Swinging Sixties Older Adult Center’s rear garden gets spruced up
William Vega (second from right). Photo credit: Lori Ann Doyon
Seniors at Swinging Sixties Older Adult Center (211 Ainslie Street) will have a beautiful blooming garden to look forward to next spring. This is all thanks to two of the center’s members who also volunteered in the garden. Mary Witke and Modesto Dia arranged for North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBK Parks) to adopt the garden.
The first course of action was to remove the knotweed, which takes careful methods and dedicated effort as it takes a minimum of three years to get rid of. As such, the senior gardening volunteers will need to be on the lookout for the smallest sign of this plant to keep it under control.
Photo credit: Lori Ann Doyon
NBK Parks donated plants from their native nursery and brought a crew to do the planting. They also put down mulch to keep the weeds down protect the young plants. The mulch was homemade by NBK Parks from woodchips from branches pruned off trees in Under the K Bridge Park.
The plant selection in the garden considered the usual sunlight, water, and seasonal needs and was curated by Lisa Bloodgood, director of horticulture and stewardship at NBK Parks. She chose a variety when combined will have a bloom season that will cover March through October. Some of the plants considered were: woodland sunflower, blue giant hyssop (considered one of the premier plants for feeding pollinators flowers bloom from June until the first frost hits), a bee-loving type of allium commonly called nodding onion, swamp milkweed, eastern red columbine, purple coneflower, wild strawberry, false dragonhead, and foxglove beardtongue.
Bloodgood hopes the garden is will inspire seniors who are inclined to do some light gardening to maintain the garden, but NBK Parks will be checking in and can be called upon to assist.
Swinging Sixties OAC is very thankful for the plants and the hard work that NBK Parks’ many green thumbs put into their garden.
The Greenline 