Help sow our garden green at the Seed Planting Work Party and Potluck BBQ this Saturday, March 16, from 1 – 4 pm.
If you have seeds and seed pots to contribute please bring them along with BBQ goodies you wish to share.
We’ll also make newspaper seed pots. Super easy, cheap, recycling in action. Here’s a link on how it works: http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2007/03/seed-starting-pots-from-newspaper.html?m=0
This Sunday, March 10 will be another work party building beds and other projects on the lot. If you are interested in having a bed in the garden this season, now is a good time help build the containers. Work party days on the lot are every Sunday from Noon on, come by this weekend! Given the scope of work projects to get the garden green for spring, MVG Work Days occur Saturdays along with Sundays starting March 23rd. On Saturday, March 23rd we are having a seed starting and planting day from 1 to 4 pm. (This will also be a potluck BBQ, too!) Mercy Home’s Plant Grow Give program will be installing a Hoop house on the lot Sunday, April 7.
Build raised garden beds in the Myrtle Village Green garden on Sunday, March 3, from 12-2 p.m.
If you can, please bring any of the following tools:
Help build raised beds based on the following design:
http://www.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed-00400000039550/
Also, the following Sunday, March 10 we’ll be hosting a Seed Starting Party from 1-4 p.m.
Build raised garden beds in the Myrtle Village Green garden on both Sunday, February 17 and Sunday, February 24, from 1-3 p.m.
If you can, please bring any of the following tools:
Help build raised beds based on the following design:
http://www.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed-00400000039550/
Myrtle Village Green is ready to be your community compost project! Bring your uncooked food scraps (fruits, vegetables, eggshells, COFFEE GROUNDS, etc.) to the Green Saturday and Sunday to put them into the awesome cycle that will turn them into incredible soil that we can use to grow food this spring! We will be accepting food scraps on SATURDAYS and SUNDAYS 1 – 4 p.m.
Want to learn more or volunteer?
We also need “brown” material to balance the system – if you have leaves, coco husks, dried hops, piles of newspaper, mulch, etc. we need those as well.
Any questions about what to bring – contact Kim (Kimika@riseup.net).
SEE YOU IN THE GREEN!
Some reminders:
Our calendar is online here:
http://www.myrtlepark.org/calendar/
Meeting minutes are online here:
http://www.myrtlepark.org/category/meeting-minutes/
All proposals are online here:
http://www.myrtlepark.org/category/proposals/
If you’d like to join in the discussion, please join our google group by emailing Cameron Hickey.
I requested a bike rack from the Department of Transportation (DOT) for the sidewalk in front of 636 Myrtle Avenue. I’ve heard that multiple requests for the same location make DOT much quicker to respond. Can you make a request, too?
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikerack.shtml
Last Tuesday, there was a meeting to discuss the status of the Myrtle Village Green site at the offices of the Brooklyn Community Foundation. Myrtle Village Green was not invited but our interests were represented by our official community advocates — Community Board 3 Chairperson Henry Butler and State Committee Representative Lincoln Restler. Also at that meeting were representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection, the office of Deputy Mayor Cas Halloway, City Council Representative Letitia James, the Pratt Center for Community Development, the Brooklyn borough president’s office, the NYC Department of City Planning and Pratt Area Community Council.
We have been told that the outcome is this: there is consensus around the fact that the Myrtle Parcel of the site is available now for a 2 or 3 year interim use project and that the Kent Avenue portion will become available for interim use in another 2 or 3 years (as a possible replacement site for when long term use development begins on Myrtle Avenue). A community planning process will determine the ultimate uses of both parcels.
But the decision of how interim use would be managed or when it would begin was left open. Our representatives, Mr. Butler and Mr. Restler, have been tasked with working with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and local residents to negotiate a fair and practicable arrangement. They have also been tasked with figuring out if Myrtle Village Green represents the interests of the important groups in the neighborhood.
Here’s what we all need to do, as soon as possible: email or call both of Mr. Butler and Mr. Restler and tell them about yourself, the groups that you are involved with and why a community space at the Myrtle Village Green site is something you value and work for. It’s time for our representatives to hear all of our individual voices and be empowered to speak for the community as a whole. Mr. Butler & Mr. Restler will soon be setting up a meeting for all stakeholders in the Myrtle Village Green site to come together. You can thank them in advance for their efforts on behalf of our community. Contact information below:
Henry Butler, District Manager
Brooklyn Community Board 3
email: hbutler@cb.nyc.gov
phone: 718-622-6601
Lincoln Restler
State Committee Representative
email: lincoln@lincolnrestler.org
phone: 347.878.7251
Last Sunday, Myrtle Village Green got together and did the the first planting for Spring 2012. Since we can’t get inside the lot yet, we used the fence to plant about 50 containers, made from salvaged plastic bottles, with pansies in them. We talked to neighbors, kids dug in dirt, there was juggling, and at the end, the vacant space in our neighborhood looked a bit brighter. We also got a chance to tell people that the lot would soon be open for an interim project and the long term planning would be open to their participation.
This morning, all the flowers and containers and the MVG banners, which have been up since September 2011, are all gone. A clean sweep. We don’t know who took our flowers and signs and we don’t know what it means. Can you help us figure it out?
You can see more pictures of Sunday’s beautiful action here.
Today, Matthew Mahoney at the Department of Environmental Protection agreed to meet with me to discuss keys. Our meeting is tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, February 1, sometime before 1pm. Let me know if you would like to join me at this meeting by emailing paula@myrtlepark.org. To give you a sense of where the conversation might go, the meeting is based on my letter below:
—
Mr. Mahoney,
The community is eager to hear a response. Please let me know if you are the right person to continue communicating with about this.
I am happy to get more specifics together for you for this interim project — what do you need to know? We plan to build some raised beds, bring some containers for plants and create a 3-bin compost system. These materials would be on-site permanently, as would signage. We would have regular volunteer-run open hours for planting and compost drop-off. We are ready to start next week and have donated materials to build with.
I believe we will be able to provide our own volunteer insurance through a community organization (IOBY.org) to cover liability and would be happy to sign an MOU for access to the site (to spare DEP staff from having to open it for us). Our proposed schedule would be every Saturday 10am-4pm and two weekday afternoons per week 3-7pm.
Best,
Paula Z. Segal
for Myrtle Village Green
—-
Earlier, Mr. Mahoney had written to me and said “I realize that the situation is frustrating since the inevitable usage will be for the public, but as I’m sure you know there are all sorts of liability issues that come into play. Also, I’m not aware of any plan sent to the agency that would outline exactly what you guys would do. Would materials be stored there? If so how much and for how long? Do you have dedicated funding for upkeep, etc.?”
Come to the next MVG general meeting on February 4 at noon to hear about how this meeting went (St Lucy Old Roman Catholic Church, 802 Kent Ave between Park and Flushing).
Brooklyn College will do a soil sample for toxic metals for $30. We need to raise a little money and then have someone do a sample to find out what might be going on this year — the lot is suspiciously not-green at the moment.
You can donate using Paypal here and email paula@myrtlepark.org if you’re able to actually do the sample.
