Bette Midler Celebrates Arbor Day in Brooklyn

Last Friday was Arbor Day, and to commemorate the holiday, New York Restoration Project founder Bette Midler (above, center) joined NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and 100 MillionTreesNYC corporate volunteers (sponsors were The Home Depot Foundation, Toyota and BNP Paribas) to plant trees in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Photo by Amanda Schwab / Starpix

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NYC Wildflower Week

This week, May 1 through May 9, is NYC Wildflower Week, designed to encourage people to engage and connect with the parks and natural areas in all 5 boroughs. There are over 45 events scheduled throughout the week. Click here to see the complete list. 

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden Plant Extravaganza!

In 1945, the Women’s Auxiliary of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden started the Daffodil Bridge Party, selling several varieties of plants to bring people to the garden and make some money at the same time. The plant sale grew even as bridge parties went out of style, moving to Magnolia Plaza, the Lily Pool Terrace and to Cherry Esplanade, where it is today.

Now, the Plant Sale at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is in its 57th year and has grown to be the largest of its kind in the Northeast, with over 20,000 plants available. Held Wednesday, May 5, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday, May 6, from 9 a.m. to noon, it’s sponsored this year by Monrovia Nurseries.

Volunteers from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Auxiliary — which began admitting men around 1975 — along with garden employees, sell the plants and offer gardening advice to plant purchasers.

Friends and fellow Brooklynites Lois Carswell (who lives in Park Slope) and Lucille Plotz (who resides in Brooklyn Heights) have chaired the sale together for over 35 years.

“People come from all over: Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut,” said Carswell. Some bring vans to take home their loot, she noted. “It’s an extravaganza!”

“We have every kind of plant you can imagine — orchids, calla lilies, ferns, begonias, petunias,” said Plotz, who is so devoted to the sale that she went to school to get a botany degree. “Anything you can think of, we’ve got.”

Many people come to the plant sale to buy plants that they’ve seen and admired in the garden before, said Plotz, like climbing roses, which are very popular, or tree peonies, which are exclusive — “you don’t see those everywhere.”

The plant sale Wednesday will feature special events as well. BBG bonsai curator Julian Velasco will lead a bonsai clinic and demonstration. For a fee, he will prune and repot any pest-free bonsai and offer advice. Sessions are from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 3 p.m.

David Horak, the curator of BBG’s orchid collection will discuss repotting and reblooming orchids at noon and 3 p.m., and at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., learn how to use culinary herbs for sale.

Experts will be on hand throughout both days to offer advice, said Carswell. “We try to make gardeners out of people.”

For more information, visit www.bbg.org.

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Mayor Bloomberg Announces Plan to Update PlaNYC

Mayor Michael Bloomberg commemorated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in Times Square by launching a public process to update PlaNYC — discussing the need to develop a comprehensive, sustainable approach to solid waste. This approach builds on the City’s solid waste management plan and recycling program by including a far-reaching strategy to encourage New Yorkers to generate less waste, reuse more of what they consume, and develop new ways to utilize any waste that is discarded.

“We have made great strides to improve our environment, build our economy, and enhance quality of life for all New Yorkers, but more remains to be done,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Through PlaNYC, which was launched just three years ago, we are transforming New York into a greener, greater city – even as we prepare for a million more New Yorkers. In doing so, we continue to prove that being more sustainable isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing.”

Local Law 17 of 2008, enacted by the City Council with the Mayor’s support, requires that PlaNYC be updated every four years.

In addition to evaluating the existing goals and initiatives in the original plan, updating PlaNYC is an opportunity to consider addressing policy areas that are not currently included.

The Mayor announced that solid waste would be included in the update where it wasn’t before. PlaNYC will build upon the Department of Sanitation’s recycling program, which is the largest and most ambitious in the nation, and the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which is transforming how the City disposes of waste by removing thousands of heavily polluting trucks from city streets and shifting solid waste transportation to barge and rail.

As part of the update for PlaNYC, the City will comprehensively review where New York’s 25,000 daily tons of waste comes from and formulate innovative policies designed to focus first on reducing the amount of waste generated, which has the greatest environmental impact, and then on initiatives that utilize waste as a resource, rather than considering it solely a by-product.

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Earth Day Celebrations at Brooklyn Children's Museum

This weekend, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the first “green” museum in the city — thanks to its LEED silver certification — will hold its “Celebrate Earth!” Earth Day weekend festival.

There will be an “Eco-Fair” on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Other activities on both days include bark painting, learning about composting and go on an “aquatic safari.” Visit www.brooklynkids.org for a complete schedule of events.

The recent expansion to the Children’s Museum, completed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, is what garnered the museum (celebrating its 110th anniversary) its LEED silver certification.

The museum is the first in New York City to employ geothermal wells for heating and cooling purposes. Whenever possible, construction utilized rapidly renewable and recycled materials.

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Happy Earth Day!

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, created in 1970 by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage people to appreciate the planet and the environment. So say "no, thank you" to that plastic bag, recycle those bottles and cans, visit your local Greenmarket, and happy Earth Day!

