Park Slope Kicks Off Earth Day With Buzzy New Pollinator Garden

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A new Park Slope pollinator garden will be the bee's knees this Earth Day.

The Greenspace @ President Street — a mini-park along Fifth Avenue — is hosting a ribbon cutting Saturday at 11 a.m. for bee-friendly plantings and other improvements.

The all-volunteer community garden will add pollinator plantings and expand beyond its fenced boundaries with a sidewalk tree bed, officials with the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District announced.

"The pollinator garden will provide a shady haven for pedestrians, as well as an opportunity for people to enjoy some greenery on the street and to get involved in its maintenance," said Joanna Tallantire, the district's executive director, in a statement.

The Greenspace offers Park Slopers a much-needed green oasis among the Fifth Avenue district's 30-block commercial corridor.

Tallantire said the space is the smallest garden in the Brooklyn Alliance of Neighborhood Gardens, but is open more often than its peer parks.

The project will create a 53-foot-long continuous tree bed with two native pollinator gardens, officials said. All told, the space will cover 180 square feet.

Two local small businesses played pivotal roles in the project, Tallantire said.

Talia Willner — a nearby resident who long dreamed of the project — prepped the tree bed and provided soil and mulch through her Tree PEP organization. Another local — Ty Tripoli — custom-designed the project's two 17-foot-long metal tree guards.

The project is funded by the business improvement district and National Grid.

Overall, the project will accomplish the following goals, as outlined in a release from the district:

• Improve living conditions for trees and strengthen root systems by increasing water and oxygen supply to roots and enhancing ability for adjacent trees' roots to support each other.
• Create natural habitat for vital pollinator insects and birds.
• Divert storm water out of sewers to reduce CSOs and flooding in a hurricane evacuation zone.
• Sequester carbon from plants and soil.
• Provide a shady area for pedestrians on a busy commercial street, offering a valuable restorative natural space for urban dwellers and for community events.
• Provide pollinator gardens for local school science projects.
• Provide opportunities for volunteers, to learn how to garden and invest in their neighborhood.
• Install and nurture the BID’s first major greening project in conjunction in partnership with another nonprofit.