Tell us about your green thumb (or lack thereof)

[samhexum]

Scientists have confirmed the existence of the world’s oldest forest — and the ancient, secret spot is only a short drive from the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.

First discovered at the bottom of an abandoned quarry near the town of Cairo in the Catskill Mountains back in 2009, the experts have been working to learn the exact ages of the plants and trees growing in the area, where rocks reportedly up to 385 million years old hold the wooded area’s fossilized treasure.

Researchers from SUNY Binghamton and the University of Cardiff in Wales, were excited to find evidence of extremely early plants — some that would have “even been seen by dinosaurs,” the BBC reported.

The forest, just over two hours’ drive from NYC’s George Washington Bridge, once spread out over an area of about 250 miles. The soil sifters are said to have been focusing their efforts on an area roughly half the size of a football field.

Rocks containing fossils dating back 385 million years were found in the scenic mountain region. brandtbolding – stock.adobe.com

“The Cairo site is very special,” Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, told Science in 2019.

“You are walking through the roots of ancient trees. Standing on the quarry surface we can reconstruct the living forest around us in our imagination,” he said.

For years, Berry and his colleagues have been examining plant and tree fossils in the area to help them build their case.

The New York site joins more far-flung locales such as the Amazon rainforest and Japan’s Yakushima Forest in an elite group of O.G.’s.

The site isn’t currently open to the public, but is surrounded by a wealth of scenic beauty. demerzel21 – stock.adobe.com

Those interested in visiting the exact site will be disappointed, at least for the time being — the quarry is owned by the Town of Cairo, and is currently strictly reserved for scientific study, out of concern for preservation of the area.

There’s plenty else to see in the area however.

Skiing at Windham Mountain and the trendy shops and restaurants of the city of Hudson are both just minutes away, while the hiking trails of Catskill Park are right on Cairo’s doorstep.

The Cairo site isn’t the only extremely old find in the region — another forest site was previously discovered in nearby Gilboa, dating back just three years shy of the current crownbearer.

[samhexum]

 

Richmond Hill HS partners w/ NY Sun Works, launching Hydroponics Lab to cultivate sustainability education

Edited April 4, 2024 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!

[Welshman]

Chance would be a fine thing in this neck of the woods. On average between January and March, this part of the United Kingdom is supposed to get no more than ten inches of rain. In that same period this year we have recieved 13 inches of rain and as such the ground is so sodden everytime it rains thereafter, flooding happens in people's gardens

[samhexum]

On 8/13/2023 at 9:29 PM, sync said:

Kudos to all the green thumbs.

Artificial greenery has perished in my care.

What did you do, cook for it? 

@sync:

I am so envious of those with the ability/skill/desire to prepare food(s).  I've trained my body to endure my food preparations, but I wouldn't serve my preparations to other human beings unless they were starving on death row.  

 

[ICTJOCK]

Ready for spring annuals.   It has been a busy spring with non escort clients and tax season for sure.    Ready to get out and with it with both annual planting and perennials.  I not only have a green thumb,  but a green hand as well.

[samhexum]

On 11/21/2023 at 2:47 PM, samhexum said:

Council Member James Gennaro and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams joined students and faculty at John Bowne High School to announce a $5 million donation to the school’s agricultural program, recognized nationally as an exceptional urban agricultural education for its students. Running since 1964 and currently consisting of more than 500 students and eight teachers, it is run in conjunction with the FFA (Future Farmers of America). 

One Iowa high school student thought of a moo-ving way to ask her boyfriend to prom.

Late last month, Emma Lihs, a junior at Bondurant-Farrar, asked her boyfriend Wyatt Carlson, a senior at Dowling Catholic, to the annual event by writing "prom?" on the side of her pet cow.

"It was awesome," Carlson tells PEOPLE of Lihs' creative promposal. "I live in the city but have always loved agriculture and livestock, and she knew that."

"I was shocked to say the least. It was awesome and of course I said yes," he adds. "Having a cow in your front yard is pretty uncommon, but always welcome."

According to Lihs, coming up with the idea to write "prom?" in white chalk on the side of her beloved pet cow — named Fern — was a no-brainer.

"You can say Fern and I share Wyatt. I’m pretty convinced she likes him more than me. She was totally on board to get dressed up to surprise our boyfriend," Lihs jokingly adds.

Carlson later returned the favor to his girlfriend not long after when he brought a horse to her house to ask her to prom at his school, holding up a sign that read: "I am not horsin' around this time, join this cowboy at prom!"

Carlson tells PEOPLE that he and girlfriend Lihs met through the National FFA Organization, which is a nonprofit career and technical student organization that teaches agricultural education to middle and high schoolers.

"He was a 2023-2024 officer, and I am now a 2024-2025 district officer," Lihs says, noting: "Wyatt and I honestly just clicked right off the bat and have been loving every moment since."

"We have a common love for agriculture and growing the community," Carlson adds. "We both are outgoing and love to try new things."

As for their future plans, Carlson says he and Lihs will be continuing to focus on all things animal-related. "We will be showing cow calf together at the county fair," he tells PEOPLE.

Edited April 14, 2024 by samhexum
for shits and giggles

[samhexum]

Honey, they're home! 

Birdhouse-style ‘bee hotels’ coming to 7 NYC plazas to help at-risk pollinators

The city’s buzzworthy project provides nutrition and nesting in the form of wooden boxes on poles and bee-friendly vegetation, Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said Thursday.

