This year the Boerum Hill Association celebrates its fifth annual Greening Day.
It all started in 1997 when Stan Murray, a now retired landscaper, with the help of many other residents of the Cathedral Block of State Street (between Hoyt and Bond) in Boerum Hill, turned individual cleaning and greening efforts into a block-wide enterprise.
Neighbors spent one day sweeping the sidewalks, weeding front gardens and tree wells, building temporary wooden tree-well guards and installing trash containers provided by the Sanitation Department at the corners of the block. The following weekend, neighbors planted the tree wells and front gardens with a variety of annuals and perennials purchased at the local Farmers' Market at Cadman Plaza and at Midtown Greenhouse and Nursery.
Throughout the summer, containers were added to stoops, and nooks and crannies along the sidewalk. The effort paid off when the block won an Honorable Mention in the Brooklyn Borough President's Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. Energized by their early success and undaunted by the enormous amount of work involved in watering, weeding, deadheading and replacing stolen plants throughout the summer, the block has continued and expanded their greening activities in the years since. In 1998 and 1999 the block was rewarded with a First Place in the Contest, prompting contest organizers to change the rules. Now the first-place block must wait a year before re-entering the contest.
In 2000, Stan Murray took the State Street Cathedral Block's beautification activities to the neighborhood, organizing the Boerum Hill Association's Greening Committee and its first Greening Day. Then called Planting Day, it involved eight blocks with residents cleaning up and planting. In 2001 and 2002, the Greening-Chair trowel was picked up by Pat Jobling who expanded the effort. She organized block Greening Captains, coordinated Greening Day with the more than 20-year-old annual Hoyt Street Association Plant Sale and arranged for free mulch and compost from the City. Residents around the neighborhood shoveled and bagged the wood chips and compost at a "mulch pit" in a local vacant lot and took the bags back to their individual blocks preparatory to planting. Pat also arranged workshops on particular aspects of greening, such as container gardening, as well as a workshop for children. Greening Day 2002 was immortalized by local resident and former filmmaker Susan Ryan.
For the past two years, the greening effort has been led by residents and co-chairs Joanna Pertz, a landscape architect, and Kristen Austin, a landscaper and gardener. This year's activities began with a presentation on Greening Brooklyn Rooftops on April 20th at the BHA's spring General Meeting. For Saturday's Greening Day, wood chips are being donated by Paul Bunyon Tree Care along with compost provided by the Long Island Compost Co. Handouts, many provided by Brooklyn GreenBridge (the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's community outreach group), will also be available with information on tree care and appropriate plants for street gardening, among other subjects. Sunday, May 1st, is Kids' Day. From 9 to 11 am, children from the neighborhood will plant seeds, annuals and perennials (donated by GRDN and Midtown Greenhouses) around the flag pole at P.S. 38 on Pacific Street at the corner of Nevins. Since 2000, a number of the blocks in the neighborhood, both residential and commercial, have entered the Borough President's Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. Several have won awards. "Greening" seeds planted and tended by many hands over just a few years produce enormous results and a wonderful community spirit.
Sue Wolfe
Posted by jpotisch at April 29, 2005 09:33 PM