Brownstoner is Brooklyn's most read
website about real estate, renovation
and neighborhood news. Read More»
Brooklyn’s Biggest Plant Sale Opens Tuesday
This year’s Brooklyn Botanic Garden plant sale starts Tuesday, April 30. The yearly fundraiser takes place on the Cherry Esplanade in Prospect Park and offers the biggest selection of plants in Brooklyn. Opening day is for members only, but if you go early on Wednesday, you will still get your pick because they put out new merchandise. The selection includes vegetables, herbs, annuals, perennials, and house plants. The sale runs until noon on Thursday, May 2. For more info, check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s web site.
Photo by Rebecca Bullene via Brooklyn Botanic Garden
04/29/2013 12:00 PM
Comment
Plant Nursery Opening Soon in Clinton Hill
A new garden center is going in at 1010 Fulton Street near Downing in Clinton Hill, according to a reader who sent us these pics. Named the Fort Greene Garden Center, it’s under construction and set to open May 1. The formerly vacant lot was also home to a tree giveaway in 2010, pictured after the jump. GMAP (more…)
04/18/2013 2:00 PM
Comment
First Event at South BK Children’s Garden This Weekend
The South Brooklyn Children’s Garden, long in the works for the Columbia Street Waterfront, will open for its first public event this weekend! In the past year the garden organizers lost their lease to the city for the corner lot at Sackett and Columbia Streets, then got it back. Since inking the lease, they’ve been busy setting up 20 raised beds, planting, and launching a composting drop-off site for the community. This Saturday, April 20 the garden will hold its Inaugural Worm Festival from 10 am to 2 pm. According to them, “The first free public event of SBCG will celebrate worms for the central role that they play in the success of gardens and unveil a community composting drop-off site.” There will be worm-related arts and crafts, planting and live music. The SBCG hopes to establish itself as a physical and educational space in the neighborhood where children can learn about gardening, food cultivation, and the environment.
Photo via the SBCG’s Facebook
04/18/2013 12:00 PM
Comment
Photo Pool Challenge: Spring Blooms
The tulips we planted in the fall bloomed yesterday, along with some volunteer violets and naturalized daffodils we weren’t expecting. We’re so pleased with the results, we’re thinking next year we might fill all the flower beds with daffodils — really crowd them in there. Do you think we risk daffodils taking over the lawn? Please share photos and stories here of what’s blooming in your yard or on your block this week.
If you have a home or garden project you’d like to share, please contact cate at brownstoner dot com. (more…)
04/18/2013 11:00 AM
Comment
A Look at This Year’s House Tours
Warm weather means house tour season is starting soon! Not every neighborhood association has published its 2013 tour dates yet, which run through October, but here are some of the upcoming ones that have been set:
Brooklyn Heights
May 11
Brooklyn Heights Association
Brooklyn Heights Blog
Park Slope
May 19
Park Slope Civic Council
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
June 2
Lefferts Manor Association
Victorian Flatbush
June 9
Flatbush Development Corp.
Correction: As of yet, there is no Fort Greene house tour scheduled for this year.
Photo by the Park Slope Civic Council
04/17/2013 11:00 AM
Comment
Photo Pool Challenge: New Fence
Now that the weather is warmer but plant growth is still in an early stage, it’s a good time to put in a new fence if you need one. We reached out to a homeowner in Bed Stuy who recently replaced a chain link fence with an all-cedar one to hear about the details of the project. When he and his wife closed on the place, the chain link fence “was a bizarre disaster,” recalled the owner. For one thing, “it was made up of what our contractor called ‘five years of job site theft’ — thick plumbing pipe frame with chain link wired on.” In addition, there were numerous other problems, including a section of fence that ran through the middle of the yard, a hole in the fence over a drop where a child could fall through, an area where a tree had grown through the fence, and a spot where the fence was missing altogether. (more…)
04/11/2013 11:00 AM
Comment
Photo Pool Challenge: Spring Starts
Spring has arrived! Our backyard is green and budding. Crocuses, daffodils and the tulips we planted in the fall are all poking their heads up out of the ground, though nothing is in bloom yet. Inspired by the fantastic weather Saturday, we stopped at Home Depot for some annuals. On Sunday, we planted pansies in pots in the front and back. We also bought seeds for the vegetable garden. We plan to start tomatoes, zucchini, arugula and some herbs and flowers in egg cartons on our kitchen window sills. What are you doing in the garden this month? Please post stories and photos here. Click through to the jump for more garden photos.