 

Edited April 25, 2024 by samhexum
because he's bored as hell

[samhexum]

On 11/21/2023 at 2:47 PM, samhexum said:

The John Bowne Agricultural Program, also known as the Agri-Science program, is recognized nationally as an exceptional urban agricultural education for its students. It has been running since 1964 and currently consists of more than 500 students and eight teachers. 

Local high school students bid farewell to trout they nurtured as part of a conservation effort

Twenty-two High school students from John Bowne High School in Flushing took a trip to the Cross River to release nearly 230 juvenile trout that they had raised in their classrooms. The students had been taking care of the fingerlings since October of last year and cheered on their journey through the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Westchester County and the Cross River Reservoir. 

In October 2023, over 125 classroom educators joined the “Trout in the Classroom” program’s Fall Teacher Conference and received trout eggs from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Thousands of students across the state worked on an eight-month-long program to incubate the trout eggs and raise them into fingerlings. The program concludes with field trips between March and June of this year, where the students have the opportunity to release the fingerlings into streams. Students also have the opportunity to share their experiences about raising the trout and participate in other environmental activities.  

Since 2002, the DEP and Trout Unlimited have worked together to educate students across New York State about the importance of protecting shared water resources through the Trout in the Classroom program. The program teaches students from pre-K to 12th grade about connections between trout, the New York City water supply system and water quality. Trout Unlimited is a national non-profit organization that works to conserve and restore North America’s cold-water fisheries and their watershed. 

The DEP manages the city’s water supply, providing about 1 billion gallons of drinking water daily to nearly 10 million residents, including 8.5 million in New York City.

[samhexum]

Near the towering border wall flanked by a US Border Patrol vehicle, botanist Sula Vanderplank heard a quail in the scrub yelp “chi-ca-go,” that toddlin' town... a sound the birds use to signal they are separated from a mate or group.

Then silence.

A quail on the Mexican side called back, triggering a back-and-forth soundtrack that was both fitting and heartbreaking in an ecosystem split by an artificial barrier.

Vanderplank was among several botanists and citizen scientists participating in the Border Bioblitz near the Mexican community of Jacumé, about 60 miles east of Tijuana.

Roughly 1,000 volunteers armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are documenting as many species as possible along the US-Mexico border in May.

Uploading photos to the app helps identify plants and animals, and records the coordinates of the location.

The hope is the information could lead to more protections for the region’s natural richness, which is overshadowed by news of drug trafficking and migrant smuggling.

On a recent day, Bioblitz volunteers scrutinized a bright yellow blooming carpet of common Goldfields, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire.

Some navigated their way around piles of empty water jugs, a gray hoodie and empty cans of tuna fish left under the branches of native flora like the Tecate Cypress.

“There’s a fabulous amount of biodiversity here that’s traditionally been overlooked,” Vanderplank, of the binational program Baja Rare, said.

The efforts started in response to former President Donald Trump adding hundreds of miles of border walls that toppled untold numbers of saguaro cactuses in Arizona and passed through the biodiversity hotspot of Baja California.

“When the border wall construction began, we realized how little hard data we had, especially when it came to plants and small organisms,” Vanderplank said. “We don’t know what all we could lose.”

Since then, there has been a groundswell of initiatives to document the borderland’s flora and fauna as climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity.

One estimate in 2019 warns that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades, a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected.

The United Nations is expected hold a high-level meeting in Colombia of signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October aiming to protect 30% of land, freshwater and oceans considered important for biodiversity by 2030, known as 30 by 30.

Representatives from nearly 200 countries are expected to present plans on how they will meet conservation targets agreed upon in 2022.

Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.

Baja California peninsula, which borders California and is home to Tijuana with one of Mexico’s highest homicide rates, has more than 4,000 species of plants.

A quarter of them are endemic and at least 400 plants are considered rare with little to no protection.

Flora and fauna that have gone extinct or are in danger of disappearing in the US, like the California red-legged frog, are thriving south of the border, producing specimens that are being used to bring back populations.

But the region’s crime deters many US scientists from crossing the border. Mexico also is restricting permits for botanists and not allowing seeds to be collected, further curtailing the work, scientists say.

Bioblitz organizers work with local communities and say they take people only to areas deemed safe.

“You have to be really careful because of the violence,” said Jon Rebman, a curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum, who has named 33 new plants for science from the southern California and Baja California region.

“It’s scary from that standpoint, yet those are the areas where we really need more information because there’s hardly any protected area on the south side,” he said.

Using the museum’s collection, Rebman made a list of 15 plant species endemic to Baja California and not seen since being collected nearly a century ago. He created a binational team to find them. So far, they have located 11.

Rebman also discovered two new plants to science in 2021 in a canyon off a Tijuana highway: the new species, Astragalus tijuanensis, and a new variety of the Astragalus brauntonii named lativexillum.

“I was worried they would go extinct before we even got them named,” Rebman said. “That tells you what type of area we’re working in.”

Tijuana-based botanist Mariana Fernandez of Expediciones Botánicas periodically checks on the plants.

Working with Rebman, she is pushing Baja California to adopt more protections for its native plants. Currently only a fraction are on Mexico’s federal protection list.

She hopes the state will step in, while she also tries to build support by taking Tijuana residents and Baja officials on hikes.

