From the Ground Up
THE FLOYD BENNETT GARDENS ASSOCIATION
Volume 20 Issue 1
The Newsletter That Helps You Grow
Spring 2015
Conflict Resolution Has A New Chairperson
Roy Brummell
I feel honored that I was asked to serve as
FBGA’s mediator in gardening disputes.
I was born and raised in a farming village in
rural Guyana, South America, where everyone,
including my grandparents, parents, uncles and
aunts, was a farmer. Not surprisingly, I grew up with
deep love for farming. However, I became a
professional teacher. As a teacher, I taught at high
schools in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, for
nineteen years and, in the United States, I served as
an educator for 23 years in various capacities.
Many of life’s experiences have taught me that
obedience of rules and regulations prevent chaos.
Regarding the latter point, the example that springs
to mind fastest is traffic without signs and signals.
Can you imagine the horns blaring continuously, the
smashups, the vicious words and possible fatal
fights?
I shall assume that all FBGA members wish to
be good-neighborly and have no interest in initiating
and sustaining verbal, physical or psychological
fights. In my opinion, the best way to avoid
confrontation is for all of us as neighbors to follow
the rules and regulations.
If I’m called to mediate, I shall first ask the
gardeners involved to re-read the rules and
regulations and/or to bring a copy of the rules and
regulations to a meeting with me. To be fair to the
parties, we shall resolve all disputes based solely on
them.
Contents
Conflict Resolution Has A
New Chairperson
Let’s Grow Together
Early Workshops Herald Spring!
Season Opener 2015
Growing Kohlrabi
2015 Workshop Schedule
* * * * *
The Administration of FBGA would like to
thank outgoing Chairperson Alan Rasner for his long
and successful conflict resolution tenure. Alan was
appointed in 1997 as the first chairperson of the
Conflict Resolution Committee by the first president
of FBGA, Leo Gruba. Alan has given 18 years of
service to this organization acting as mediator and
the work he has done has been invaluable to this
community. Thank you Alan.
Let’s Grow Together
Floyd Bennett Gardens Association Newsletter
Floyd Bennett Gardens Association Inc. is located in Floyd Bennett Field, a
unit of Gateway National Recreation Area.
.
Editor: Barbara Pearson
Contributors: Roy Brummell, Anne Gaudet, Lynn Graham,
Bob Halligan, Shereen Rosenthal, Pam Spiewak
Proofreader: Shari Romar
Photographs: Roy Brummell, Barbara Pearson,
Gail Schneider, Pam Spiewak
Website: fbga.net
Contact Louis M.: [email protected]
Contact us: FBGA News • PO Box 340986 • Ryder Retail Station
Brooklyn, NY 11234-9993 • e-mail [email protected]
Our Policy: All submissions to the newsletter may be edited for grammar,
spelling and length. We reserve the right to reject entries.
Disclaimer Required by the National Parks Service
The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and
should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the United States
Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute
their endorsement by the U.S. Government.
FBGA Contacts
Adriann Musson – President
917-446-3764
[email protected]
Lynn Graham
I invite and welcome each and every one of you
to the 2015 growing season filled with fun,
community, and learning.
FBGA Children’s Garden will host a meet and
greet for the 2015 registered Children Garden
participants. Registered participants will be assigned
garden space to grow flowers, fruits, vegetables and
herbs. Great workshops will be held throughout the
season. As usual there will be plenty of interactive
activities. Free seed packets and transplants will be
available (supplied by FBGA) for the children to
plant. The children will be encouraged to put their
hands in the soil, touch an earthworm and spend time
looking at butterflies and birds. They will learn to
draw, do arts & crafts and many creative workshops in
addition to the gardening and planting sessions.
If you have not yet registered, do so now. It is
TOTALLY FREE and open to all FBGA members’
children and grandchildren. Join us in our wonderful
adventure. Let’s grow together.
Let the new adventure begin. See you soon.
