Today volunteers weeded the flower bed near the handball court. A layer of mulch was added to reduce weed growth, conserve moisture, and facilitate nutrient development for the plants by adding organic material to create a habitat for micro-bacteria and worms. The broken fence has been removed providing intimate viewing of the plants. The Yukka are about to put up their blossoms and the roses are in full bloom. Much of this work was done with community volunteers from the Mosaic International Church.

On July 25, 2015, Friends of Brower Park in partnership with the NYC Compost Project hosted a composting workshop. Crown  Heights residents and guests of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum participated in creating an apartment sized compost bin.

The materials include: a 30 quart plastic container, newspaper to make bedding, potting soil, a hand drill, and of course red wiggler worms.

Strips of newspaper were torn to make edible bedding for the red wigglers. The worms will eat the bedding along with the food scraps we bury beneath the bedding.

The children just couldn’t help but cuddle the worms in their palms while the adults drilled air holes in the plastic container.

The materials can be purchased at the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I have the full-size indoor bin and find it a bit large for NYC apartments. Our apartment sized bin is half the size and requires only one  half pound of wrigglers. It is a Sterilite Ultra Latch, 30 Qt. container that measures 18 1/4″ L x 12 1/4″ W x 11 1/2″ H.

Friends of Brower Park is planning another indoor composting workshop for November in conjunction with the NYC Compost Project‘s Leaf Crunch Event [hosted at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden]. A guide to composting can be found at their site.

If you prefer dropping off your food scraps drop off locations are listed on the NYC Department of Sanitation website.

A Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) found the Swamp Milkweed plants (Asclepias incarnata)  in our Monarch Habitat. Two of the Common names for this variety of milkweed is swamp milkweed and rose milkweed. Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch Butterfly. This means that the Monarch will only lay its eggs on a milkweed plant and the monarch caterpillar eats milkweed exclusively. If milkweed disappears from the Monarch’s ecosystem the Monarch Butterfly will cease to exist. It will go extinct. It is very close to extinction with its population reduced to less than 20 percent. Friends of Brower Park has built this habitat to help save the Monarch Butterfly from extinction. We are harvesting our own milkweed seeds and distributing them to the community to increase the number of plants available for Monarch reproduction and nourishment. The root causes of the Monarch’s loss of population is urbanization, loss of 40% of prairie land that is planted with GMO corn and soy crops that are resistant to herbicides and pesticides, and climate change. Monarch Watch is tracking the Monarch Butterfly population numbers. To learn more about the Monarch Butterfly and what can be done to help the Monarch survive visit their site. The Brower Park Monarch Butterfly Garden is a certified Monarch Watch habitat. Other sites to visit are: National Geographic; National Wildlife Foundation; Wikipedia and Kidzone for fun projects for kids from kindergarten to 6th grade.

The Monarch Butterfly is sharing her Milkweed blossoms with a bumble bee and an unidentified gray-winged insect.

Crown Heights families came out to rake leaves after the long cold winter. The air was chilly but it did not interfere with the cleanup or investigations of the worms and insects living under the damp leaves.

 Friends of Brower Park has planted over 5000 daffodils over the last few years. In the fall of 2014 community volunteers planted 2000 bulbs throughout Brower Park. The April display of yellow, orange and gold blossoms was a delightful treat. The photographs were taken on April 14 and 26 of 2015.