Colorful Eastern Parkway Oasis Takes Crown for Greenest Block in Brooklyn

Yesterday, Delean Ward was hard at work. On a trip to New York to stay with his dad, trading the sandy shores of Miami for the bustling streets of Brooklyn, Ward was tending to a yellow celosia on the sidewalk of Eastern Parkway, between Franklin and Bedford avenues.

Ward dug out the annual and put it in a new pot to be hung from an alternate side parking sign, where it joined other flowering plants in offering some shade and beauty to one of the many colorful seating areas created along the stretch of the busy Crown Heights thoroughfare.

That section of Eastern Parkway, with its towering street trees and nonstop traffic, was today crowned the winner of the borough’s annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn competition, the first block of mostly apartment buildings to win the competition in its 29-year history (and likely one of the busiest and most traversed).

Delean’s dad Derrick, who has worked as a landscaper for over 17 years starting out in Jamaica, is one of the Crown Heights Keepers, the group responsible for creating the colorful and inviting oasis along the southern stretch of the busy road.

Between the early 20th century brick apartment buildings and up to six-lane road, the sidewalk of the Eastern Parkway block is filled with self watering planters with coneflowers, joe-pye-weed, black eyed Susans, coleus, and much more spilling out. Communal herb gardens painted bright blue offer basil and thyme to passersby, and tables made out of old construction materials and chairs that have been salvaged or repurposed offer places to relax. There’s even a fruiting fig tree next to grasses, tomatoes, and succulents, in the truly diverse urban garden.

“It makes the block beautiful, people walk by and take pictures, they sit and relax between the flowers,” the older Ward said. Dozens, including many from other parts of the borough who had come to share in the celebration of urban gardening and community, were doing that on Tuesday morning, as Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosted the awards ceremony for the beloved competition. They were joined by bees circling the blossoming plants and an eye-catching Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that was dancing between a butterfly bush and lantana to marveled onlookers.

Adrian Benepe, president of the garden, told the group the competition “brings neighbors closer together, it encourages sustainable gardening, it educates generations of plant lovers throughout this great borough, but I would say just as important, or perhaps more important, we are saving the planet one block at a time.”

The competition attracted 101 applicants this year, and 27 of those were first time entrants. Crown Heights Keepers are no rookies, last year they were the runners-up in the competition, as well as being crowned with the inaugural media darling award. Benepe said “the residents have created a truly special community space for neighbors, young and old.”

“Crown Heights Keepers and its neighbors have revitalized the simple joy of a classic block party with food, music, and community, all while providing habitats for native pollinators. And I’ve seen the pollinators out there doing their thing. I love so much about this. It’s an oasis with colorful seeding,” he said.

Kara Lesondak, one of the founders of Crown Heights Keepers and who still considers herself a newcomer on the block after 15 years, said her and neighbor Debra Sweet started gardening on the block seven years ago, planting native plants to clean up the tree beds and in hopes of providing habitat for pollinators.

“We kept coming out because we loved the conversations we had with folks in the neighborhood, they shared their stories with us and the history of the block,” she said. The block, she said, is mostly rentals with over 750 residents, several of whom have been there for three decades or more. “The warmth and generosity of the folks on this block is what makes this community so strong and so wonderful.”

“Taking care of trees and plants on our block is taking care of each other and the environment, which is so incredibly important, and building community,” she added.

Ana DeLeon, who has lived on the block for 55 years, is the force behind a lot of the color on the block, painting the bright blue herb gardens and other planters and seating equipment, and organizing residents to do an uplifting and representative mural on the long construction fence on Bedford Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

Aside from the fact that color just makes people happy, she said, her main focus was bringing neighbors of all races, ages, and lengths of living in the neighborhood together. “I’ve been living here so long, and I wanted people when they see each other to say ‘good morning.’ Even if you’re a young Afro-American or a white woman who owns a condo, I wanted them to say good morning. I wanted them to feel like they knew each other,” DeLeon said.

“I figured if we do something together that’s meaningful to everyone, and we spent a little time together, now when you see each other, now you know my name, you can say good morning, hey, how are you? You need help with your bag?”

Creating those connections was very well received by the residents on the block, she said, and neighbors quickly got to work helping each other out “with genuine smiling faces, nothing fake, and people were actually helping people.” Now, she said, the residents are really getting to know one another and support each other in extra curricular activities, with some members of the block even turning up to watch her son act in his recent theatre performances.

This year’s runner-up for the Greenest Block was L&S Jefferson Ave Block Association, which covers Jefferson Avenue between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues in Bed Stuy. In a tie for third place was Bay Ridge Blooms, Ridge Boulevard between 71st Street and Ovington Avenue in Bay Ridge, and (to much applause) M.U.L.C.H., MacDougal Street between Thomas S. Boyland Street and Rockaway Avenue in Ocean Hill. M.U.L.C.H. also took the first place award for Rookie of the Year.

The Greenest Storefront in Brooklyn was awarded to Sugar’d at 2614 Newkirk Avenue in Flatbush, and the Sustainable Practices Award was handed the Ovington Avenue Historic District, which spans Ovington Avenue between 3rd Avenue and Ridge Boulevard in Bay Ridge, for its use of insect hotels on the block to support local pollinators.

The full list of winners in all categories can be viewed on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

Related Stories

• Crown Heights Block Claims Top Spot in Greenest Block in Brooklyn Competition
• Rich With Tropical Plants, Flatbush’s East 25th Street Named Greenest Block in Brooklyn
• Our Beautiful Brooklyn Blocks

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