Below is the first three months’ schedule
Sunday, April 12 1 PM
Bob Halligan – Vice President & Education
917-626-7460 [email protected]
Judy Tropeano – Treasurer
Sunday, April 19 1 PM
718-444-7210 [email protected]
Clara Villanueva – Corresponding Secretary
Saturday, May 2 1 PM
Saturday, May 9 1 PM
718-782-5694 [email protected]
Lynn Halligan – Recording Secretary & Special Events
[email protected]
Sylvia Tsingis – Champions of Courage Garden
[email protected]
Sunday, May 17 12 PM
Sunday, May 31 12 PM
Saturday, June 13 12 PM
718-342-3689 [email protected]
Saturday, June 27 12 PM
718-646-5979 [email protected]
Lynn Graham – Children’s Garden
Roy Brummell – Conflict Resolution
Carl Arendt – Operations & Maintenance
917-681-3624 [email protected]
Gail Schneider – Fundraising
347-533-3787 [email protected]
Tom Ingram – Landscape Maintenance
917-209-6452 [email protected]
Karen Orlando – Elections
[email protected]
Tom Marange – Help A Gardener
718-382-4216 [email protected]
Marie Artesi – Landscape Design
718-256-4480
Frank Gentile – Wildlife Habitat
917-701-8370 [email protected]
Barbara Pearson – Newsletter
718-869-6774 [email protected]
Joe Nerone – Pumpkin Patch
718-789-2713
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Opening day and meet
and greet
Starting from Seed
& Planting Workshop
Planting Session
Square Foot Gardening
Workshop & Planting
Session
Planting Session
Fence Decorating
Harvesting and Planting
Sessions
Harvesting and Planting
Sessions
Plant potatoes early in the season but not before
they get their eyes; if planted before they have eyes
they won’t be as productive. The potatoes you plant
should be egg sized, if bigger, cut them in half. Each
plant will yield about 5-10 potatoes. Tom finds Red
Norland are a good variety of potato.
Sweet potatoes grow differently. They are
planted in the warmer weather during June. You
plant the slips that are on the sweet potato in a trench
with plants 9-12 inches apart. Don’t allow the sweet
potatoes to be exposed to sun. You must hill them,
and keep filling in the trench as the potatoes grow.
Tomatoes need warm weather so don’t plant
them until mid-May. If you plant tomato plants with
the stem on the horizontal, they will grow more roots.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders and need lots of water.
Blossom end rot is due to uneven watering and/or a
calcium deficiency. Don’t wet the leaves, only water
at the bottom of the plant; wetting the leaves at night
can cause mildew. You can use fabric mulch and hay
to conserve moisture. Better Boy is a good, crack
resistant variety of tomato. Grape tomatoes are
vigorous and can grow 8-10 feet tall.
Eggplants, corn, beans and squash are more
summer crops that were discussed. Eggplant is prone
to flea beetles. If you plant beans, remember pole
beans can grow up a trellis, allowing you to pick
them for a longer time. Silver Queen is a good variety
of corn that Tom uses. Squash should be planted in
June. Only the female flowers produce fruit (see
photos in Spring 2014 issue, p.3), which means you
can eat the male flowers; fry them up or make fritters
with them. Delicious!
Peppers and onions are two more summer crops.
The Cubanelle pepper variety grows better in our
gardens than Bell peppers. If you leave peppers on
the plant, they turn from green to red, and the red are
so sweet - but watch out because they can rot once
they turn red. Onions like the long days of summer
and the foliage starts to die in July. Remember to
water onions until you harvest (unlike garlic, which
you stop watering when the scapes come). Onions
like bone meal.
Adriann and Tom provided workshop attendees
with a wealth of information - much, much more than
an article such as this can - so “Attend the
workshops!” And good luck this summer with your
planting!
Early Workshops Herald Spring!
Shereen Rosenthal
The winter was horrendous! Oppressively cold,
snowy and way too icy! I longed to get back into my
garden. Would spring ever come? With the first
FBGA workshop I attended, Planning Your Garden, I
became hopeful that perhaps the winter would melt
into spring after all. But it snowed the day of the
workshop, and I sat in the Ryan Center watching the
snow pile up and blow around the parking lot.
Adriann Musson encouraged us to make a list of
vegetables we eat and divide them into cold weather
and warm weather vegetables (refer to the Planting
Guide often given out at the workshops and note that
the dates for the last frost have changed and are now
one month earlier than indicated). If you have grown
from seed indoors, try to harden off your plants by
putting them outside a month before you plant them
in the ground.
When you are planting seeds in the ground, try to
stagger them so that your crop is not ready all at
once, leading to overabundance and waste - don’t
plant every seed in the packet! Think of the air
temperature and soil temperature before you plant;
most seeds don’t like it below 55 degrees. Lettuce
seeds can be planted at slightly cooler temperatures,
but not below 50 degrees. Take into account days to
maturity and germination times if you are planting
from seed. Adriann noted that the heirloom varieties
tend to produce fewer tomatoes. Keep a journal of
when and what you planted, how the specific
varieties fared.
