NYC Wildflower Week Celebration at Solar One
Monday, May 5th, 2008
On Saturday May 10th from 10am-2pm, Solar One will be hosting a celebration of Native Plants as part of NYC’s first Wild Flower Week. This free event will focus on educating children on the importance of native plants and to celebrate them through fun interactive activities in Stuyvesant Cove Park. Appropriate for ages 3-12.
Activities include:
Potting up your own native plants to take home
Making seed balls to disperse somewhere in the city
Bingo and crossword puzzles
Worm composting demonstration by The Lower East Side Ecology Center
“Pretend you’re a plant” interactive park tour
Create your own plant hat and/or costume by The New York Restoration Project
Coloring your favorite native plant
All are welcome, please come and join us!
Posted in Education, Native Plants, New York City, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Sustainability | Permalink
City Year NYC Volunteers In Stuyvesant Cove Park
Friday, April 25th, 2008
On April 23 & 24, Stuyvesant Cove Park was host to a group of volunteers from City Year NYC. City Year is one of the largest youth service corps in the country, with initiatives that focus on community needs. The three areas of service initiatives that City Year focuses on are: School based service which puts corp members in schools as tutors, mentors, and leaders of afterschool programs; youth leadership which teaches elementary, middle, and high school students their ability to make a difference on an individual basis; and lastly, community transformation, where corp members physically help their community by volunteering on-site at local organizations.
The two days of service provided by City Year were a great help to Stuyvesant Cove Park. The first day, volunteers helped finish up mulching park pathways, part of a project started by NY Cares a few weeks ago. This was a large project that, between the two organizations, took 25 volunteers a total of 5 hours to complete. It was a labor intensive project that would not have been possible without the help from City Year NYC. The second day of service by City Year NYC was made up of volunteers cutting back last year’s growth, pulling weeds that have already started growing, and scrubbing soda and juice stains off the park esplanade.
The staff at Solar One would like to thank City Year NYC for their hard work and dedication in helping maintain Stuyvesant Cove Park.
Posted in Native Plants, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Sustainability | Permalink
Plant Profile - Stuyvesant Cove Park
Friday, April 18th, 2008
(Caption: Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica)
A native plant of New York, Virginia Bluebells is a wonderful addition to Stuyvesant Cove Park. It is one of just a few plants blooming in the park this week. It usually blooms in early to mid April depending on the weather. Virginia Bluebells is a recent addition to the flora in Stuyvesant Cove park. It was planted in the spring of 2006 with the high hopes that the following spring it would showcase it’s beauty. We waited a whole year and sure enough in spring 2007 we had a modest showing of small but brilliant blue flowers. Once again in the spring of 2007, having had some success with the previous years plants, we decided to plant even more. That ended up being a wise decision because this year they have really flourished. We have large groupings with vivid displays of it’s periwinkle blue flowers, making a striking display at the North entrance to the park.
Mertensia virginica is classified as a perennial. It’s leaf and flowering period are ephemeral lasting only about 2-3 months. After its brief show, the leaves and flowers die back and do not reappear till the following spring. Mertensia virginica typically grows in moist woodland forests and bottomlands, and does fairly well in wetland areas too.
There is not much care required to grow this plant successfully. Moist rich soil, partial sun, and little to no foot traffic. The plant is extremely vulnerable to foot traffic and can result in lost blooms which, considering the length of it’s performance, are very valuable. So it would be best planted away from pathways or edges of flower beds. The plant usually reaches a height of 18 inches.
Posted in Native Plants, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
NYCares Volunteers in Stuyvesant Cove Park
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
On April 12, 2008 volunteers from NY Cares, one of New York City’s largest volunteer organizations, came to lend a helping hand in Stuyvesant Cove Park as part of their Hands on New York Day. Hands on NY is an annual event put on by NYCares to assist city parks, community gardens, nonprofit organizations, and homeless shelters revitalize their sites. With over 6,000 volunteers participating at over 100 sites, this years event has been the most successful in the 14 years of hosting the event.
Volunteers at Stuyvesant Cove Park came from Sidley Austin, a large international law firm. The project for the day was to lay down Fibar woodchips on the walking paths throughout the park. Fibar is engineered wood fibers that knit together to form a surface soft enough to cushion falls, yet firm enough for wheelchairs. As part of the original design of the park, all pathways need to be wheelchair accessible so that everyone can enjoy all parts of the park.
