified for my planting scheme. Serviceberries are multi-season plants. They bloom in early Spring, before the flowering cherries. The berries ripen in mid-summer; they are edible and tasty, and attractive to birds. Fall color is excellent. Branching structure and bark provide winter interest.

Here are the initial sketch and final design for the project. The Amelanchier is the second smallest circle on the left (north) of the plan. In this design for an urban woodland garden, the Serviceberry plays the role of an understory tree. The larger circle on the right is Sassafras albidum, the canopy tree, which is proving even more difficult to source than the Amelanchier.

More Green Roofs for Parks Recreation Centers

Ten Parks recreation centers, including three in Brooklyn, will be getting green roofs. The planting will be based on two regional plant communities:

Each system will include 12 experimental plots, 85 square feet each, with soil depths ranging from 4 to 6 inches.

Each plot will be planted with a species mix from two native plant communities, the Hempstead Plains (Long Island) and Rocky Summit Grasslands (e.g. Bear Mountain) of the New York City region. These models were chosen because they are meadows, have plants that can tolerate the desiccated soils and high winds typical of roof conditions, and provide prime foraging for native insects and birds.

- A Green Roof Is Coming To A Recreation Center Near You!, Daily Plant, 2010-05-06

Here are the species they've specified from each community:

Hempstead Plains:

• Schizachyrium scoparium, Little bluestem (Grass)
• Panicum virgatum, Switchgrass
• Sorghastrum nutans, Indian grass
• Baptisia tinctoria, Yellow wild indigo
• Solidago nemoralis, Gray goldenrod
• Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly-weed
• Eupatorium hyssopifolium, Hyssop-leaved boneset
• Rubus flagellaris, North Dewberry

Rocky Summit Grasslands:

• Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylavania sedge
• Danthonia spicata, Poverty-oat grass
• Deschampsia flexuosa, Common Hairgras
• Lespedeza capitata, Bush-clover
• Lysimachia quadrifolia, Whorled loosestrife
• Cunila origanoides, Stone-mint, Dittany
• Solidago odora, Licorice-goldenrod
• Vaccinium angustifolium, Low-bush blueberry

Cunila origanoides is one of the three native plant species that were given away at the kickoff for NYC Wildflower Week last Saturday in Union Square. It's in the Lamiaceae, the Mint Family. Its leaves smell like oregano. (The other two species were Thalictrum pubescens and Hystrix patula.)

Greenbelt Native Plant Center, Staten Island

Tim Chambers, Greenbelt Native Plant Center Nursery Manager, and our guide for the tour, explains GNPC's history and mission at the start of the tour.


Monday, May 3, I visited the Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC) for the first time. This tour was one of over 45 events scheduled for NYC Wildflower Week. From the event description:

The Greenbelt Native Plant Center is the only municipal native plant nursery in the country. It is a 13-acre greenhouse, nursery, founder seed and seed bank complex owned and operated by NYC Parks & Recreations Dept. Over the past fifteen years, the center has grown hundreds of thousands of specimens from locally collected seed of the city's indigenous flora for use in restoration, and replanting projects and is currently developing bulk seed mixes for the city. The GNPC is a partner in the establishment of the first national native seed bank called Seeds of Success.

GNPC operates as a wholesale nursery serving primarily, but not exclusively, restoration projects around the NYC area. GNPC partners with other growers around the region. Not all their efforts go to NYC wild areas and parks; some go to other, nearby restorations, and they also receive plants of specific species when they don't have the stock to meet the demand.

There are over 2,000 plant species native to the NYC area. GNPC currently propagates about 350, a remarkable proportion. That range is important; GNPC is not just in the business of species preservation, but also restoration of plant communities. That work requires sourcing of many different species, and the plant "palette" required depends on the goals of each project.

Collection

It all starts with the collection of seed from the wild. Collections are done throughout the region; NYC itself has over 8,700 acres in 51 nature preserves under its Forever Wild program. Wherever it comes from, the seed collection protocol links back to the mission of GNPC. As Tim Chambers, our guide for the tour, and GNPC's Nursery Manager, explained to us, non-selection is the goal.

Plant Sales This Week in and near Brooklyn

BBG Plant Sale, May 2009


It's the week for the annual plant sale frenzy. All listed here are benefits for their respective gardens. It's a great way to support your local gardens, meet other gardeners, and pick up some cool plants.

NYC Wildflower Week, 5/1-5/9

The Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, May 2009. This was the first garden constructed after BBG was established on the site of a municipal ash dump 100 years ago, and the first public garden devoted to native plants. Next Wednesday's tour of this garden with Uli Lorimer, curator of BBG's Native Flora Garden and an instructor in their Certificate in Horticulture program, is one of over 45 FREE events in all - available during NYC Wildflower Week.