Think about spacing, Adriann said. Lettuce for
example should be 6-8 inches apart. Tomatoes can
be planted around lettuce when they go in after midMay, and will shade the lettuce and prolong their
growing season before they bolt. Squash and basil go
in during the month of June. They like warmer
temperatures. Plant earlier or later to avoid bugs that
can plague green beans, potatoes or tomatoes.
Fertilize three times a year: when you prepare the soil
for planting, when the first flowers emerge and
during the heavy production period.
Ask people about how they garden, but
remember that they all have different opinions and
ways of doing things. Pick a mentor, and try to
follow that one person.
Tom Ingram did his workshop Sizzling Summer
Crops in late March. Tom is a 20 year member of
FBGA. Potatoes and tomatoes are his areas of
greatest expertise.
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
Season Opener 2015
Anne Gaudet
The Spring Meeting was quite well attended.
There was a standing room only crowd. Our
president, Adriann Musson, certainly “rose to the
occasion” and found a way to address the group and
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The new Green Thumb affiliation with FBGA
offers gardeners information and also will
provide FBGA with a permit that allows FBGA
to use the nearby NYC water hydrant. If any
Member does not want to receive Green Thumb
materials, please let Adriann or Clara know.
National Park Service is expected to sign a lease
with FBGA soon.
FBGA logo items and other fundraising goodies
were available at the back tables. Starter plants
will be made available for a donation to FBGA
and gardeners were asked to sign up for what they
wanted.
get the information across without having a working
microphone and without completely losing her voice
(which was, actually, pretty amazing). In an attempt
to avoid the permit distribution crush at the end of the
meeting, an “exit” ticket was given on arrival. In
effect, the sooner gardeners arrived, the sooner they
could leave. All told, it was a pretty efficient
meeting, and was shortened to an hour and a half!!

The announcements held good news for us, and
sections of the Rules and Regulations were reviewed
for clarity:

Our soil tests were very good, showing low heavy
metals and good NPK levels.
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General good gardening manners were discussed.
Noting that all committee chairs are volunteers,
members were told not to call either too early or
too late, to have a clear and concise message
regarding their call and to allow a reasonable time
for a response.
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Do your own community service hours, it’s only
8 hours per gardening household. Hours need to
be completed by or before September 30th. Bring
your FBGA ID card to have your service
registered.
The work area is off limits. It is for Operations
and Maintenance Committee only.
Compost is available for FBGA gardeners’ use in
their Floyd Bennett gardens, not at home, for sale,
or any other use.
Picnic area is for garden members’ use. You
must be there with your guests.
Display your parking permit in your vehicle at all
times at the garden and your garden sign with
name and plot number on your gate by May 1st.
The green trash cans are for trash only. Compost
goes to the compost pile. Wood needs to be baled
and placed next to the cans. Household items,
furniture, etc. from your garden are to be taken
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home to be discarded. Collections are Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday.
If a member wishes to expand to a double plot
they must be in good standing for 2 years before
they can apply to be put on the waiting list.
No permanent structures, invasive plants, tall
trees (more than 6 feet), etc. in your garden.
Please empty standing water from garden areas to
avoid mosquitoes.
Any story ideas, photos, etc. that you may want to
contribute to “From the Ground Up” can be sent
to [email protected]. Barbara and the team
are eager for your contributions!!
Please read the current FBGA Rules and
Regulations. They were expanded to clarify
situations and answer frequently asked questions.
Happy Spring to all! Let’s look forward to a
fantastic growing season!!
Mr. Nankoo playing the National Anthem on his harmonica at the Spring Meeting. Thank you Mr. Nankoo.
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Growing Kohlrabi
2015 Workshop Schedule
Pam Spiewak
Last year I purchased a few cabbage seedlings,
or so I thought. They turned out to be kohlrabi and I
must say it was a pleasant surprise. The old adage
that looks can be deceiving certainly applies to
kohlrabi. When you get past its looks, you discover
an easy-care, cool season crop that produces tender
delicious bulbs in just eight weeks.
After researching my “alien” plant, I found out
that kohlrabi has edible leaves that taste similar to
kale but it is mainly grown for its ball shaped stem or
bulb. This vegetable originated in northern Europe
and it is a member of the Brassica family (broccoli,
cabbage, etc).