The volunteers from Sidley Austin were amazing. The day started at 9:30 with about 15 volunteers hauling mulch into the park. By the end of the day, 2:30 or so, the volunteers completed more than half the park, much more than initially anticipated. Their help and hard work is truly appreciated.
Posted in Other Events, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Stuyvesant Cove Park Volunteer Day A Great Success!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
[caption: Volunteers Wendy Byrne, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Hannelore Breuer]
On March 29th Solar One kicked off spring 2008 with its first volunteer day in Stuyvesant Cove Park. The day started at 9:00am with coffee donated by Starbucks and guest speaker Claudia Joseph, from The Old Stone House, who spoke to the volunteers about permaculture . After the lecture volunteers were assigned tasks in the park. New volunteers partnered with seasoned ones to cut back last seasons grasses and perennials and to weed unwanted plants in preparation for this season’s new growth.
In total there were over 20 volunteers that came out to help on Saturday, of which 2 were new to the park. The volunteers were also surprised to see their Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, who represents the 74th Assembly District, put on a pair of work gloves and volunteer his time to help in the park clean up day.
The day ended at 12:30pm with pizza and soda provided by the Stuyvesant Cove Park Association. If you are interested in participating in the next volunteer day or becoming a regular park volunteer, please contact us.
Posted in East River, Native Plants, New York City, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Make a Year-End Donation to Solar One!
Friday, December 21st, 2007 What’s tax-deductible, in the spirit of the season and ready to give you that warm “cocoa-with-marshmallows-in-front-of-a-roaring-fire” feeling? A donation to Solar One of course! We’ve had a great year bringing you great events like Citysol, the Green Renter and our Solar-Powered Arts Performances, while also educating thousands of NYC students about energy and the need to take care of our urban environment. And let’s not forget the great progress that we’ve made toward the construction of Solar 2, our net-zero, carbon-neutral contribution to the New York City green building scene, not to mention making sure that Stuyvesant Cove Park remains one the city’s waterfront treasures.As you can see, we’ve done a lot, so we’re asking you to do a little. Before the clock strikes 12 on the New Year (and your tax return), please consider making a contribution to help us have an even bigger and brighter 2008. Just click here to go to our secure online site. OK? Great. Now go have a wonderful, safe and sustainable holiday season and we’ll see you next year!
Posted in Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Stuyvesant Cove Park Volunteer Day
Thursday, November 8th, 2007| December 1, 2007 | ||
| 9:00 am | to | 1:00 pm |
Come join us for our last volunteer day in 2007.
Saturday December 1, 2007
9am - 1pm
We will focus on raking up leaves. This is an important maintenance practice that should be done every fall especially if you have trees and shrubs that have diseases. Many diseases from the current year will over winter on these leaves and potentially reinfect the trees and shrubs next year.
Schedule
9:00 - 9:20 - Coffee
9:20 - 12:30 - Leaf raking and park clean up
12:30 - 1:00 - Lunch provided by The Stuyvesant Cove Park Association
Join other community residents in taking care of this special park.
Posted in Solar One, Solar One Events, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Crystal Flies
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Best wishes to our gardener Crystal Burnham, who has beautified Stuyvesant Cove Park and Solar One during the past six months!
Posted in Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Volunteer Day In Stuyvesant Cove Park
Monday, October 15th, 2007Come join us on Saturday October 20th from 9:00am - 12:30pm
This weekend Solar One will be hosting a park volunteer day in Stuyvesant Cove Park. All are welcome whether you have gardening experience or not. Tasks to be preformed are leaf raking, mulching, trash pickup, weeding and general park maintenance.
The day will wrap up about 12:30 with pizza and soda in the Solar 1 building.
Please RSVP to melissa@solar1.org before Friday, Oct 19 if you will be attending.
Hope to see you all there!!
Posted in Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
The Fall Plants Have Arrived
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
A truck full of native plants arrived at Stuyvesant Cove Park yesterday. As a part of our ongoing maintenance of the Park, our Park Manager Melissa McDonald takes time every year to plan out new plantings to augment what we have and to replace those plants that have not survived due to weather, vandalism, etc. The end result is a more beautiful park for all of us. The new plants will be planted during park work days and will be in place by the end of September. Over 1500 plants were delivered, so come and check out our newest additions!
Posted in Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
