"Adam Purple, the godfather of the Lower East Side community gardens who fought a losing battle to save his spectacular Garden of Eden from destruction for a low-income housing project, died Monday as he was bicycling over the Williamsburg Bridge. He was 84." He fought a long battle to save his garden and the abandoned tenement he lived in. Both of which were razed for new low-income housing for the deaf. Very different from the fight over the Elizabeth Street Garden.
Parks hauled 3 truckloads of compost out of the garden. On Thursday, a wonderful group of volunteers from Ralph Lauren came to add their weight to the Garden’s extensive history of stewarding this beautiful oasis by shoveling out the leftover compost and dumping the fencing. They also swept up and cleaned the bocci court, patio and the walkways. It was a big job and they worked hard.
Saturday was MK Garden's yearly kid's ladybug release. It was a great success even under gray drizzly skies (weather that the ladybugs seemed to like). More than 50 children participated, and there were a number of families who had never been to the garden before. Many thanks to Ted for producing the publicity, Pan for supplying the ladybugs, Bud for being the chief ladybug handler - along with the excellent help of Rie and her daughter Ro, Kate for bringing the snapdragons (on the subway) for the kids to plant, Bob for running the food table and making most excellent lemonade, Steve for taking pictures for the web site and all the other volunteers who helped make it a successful event.
Here are some beautiful photos of spring flowers and garden critters from our friend Jimmy Zheng. Thanks for sending them!
Once again the Critter Committee is planning another Lady Bug release in the garden on Saturday, June 27. Bring the kids!
NYC Parks and Gale Brewer's Office: Today at 1pm in Sara D. Roosevelt Park Performance Area: Central "The Pit" @ Broome Street Sunday, June 7th [...]
