photo by Laura Kiev - Laura (at) makedocreative (dot) com

~ We never take for granted those who most deserve our gratitude: our volunteers! ~

This year’s Greening Flatbush was one of our biggest undertakings to date. We found ourselves adding more twists like the sustainable art component, live music, and a tasty community meal, but faced being short-staffed for this adventure. Since our non-profit organization is run by local volunteers, we relied on the help of other community volunteers and groups like New York Cares and TimeBanksNYC to produce a successful event.

photo by Sheryll Durrant

~ How beautiful a day can be when kind hearts touch it! ~

Although the weather wasn’t on our side, the positive feedback we received from those who attended and participated was awesome. Everyone had a fabulous time at the event, we all networked with great people and organizations, and the donations we received helped cover the cost of Greening Flatbush.

The success of this event is due in large part to our wonderful volunteers and their efforts. For all the volunteers listed below, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Adam Weber

Allison Braham

Athena Bernkopf

A. Victoria Hunter (TimeBanksNYC)

Brian Batka

Carole Silverman (TimeBanksNYC)

Cori Carl (New York Cares Team Leader) and 10 New York Cares Volunteers (Shift 1)

Dolores Henry (TimeBanksNYC)

Elena Tenchikova (TimeBanksNYC)

Ellen Lehman (TimeBanksNYC)

Emmelyne Louis

Engin Karabagli

Ilana Yamin

Jamey Ellis

Jean Baptiste Joseph (TimeBanksNYC)

Jimmy Ng (TimeBanksNYC)

Karana White

Kevin Butrick (TimeBanksNYC)

Laura Vladimirova

Madeline Schwarz

Metsha Renois (New York Cares Team Leader) and 12 New York Cares Volunteers (Shift 2)

Mona Kidd (TimeBanksNYC)

Natalia Sucre

Phil Shipman

Rosalia Lucero

Sonaz Safari

Stephen Anh

Tamara Leighton

Tracey Sharpe

Tricia Ang

Veena Muthusamy

Veena’s Mom and Aunt

Vivian Vivas

And a special thank you goes out to the talented Community Meal Specialists:

David Cohen
718 Collective – Berlin Reed, Jesse Gold, Cresta White
Barry Schwartz
Margaret Dunn-Carver and Jeff Campoli

~ We (heart) our volunteers ~

SF Team

For the first time, at Greening Flatbush 2012  Sustainable Flatbush will honor an organization that we believe embodies the theme of the event — Garden Where You Are. The 300 East 25th Street Block Association, aka The Greenest Block in Brooklyn, will be the recipients of this year’s Greening Flatbush award.

One of 300 East 25th Street's three Greenest Block awards

The Greenest Block in Brooklyn is an annual contest of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (BBG) GreenBridge, promoting streetscape gardening, tree stewardship, and community development in Brooklyn. Flatbush’s East 25th Street (between Avenue D and Clarendon Road) was named the greenest residential block in the borough for the 3rd time in 2011, having previously won this award in 2004 and 2006.

This block, and the group of neighbors who garden there, is an inspiration to the Flatbush neighborhood and to all Brooklynites. They successfully demonstrate how to use gardening to create a beautiful urban environment and to bring neighbors together to build a close-knit community.

In addition, the group will conduct a workshop at this year’s event, titled “How to Create a Thriving Block Association Through Gardening”. Like their previous workshop presentations at Making Brooklyn Bloom, this will be engaging, inspiring and should not to be missed.

Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, March 25 at the Flatbush Reformed Church!

Greening Flatbush is back, Sunday March 25th. Get involved!

Sustainable Flatbush will host our 4th annual Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are, on Sunday, March 25th at 2pm.

The event will be held at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church, host of our compost and gardening initiatives, located on Flatbush and Church Avenues.

This year, Greening Flatbush promises to be better than ever — an event the entire family can participate in and enjoy. Our annual extravaganza celebrating community gardening, neighborhood greening, and urban agriculture will feature, from 2 – 5pm, hands-on workshops, interactive demos, DIY projects, creative arts, and live entertainment, presented by Sustainable Flatbush and a curated roster of community-based groups. The day will culminate in a delicious Community Meal from 5 until 7pm.

What’s New at Greening Flatbush 2012

In addition to interactive displays from a wide variety of community organizations (check out info and photos from last year’s event!), Sustainable Flatbush will offer workshops on Gardening with Native Plants, Composting, Community Engagement, and Solar for Community Gardens.

There will be live entertainment and a delicious meal prepared for the whole community. Like our first Community Meal on January 28, which attracted over 120 people, this is an opportunity for neighbors to meet neighbors and to share, learn, and build relationships around sustainable living in our communities.

Why We Do It

Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are engages and empowers people from all over Brooklyn and beyond to participate in creating sustainable urban neighborhoods. Our goal is for YOU to discover (or create!) a project within walking distance of your home where you can get involved in making your community greener — whether it’s by learning to compost, joining a CSA or community garden, adopting a tree, or growing flowers on your windowsill!

