Native to the Northeast coast, the beach plum (prunus maritima marsh) is a perennial fruit shrub especially supportive of bees. Learn more about its interesting history here
Heritage Beach Plum, April 2019.
CV’s beach plum as seen in 2015.
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Pollinator Party Resked’d For Sun 630pm
13 MayForecast calls for rain (and possible thunderstorms) this evening, so we’re rescheduling the Pollinator Appreciation Party.
It will be held this SUNDAY MAY 15th, at 630pm, in the children’s play area behind 195 Adams Street.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
All residents are welcome to join us for garden tours, the hanging of the hummingbird feeder, light refreshments and more.
Learn more about community garden membership (and operational costs) at CVEarthlab.com.
NEW PARTY DATE & TIME: Sunday May 15th from 630pm to 8pm.
Thank you for considering enjoying and supporting the CVEarthlab educational garden. Party RSVPs due tocvearthlab@gmail.com by noon Sunday 5.15.
Thank you! -Denise & The Core Garden Group
Little Cans For Small Hands
28 Apr
Watering season is almost upon us! We’ve moved the kids’ watering cans out of the shed for easy access. Children are welcome to water the flowers and plants in the ground along the play area fence, the Jay St fence or the short border fence at any time. Traditionally, we observe the rule that only grownups are allowed to use the hose, turn on/or spray the water. That said, we encourage adults to fill up watering cans for their little 
guys.
If you’re new to the play area, know that we keep sharp tools, soaps and basic chemicals locked in the shed, away from the kids. But the garden is not childproof; there are trip hazards, wood splinters, sharp corners and hardware wire edges around the beds.Please supervise children inside the garden space, or block the entrances with chairs or logs to prevent them from hurting themselves or the seedlings. Its tempting to pull up sprouts from the raised beds, but it will be 
much more satisfying once the veg are full grown! (See what’s planned here.) If you have an idea about how we can make it easier for your child to co-exist with the baby plants, email us, please, at cvearthlab@gmail.com. Once the season is in full swing, we’ll highlight the sensory garden pots that contain mint, cinnamon basil, lemon verbena and other fun to smell, taste and touch herbs.
It’s almost time for the 2nd Annual Pollinator Appreciation Party! Mark your calendars for Friday May 13th at 6:30pm. We’ll have more planting activities in the coming weeks, and a watering schedule for the vegetable beds will be posted soon. Stay in the loop by signing up for email notifications on CVEarthLab.com. Thanks!
–Ansley, Deb, Denise, Sandy, Shari & Alison, The Core Garden Team
Save the Date: 5.13 Fri 6:30pm Pollinator Party
18 AprMark your calendars! We’ll hold our 2nd Annual Pollinator Appreciation Party on Friday May 13th at 630pm. Join us for light refreshments, garden tours and butterfly love!
Learn more about membership (and operational costs) at CVEarthlab.com. Thank you.
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Mid-August Highlights: CVEarthlab
18 Aug
Good morning Brooklyn!
Morning light shows a lush garden.
Go, tomatoes, go!
Can you see the bush beans creeping over the bed’s edge?
Bush beans
Happy caterpillar on fennel.
Still no caterpillars in the wild dill corner.
Primrose in bloom
Ground cherries growin’
Dwarf sunflowers arrived in early August.
Lame photo of a beautiful Monarch butterfly.
High-climbing, long beans.
Cucumber corner.
That’s one loooong bean! Indra is saving it for seeds.
Lush-a-licious.
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The Pollinator Party is at 630pm This Evening
15 MayWe hope to see you (and lots of bees & butterflies 🙂 ) in the garden!
What’s In Our Butterfly Garden: August ’14 Edition
6 Aug
While some of the butterfly plants that were planted this year we not successful, we’ve still got many butterfly host and nectar plants, in addition to our butterfly bushes, that are thriving. These include:
- Butterfly weed
- Coreopsis (tickseed)
- Dill
- Dittany (Stone mint)
- Goldenrod
- Hollow Joe-pye weed
- Mountain Mint
- Primrose
- Smooth Aster (bluebird)
- Slender Goldentop
- Southern Arrowwood
- Swamp Milkweed
- Upland Ironweed
- Wild Bergamot (Bee balm)
- Yarrow
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Two New Plantings: Coreopsis + Mountain Mint
28 JulI stopped by Gowanus Nursery on Saturday and picked up two new plants: Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) a pretty flowering plant known as tickseed, and mountain mint (Pycanthemum). I need to confirm the specifics on each, but generally, they are pollinator-friendly and should make nice additions to our butterfly garden. I’ve been meaning to get mountain mint since Benji’s school was given some by the ButterflyProjectNYC; the coreopsis was purely an impulse buy–love those cheerful little yellow buds! Hope you do too, and that they do well here. -Denise
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Hollow Joe-Pye Weed or Trumpetweed (Eutrochium fistulosum)
23 JulHollow Joe-Pye Weed Image: Wasowski, Sally and Andy, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Flowering in late summer to early fall, Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum) shows pale purple or pinkish florets. The stems are purple or greenish, and the plant can grow 5 to 12 feet high. This member of the Aster family is known to attract “scores of butterflies,” according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center‘s database, as well as honey bees and swamp sparrow birds, which eat the seeds.
Related: What’s In Our Butterfly Garden
Sources: wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=22448; plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=EUFI14; missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c720
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