“People are amazed that these things exist in Tijuana, and I hope to show more and more people so they can see the beauty, because we need that,” Fernandez said. “It’s important to not be impeded by the barriers that humans create.”

As border security increases with the number of people being displaced by natural disasters, violence and wars at record levels worldwide, more migrants are traipsing out to areas like the stretch near Jacumé.

The tiny community of about 100 families includes members of the Kumeyaay tribe and sits across the border from an equally sparsely populated desert near the California town of Jacumba Hot Springs. Population: about 1,000.

The area has seen thousands of asylum seekers who wait for an opportunity to cross, usually in the cloak of darkness, and then camp again on the US side after turning themselves in to US Border Patrol agents.

Fernandez was among the botanists helping Bioblitz volunteers on the Mexican side near a crumbling crossing station from the 1920s.

“I never would have thought that there would be so much biodiversity on the border,” said Jocelyn Reyes, a student of Fernandez at La Universidad Autónoma de Baja California who stopped every few feet to hover over a plant and photograph its details. “It’s so interesting and makes you realize there’s so much worth saving.”

https://nypost.com/2024/05/19/us-news/botanists-are-scouring-the-us-mexico-border-to-document-a-forgotten-ecosystem/

 

[samhexum]

 

Queens Public Library in Elmhurst unveils new eco-friendly garden with support from National Grid

[Luv2play]

Anyone recognize this type of rubber plant. I’ve had it for 10 years or so and it was mature when I bought it. It has an interesting shape with multiple branches. 
The little one beside it I planted from a shoot of the mother plant but it is just growing straight up. How do I get it to branch out like the mother plant?

[samhexum]

55 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

Anyone recognize this type of rubber plant. I’ve had it for 10 years or so and it was mature when I bought it. It has an interesting shape with multiple branches. 
The little one beside it I planted from a shoot of the mother plant but it is just growing straight up. How do I get it to branch out like the mother plant?

I inherited one of those 22 years ago when a roommate moved out & left it.  I always thought it was a jade plant.  It is indestructible.  Stems fall off & lay there until I notice but don't die.  I overwater (often) or underwater (on occasion) and it doesn't care.  I have stuck fallen stems into water in chinese-food soup containers for over a year and they thrived (I have one like that now).

The majority of my plants are offshoots of offshoots of the original plant.  The original slowly withered and died until there was only one little stem left... which I replanted and is now large and strong and sharing a mug with one of its descendants, with has twisted around in a lovely way as it has grown along its (great?) grandparent.

 

Edited June 2, 2024 by samhexum
To maintain the incredibly high standards I have established here

[Luv2play]

15 hours ago, samhexum said:

I inherited one of those 22 years ago when a roommate moved out & left it.  I always thought it was a jade plant.  It is indestructible.  Stems fall off & lay there until I notice but don't die.  I overwater (often) or underwater (on occasion) and it doesn't care.  I have stuck fallen stems into water in chinese-food soup containers for over a year and they thrived (I have one like that now).

The majority of my plants are offshoots of offshoots of the original plant.  The original slowly withered and died until there was only one little stem left... which I replanted and is now large and strong and sharing a mug with one of its descendants, with has twisted around in a lovely way as it has grown along its (great?) grandparent.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm wondering though how to get the new one I have transplanted to twist and develop branches.

[samhexum]

[FrederickLouis]

I am a landscaper and do a lot of flower planting.    

My great-grandparents had a contract for several years with the Cummins Can Company raising tomatoes.   

My maternal grandparents have two large vegetable gardens.    

Mother grows house plans.

[samhexum]

GrowNYC and the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce joined forces to host New York City’s first “Pop Up Garden” at the Flushing Greenmarket on Wednesday, July 17. 

The Pop Up Garden is designed to provide free outdoor horticultural education and in-person gardening demonstrations for New Yorkers interested in starting a garden at home.  

Maureen Regan, founder and executive director of Green Earth Urban Gardens (GUEG), is the brains behind the Pop Up Garden.

“We fully support the development of local agriculture and horticulture as an essential step in addressing climate change,” Regan said in a statement. 

The Pop Up Garden will continue to be a part of the Flushing Greenmarket through cultural programming efforts led by the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce. 

The Greenmarket is open every Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Nov. 27 at Bowne Playground, located at Sanford Avenue and Union Street in Flushing. The Greenmarket features farmers selling baked goods, eggs, cider, fruit and vegetables from local farms, including Breezy Hill Orchard, Knoll Krest Farm and R&G Produce. 

The Flushing Greenmarket is managed by GrowNYC, an environmental nonprofit that works to give New Yorkers access to farm fresh food, and a direct marketplace for farmers to sell their goods. GrowNYC Greenmarkets are producer-only: farmers strictly sell what they grow, raise catch or bake themselves. The program includes partnerships with small to mid-sized farms from 250 miles north, 120 miles south and 170 miles east and west of New York City. 

Angela Davis, director of GrowNYC Food Access and Agriculture, urged residents to come and experience all the Flushing Greenmarket has to offer. 

“The seasonal bounty and selection of producers at GrowNYC Greenmarket sites is unparalleled, from just-picked fruits and vegetables, artisan bread and baked goods, jams, freshly caught fish, maple syrup, flowers and so much more week after week, all season long,” she said in a statement.

