Prospect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush are proud to present
Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Talk Four: Native Plants
With Speakers Mariellé Anzelone (Executive Director, Founder, NYC Wildflower Week) and Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener)

May 18th, 2011
7 – 9:30 pm
Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+
1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)
$5 suggested donation (proceeds benefit Sustainable Flatbush & Prospect Farm)

——-

Mariellé Anzelone, Executive Director, Founder of NYC Wildflower Week
Marielle Anzelone is a botanist, urban conservation biologist and native plant landscape designer. The idea for NYC Wildflower Week was born of her desire to share her love of flora and create an posse of passionate plant people.  Prior to this, she was the Plant Ecologist for NYC Department of Parks’ Natural Resources Group for nearly 7 years. Her op-ed on the extinct flora of New York City was recently featured in The New York Times.
http://nycwildflowerweek.org/about.html

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardner)
Chris Kreussling is a garden coach with more than 30 years gardening experience in NYC. Chris is also the Director of the Urban Gardens and Farms initiative of Sustainable Flatbush and a community member of the Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities advisory board, a project of the Cornell Waste Management Institute.

Over the past 6 years, Chris has transformed a dusty, weedy backyard into a garden oasis of over 60 species of native trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses and wildflowers. He’s documented the process on his gardening blog, Flatbush Gardener.
http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/)

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.
http://sustainableflatbush.org/
Prospect Farm is a community group in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot, with the mission toward creating a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that can serve our community. Prospect Farm is the community leader for the Kensington/Windsor Terrace neighborhood group for the Brooklyn Food Coalition.

April 20th Dirt Talk Three: Composting Indoors and Out
With Speakers Jenny Blackwell (NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn) and Pieranna Pieroni (Brooklyn College); Presented by Sustainable Flatbush and Prospect Farm

Wed April 20th, 2011
7 – 9:30 pm
Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+
1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)
$5 suggested donation (proceeds benefit Sustainable Flatbush & Prospect Farm)

Event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=214149945262239

Jenny Blackwell is project manager for the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Horticulture Certificate Program. A composting fanatic, she has worked with composting systems at Added Value, the Hollenback Community Garden, BBG, and the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, as well as the myriad systems that Brooklyn’s backyards and community gardens have to offer.

Pieranna Pieroni is a Brooklyn Botanic Garden-trained Master Composter and educator (with a worm bin in her office at Brooklyn College) who works with New York City public school students around school-community gardening and ecoliteracy.

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond. http://sustainableflatbush.org/

Prospect Farm is a community group in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot, with the mission toward creating a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that can serve our community. Prospect Farm is the community leader for the Kensington/Windsor Terrace neighborhood group for the Brooklyn Food Coalition. https://prospectfarm.org/

Over 2 1/2 days members and volunteers managed to turn over all the plots, start some heirloom seeds (indoors), trench compost a new plot, take down a few trees, which were all cut and bundled for removal, clean the garbage and debris off the hill, plus move several hundred pounds of wood chips up the hill to make room for more growing space.

Turning the soil in trench composted plots

Laguradia High School Ecology Club Students are great workers.

Volunteers dug up huge rocks, which are now being used to line Prospect Farm's paths and terraces

Worms!

Turning the soil in trench composted plots

Members carefully cut down a tree.

Moving the wood chips up the hill to make more space. A tough job.

Bundling wood to be put on the curb for the city to pick up.

Bundling wood to be put on the curb for the city to pick up.

The new seed box