Brooklyn’s greenest block is official — and unsurprisingly it sits mere blocks from the borough’s Botanic Garden.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden gave the honor to Preserving Lincoln’s Abundant Natural Treasures (PLANTs) — a subset of the Lincoln Civic Block Association — for applying its green thumb to the roughly 530-foot-long section of Lincoln Place between Nostrand and New York Avenues. The block was one of 160 in 30 neighborhoods that took part in the “friendly but fierce” competition, according to BBG President Scot Medbury.
More than 15 judges selected the winners of the contest based on citizen participation, street tree maintenance, plant suitability and variety, horticultural practices and maintenance, soil stewardship and mulching and creativity. Other categories in the free contest included greenest commercial block, greenest storefront, best community garden streetscape, best street tree beds, best window box and the National Grid Leadership in Sustainable Practices Award.
On the winning residential block, every brownstone serves as a backdrop to lush greenery and whimsical horticultural displays. A stroll takes visitors from short shrubs in drums to a circus and Ferris wheel beaming with vibrant green.
“It’s brought us together. We communicate more,” said Hall. “Flowers make people smile.”