New York City’s first ‘Pop Up Garden’ takes root at Flushing Greenmarket – QNS

QNS.COM

---

Two local organizations joined forces to host New York City’s first "Pop Up Garden" at the Flushing Greenmarket...

 

Far Rockaway community garden to host service event Aug. 3 – QNS

QNS.COM

---

A local veterans community service group is leading a community service event on Saturday, Aug. 3 at Bay 84th...

A local veterans community service group is leading a community service event on Saturday, Aug. 3 at Bay 84th Street Community Garden.

Volunteers from The Mission Continues (TMC), an organization that connects veterans to community service projects, will be at the garden from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Civilian volunteers are also welcome to join the event. 

The volunteers will be working on updating the compost station and general upkeep of the community garden. Children participating will be painting miniature wooden birdhouses, which will be displayed throughout the garden. Also on hand will be donated books for youngsters to take home, a seed-planting session and a family-friendly BBQ.

Girl Scout and Boy Scout members are encouraged to participate and earn their gardening patches during the service event. 

“We are not just a community garden, we are here to serve and improve the community through productive positive experiences,” said Spencer L., a liaison for the community garden.

Founded in 2018 by local community activists, the Bay 84th Street Community Garden has brought together the Far Rockaway community with an array of local events throughout the years. The garden strung from a former dumping ground that was later converted with the help of the NYC Department of Sanitation and JetBlue volunteers. It is under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks and supported by GreenThumb, the nation’s largest urban gardening program. 

To sign up for the event, click here.

Edited July 22, 2024 by samhexum
to exhibit excellence whilst providing a vital public service

[samhexum]

On 8/5/2023 at 6:44 PM, wsc said:

Some say Florida is where some things/some people go to die. Plants come to my balcony to do the same.
I could almost swear I hear tearful goodbyes when I put a plant in my cart at Lowe's.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 9:29 PM, sync said:

Kudos to all the green thumbs.

Artificial greenery has perished in my care.

 

Office plant potted 15 years ago grows into 300-foot beast, is named after ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ character

 

An office plant potted 15 years ago has grown into a 300ft beast — and is now nicknamed ‘Audrey II’ from The Little Shop of Horrors.

Bosses Allie Brennan, 52, and husband, Des, 58, initially bought the ivy from B&Q for their bathroom at home.

But due to the plant’s ‘rapid growth’ they were left with ‘no other option’ but to take it to work.

Now, more than 15 years later, the plant has grown to ‘well-over’ 300 feet long — sprouting new shoots to pin up across the office walls and ceiling “every day.”

Managing Director Des said: “The ivy goes wherever it wants too. It even dips down onto our desks before it returns back to the ceiling.”

The impressive plant hangs from computer monitors, down to employee desks and on the ceiling – and even has its own sponsorship deal.

The ivy grows at a stellar rate of six inches per month at Protective Solutions Ltd in Stonehouse, Glos. — the packaging company Des founded in 2006.

 

[Rudynate]

When I lived in the suburbs, I tried to make the yard nice. I like the idea of gardening but mostly,   I just made plans and didn't follow through.  When I listed the house for sale, the agent told me to go to Home Depot, buy as many flowers as I could afford and plant them - the place looked really beautiful. 

My hardscaping was pretty good though.  The backyard tended to stay soggy for days after a hard rain so my husband and I put in a french drain that diverted the standing water to a catch basin at the side of the house and, from there, to a drain that went down to the street. I put in raised beds that would have looked beautiful with flowers spilling over the edges, but I never got that far. Then I did a nice cozy brick patio that you walked down into from the deck I had built.  In the front, I put in a dry creek bed that I was very proud of- it took about two tons of rock, and I built a little bridge over it.

Edited July 23, 2024 by Rudynate

[samhexum]

NYC seniors pen last-ditch plea to save beloved decades-old garden: ‘I believe in miracles’

Over 130 seniors, many who would qualify for the 123 units of planned affordable to be built after the garden’s demolition, have inked a last-ditch letter to Mayor Eric Adams to rethink the project.

Elderly New Yorkers have mounted a last-ditch campaign to save the decades-old Elizabeth Street Garden from being torn down to make way for affordable senior housing, The Post has learned.

Over 130 seniors — many of whom would qualify for the 123 units of affordable housing for the elderly set to be built on the city-owned Nolita lot — inked a letter to Mayor Eric Adams imploring him to rethink the project.

“It is a quiet, shaded resting place crucial to our environment, especially in the heat of summer,” the letter reads.

The letter from the gray-haired garden enthusiasts is only the latest in a decade-long battle to preserve the 20,000-square-foot sculpture garden, which could be evicted as soon as September to make way for the development project.

Locals say the green space — originally the site of a schoolhouse 120 years ago and converted into a sculpture garden in 1990 — provides them with a rare patch of grass undisturbed by recreational sports or playground noise.

Its destruction would be a devastating quality of life loss to residents “in our remaining years,” the seniors wrote.

“Where are we all going to go?” Judy Liu, 72, a retired lawyer who lives on the Bowery and was one of the signatories, told The Post this week at the garden, located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets.

“My dog loves this place. He sniffs every square inch of this place every day,” she said of Giuseppe, her half-Bichon, half-Shih Tzu dog.

“I truly don’t know what I’m going to do if this place is destroyed.”

The senior citizens noted that many of them “rely heavily on the garden as the only real green space within walking distance in the district.”

In fact, it’s the only public green space in Little Italy and SoHo, according to the garden’s website.

