Native Plant workshop at the BBG

I attended a fantastic workshop at the BBG organized by Greenbridge last Thursday.  The room was packed with gardeners and proponents of native plants, some with differing expectations for the 2 hour long workshop.  One group of homeowners wanted to know how to substitute their non-native, "alien" species with native alternatives, while others were intrigued to know of the latest in plant research at GNPC.  The presenter was Heather Liljengran who spoke on her work at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center.  She brought a wide range of books on native plants, and overall expressed her excitement at this time in our history when so much research on native plants is being conducted and there is finally a sizable constituency that cares about replanting our small and large landscapes with plants native to the NYC/Metropolitan region.

I will leave a set of handouts/ booklets from the workshop for our budding library of hard-copy materials in Dean Hainline's office. If you'd like to see them, shoot me an email and I can have them left for you in the front office.


Here's others links and resources about native plants and upcoming tours:

Greenbelt Native Plant Center
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_divisions/gnpc/index.html

NYC Wildflower week:
http://nycwildflowerweek.org/ataglance.htm

Op-Ed NY Times piece:
"Mother Nature's Melting Pot"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03Raffles.html?scp=1&sq=native%20plants&st=cse

Flatbush Gardener
http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/p/native-plants.html


Books:
Weeds of the Northeast
Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast
Bringing Nature Home


BBG Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants
and Great Natives for Tough Places
http://www.bbg.org/gardening/handbook/native_alternatives/

Streetscaping project is Moving Along

Things are moving along nicely with our Streetscaping project.  Pablo has measured all the tree pits, has adopted tree #7, (that’s the tree on campus Road, right where East 21^st street begins) a European Hornbean that he has lovingly named, “Musical Intelligence.”  Awwhhh little tree…

Chad has photographed each tree---Full length and bed views.

I had some specific questions regarding paving stone removal, and weather this was considered excavation/ did we need to hire an arborist? Yesterday, I got that straightened out when I called the Brooklyn Forestry division of the Parks Dept.  It turns out that we can complete a simple Tree Work permit and do not have to hire an arborist to remove the stones. It is not considered excavation.  

We do not need an architect to install tree guards, architecture drawing are only needed if tree is to be in front of a new building, or if you are designing unique tree guards rather than styles supplied from the city.  Also received information that each Borough president’s office has a budget for funding “tree Guards” and we may qualify. 

Pablo is going to contact Marty Markowitz’s office about that, Chad is working on completing the Tree work Permit; I’m filling out a compost requisition form in order to pick up compost and mulch from the DOS- Wasteless.

Soon, we will start caring for the tree pits.  We will remove paving stones with Dean Hainline’s many hammers and chisels, carefully.  We will add coarse compost or wood chips to the areas where the stones used to be.  Did you know it’s recommended NOT to backfill with soil?  I didn’t.  Tree roots need loose soil full of oxygen and good drainage.  Adding soil right away can reduce oxygen level in soil.  It’s recommended to wait 1 year to add soil, instead adding coarse compost or wood chips for now.

http://forestry.about.com/od/treeandforestcare/a/yard_tree_roots.htm

Compost and mulch will be added to the rest of tree beds, and then planted.  We are gathering resources for free plants and seeds, ones that have shallow root systems.  Pablo and Chad have ideas about doing different planting themes for the tree beds. 

There are many of you who expressed interest in the Streetscaping project.  We would love to hear your ideas.  Just think, if we can get this short stretch of Campus Road trees rejuvenated, we can move onto another stretch or teach/ inspire other groups with what we’ve learned.

I also went to this fantastic “Community Greening” workshop tonight, through the BBG’s Greenbridge program.  It was very well done, there are so many ideas/ projects/ people around Brooklyn, creating gardens and street projects who want to hook up and share ideas!

Just found these two sites:

On tree identification, TreeKIt

http://treekit.org/

Street gardening

http://www.streetgardening.org/

Can anyone pickup a rain barrel for our garden this Saturday?

Greenthumb Events and Workshops--Learn and receive Free supplies

It looks as though Greenthumb just revamped their website today!  It's fresh and easier to navigate than before.  At our garden meeting last Wednesday night, there many knowledgeable attendees who shared all kinds of resources for our garden to apply for funding and receive free supplies.  Shaquana shared about all the free materials available from Greenthumb.  The way it works is that garden members who attend workshops become eligible for free supplies.   Some are disbursed at the workshop and larger stuff is delivered at a later date.  I had heard of them before and had briefly looked at their website, until now.  I will try to go to as many workshops as I can.  I'm sure many of you are seriously interested if not already have plans to go. if you are going, let us know in the comments!

Here's the program guide for this Spring:  http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/pdf/2011SpringProgramGuide.pdf