'Greenest Block In Brooklyn' Winners Announced

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Make that new nickname, "Flower-Bed-Stuy."

Green glory is returning to the Bed-Stuy block that has been named the Greenest Block in Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden two times in the past three years, the group announced.

Stuyvesant Avenue, between Bainbridge and Chauncey streets, took the annual gardening prize — with whiskey barrel planters, tree-bed shade gardens, and a row of 22 cast iron urns — in an award ceremony held on Monday.

(The Stuyvesant Avenue Block Association used old whiskey barrels for the planters that line the Bed-Stuy block.)

The street just around the corner — Bainbridge between Stuyvesant Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard — took the prize in 2015, Patch reported at the time.

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The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has been doling out its green thumbed accolades for the past 23 years, recognizing blocks with the most colorful flowers, the widest variety of plants, the best kept trees and most environmentally-friendly residents, said the group.

"As always, the competition was fierce but very friendly," said Scot Medbury, president of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, noting there were more than 150 applications in 2017. "We're very proud."

(SABA captain Serge Vatel, second from the left, accepts the prize for Greenest Block In Brooklyn.)

Stuyvesant Avenue was awarded Greenest Block with help from the Stuyvesant Avenue Block Association, and under the leadership of Serge Vatel, 49, who agreed with Medbury's assessment that competition was stiff.

"Oh, we spy on each other," said Vatel of the neighboring blocks that also entered the competition.

But Vatel isn't thinking only about the competition when he organizes "Wine and Design" events in the spring and weekly Grateful Deadhead Sundays, which involves pruning dying plants.

"This is like our lobby, the gateway into Stuyvesant Heights," he said, explaining why his front stoop on the corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and Bainbridge Street is his favorite spot on the block.

"Everyone passes our block every single day," Vatel said. "What makes us really proud is just seeing the gratitude, the appreciation in their eyes."

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens awarded the second place prize to the Lefferts Avenue between Bedford and Rogers avenues in Lefferts Gardens and the third place prize to Lincoln Road between Bedford and Rogers avenues, also in Lefferts Gardens.

Photos by Kathleen Culliton