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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2003 Annual Report
Community Outreach
As part of the Garden's ongoing commitment to educate New York City residents about waste prevention and recycling, Brooklyn GreenBridge participated in the Organic Waste Prevention Project, funded by the New York City Council and administered by Inform, Inc., an independent environmental research organization. The program, which builds upon ten years of community education about composting by BBG's former Urban Composting Project, was launched in January with Christmas-tree chipping events. Over 500 trees were collected at Green-Wood Cemetery alone. GreenBridge staff, aided by BBG-trained volunteer Master Composters, worked intensively with block associations, civic groups, community boards, and City Council members to promote the campaign in spring and summer. In addition, nearly 13,000 New York City residents were invited to complete a survey about their lawn-mowing practices as part of the project's goal to encourage NYC residents to put their lawn clippings to good use instead of bagging them up for curbside disposal.
Residents of MacDonough Street, between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues, in Bedford Stuyvesant, beat out nearly 200 other Greenest-Block-in-Brooklyn contestants with their exuberant, colorful plantings and displays.
Two hundred blocks participated in the Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest in 2003, its ninth consecutive year. Sponsored by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz with support from the Independence Community Foundation, the contest kicked off with street clinics, street-tree care demonstrations, and the sale of window-box kits in May and June and culminated with an award celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall in October. The first-place winner for Residential Block was MacDonough Street between Stuyvesant and Lewis avenues of the MacDonough-Macon-Stuyvesant-Lewis Association. First place in the Greenest Business Block in Brooklyn went to Bridge Street between Willoughby and Fulton streets of the MetroTech Business Improvement District. Window Box Awards were given to four Brooklyn residents.
GreenBridge continued to support community-minded Brooklynites with free workshops on basic gardening techniques. Summer and fall workshops for community gardeners and neighborhood group members included "City Kids Get Green: Adult Leaders Workshop," "Summertime...and the Lawn Care Is Easy," "Mulches and Compost," "Street Tree Pit Gardening," and "Gardening With Children and Youth." GreenBridge also launched a new workshop series, "Community Gardening 101" and "Community Gardening 102."
With Plant Giveaways, BBG continued to directly promote community gardening. Due to the success of BBG's 2003 Plant Sale, there were no plants left over to donate to community groups, but GreenBridge rose to the challenge, quickly ordering 120 flats of bedding plants for members of the 65 community gardens who came to pick up free plants.
Brooklyn GreenBridge brought conservation to the community with events like the annual Christmas Tree Recycling program at Green-Wood Cemetery and others.
On May 22, nearly 10,000 spent tulip bulbs removed from the BBG annual display borders were distributed to 68 community gardens and block associations for redistribution in the community.
Nearly 500 community gardeners came out to attend GreenBridge's 22nd annual Making Brooklyn Bloom. The theme for the day of workshops and networking was "Let's Garden Again: Practical Techniques for Growing Gardens." Keynote speaker Pat Lanza's presentation on "lasagna gardening," based on her book of the same name, emphasized the "no-till, no-dig" method.
Brooklyn Gardener, GreenBridge's free newsletter, enabled BBG to provide more than 8,000 community residents and organizations with timely gardening tips and new ideas, and its two issues kept its audience, including 135 GreenBridge-registered community gardens, informed about upcoming BBG events and workshops.
GreenBridge director Ellen Kirby completed a two-year term as president of the American Community Gardening Association, representing community gardeners in the United States and Canada.