Visit the recently-opened Brooklyn Bridge Park if you have a chance — the lawns at Pier 1, which were previously closed, have been opened to the public today in celebration of Earth Day, reports the NY Post.

Image courtesy Cagle Cartoons

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EARTH DAY 2010

Every year since 1970, thanks to an idea by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson, we’ve celebrated Earth Day on April 22. As eco-consciousness spreads, Earth Day has expanded into Earth Week, and even Earth Month. Below is a sampling of Earth events coming up throughout the borough:

Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day)

Green in BKLYN, 432 Myrtle Ave, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Green in BKLYN’s B-Earth Day Celebration. Not only is it Earth Day, but it’s the first anniversary of Green in BKLYN, a green home goods store in Clinton Hill. Visit the shop for the day-long party, which will feature a book signing by Brooklyn author Leda Meredith, Clinton Hill-based Vandra Thorborn answering questions about composting, Brooklyn artist Claudia Pearson signing her children’s book, and an organic wine reception. Visit greeninbklyn.com for all the details.

OutPost Lounge, 1014 Fulton St. from 4 to 10 p.m.: GREEN BKSTYLE. The April Brooklyn Fashion Week designers move toward more sustainable marketing and production. Visit OutPost Lounge to shop and see the green fashions featured. RSVP required. Visit www.brooklynfasionweek.com for more details.

Word Bookstore, 126 Franklin St. from 7:30 to 9 p.m.: Author Emily Elizabeth Anderson will discuss ideas from her new book, Eco-Chic Home: Rethink, Reuse and Remake Your Way to Sustainable Syle. She will talk about projects that make the home stylish and eco-conscious at the same time, demonstrating a paper crane chandelier, a CD case light and plastic bag flowers. Free, RSVP encouraged but not required. Visit www.wordbrooklyn.com for more information.

East River Bar, 97 South Sixth St., 8 p.m.: Earth Day is Every Day After-Party. Time’s Up, NYC’s Direct Action Environmental Organization, will be holding a bike ride for Earth Day, starting at Union Square Park South and ending in a barbeque at East River Bar in Williamsburg. Wear green for the ride and after-party, which will feature a DJ, dancing and eco art show of ecological and environmental prints by JustSeeds Cooperative.

Saturday, April 24

Flatbush Food Co-op, 1415 Cortelyou Road from 9 a.m. to noon.: Plant swap co-sponsored by Flatbush Food Co-op and Sustainable Flatbush. Trade perennials and other plants, swap gardening tips and get started with a garden. You don’t have to bring something to take something. Rain or Shine. Visit sustainableflatbush.org.

Fifth Avenue Family Festival, Fourth Street at Fifth Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Puppetry Arts and the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID team up to bring a family event to the neighborhood filled with crafts, games and giveaways. The event also has activities in celebration with Earth Day. Children can make puppets out of recyclable materials found in restaurants and stores located along Fifth Avenue, such as “pizza puppets” made out of pizza boxes from 7-Eleven. Free.

Audubon Center at Prospect Park, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.: Earth Day 40th Anniversary Celebration. Find out how Earth Day began and learn about how you can help nurture and preserve our planet. Calculature your carbon fooprint, bring old tee-shirts or sweaters to make a one-of-a-kind tote bag with Bags for the People, turn cereal boxes into wallets with Replayground, and Bash the Trash will be building recycled instruments and performing live. Free. Visit www.prospectpark.org for more information.

Brooklyn Flea, 176 Lafayette Ave (Saturday, April 24), and 1 Hanson Place (Sunday, April 25): Greenmarket’s Annual Flower Sales. Choose from hundreds of local, seasonal plants and flowers: annuals, assorted pots, bulbs, herbs, perennials, cut flowers, vegetable plants and more.

Sunday, April 25

McCarren Park, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The 3rd annual Go Green! Greenpoint! Earth Day Celebration. Event will feature vendors selling earth-friendly merchandise, organizations promoting earth awareness, school and community group participation, music, a health and wellness demonstration area, a recycling station and healthy food. Free. 

IKEA/Erie Basin Waterfront Park, One Beard St., from 1 to 5 p.m.: The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy Enviromedia Mobile Earth Day Celebrations 2010. Activities include: catch and release fishing, live underwater video exploration, electronics and sneaker recycling, kite flight, tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and live music. Event will also feature a ceremonial launch of a giant floating “earth ball” to 100 feet, signifying the 100 percent commitment to mitigation of impacts on climate change and ocean acidification. Free, for more information call (347) 224-5828.

Ongoing

The Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, 290 Conover St. at Pier 44: "A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things." April 23 to May 9, Friday to Sunday at 7 p.m. A “floating fantasia” of a show performed on a docked barge in Red Hook about a man floating on a shrinking iceberg, a smuggling sea captain delivering messages in bottles, and a marooned sea creature. They will all collide in a mythical place called Florida. All tickets $18 through SmartTix. Visit www.polybeandseats.org/slimy.html for more details.

Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard: 5th Annual Eco-Festival, April 27 to 30. Theme for this year is “Sustainable NYC.” Various speakers, film screenings, environmental books on display, an afternoon of poetry, music and fashion, a green trade fair and more. Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.kingsborough.edu/eco-festival.                                  

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