If you have a home or garden project you’d like to share, please contact cate at brownstoner dot com. (more…)
04/04/2013 11:00 AM
Comment
No Garden for P.S. 133?
Over the weekend, a tipster noticed that the School Construction Authority paved all of the exterior space behind and beside the new P.S. 133 building along 4th Avenue. As part of the construction agreement, in which the original P.S. 133 building was torn down along with the existing garden, the SCA promised that they would build a replacement garden for residents. But here’s the latest:
We now hear that the replacement “new community garden” will consist of asphalt with a fence around it (the moorings for the fence post are visible in the picture above as little yellow dots on the asphalt — the much smaller garden is to the right of those dots.) Anyone who wants to garden there — parents at the school, former gardeners — will need to bring in everything from scratch — and pay for it. No paths, raised beds, no obvious drainage, dirt, tool shed, benches — nothing but asphalt.
Concerned residents are encouraged to get in touch with Council Member Steve Levin and Community Board Six about the issue. Residents had not been notified the SCA wasn’t planning on building a full replacement garden, and Levin told residents he would follow up with the SCA.
03/27/2013 9:00 AM
Comment
Photo Pool Challenge: Winter Gardening
When the ground outside is frozen and we don’t want to go outdoors, there is nothing nicer or more fragrant than a pot of narcissus growing on a sunny windowsill. It’s traditional to force bulbs for Christmas, but we prefer to do it in the bleak period after New Year’s, to give a little taste of spring days to come. If you’re a gardener, you know how easy this is. You can also grow other kinds of bulbs, such as hyacinths, amaryllis and freesia, another fragrant flower that is too tender for our cold winters. Some of these don’t need soil and can be grown in water. What kind of flowers are your favorites for growing indoors in the winter? Please post photos and stories here. After the jump, more ideas and simple instructions. (more…)
01/10/2013 12:00 PM
Comment
100 Quincy Is Officially a Community Garden
Here’s good news from the 100 Quincy Facebook page: “We would like to happily report that as of 6:13 pm, Dec. 19, 2012, the 100 Quincy Community Garden became a licensed Greenthumb Community Garden.” Residents have worked since this summer to acquire the lot. Plans for the space potentially include community plots, chickens, bees, a tool shed, picnic tables, compost and a pond. Seems pretty likely that they’ll have something good up and running by this summer!
Update on the 100 Quincy Community Garden [Brownstoner] GMAP
Residents Plan Community Garden in Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]
Photo via the 100 Quincy Facebook
12/21/2012 12:00 PM
Comment
Free Trees!
The Pratt Area Community Council will give away a free tree to anyone who wants one Saturday, Nov. 3. They will also have information about how to plant and care for your tree. Sign up in advance to reserve a tree, since they have only 100 in total. The distribution will take place from 11 am to 1 pm at Magnolia Plaza at 686 Lafayette Avenue in Bed Stuy.
Photo by journeywood
10/23/2012 12:00 PM
Comment
Community Garden Chickens Ruffle Feathers in Park Slope
Following on the heels of the school zoning drama of Park Slope comes a different neighborhood controversy, this one having to do with chickens. Neighbors are worried that eight hens at the Warren-St. Marks Community Garden will make noise and attract rats, and 160 Park Slope residents actually signed a petition trying to kick them out of the garden. The chickens are there for the winter months only; they live on Governors Island during the rest of the year. A bunch of news outlets attended a meeting Sunday at the garden about the dispute that was hosted by Councilman Steve Levin. The New York Times called it “rancorous and sometimes profane.” At the meeting, questions were raised about how inclusive the garden is of the rest of the Park Slope community. In the end, the community garden is private land and they’re legally able to house chickens if they want. But garden members agreed to hold a vote on the chickens’ fate and extend membership of the garden to more neighborhood residents. One garden visitor told the New York Daily News: “This whole debate is for people who have too much time on their hands. This is a Park Slope problem. People died today, and we are worried about chickens.”
