Green with Envy Tour!!

REMEMBER, this Saturday is the first of the 2008 SUMMER “GREEN WITH ENVY” TOURS and the weather report says SUNSHINE!!!! This is your chance to get inside the gates and meet your fellow community gardeners IN THEIR GARDENS!!!!

This weekend’s tour will visit Parks, Land Trust and Independent Community Gardens in the Park Slope and Boerum Hill neighborhoods starting with breakfast snacks at the Bear’s Garden (on Flatbush and Pacific) and ending with some grilled dogs at GreenSpace (on President and Fifth)!!! RAIN OR SHINE!!! EVERYONE IS WELCOME!!!

The next tour is on Saturday, July 26, visiting gardens in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights. Info: 917 856 7456

Pacific Street Bear’s Mother’s Day Plant (Bake & Sidewalk) Sale! May 10 & 11

Once again the Pacific Street Bears will host their annual Mother’s Day Plant Sale, and this year it’s a Bake & Sidewalk Sale too!!! It’s all on Saturday and Sunday, May 10 & 11 from 10am to 4pm at Pacific & Flatbush. It’s our ONE fundraiser of the year, and proceeds keep the garden looking beautiful!!!

If you haven’t been before, those in the know come by early to get a shot at some of the special perennials lovingly divided right from the garden, at prices well below those of most nurseries. Then, chose from a colorful display of bedding plants, veggies and herbs carefully chosen for Brooklyn gardens or ready to give to MOM for her big day!

This year, we’re adding a Bake Sale and Sidewalk sale too! The garden has some AMAZING bakers, so the goodies are as nice as you’ll find at any of the fancy-schmancy local shops! And look for some fun and funky treasures at our sidewalk sale too — who needs the Brooklyn Flea, when you can go to the Brooklyn Bear!!! SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN!!!

Pacific St. Community Compost Project! KICKOFF Event, Sunday, April 27.

Just in time for Earth Week…. Stop by the Pacific Street Garden, anytime on April 27th, 2008, between 11am to 1pm and add your home scraps to our NEW COMPOST TUMBLER!

As one of the strategies to relieve the surrounding community of the ongoing rat infestation, the Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden invites neighbors to CONTRIBUTE HOME FOOD SCRAPS to our new above-ground tumbler compost system. We hope that by taking some of that element out the trash and out of the rat’s “food stream,” together we can discourage rats from their nightly visits.

While it may be difficult to prevent food waste in your daily routine, disposing them in an environmentally sound manner couldn’t be easier. Simply store your scraps in a sturdy bag in your refrigerator or freezer — depending on capacity and how frequently you can make it to the garden. Then bring your scraps to the Bear’s Garden on Flatbush at Pacific Street and add it to the NEW COMPOST TUMBLER!

You can get access to the garden in two ways: 1) Become a member and get your own key (after all, it’s YOUR community garden) or 2) drop -off scraps during garden open hours , Tuesdays, 6–8pm or Saturdays & Sundays, 10am–2pm, volunteers and weather permitting. Then, follow simple instructions posted at the garden, and YOU BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!!

Looking forward to seeing you AND your food scraps in the garden soon! Contact info: joncrow@earthlink.net For more info on composting visit www.nyccompost.org

Children’s Earth Day event at Pacific

In cooperation with the North Flatbush BID, we’ll be hosting a Children’s Earth Day event this Sunday, April 27 in the Pacific Street Bear’s Garden from 1 to 4pm. We’ll be teaching kids how to plant a garden, search for worms in the compost, and have arts and crafts, two face painters, and a lot of goodies. Children of ALL ages are welcome!

Also: Look for our summer children’s days in July & August.

Dogwood-4/20/08

Dogwood-4/20/08

Originally uploaded by Brooklyn Bears Community Gardens.

Spring is really here!

Pacific St Horticultural Day-April 20

Want to learn to prune and train roses and other shrubs?
How about learning to ID all sorts of plants, that are coming up now in the early spring in the perennial beds?
Then come to the Pacific Street Bears Garden this Sunday April 20th at 11am!
We’ll be doing these important spring pruning chores and along the way, learning a lot from each other. And we can ID and label plants, so the learning will be ongoing…
It will be fun! Come and spend an hour or two getting to know and how to care for the non-vegetable plants in the garden.
Pacific Street Bears Garden is at the corner of Pacific St and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Carlton Work Day – April 26th

Come out to Carlton Garden next Saturday April 26th to rebuild compost bins and clean out from the winter. We will be out there at 11am and will continue till 4pm.

Carlton Garden is located on Carlton btw. Greene and Fulton in Brooklyn

Workshop this Sunday: Mary, is that a weed? (and can I eat it?)

Come follow Master Gardener
Mary Garsia around the garden and
see which you keep, which you pull,
and which you take home for dinner!

Sunday, August 19
10am–Noon (weather permitting)

Warren St. Marks Community Garden
in Brooklyn, NY

Enter on Warren Street or St. Marks
between 4th and 5th Avenues

How Safe is Your Garden, Really?

I’ve gotten this through several listserves now–it looks like an important and timely event.

How Safe is Your Garden, Really?

Saturday, June 16th

NYCCGC 2007 Community Gardeners Forum
in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Auditorium
10:00am – 1:30pm

Across the city, even “permanent” community gardens are being threatened—and planned to be destroyed.

Bronx: In the South Bronx, El Flamboyan Community Garden was awarded money to relocate and rebuild. The Bronx Parks Department was diverting the funds into a project that destroys the community garden.

Manhattan: In Harlem alone, over 20 community gardens are planned to be sacrificed, some for luxury housing. The latest casualty is Nueva Esperanza Garden, evicted on April 15, 2007.

We Still Need a Unified Voice. In 2002, Elliot Spitzer, then the AG, negotiated a settlement that gave gardeners powerful legal tools. That 1999 victory fractured our movement, leaving some gardens in Parks Dept. or other city agencies, some gardens in one of four different land trusts, and some gardens still in limbo. And time is running out on that 2002 settlement—we have less than 3 years left!

Join Us on June 16. Help us revitalize
the unified voice of community
garden citywide, and work with us
to preserve and strengthen your
garden—and all gardens.

Mural Opportunity with Groundswell

If you are 14 to 21 years old and live in NYC you don’t want to miss out on this chance! Groundswell Community Mural Project is looking for individuals to help develop a design and then paint a large scale mural in Brooklyn. The head muralist for this project is Christopher Cardinale and the assistant muralist is Nicole Schulman.

The project is in part a response to the tragic death of 4 year old James Nyprie Rice, who was killed in a crosswalk while walking with his aunt at the intersection of Third Avenue and Baltic Street in Brooklyn, NY. This is a wonderful opportunity to work with the community in creating a mural that will not only change the physical landscape, but will foster social and political change as well.

Youths who live in the Gowanus neigborhood of Brooklyn are especially encouraged to apply. Don’t worry–the date has been extended to May 15th!