Greenpoint will get a bit greener thank to neighborhood gardeners.
A group of green thumbs are hoping to turn a long-vacant lot into a community garden that would allow North Brooklynites to try their hand at nurturing azaleas and roses.
“Greenpoint is seriously lacking in open space, so this would make a great addition,” said Lisa Bloodgood, environmental policy advisor and constituent liaison for Councilman Steve Levin (D–Greenpoint).
Bloodgood eyed the plot on Franklin Street near the corner of Oak Street for years and eventually convinced the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which owns the lot, to turn it over to volunteers on a temporary basis.
“They still have claim on the lot if they want to do development there in the future,” said Bloodgood.
But that’s not standing in the way of the gardeners, who plan to turn the site into more a decorative garden than an edible garden because the lot is hemmed in on three sides and doesn’t get much sun.
Unlike many community gardens, where each gardener is assigned his or her own plot to tend, all participants would share in the maintenance of the entire site. That’s partly because a nearby Java Street community garden has struggled to find enough volunteers to sow its plots.
“It’s going to be more of a community open space than a traditional urban plot garden,” said Ryan Watson, who is involved in a variety of open space projects in North Brooklyn, as well as the nascent Willypoint Food Coop.
And the plants won’t be the only things that are locally made.
“We are going to give a call out to artists and carpenters in the neighborhoods and ask them to make us benches and paint murals,” said Watson. “We want this to be a space where there is a lot of collaboration.”
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.