NYC Wildflower Week kicks off Saturday 5/1. This is the third year for the event, and it's bigger and better than ever. There are events all over the city, including tours of locations otherwise closed to the public. I'm looking forward to visiting, for the first time, the Greenbelt Native Plant Center on Staten Island, "the only municipal native plant nursery in the country."

You can get all the details at the official, extensive, NYCWW Web site, or at the Parks Department event page:

From Friday, May 1, to Saturday, May 9, we're celebrating the hundreds of native flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses in the Big Apple. Take advantage of the spring weather, and come out for a week of environmental learning, with free activities, walks, and talks galore.

I'm proud that this year, for the first time, I've been invited to participate in an official capacity. This Saturday morning, May 1, I'll be on-hand at the information booth at Union Square to help answer questions and provide information about native plants.

Cellophane Bees Return

Colletes thoracicus, Cellophane Bee, is a native species of solitary, ground-nesting bees. Solitary, because each nest is burrowed out by a single queen, who constructs several chambers in which to lay individual eggs. Solitary, yet communal: where they find the right conditions, the nests can be densely packed.Here's a short video showing the activity on Saturday morning.



This is the third year for what I've come to think of as "my little bees." I noticed the holes earlier last week, and saw all this activity last Saturday, as I was readying for the Plant Swap. This is the earliest in the year that I've noticed them.

Make Your Garden Bee-Friendly

These bees took up residence in a "neglected" spot of the garden, one of the benefits of being a lazy gardener/ecosystem engineer. Different species of bees have different requirements. Here are some things you can do to make your garden bee-friendly.

White-Nose Syndrome Reaches Missouri

White-nose Syndrome (WNS) continues to spread north, south, and west. It was discovered earlier this year in Ontario and Tennessee. It has now also been confirmed in a Missouri cave.

In mid-April, 2010, the Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed Missouri’s first signs of a new disease in bats that scientists have named “White-Nose Syndrome." The name describes a white fungus, Geomyces destructans, typically found on the faces and wings of infected bats.
- MDC monitoring new bat disease in Missouri, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC)

White-Nose Syndrome and Bat Hibernation Areas - April 19, 2010, Bat Conservation International


This is the westernmost spread of WNS since it was first discovered in bat winter-hibernation caves - hibernacula - in New York in the Winter of 2006-2007. This reaches far past even the discovery of WNS in Tennessee, within the bounds of Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Biologists at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have received confirmation that one Little Brown bat collected from its hibernating refuge in the Park’s White Oak Blowhole cave tested positive for Geomyces destructans [the fungus and the presumptive causative agent of White Nose Syndrome (WNS)]. White Oak Blowhole cave contains the largest known Indiana bat hibernacula in Tennessee. The Indiana bat is a federally listed endangered species which has seen declines in the Northeastern U.S. due to WNS. White Nose Syndrome has killed in excess of 90% of the bats in many of the caves and mines in the Northeast, and is just now showing up in the Southeast.
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park Bat Tests Positive for White Nose Syndrome Fungus, Press release, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2010-04-19

I put up my bat house two years ago in response to learning about WNS. I fear it may never receive any tenants. Without critical scientific breakthroughs on the mortality of this disease, we may see the extinction of several bat species within a decade.

Mortality rates approaching 100 percent are reported at some sites. White-nose Syndrome has now moved into Canada, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and Maryland. It threatens some of the largest hibernation caves for endangered Indiana myotis, gray myotis, and Virginia big-eared bats. Ultimately, bats across North America are at imminent risk.
- White-Nose Syndrome, Bat Conservation International

[goo.gl]

Related Content

Bats, Bat Houses, and White-Nose Syndrome, 2009-03-26
Bat Houses, 2008-04-13
Northeastern Bats in Peril, 2008-03-18

Links

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Bat Tests Positive for White Nose Syndrome Fungus, Press release, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2010-04-19
MDC monitoring new bat disease in Missouri, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC)
White-Nose Syndrome, Bat Conservation International

40 Years of Earth

Earthrise over the moon as seen by the astronauts of Apollo 8 on December 22, 1968.


This iconic image has become my regular Earth Day illustration. It was not the first image of the isolated Earth from space. It was the first which contrasted in the same image the wet, blue and green, atmospheric Earth with the barren, dusted, lifeless Moon.

It is easy to deceive ourselves that we can exploit the Earth and dehumanize others - basically, sh*t where we eat and sleep - without consequences. It is hard to see, concretely and measurably, how interconnected and interdependent we are.

Images like those above remind us that we are alone, isolated, and fragile. We are stewards of the Earth. We are gardeners of the world. It's our responsibility now.

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: