Bedford-Stuyvesant wildflower mission

not sure if anyone was aware of this program. IMO I don't think it’s a bad thing, if there are going to be weeds because a lot is abandoned they might as well be appealing...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/04/09/2009-04-09_bedstuy_wildflower_mission_draws_oppostion.html

Bedford-Stuyvesant wildflower mission draws oppostionBY Rachel Monahan
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Thursday, April 9th 2009, 4:00 AM

A Bedford-Stuyvesant group wants to ensure April showers really do bring May flowers to the neighborhood.

Joined by more than 100 volunteers, artist and environmentalist Deborah Fisher plans to plant 30 pounds of wildflower seeds on Saturday.

"By early summer, there should be so many wildflowers growing in the untended treepits, vacant lots, half-built developments and other tiny scraps of neglected soil in Bed-Stuy that the whole neighborhood effectively turns into a meadow," she wrote on her Web site, 21stcenturyplowshare.com.

But the idea of transforming the neighborhood into a beautiful meadow of wildflowers hasn't exactly blossomed everywhere in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

"Wildflowers in a meadow do not look the same in smaller urban spaces. In fact, they can look like weeds," said Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant President Ava Barnett, which sponsors annual neighborhood house tours.

"Have some of these lots already been slated for improvement by ... block associations?" asked Barnett. "Who will be giving permission for this wildflower invasion? Will I be asked if my block should look like a meadow of wildflowers?"

Barnett pointed proudly to neighborhood block associations that have won Greenest Block in Brooklyn prizes several times.

Other residents expressed concern about abandoned property, wondering whether Fisher had taken into account plans other groups might have for the property.

Fisher said she's been carefully surveying to make sure seeds don't get planted in unwanted locations and plans to only go to areas that aren't being cared for.

"You can't put wildflowers in somebody else's yard. That's mean," said Fisher, who also did research for flowers that will easily take hold, but won't invade gardens. Dandelions are out, but sunflowers, poppies and daisies are in.

"A vacant lot gets overtaken with weeds, because we live on Earth with plants," she said. "Why not make prettier weeds?"

Her goal is to plant so many flowers Google Earth has to rephotograph the neighborhood because of the dramatic change.

"Environmentalism is very difficult to wrap your mind around, because you have to do little tiny things to make a difference," she said. "Ideally, people who read about or attend [the planting] ... are going to be inspired to think of their own thing to do."

At the very least, Fisher has been sending seeds out to her donors, and has raised about half of the project's estimated $2,000 cost. The hope is donors will create their own small wildflower meadows wherever they are.