Chickens Threaten to Divide Park Slope Community [NY Times]
Park Slope Hens to Stay for Now [NY Daily News]
Park Slope Residents Clucking Angry Over Foul Chicken Coop [Gothamist]
Photo by butter & oil
10/22/2012 9:30 AM
Comment
Photo Pool Challenge: Fall Garden Prep
Here’s our garden on one of the last warm days of this summer. That’s stock and wild aster on the right. Everything is a little bit overgrown in the back and along the sides. In just a few weeks, we’ll tear out the weeds, prune the roses and plant tulips. We just ordered three dozen of two early flowering varieties, Tulip Mondial and Flaming Purissima, a perennial. We wanted to plant tulips in years past but were shocked by the cost. This year, we found some that are $13 per dozen. Not too bad. We are hoping the white and yellow of Tulip Mondial will look striking (rather than boring) against our evergreen holly and box. What are you doing to prepare your garden for the coming seasons this fall? Please post photos and stories here. (more…)
10/11/2012 12:00 PM
Comment
A Tree Falls in Brooklyn
A reader sent in these before-and-after photos of a backyard in Brooklyn. We hope the owner is making way for new landscaping and not a cement patch, but we’re not holding our breath. (more…)
10/03/2012 10:45 AM
Comment
Closing Bell: BBG Chile Pepper Fest
There will be heat at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden this Saturday, thanks to the Chile Pepper Fiesta, now in its 20th year. There will also be music, hot peppers for sale, fire juggling, workshops and chocolates with chiles. Above, chile-fruit popsicles from People’s Pops. For more information about the festival, click here.
Photo via Chile Pepper Fiesta
09/27/2012 4:00 PM
Comment
The Williamsburg Garden Walk Is Tomorrow
This weekend the Crest Hardware and Urban Garden Center is sponsoring a free, self guided walking tour of seven private gardens in Williamsburg. Pick up a map and directions at the Crest Garden Center tomorrow, Saturday the 15th, from 2 to 5 pm; all the gardens are within walking distance of Crest. Gardens featured include a small rooftop garden, a townhouse garden growing in containers on concrete, a communal garden in a double-wide backyard lot and more. Check out all the details right here.
09/14/2012 12:00 PM
Comment
Update on the 100 Quincy Community Garden
There’s been lots of progress at the empty lot (someday to be a community garden) at 100 Quincy Street, near Franklin Avenue. A group of volunteers outlined preliminary plans for the space that include community plots, chickens, bees, a tool shed, picnic tables, compost and a pond. The group will submit the final plan to Green Thumb as part of the process of gaining access to the lot. We hear the Sanitation Department has already mowed and cleared the lot. The group already met with Community Board Three and gained the support of some local institutions, but they still seek more community input. They started a survey to get a feel for what the community wants in this space. And the next meeting will be held Sunday, Sept. 16 at 11 am in front of the 100 Quincy lot.
Residents Plan Community Garden in Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]
09/07/2012 12:00 PM
Comment
A Weed Grows in Brooklyn
A reader sent in this photo of a, um, weed growing in a crack in the sidewalk on Grand between Gates and Greene in Clinton Hill. Anyone know what this is? (more…)
09/06/2012 11:15 AM
Comment
Residents Plan Community Garden in Bed Stuy
Hopefully another community garden is in the works for Bed Stuy! Neighbors in the Bed-Stuy/Clinton Hill area are trying to develop a publicly owned vacant lot at 100 Quincy Street, near Franklin Avenue. Their first meeting on the matter will be at the site at 11 am Aug. 12. They plan to organize a group of volunteers before obtaining the license to get the keys from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the agency that owns the lot. And while the group is open to all ideas for the space, they have been throwing around possible plans for a vegetable garden, community green space, and an area to screen films. Here’s the 596 Acres link with a few more details on the lot. GMAP
08/06/2012 11:30 AM
Comment
The Pond is Green but (Mostly) Algae Free
Owner of design-build company Eco Brooklyn Gennaro Brooks-Church has added a chemical-free pond to the backyard of his Carroll Gardens house, the Eco Brooklyn Green Show House. Plants and beneficial bacteria clean the water by gobbling up all the food and starving the algae. A liner holds in the water. Natural Pools, as they are known, were invented in Germany, and often use a filter to keep phosphorus low to inhibit algae growth. Click through for info about mosquitoes and costs. (more…)
07/30/2012 11:30 AM
Comment
davfgreene
May 21, 2013 | 09:56 AM