“Affordable housing must be built in our district. However, we strongly reject the false choice of losing a cherished community garden to do so,” the letter by the seniors says.

While there are other parks in lower Manhattan, they offer different purposes than Elizabeth Street Garden’s “thriving volunteer community” and those seeking quiet outdoor time, the seniors wrote.

“It’s one of the only places you can sit and not spend money and see your community,” Patricia Squillari, 72, a Lower East Side resident and retired NYC Department of Education parent coordinator, told The Post.

Elizabeth Street Garden also offers nearly 200 free programs year-round for all ages, ranging from Tai Chi, poetry and outdoor movie nights to yoga, food drives, live music and more.

“Destroying the Garden would not only diminish the lives of the thousands of seniors who already live in Lower Manhattan, but would significantly detract from the quality of life promised to the seniors who would eventually occupy the site’s proposed development,” the letter reads.  

Multiple alternative sites within the district can provide more housing without the loss of the garden space, the seniors added. The local community board found another site at 388 Hudson St. that could provide five times as much housing at an empty, city-owned gravel lot, advocates say.

The affordable housing units, developed by Pennrose Properties, aren’t entirely permanent, either — those are slated to change to market rate in 30 to 60 years, according to supporters of the park.

Retail and 11,200 square feet of office space is destined for the ground floor, with Habitat for Humanity already tapped as the anchor tenant. A .15 acre space next to the building is also included in the plans, The Post previously reported.

A similar letter writing campaign opposing the plans — and which garnered worldwide supporters — has amassed nearly 400,000 signatures to date. The 2023 letter from New York electeds stood in unwavering defense of the “beloved open space,” calling the garden a “respite” for seniors and families alike. 

Elizabeth Street Garden, the eponymous nonprofit responsible for the site, challenged the city’s approval of the affordable housing building in 2019, arguing officials didn’t do an adequate environmental review.

Last month, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled the NYC Housing and Preservation Department “rationally determined” the plan would not have a significant negative impact on the environment, essentially giving the development project the green light.

The nonprofit has also appealed its eviction from the city – though a judge ruled against the garden in May.

As a result, the garden could be evicted as soon as Sept. 10, and was ordered to shell out $95,500 in back rent plus interest.

Now, the only person who can reverse the eviction is New York City’s mayor.

The Elizabeth Street Garden offers a pre-written letter to Adams and the HPD demanding to reverse the eviction for garden supporters to use on its website. 

“We’ve welcomed the mayor and many of the people who had the power to preserve the garden and they won’t come,” Squillari, the LES resident, told The Post.

A City Hall spokesperson said the project would “deliver 100% deeply-affordable senior housing in a neighborhood with few affordable options, while also delivering over 15,000 square feet of public space including a garden and public art, nearly doubling the space currently accessible to this community.”

“The Adams administration is working tirelessly to create the housing we need to remain a diverse, inclusive city where every New Yorker can live and thrive,” the statement said.

When asked if she would ever come back to the site if it were to be demolished, Squillari refused to even acknowledge the possibility.

“I believe in miracles,” she said.

[CuriousByNature]

11 hours ago, samhexum said:

NYC seniors pen last-ditch plea to save beloved decades-old garden: ‘I believe in miracles’

Over 130 seniors, many who would qualify for the 123 units of planned affordable to be built after the garden’s demolition, have inked a last-ditch letter to Mayor Eric Adams to rethink the project.

Elderly New Yorkers have mounted a last-ditch campaign to save the decades-old Elizabeth Street Garden from being torn down to make way for affordable senior housing, The Post has learned.

Over 130 seniors — many of whom would qualify for the 123 units of affordable housing for the elderly set to be built on the city-owned Nolita lot — inked a letter to Mayor Eric Adams imploring him to rethink the project.

“It is a quiet, shaded resting place crucial to our environment, especially in the heat of summer,” the letter reads.

The letter from the gray-haired garden enthusiasts is only the latest in a decade-long battle to preserve the 20,000-square-foot sculpture garden, which could be evicted as soon as September to make way for the development project.

Locals say the green space — originally the site of a schoolhouse 120 years ago and converted into a sculpture garden in 1990 — provides them with a rare patch of grass undisturbed by recreational sports or playground noise.

Its destruction would be a devastating quality of life loss to residents “in our remaining years,” the seniors wrote.

“Where are we all going to go?” Judy Liu, 72, a retired lawyer who lives on the Bowery and was one of the signatories, told The Post this week at the garden, located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets.

“My dog loves this place. He sniffs every square inch of this place every day,” she said of Giuseppe, her half-Bichon, half-Shih Tzu dog.

“I truly don’t know what I’m going to do if this place is destroyed.”

The senior citizens noted that many of them “rely heavily on the garden as the only real green space within walking distance in the district.”

In fact, it’s the only public green space in Little Italy and SoHo, according to the garden’s website.

“Affordable housing must be built in our district. However, we strongly reject the false choice of losing a cherished community garden to do so,” the letter by the seniors says.

While there are other parks in lower Manhattan, they offer different purposes than Elizabeth Street Garden’s “thriving volunteer community” and those seeking quiet outdoor time, the seniors wrote.

“It’s one of the only places you can sit and not spend money and see your community,” Patricia Squillari, 72, a Lower East Side resident and retired NYC Department of Education parent coordinator, told The Post.

