Here’s a Brooklyn Eagle article giving information about an event at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

BROOKLYN — The urban gardening community will kick off the spring gardening season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) with the 29th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom, a daylong conference on how to green up the borough.

It will be presented on Saturday, March 13, by GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

This year’s Making Brooklyn Bloom, “Soil in the City: Growing Healthy Neighborhoods from the Ground Up,” will focus on revitalizing our soil, the foundation of life in the garden. The free event features a keynote address by Dr. Nina Bassuk, director of the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell University, developer of Cornell Structural Soil, and author of Trees in the Urban Landscape.

Exhibits and workshops on rooftop farming, community composting, and soil testing will be offered—all presented by members of BBG’s horticulture staff or experts from other greening organizations in New York City.

“For 29 years, Making Brooklyn Bloom has introduced urban gardeners to sustainable practices and encouraged ecological awareness in city gardens—whether those gardens are on windowsills, in backyards, or in community gardens,” says Robin Simmen, director of GreenBridge.

“Focusing on soil this year addresses an issue that pertains to everyone interested in cultivating green space in the city. GreenBridge is proud to bring together leaders in sustainable horticulture and environmental science to share their knowledge on this critical issue—and in doing so, strengthen the community of Brooklyn gardeners,” she adds.

To celebrate its centennial, BBG is commemorating the renewal of Brooklyn’s urban environment by sharing before-and-after photos of local community gardens.

Attendees are encouraged to bring photos of their gardens on the day of the event; BBG staff will be on hand to scan and share them on the web throughout our centennial year. Like many of Brooklyn’s gardens, BBG itself started from scratch, transforming its grounds from a derelict coal ash dump into an emerald gem in the heart of the borough.

For more details on Making Brooklyn Bloom, please call (718) 623-7250 or visit bbg.org/vis2/2010/mbb/.

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