While bringing more visibility and participants to sustainable neighborhood-based projects, Greening Flatbush will also be a great opportunity for all of us to get acquainted with like-minded organizations and people, form partnerships, and strengthen the growing network of environmental stewardship in Brooklyn.

You can be part of this event!
Click here for information on how to get involved as a volunteer or sponsor.

Greening Flatbush is free, with a suggested donation of $10 for the event and the community meal.

Details

WHAT:
Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are
WHEN:
Sunday, March 25, 2 – 7 pm
WHERE:
Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue (corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues) [map]

Let us know you’re coming! Please RSVP here.

Peaches or Parking Spots? (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Brooklyn College has plans to reorient (but not expand) the student athletic track, thereby cutting into a parking lot that is positioned nearby. To make up for the spots that will be lost, the college plans to bulldoze the garden, replace it with approximately 24 parking spots, and leave the community gardeners with a paltry plot, to be laid out and regimented by Brooklyn College Facilities.

You can help! You can raise your voice and tell Brooklyn College how you want the new garden to be configured. You can share with the college the value of a community garden. Share your priorities and interests — let the college know what you think!

A Part of the Garden (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Join the community, the students, and the faculty for a Town Hall Meeting. There will be two meetings: One in the afternoon (12:30), and one in the evening (6:30).

When: Thursday, 15 April 2010, 12:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

Due to budget cuts, in 2008 New York City discontinued both its autumn leaf-collecting project and free compost pickups in the springtime. This was a big step backwards for the city, from the standpoint of both urban gardening and Zero Waste advocates: huge quantities of leaves (potentially soil amendments) are once again being sent to landfills.

The good news is that a group of Brooklyn compost advocates are meeting this Saturday to come up with a community-led initiative for collecting leaves to create compost and mulch for urban gardens! Read on for more info (the message quoted below has been making the rounds in community gardening circles).

Greetings,

Please join your fellow community gardeners and our friends from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a brainstorming session that will focus on how we can expand and improve community leaf collection and recycling this fall.

As you know, the City will not be collecting leaves separately from regular trash, again, this fall. That means that it’s up to us to find ways to take this rich source of garden nutrients out of the waste stream and bring it into our gardens, where it will do the most good. Building on a very successful leaf collection and recycling project that was implemented at 6/15 Green garden last year, we hope to coordinate a Brooklyn-wide project that will enable local community gardens to be collection points for bagged leaves from their neighbors for use in the community gardens….and possibly even distributed back to the community in the future.

This is truly a win/win for everyone. Gardens will benefit from the addition of wonderful leaves that they can use as mulch or make into “brown gold” compost and residents will be able to recycle their leaves knowing that they will not be wasted clogging up our landfills. Please join us for our first planning meeting to get the ball rolling. We’ll be brainstorming on the basic strategies of how we can work together, coordinate dates and collection methods, create a unified press release and outreach and the ways we can avoid duplication and confusion of efforts. We really need your voice and your ideas right from the start!

Feel free to forward this information to any community gardens or other folks you think would like to be part of this project.

Date: Saturday, October 3, 2009
Time: 12:00 Noon
Location: Ozzies’ Coffee 249 5th Ave. Bet Carroll & Garfield Brooklyn, NY 11215 (718) 768-6868
Subways: M. R to Union St Buses: B63 along Fifth Ave B37 & B103 along Third Avenue B71 along Union St.

We’re looking forward to a lively discussion. If you can’t make it to this meeting and want to be kept informed about upcoming meetings, please RSVP to this email or contact me directly and I’ll put you on the email list: Jessica Katz bklyn.nighthawk[at]gmail.com 718-788-8287

Best wishes, Jess — Jessica Katz Brooklyn, NY ************************************************************

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” “To forget to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” – Mahatma Ghandi

Related links:

NYC Department of Sanitation Leaf Composting page
Brooklyn Botanic Garden “What is Composting?” page

* Learn about the projects and plans of Sustainable Flatbush’s Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative, including the Flatbush CommUNITY Garden

* Connect with others from the community who want to get their hands dirty greening our neighborhood

* Find out how to get involved

Your ideas, energy, and hands-on help are an essential part of our sustainable community. Any amount of participation is welcome! We hope to see you there!

Please RSVP to let us know if you’ll attend.

Light refreshments will be provided.

The Brooklyn College Arts Lab (BCAL) is located in Brooklyn College’s Roosevelt Hall, 2946 Bedford Avenue, south of Campus Road.

View Map.

Directions from Q train Avenue H station

Directions from 2/5 train Flatbush Avenue station

WHAT
Orientation for the Sustainable Flatbush Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative

WHERE
Brooklyn College Arts Lab (BCAL)
2946 Bedford Avenue
Roosevelt Hall, 3rd floor
Brooklyn, NY  11210

WHEN
Tuesday, June 16th at 7:00pm

photos by Flatbush Gardener (Daffodil Project)  and Inside Urban Green (Fire Escape Peppers)