Elizabeth Street Garden also offers nearly 200 free programs year-round for all ages, ranging from Tai Chi, poetry and outdoor movie nights to yoga, food drives, live music and more.

“Destroying the Garden would not only diminish the lives of the thousands of seniors who already live in Lower Manhattan, but would significantly detract from the quality of life promised to the seniors who would eventually occupy the site’s proposed development,” the letter reads.  

Multiple alternative sites within the district can provide more housing without the loss of the garden space, the seniors added. The local community board found another site at 388 Hudson St. that could provide five times as much housing at an empty, city-owned gravel lot, advocates say.

The affordable housing units, developed by Pennrose Properties, aren’t entirely permanent, either — those are slated to change to market rate in 30 to 60 years, according to supporters of the park.

Retail and 11,200 square feet of office space is destined for the ground floor, with Habitat for Humanity already tapped as the anchor tenant. A .15 acre space next to the building is also included in the plans, The Post previously reported.

A similar letter writing campaign opposing the plans — and which garnered worldwide supporters — has amassed nearly 400,000 signatures to date. The 2023 letter from New York electeds stood in unwavering defense of the “beloved open space,” calling the garden a “respite” for seniors and families alike. 

Elizabeth Street Garden, the eponymous nonprofit responsible for the site, challenged the city’s approval of the affordable housing building in 2019, arguing officials didn’t do an adequate environmental review.

Last month, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled the NYC Housing and Preservation Department “rationally determined” the plan would not have a significant negative impact on the environment, essentially giving the development project the green light.

The nonprofit has also appealed its eviction from the city – though a judge ruled against the garden in May.

As a result, the garden could be evicted as soon as Sept. 10, and was ordered to shell out $95,500 in back rent plus interest.

Now, the only person who can reverse the eviction is New York City’s mayor.

The Elizabeth Street Garden offers a pre-written letter to Adams and the HPD demanding to reverse the eviction for garden supporters to use on its website. 

“We’ve welcomed the mayor and many of the people who had the power to preserve the garden and they won’t come,” Squillari, the LES resident, told The Post.

A City Hall spokesperson said the project would “deliver 100% deeply-affordable senior housing in a neighborhood with few affordable options, while also delivering over 15,000 square feet of public space including a garden and public art, nearly doubling the space currently accessible to this community.”

“The Adams administration is working tirelessly to create the housing we need to remain a diverse, inclusive city where every New Yorker can live and thrive,” the statement said.

When asked if she would ever come back to the site if it were to be demolished, Squillari refused to even acknowledge the possibility.

“I believe in miracles,” she said.

Housing really needs to be the priority if the housing situation in New York is anything like the crisis in many Canadian cities.  But effective design and site planning could likely address many of the neighbour's concerns.  Things like rooftop gardens and green spaces, or even an indoor community space in the new development that is climate controlled, offering a safe and comfortable gathering area at any time of year.  Gotta think outside the box sometimes.

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Greenery practically erupts from the sidewalks and stoops of Deborah Young’s corner of Bed-Stuy, particularly amid the Victorian-style homes lining Stuyvesant Avenue, where the sidewalks are lined with flowerpots and well-tended treebeds overflowing with flora.

“Bed-Stuy has always been a green community,” said Young, longtime owner of the beloved neighborhood nursery and garden center Seasons, located at 358 Stuyvesant Ave. – the go-to place for residents looking to further their green exploits and one-up their neighbors. “Always,” she added for emphasis.

But it now looks increasingly clear that the neighborhood will have to carry on its green tradition without Young’s critical hand. Young, 64, who was born in and still resides in Bed-Stuy, said the Baptist church landlord of the Seasons property has told her it intends to sell the lot, at a price beyond her reach. Young says she expects to close by year’s end.

“I’ve done a lot,” Young said, reflecting on her long service in the community, which is teeming with winners of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's "Greenest Block in Brooklyn" award — especially along Stuyvesant Avenue. “I raised five boys and three husbands here.”

Officials with Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, which Young says is not the villain in this transition, did not respond to requests for comment, but neighborhood residents said the departure of Seasons would mark another sign of change in a community affected by rising home prices and rents, gentrification, and new construction, which have sometimes left longtime residents and business owners with few options to remain.

Young said she never formally studied horticulture, but picked it up from her father, who was a rose enthusiast. Her parents arrived from North Carolina during the Great Migration, when Black southerners began relocating to the North and Midwest in great numbers, starting in the early 1900s.

“Everybody Black down there pretty much was agricultural. When my mom got here, she's like, ‘I'm done (with agriculture),’” Young said, laughing.

However, under her father’s tutelage, Young planted her first seed — a morning glory — at the age of 3. “And that plant is still growing,” she said.

Back then, Young said, Bed-Stuy had a vibrant neighborhood culture that embraced the beauty of nature, and community gardens brimming with kale, collard and turnip greens, and cabbages, even amid “all the negative press in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” mainly about crime in the neighborhood.

On a recent afternoon, G. Giraldo, who lives nearby, sat with Young in front of the nursery as the owner tended to her customers’ plants.

“It's one thing to go to Home Depot, which is a terrible place to go,” Giraldo said. “It is a black hole of everything. Or you come to your neighbor and you buy from your neighbor.”

Nearby, the manager of her business, Stephen Sunderland, watered peperomia plants and touch-me-nots.

