Summary(1:12) Current appearance of the garden -- (1:51) Protective gardening -- (3:13) Sourcing mint from a house being claimed by eminent domain -- (3:39) Types of plants blooming in the garden -- (4:41) Rescuing pine trees from a rooftop in Soho -- (5:16) Digging holly trees from Vanderbilt Avenue -- (6:58) Incidents of vandalism and theft -- (8:49) Strategizing the outer plants of the garden to prevent theft -- (10:40) Iron fence as deterrent -- (11:18) Designing the garden walkways and paths -- (12:08) Brooklyn Botanic Garden plant sale -- (12:44) Reclaiming stones from the telephone company -- (13:46) Oversized baby prams destroying flower beds -- (15:17) Primitive state of the garden in the early years -- (16:10) Attempts at composting -- (16:40) Hand watering -- (18:08) Having to teach garden users -- (20:30) Garden beds built by the telephone company -- (21:30) Rats! -- (23:01) Unruliness of mulberry growth -- (25:04) Childhood in Seattle -- (25:23) Mother's garden -- (25:46) Raising farm animals -- (26:02) Burying dead hamsters and baptizing goats -- (27:03) Woods near Lake Washington -- (28:30) St. Marks Avenue in 1979 -- (29:33) Gun runners -- (30:30) Shooting near Prospect Park -- (31:53) Crack epidemic in the 1980s -- (33:39) Getting youth involved in the garden and trying to circumvent gang activity -- (35:17) 9/11 -- (36:02) A quiet place -- (36:40) Pre-K and kindergarten visiting the garden -- (40:13) Positivity of garden for people, flora, and fauna in the neighborhood -- (41:27) Lew Soloff Fernery -- (42:15) Trouble with city bench as gang gathering spot -- (44:23) Garden as place to get to know your neighbors and build community.
NoteAudio interview conducted on July 15, 2016, by Zachary Schulman and Samantha Feldman at Central Library. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This interview stems from a shared partnership with Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Queens Land Trust under the name of Our Gardens, Our Stories.
SubjectCommunity gardens ; Community development ; Gardening ; Vandalism ; Theft ; Brooklyn Botanic Garden ; Pests--Control ; Livestock ; Illegal arms transfers ; Drug abuse ; September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001 ; Trust for Public Land (U.S.), Compost--Environmental aspects ; Eminent domain--New York (State) ; Gates, Bill, 1955- ; Gangs--New York (State)--New York, Youth development ; Jazz ; Nineteen eighties ; Nineteen seventies ; Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)
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TitleOral history interview conducted with Patti Hagan on 2016 July 15.