Lovely writeup on a major restoration effort at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Have you ever heard more mellifluous names than Music Island and Lower Concert Grove? Congratulations to our friends in the borough of Kings! ~AR
Prospect Park: The Restoration of Music Island http://bit.ly/TzlaV3
There is so much to love about this tale of two flower shops in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. One caters to the area’s Hasidic Jewish population (factoid I learned: most Hasidic men buy flowers for their wife every Friday for the Sabbath. I think all men, regardless of religion should embrace this!) while the other caters to the neighborhood’s growing “hipster” population. What ties the two shops together? They’re both pushing the boundaries of what a bouquet “should” be. This is an idea the Garden embraces in many of our Floral Design classes, and I wish both shops many years of continued success! ~AR
(via Two Flower Shops 10 Blocks Away Are a World Apart in Crown Heights - DNAinfo.com New York)
What speaks to you like a sunflower? There’s a cheerfulness to them that can’t be ignored—original garden kitsch, topping plastic flamingos and gnomes any day. And Brooklyn’s urban farmers know the value of those big, bright faces all too well.
“They’re a really iconic way to make people notice that you’re trying to make a change in the community,” says Deborah Greig, coordinator at East New York Farms. Along with her fellow gardeners, she’s using sunflowers to make a vacant lot just a little more friendly. —MN
Grace Bonney introduces us to a talented new Brooklyn florist on Design*Sponge: Ariel Dearie. The flower and plant combinations she uses are really unusual. Check out the full post for larger pictures of these pretty little arrangements.
Sending love to our friends in Brooklyn, from one century-old botanical garden to another!
What, institutions can’t be pals? —MN
(Source: crazyforsushi)
Our friends at the other end of the 4 Express have taken it upon themselves to resurrect a long-forgotten utility crop here in the city. Urban Gardens explores the planting of broomcorn along an ailing stretch of canal in Brooklyn.
Recent college-grad, Alexandra Meyn, created a treehouse in her Brooklyn backyard after struggling to find an internship or job. Check out this slideshow from The New York Times for the incredible pictures!
We fell hard and fast for this piece on Gothamist featuring photos from the New York Public Library of Brooklyn residents in their apartments, taken around 1978 by Dinanda Nooney. But we were a little sad there weren’t more exterior shots. And then we stumbled onto this fabulous shot of Anita Dellasala with her daughter & granddaughter in their Bay Ridge garden. Would you just look at that cucumber vine? New Yorkers and their gardens are endlessly inspiring, no matter the vintage.
Learn more on the NYPL tumblr.
We are just loving the slightly random Holiday Train Show mention in this really neat article in the New York Times about a forgotten stretch of railroad land in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Arborcide. Thieves in the Kensington section of Brooklyn chop down a Gingko tree to steal a bike. Click through for the full story on Gothamist.
Friend of the Garden, Marie, the woman behind one of our favorite blogs, 66 Sq. Feet, is helping to organize a “litter mob” (aka, a group of people to pickup the stuff people shouldn’t have dropped in the first place) to help clear Prospect Park’s Midwood of detritus.
The event is next Tuesday, May 10 at 9 a.m. (see Marie’s post for details of where to meet). Gloves, grabbers, and bags will be provided, provided you RSVP. If you have the day off and can help out in this worthy endeavor, email: marieyviljoen at gmail dot com. Tell her NYBG sent you! If you can’t participate, please reblog and help spread the word.
The depressing part of this story: Someone robbed the community-managed, volunteer-run Narrows Botanical Garden in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn of some of its most prized plants and supplies on, of all days, Earth Day.
Now, to the good part: Area businesses are doing everything they can to help the lovely little garden in the shadow of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge restock in time for their annual fundraiser plant sale. The sale is at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, April 30; Shore Road at 69th St.
A bridge (made of trees) grows in Brooklyn: Ted Zoli’s new design for the winding elevated footpath that will connect the promenade to lovely but difficult-to-access Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Another dispatch from the floral design wilds of Brooklyn! Inspired? There are still some spots left in our classes with the ladies from the Little Flower School!
A look at a remarkable urban garden in Brooklyn Heights from The New York Times.
Artist Philip Haas installation of the Four Seasons in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyard at the NYBG (New York Botanical Garden)....
Imagined conversations from bygone times
What do we want?
A robust variety of naturally-occurring flora in bloom for campus beauty and...
Botanical Gardens, Bronx, NY.
People just accept that I love the New York Botanical Garden and look at the pictures of the pretty things.
BTW NYBG I love the new Native Plants...
Rosemary (in NYBG pot) and friend
Love you, Mom <3
Happy National Public Gardens Day! A female carpenter bee visiting the pea vines yesterday. She’s California’s largest bee.
