12 Urban Planting Tips From a Gardener on the Greenest Block in Brooklyn

Anu Prestonia, 58, is surrounded by an abundance of her own making.

Outside the stunning old Bed-Stuy brownstone she bought 19 years ago on Bainbridge Street — back when the Notorious B.I.G. still roamed the neighborhood, and crime was at its peak — a weeping cedar dips its tentacles into a sea of flower pots. In a vase on her dining-room table, a bouquet of lilies, a gift from her ”sweetheart,” fills the room with fragrance. On her kitchen counter, a watermelon too big for her refrigerator goes under the knife; sun bounces through her windows off the ferns, maples, spruces and herbs in her lush backyard.

“I’m a gardening addict,” she said on a recent Saturday as she offered this reporter a slice of melon.

Earlier this August, Prestonia’s block — Bainbridge between Malcolm X Boulevard and Stuyvesant Avenue — was named the “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The prize was accepted by the Bainbridge Street Homeowners and Tenants Block Association, of which Prestonia is a member.

In light of the big win, Prestonia agreed to give Patch a tour of her urban gardening grounds — and reveal what it took to grow the greenest block in Brooklyn.

Read the full story at Bed-Stuy Patch.