It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Steeping sun illuminates the last of our shed amendments for this Sunday.  We slap the padlock on and quench our parched summer throats at the local watering hole: the R.  
So as it turns out, that foundation we were so proud of make-shift leveling was exactly that; shifty.  The doors didn't quite fit at the end (whoops!).  But thanks to the skill of our local furniture craftsman and his router, our shed now has perfectly fitting "custom" doors, and a reason to omit its pre-fab pre-fix.

More new volunteers and compost bins!
Lots of raking and shoveling of mulch required dust masks - you never know what's in the Brooklyn soil...

First BBQ of the Season!

This Sunday was the first BBQ of the season and it was an enormous success!  Everyone brought a little something and we ended up with a lot of everything.  After a long afternoon of hard work building compost bins, weeding, and painting the shed, we delved in like wild gluttons and celebrated our day's achievements! 

Summer Time Happening Here

A project to be manifest Thursday July 9th - we will continue this lovely passage through to the Graham side by clearing out some of the weeds, and lining the path with branches and stones.
Wrapped in plastic, but what a beauty.  A computer rendering from our local hardware chain becomes reality under the supervision of expert art installers Jen and Seth, as well as Todd, a fantastic new mechanically inclined volunteer.  Finishing touches will polish off this project, due to take place this holiday weekend.  Our choice of placement was influenced by Jane Jacobs- the great- more visibility, more "eyes" keep things safe and secure when properly applied.

Shed Update

This is our shed foundation, constructed today by Fernando and myself.  We leveled the ground, then sunk these materials into the dirt.  It was made from bricks and cinder blocks we salvaged from one of our neighboring house's demolition.  It was quite hot.  NEXT weekend, we hope to construct the actual shed!

Also notice the shed pic from the catalog that will go up, the very last of the lilac, the yellow roses, and the hydrangea that is climbing up alongside a neighboring building and blooming for the first time since planted.

May Update

A plentiful bloom of daffodils and tulips brought us out of hibernation and into the spring.  With several weeks of growth behind us, we are currently battling mugwort once more, Brooklyn's most invasive weed.  Spreading mulch and weeding will be the key in controlling the epidemic.  This will be made all the more easy by the gardening tools that will occupy our new shed!  The shed will be installed next Sunday, and coated with a fresh spring color.  Otherwise, we have much enthusiasm for project ideas including movie nights, art in the park, and more!

HIBERNATION

Lentol Garden will be asleep until early March 2009. In the mean time, Friends of Lentol Garden will continue working on a few long-term projects. Over the winter, we plan to build several raised beds for vegetable gardening, construct a new path to better connect the Graham and Bayard portions and construct a compost/mulch station. Please email us for information on these projects or to find out how you can help: lentolgarden@gmail.com

Thanks!

It's My Park Day! November 8, 2008

Hello peoples: Despite rain showers and gloomy skies, It's My Park Day! at Lentol Garden this fall was an overwhelming success. We had all kinds of folks come by and help out. At the Bayard Street entrance, we trimmed back many of the rose bushes and perrienials, pulled weeds, picked up trash and planted tulip bulbs. At the Graham Ave. entrance, we raked what seemed like a ton of leaves from our sweet gum tree into a larger pile of leaves that will transform into leaf mulch in the coming months. We also trimmed our holly trees, picked up garbage, cleaned up outside the gates, pulled weeds and put in a little stone wakway around our compost piles.

We want to thank all the folks who showed up to make this event a success, including State Assemblyman Joe Lentol, who brought a small army of helpers. We were actually surprised at how many young folks from the neighborhood showed up and at one point had as many as 20 people working!

We have big plans for this space in the coming months and it's so encouraging to see how much the community share our enthusiasm. Thanks to Neighbors Allied for Good Growth for blowin' us up on their blog, several neighbors came just from that website alone. We will continue to keep the community updated on our efforts over the winter. We have several projects planned and our ultimate goal is to have the gates at Lentol Garden open to the public much more next season. We simply need a few good gardeners to volunteer a little bit of their time to make it happen! Joining is simple, just email lentolgarden@gmail.com and someone will get in touch with you with the details!

In the mean time, feast your eyes on the photos from our clean up! Cheers!