Kohlrabi performs best during the cool spring or
fall, in a spot with full sun and rich soil. My plants
grew well into October. The frost didn’t seem to
bother them. The owner of one of the nurseries where
I buy my seedlings told me to keep the soil evenly
moist, as alternating periods of wet and dry soil can
cause kohlrabi to crack or become hollow, and
prolonged drought can cause the development of a
strong taste and a woody texture. I also found that my
kohlrabi plants tended to be much less susceptible to
the usual pests, including the cabbage moth.
I prefer my kohlrabi young and extra tender, not
much bigger than a golf ball, but larger size bulbs
taste great too. You can store kohlrabi in the
vegetable bin of the refrigerator, where they will keep
for approximately 3 weeks. Kohlrabi is great when
added raw to salads and slaws. It was delicious
stewed or sautéed in garlic and oil. To prepare, slice
off the leaves with a sharp knife and trim off the
roots. I cut mine into small slices or cubes and sauté
it with other vegetable for a delicious side dish.
Remember the leaves can also be cooked like kale.
Plant kohlrabi this season and you will find that
it adds a welcome infusion of flavor to your garden.
Bob Halligan
Sunday, April 26, 2PM - Ryan Center/weather
permitting in the community garden
Garden Sign Workshop
Presenter Susan Berman
Every Floyd Bennett garden needs a sign, join us and
make one for your garden. We will supply wood and
paint you bring your creativity. Registration is
required in advance, workshop limited to 20 people.
Email [email protected] to reserve a spot.
Saturday, May 2, 2PM - Ryan Center
Eating 12 Months a Year from Your Garden
Presenter Ayala Jonas
An overview of how to take advantage of
overwintering, sequential planting, batch-cooking,
freezing, fermenting, drying, foraging, and canning to
make your garden's fruit and vegetables feed your
family year round.
Saturday, May 16, 2 PM - Ryan Center
Medicinal Uses of Culinary Herbs
Presenter Adriann Musson
The herbs we add to flavor our food can also be used
when you are not feeling well. Come find out which
herbs can help you feel better and how to use them.
Saturday, May 30, 2PM - Meet at the gazebo in
the community garden
Please Eat the Daisies
Presenter Lois Pinetree
Discover edible wildflowers, greens, and berries
found all around, then join us for a garden walk.
Find, prepare, and dine on a delicious and colorful
salad. Learn to love your weeds! Wear comfortable
shoes
Saturday, June 6, 2PM - At the Gazebo in the
community garden (rain date June 7)
Growing Edibles in Containers
Presenter Bob Halligan
You don't need a garden to grow healthy tasty food.
Learn all you need to know to grow vegetables and
edible flowers in containers.
Saturday, June 13, 2 PM - Ryan Center
Herbal Oils, Vinegars, and Butters
Presenter Adriann Musson
Bring a small jar (no bigger than 4 ounces) and learn
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Sunday, August 30, 2PM – Ryan Center
Growing Garlic
Presenter Bob Halligan
Fall is the best time to plant garlic in the northeast !
This workshop will cover the different types of
garlic, where to purchase them, how to plant, care
for, harvest, and store your garlic.
how to make your own gourmet oils, vinegars, and
butters. Samples will be provided. Registration is
required in advance, workshop limited to 20 people.
Email [email protected] to reserve a spot.
Saturday, August 22, 2PM - In the picnic area in
the community garden
Natural Dyes
Presenter Adriann Musson
This will be a hands-on workshop, during which you
will learn how to use fruit and vegetable scraps to
make your own dyes. You will be making your own
dyes. We will have fabrics for you to experiment
with. Registration is required in advance, workshop is
limited to 20 people. Email [email protected]
to reserve a spot.
*** This schedule is subject to change.
Please confirm date, time and location by
checking FBGA’s website (www.fbga.net)
or the bulletin board at FBGA.
Volunteers preparing bags of free seeds given to all FBGA
members at the Spring Meeting.
FBGA would like to thank
The Chas. C. Hart Seed Co.
for their generosity and the
outstanding selection of seeds that
they donate to us.
Save the Date
A large selection of Hart seeds is
available from Lawrence Lapide/
Brooklyn Plantology at the Brooklyn
Terminal Market on Foster Avenue.
FBGA Summer Picnic
Sunday, July 19th
(rain date Sunday, July 26th)
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