“When she sits out on that street corner, it's like the Queen of England holding court,” Sunderland said. “She knows your grandchildren. She knows you got married. She knows where you live.”

Customer Eric Smith, 70, stopped by to pick up a spider plant, which Young had freshly repotted.

“Plants keep you alive and I like to keep my plants alive,” Smith said, adding, “and I’m talking to them now, too.”

Smith, another lifelong neighborhood resident, said he hadn’t heard the news about Seasons’ ill fortune.  “We’re gonna miss it,” he said.

Even as she confronts the end of her business, Young takes pains to avoid painting the property owner as the villain in her story.

She said the church had offered her first right of refusal on the property, and at a substantial discount, though still at a cost beyond her reach. And she said the landlord had been “patient” during a stretch when she fell behind on the rent.

“They hung in there with me,” she said. “They gave me this opportunity and I appreciate it.”

Young said she was now considering leaving the neighborhood altogether and moving in with one of her sons in New Jersey. She didn’t relish the idea but said her options were running out.

She’d been scouring available properties in the neighborhood and found the rents, in the range of $7,000 a month, to be “ridiculous.”

“I would have to sell plants and heroin,” she joked. “Maybe put a pole up and have ‘Seasons After Dark’ and put Stephen (the manager) out there in a thong and a pair of pumps.”

Her manager didn’t flinch.

“This is probably the most fun business I've ever worked at,” Sunderland said. “Everybody who walks out of here, walks out of here with a smile on their face.” He said he hadn’t seriously considered life after Seasons, and said its loss would have a profound effect on the neighborhood.

“This is the village green for this area,” Sunderland said. “And when this goes, the village green will disappear.”

Stuyvesant Avenue abounds with "Greenest Block in Brooklyn" award winners.

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The garden on the grounds of the East Flatbush Safe Haven, a homeless shelter in Flatbush, was once an oasis of native plants. Now, it is being destroyed.

Volunteers who nurtured the garden for years say it lowered temperatures in the area, which has little greenery, and provided shelter residents with the healing benefits of nature.

However, staff at Breaking Ground, the nonprofit that operates the shelter, began leveling the garden on July 31, according to volunteers. The volunteers, who had a positive relationship with the nonprofit for years, say their relationship began to sour after a management shift at the shelter.

Samuel Pressman, one of the main volunteers, shared his dismay: “My number one goal is to help people get in touch with nature and observe how it can benefit them, how it can help heal them, and help motivate them to be more positive,” said Samuel Pressman, one of the main volunteers who created the garden.

“For me, gardening is very sacred [...] It was traumatizing to me when it was clear cut in a very sneaky, kind of evil way.”

In 2021, volunteers initiated an eco-rehabilitation project on the seven-acre grounds of the former Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, where the shelter is located. Their aim was to beautify the grounds, connect residents with nature, and bring ecological benefits to the area. They planted about 150 species, over 90% of which were native, in five orchards and ten planters.

The safe haven shelter has fewer restrictions than standard shelters, allowing vulnerable New Yorkers to access housing, medical care and case management without fearing eviction. Although the nonprofit initially welcomed the volunteers and their project, staff later claimed the garden was removed because it created unsafe, hidden spaces for residents.

The eco-rehabilitation project was led by Marion Yuen, founder of The MYA Group, a sustainable infrastructure consulting firm, and Pressman, founder of Samuel’s Food Garden, an organization dedicated to expanding urban agriculture.

“I’m about ecological restoration and bringing nature back to the city,” said Yuen. “Greenery has been proven to not only provide beauty, but plants have a beneficial effect on health. A lot of the clients put their faces by the bushes, touch them, and there’s a whole body of literature showing that has a beneficial effect.”

Yuen and Pressman emphasize that their work is not just about sustainability or aesthetics, but also about promoting physical and mental health through a deep connection with nature. They were devastated by the loss of the garden, which they had hoped would continue to benefit shelter residents.

Initially, Breaking Ground celebrated the garden's success, even promoting it on social media as "therapeutic and healing." The garden significantly reduced temperatures during heat waves, with a difference of 8 degrees Fahrenheit between the garden and a nearby parking lot.

 

The garden was created from soil from the Clean Soil Bank and compost from the DSNY’s Composting Facility. The New York Restoration Project and other organizations donated plants, according to volunteers.

The project was so successful that Breaking Ground asked the volunteers to replicate the model at other facilities. However, after a new director took over the shelter in January, the volunteers were informed they would no longer receive funding or be allowed to bring in outside help. Without these resources, the garden became overgrown, leading to its removal.

On July 31, staff began cutting down plants, including grapevines and sunflowers. Yuen and Pressman say they have been barred from the facility, where some of their supplies remain.

The volunteers have entered into mediation with Breaking Ground, facilitated by the New York Peace Institute, to address the situation and discuss how to move forward.

Breaking Ground did not respond to requests for comment.

“The punishment for the gardens developing so lushly, so well, and luring [residents] to want to spend time in them, led to them having a ‘management issue' with residents not being visible all the time,” said Pressman.

“So it was kind of a recipe they didn’t know they were setting up, but they attacked the gardens instead of the real issue, which is that they really don’t know how to manage the residents properly.”

Garden growers and volunteers Marion Yuen and Samuel Pressman. 

A Once-Therapeutic Garden at a Homeless Shelter in Brooklyn Faces Destruction, Sparks Outcry - BKReader

WWW.BKREADER.COM

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Staff at the non-profit managing the garden claims it creates unsafe, hidden spaces for residents.

