Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest In Its Tenth Year

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Green-Bridge recently announced its 10th Annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. The contest is the only boroughwide greening contest that empha-sizes the streetscape, the yearly contest has become a lively competition between scores of the borough’s residents committed to block beautification and making Brooklyn "green."

This year’s contest includes many blocks that will vie for the coveted Greenest Block in Brooklyn prize. Block by block, they beautify the borough with whimsical window boxes, lush container plantings, manicured front gardens, impeccable street tree pits, colorful ground-covers patterned mul-ches-all to create the greatest, visual impact.

To participate, residential and commercial blocks must enter by Tuesday, June 1. Winners will be selected by an expert panel of judges that include pro-fessional horticulturists from Brook-lyn Botanic Garden and the Horticul-tural Society of New York, along with other New York City greening organizations. The panel will begin visiting the residential neighborhoods and commercial blocks in mid-June. Judg-ing will continue through July, and winners will be announced in August. First Prize is a $250 check for each top residential and commercial block winner. All other finalists will receive cash prizes ranging from $100-$200. Window box winners will receive gardening tools, and all participants will be awarded a recognition certificate.

"Brooklyn is the borough of trees, plants and gardens," said Borough Pre-sident Marty Markowitz. "Even though we are 2.5 million people large, our neighborhood residents take pride in making Brooklyn the greenest urban center in New York."

Committed to helping improve the urban landscape, Brooklyn GreenBridge promotes neighborhood gardening pro-grams, classes, workshops, and events. Working with block associations, com-munity gardens, schools and social ser-vice organizations, Brooklyn Green-Bridge extends Brooklyn Botanic Gar-den’s resources in order to connect plants and people, and to engage Brook-lyn communities and residents in a unified greening effort.

For more information, the contest guidelines, or a copy of the Contest Entry Form for either a residential or commercial block, please call the Brook-lyn GreenBridge office at 718-623-7250. Or visit http://www.bbg.org/ edu/greenbridge/greenestblock/ to download a Contest Entry Form. There is no cost to enter.