Peering Into Patrick Van Doren Garden
On the northeast corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Quincy Streets sits a colorful, mini-agricultural community garden. As I was taking pictures, the president of the Quincy Street Block Association president approached me. She engulfed me with a wealth of information in minutes. The garden serves as a few purposes:
Events: the park is available for private bookings.
Spaying and Neutering Cats: a wonderful cause! Apparently, this program isn’t as active as it used to be due to funding.
Harvest: the vegetable patch includes corn, tomatoes, peppers and collard greens.
Events: the park is available for private bookings.
Spaying and Neutering Cats: a wonderful cause! Apparently, this program isn’t as active as it used to be due to funding.
Harvest: the vegetable patch includes corn, tomatoes, peppers and collard greens.
Volunteers also meet up on late Wednesday afternoons from 5-7PM at the park. She also says Jim Green is responsible for the large mural and some of the artwork. One of his most popular works can be seen throughout the Utica Avenue A/C subway station. I hope to meet up with the block president in the near future for a more in-depth interview. Anyone currently active in volunteering here? In the meantime, enjoy the visuals of this private oasis.
This handsome tabby is James, one of the resident cats!
These two kittens are also residents, but no relation to James!
The Changeling posted a pic of this mural exactly two years ago! It reminds her of the illustrations found in Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.
31 August 2009, 8:59 am
Glad you liked the garden! My husband James and I have been the main caretakers of this park since we moved to bed stuy in 05. Every year we try to add something new to improve it. This year we got a big truck load of much donated from greenwood cemetery to cover all our concrete and we started composting. BBG donated a bunch of plants leftover from the plant sale and we also had out biggest TNR (trap, neuter, release) program working w/other trappers in bed stuy – 29 cats right out of our park. The program is bigger than ever and no funding is required – just time and effort. We also added four more raised beds and grew corn for the first time. The park is open daily from 8am to 7pm and volunteers are welcome to come in anytime to help with weeding and garbage pickup. We don’t really have any regular volunteers so it’s a lot of work to look after the park and we do the best we can w/ weeding, etc. About once per quarter a group from NYCares comes in to give us a hand. We would LOVE to meet new people interested in gardening and volunteering. One of the reasons we added raised beds is because we want community members to take plots and grow their own veg! If anyone has any questions they can reach us on quincystreetblockassociation@gmail.com
Alida.
31 August 2009, 2:20 pm
TPS, this is a great introduction to the park. I love the photos, especially the ones of the cats.
And that mural! It’s the best!
@Alida: I never knew that there were TNR events there–so nice to know folks care enough to curb the cat pop. And I didn’t realize that you and your husband were the park stewards. Thanks for all of your hard work!!!!