 

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Invasive, fast-growing plant threatens homes, property prices as it spreads across the US

An invasive, non-native plant species has grown root and spread, posing a threat to manicured yards and even home foundations across the American Midwest, North West and North East. 

The Japanese knotweed is a shrub-type plant that was brought to the US in the 1800s, according to The Wall Street Journal, and while its summertime flower blooms are breathtaking, it’s merely a mirage hiding the havoc it wrecks.

With the capability of growing three feet per week, infestations of the looming plant — which have stalks that look like bamboo, per CNY News — are rapid and near-impossible to eradicate, cropping up in the cracks of concrete or asphalt just when you think you’ve vanquished it.

Robert Naczi, the New York Botanical Garden’s curator of North American botany, told the Journal that an entire plant can grow just from a minuscule piece of root, thriving in just about any condition.

The plant has been known to grow as tall as 15 feet.

Across the pond, homeowners in the UK must disclose if Japanese knotweed has taken up root on the property when selling the home, with the potential to be prosecuted if it spreads, per the Journal. There’s even knotweed insurance available for regular maintenance, although it still is a detriment to the values of their homes.

The Daily Mail reports that there are now fears that the plant “threatens to catastrophically devalue homes” in areas of the US where it can grow.

One Maine couple detailed their laborious attempts to rid their new home of knotweed to the Journal, and that, even years later, it still hasn’t vanished.

Various methods are available to curb the plant or kill it altogether — such as routine mowing or digging up roots, per the Journal. Other experts might advise chopping down the plant when it flowers and injecting it with herbicide, although a pesticide expert is recommended.

Researchers have discovered a particular kind of bug — Aphalara itadori  — which is known to eat Japanese knotweed.

In 2020, scientists from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst were allowed to release them and monitor their impacts, discovering that they are successfully making a dent in the giant knotweed population.

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A group of urban farmers raising fish, growing vegetables and donating their harvest to low-income Brooklyn residents have about six weeks to find a new location before developers reclaim the site to break ground on a new Williamsburg waterfront skyscraper.

Oko Farms has operated from a vacant lot along the East River, between Metropolitan Avenue and North Third Street, since May 2021, while property owner Two Trees awaited approval to begin construction of the final piece of its Domino Park megadevelopment a few blocks away.

In August, Two Trees notified Oko Farms that it had until the middle of November — the tail-end of the harvest season — to leave the location so the developer could start work on the neighboring project.

Oko Farm staff and volunteers say they expected to get the boot eventually, but not so abruptly. They say they have little time to find a new location for their unique aquaponics system, in which plants filter water for around 600 fish that in turn fertilize the crops with their waste.

“It’s heartbreaking because we put in a lot of work to build a huge beautiful farm, and over the next month we have to break it down and move it into storage as we find a farm site,” said Sarah Perlmeter, a former Oko Farms operations manager who now serves as an adviser.

Perlmeter said Oko had been signing yearlong agreements before Two Trees activated a clause in the contract allowing them to evict the farm with three months' notice.

She said farm staff have asked to remain in place until mid-winter in order to finish their harvest and secure a long-term space for their fish and equipment elsewhere. She said Two Trees gave them an extra week and offered to let them store equipment in a nearby structure until March.

Two Trees spokesperson Jeremy Soffin said the company needs the lot as a staging area to store construction equipment and that it has already allowed Oko to use the site rent-free since 2021.

“We are now preparing to begin construction on the last building at Domino, which will deliver more than 250 units of affordable housing, and require use of the site,” Soffin said.

The final Domino building, known for now as Site B, will contain about 1,000 apartments, including the units reserved for low- and moderate-income renters. Work on the complex will begin as New Yorkers contend with a serious housing shortage. Policy experts and city officials say the city needs more apartments to alleviate the housing crunch.

Two Trees plans to eventually develop two apartment towers — which are expected to reach 700 and 560 feet respectively — on the stretch of waterfront that includes the lot where Oko Farms now operates.

That development, dubbed River Ring, will also include around 1,000 new apartments, most of them priced at market-rate. One-bedroom units in other nearby waterfront buildings currently rent for around $7,000 a month, while two-bedrooms go for up to $11,000 a month, according to StreetEasy listings.

Perlmeter said farm staff are hoping to find a permanent location so they don’t have to continue moving their fish to different sites in a short period of time. Multiple moves could kill the fish they raise in the aquaponics system on the property, she said.

The farm is looking for its “forever home,” according to a section of its website that describes its relocation needs, which consists of a no- or low-cost lease on a half-acre, ideally part of what the farm calls a “positive community.” Oko employs local young people to work through the winter and grows a diverse mix of crops, with a focus on Afro-Indigenous vegetables and herbs, like okra and collard greens.

The pending eviction highlights “the precarity of urban farming in the city,” Perlmeter said.

“It’s a real barrier and stumbling block that we’ve faced and people are encountering constantly,” she said.

 

Fish at OKO Farms in Williamsburg

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Subaru and the Arbor Day Foundation are giving away free, mature, regionally appropriate trees to support greener communities. Anyone can reserve one—no Subaru ownership required. Help restore local tree canopies and promote a healthier environment.

Just visit this offer and follow the instructions on the page to reserve your free tree at a participating Subaru retailer.

https://www.subaru.com/earth