Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Annual MAKING BROOKLYN BLOOM Returns March 12

Making Brooklyn Bloom, BBG's annual kickoff of the spring gardening season, returns on Saturday, March 12, 2022. This year, the Garden will once again offer a fully virtual program to allow participants from Brooklyn and beyond to join in.

The theme of this year's Making Brooklyn Bloom, Gardening in Place, looks at the undeniable importance of the outdoors in our everyday lives. As we emerge from a collective experience of being anchored to home, we consider and celebrate the ways in which gardeners-along with the plants they know and love-shape the meaning of place, home, and belonging.

Talks include "In My Own Backyard: Turning Inward, Making Space," a personal reflection by community gardening advocate Ena McPherson; and the Wilbur A. Levin Keynote Address, "Altering Brooklyn Forever: The Greening of a Beloved Borough," by Wambui Ippolito, horticulturalist and landscape designer.

Making Brooklyn Bloom is an annual early-spring symposium offered free to community gardeners and the broader public with exhibits, workshops, and networking opportunities, and speakers focusing on sustainable horticulture.

Preregistration is required. Participants can register at bbg.org/mbb.

Schedule

10-11:15 a.m. | Opening Talk

In My Own Backyard: Turning Inward, Making Space

Ena K. McPherson, community gardener and advocate

The renowned Bed-Stuy community garden leader reflects on her personal gardening journey. The pandemic has meant navigating a new, more private landscape; McPherson shares lessons gained about herself, plants, and community: past, present, and future.

This presentation will conclude with a moderated, live Q&A with the presenter and registered attendees.

11:15 a.m. | Videos

Community Voices

Celebrate the Garden's victory in the Fight for Sunlight and hear advice from a few of Brooklyn's gardeners.

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. | Wilbur A. Levin Keynote Address

Altering Brooklyn Forever: The Greening of a Beloved Borough

Wambui Ippolito, horticulturist and landscape designer

If we want a Brooklyn that is healthy, peaceful, and sustainable, there's bad news, and there's good news. A bird's-eye view of Brooklyn shows a mass of concrete interspersed with small sections of green, and it seems like new, modern, boxy housing structures are going up everywhere. Meanwhile, "green walls" are trending and the borough's tree canopy grew by almost two percent in the past seven years. In her keynote address, Ippolito shows how if only we would widen our optics a little bit, we could increase tree canopy, pollinator, floral, and faunal diversity by leaps and bounds.

The Wilbur A. Levin Keynote Address will conclude with a moderated, live Q&A session with the presenter and registered attendees.

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