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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2005 Annual Report
Community Outreach
Brooklyn GreenBridge, the Garden's community horticulture program, celebrated a major milestone with the tenth anniversary of its Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest. Displayed here is the First Place Commercial Winner: Atlantic Avenue between Nevins and Third, North Side, Downtown Brooklyn.
Brooklyn GreenBridge, the Garden's community horticulture program, celebrated a major milestone with the tenth anniversary of its Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest, coordinated in partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and sponsored by the Independence Community Foundation. More than 1,000 blocks throughout Brooklyn have entered the contest since it was founded, in 1994, involving an estimated 500,000 residents in this borough-wide beautification and greening effort. The Garden celebrated this anniversary with the release of a collection of beautiful photographs in a commemorative poster.
This year brought the largest number of participants ever: 224 residential and commercial blocks, with an estimated total of more than 100,000 people. The winning residential block for 2004, East 25th Street between Clarendon and Avenue D, in Flatbush, had almost 100 percent participation, with beautifully designed front areas, colorful window boxes, and mulched street trees. The commercial winner was Atlantic Avenue between Nevins Street and Third Avenue, in downtown Brooklyn. Awards were also given for the first time to the most outstanding storefronts. First place went to Brawta Restaurant, on Atlantic Avenue, which had a Caribbean theme, and second place to Cake Man Raven, on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. Related programs included the sale of window-box kits: Nearly 400 kits were distributed to neighborhood groups and at street clinics, offered in ten different locations. Lowe's Company joined the founding sponsor, the Independence Community Foundation, to help expand the contest in the year ahead.
Coordinated in partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and sponsored by the Independence Community Foundation, more than 1,000 blocks throughout Brooklyn have entered the contest since it was founded in 1994. Pictured above is the press conference to announce the winners, held on the First Place Residential winner: E. 25th between Clarendon and Avenue D, Flatbush neighborhood.
BBG's annual Making Brooklyn Bloom event kicked off the spring gardening season in March 2005 with the theme "Designing Gardens: Practical Techniques for Planning Neighborhood Gardens." Numerous workshops, exhibits, and speakers served more than 500 participants with a day of learning and renewal. Brooklyn GreenBridge also participated in the BBG Harvest Fair with an interactive display for adults and children demonstrating how to harvest and preserve a variety of plants.
Brooklyn GreenBridge sponsored a number of new workshops, including Composting, Drip Irrigation, Greening Up Your Storefront, and Community Gardening 101. GreenBridge staff also continued to participate in the NYC Water Resources Program, as well as rainwater harvesting in community gardens. And the program extended its reach to community centers with the Sustainable Gardening Project, Phase II. This partnership, funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, aims to teach community members not only how to garden sustainably but also how to develop talent within their own organizations to sustain their leadership as environmental stewards. Working in East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Bushwick, Prospect Heights, and East New York, the program paired a select group of community-based organizations with community gardens. This enhanced the role of each in educating local residents about current horticultural-conservation methods, including native plant and butterfly gardens, irrigation systems, and composting. The topics were selected by the local groups based on their interests and needs.
Through the GreenBridge Registered Garden program, BBG continued to provide technical assistance and gardening resources, particularly in responsible conservation, to about 100 community gardens. The gardens also received plants from the BBG Auxiliary and various nurseries, in addition to the annual recycled tulip bulb giveaway. And GreenBridge worked with GreenThumb, the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust, and other organizations toward the long-term preservation of these valuable community spaces.
The Urban Compost Program returned in fall 2004 with funding and programming support from the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY). Three new staff members came on board to carry out the effort, which began with the promotion of fall leaf collection at BBG's Ghouls and Gourds event. A summer compost giveback drew more than a thousand people to the DSNY Brooklyn Spring Creek composting facility. The revived program welcomed back many faithful participants along with new converts, and 18 people earned a Master Composter Certificate from BBG.
A new program in horticultural therapy came alive through GreenBridge's work with teachers and staff at the United Cerebral Palsy Center for Children and the Flatlands branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Horticultural therapy is the practice of using horticulture to advance physical and mental learning. It also brings plants into the lives of people to whom they would otherwise be inaccessible. GreenBridge staff members worked with two classes of prekindergarten children and their teachers and aides to develop a curriculum that included handling soil, planting seeds, learning how common fruits and vegetables are grown, and learning songs about plants. The curriculum emphasized sensory activities, which stimulate learning through smelling and touching plants. The children worked both indoors and outdoors, in the United Cerebral Palsy Center's large, wheelchair-accessible garden. Staff members from both organizations were taught by BBG staff how to continue using horticulture with their classes and received supplies such as an indoor grow-light system and an activities booklet based on the curriculum developed during the year.
Brooklyn Gardener, GreenBridge's newsletter, was provided free of charge to more than 14,000 community residents and organizations this year. The newsletter contains gardening information, tips, and a calendar of upcoming BBG workshops and events.