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Weeds Can Be Prolific, Nourishing Or A Nuisance BY LIBBY HAYMAN%u201c If it grows weeds, it will growy P g P f a W p c ^ %u2019 * c o y c o n o n f i o l n n k n . i tsoil preparation for Community Gardens. It does not go on to the fact that if it grows vegetables, soil in the city will grow weeds, too. If you%u2019ve just come back from vacation during a hot, wet spell, your backyard has probably demonstrated that every inch of city dirt seems to strive to produce weeds the moment your back is turned. Before you start to pull them out, though, you should know that not all weeds are created equal; some are just a nuisance, others can be eaten or admired, while a few are actually poisonous.If the weeds start to get you down, perhaps you should take another look, since some of them have their uses. The thick groundclinging plant which keeps many a planting of peas from growing isi i r n o l l . r u rU .^ U m n l - A r nperfectly decent salad. Most shady spots in a Brooklyn garden also produce sorrel, which looks a bit like clover, but has a delicious lemony taste, whether raw or cooked. Sorrel%u2019s other name, oxalis, should warn you that it has a high oxalic acid content, so you shouldn%u2019t eat too much; but then, spinach contains oxalic acid too. PROLIFIC RESIDENTSMany of the leafy weeds in the garden make good salad greens and can be cooked. Dandelions are best known, but even a prolific resident called Pigweed, about ten inches high and with whitish center leaves, can be cooked up. Chickory, a lettuce-like plant which has edible leaves, roots which can beroasted and ground for adding to coffee, and even a pretty blue,n 4 < k 1 n r n m nW M A C /a W j 4 1 U M V I , o u m vtimes pops up in sunny yards.Obviously, you%u2019re not going to eat anything you can%u2019t identify, and you will need a handbook in order to harvest your untended %u201c urban farm%u201d . Still, only a couple of backyard weeds are really poisonous. Deadly Nightshade often shows up. It is a beautiful vine, with dark leaves, delicate purple flowers, and red berries, all of which can do you in.Another decorative weed, redstemmed Pokeweed, which makes a shrub as tall as 8 feet, produces large poisonous berries in clusters, which turn from green to purple as they ripen. Some books say that young shoots of Pokeweed are delicious if boiled, but the plantreally shouldn%u2019t be left around for curious children to investigate. A A-%u00ab11 __.. %u201e J __ __ it r x i i v j M i l , w v w i i U r* w u j u u p u l l U U tmakes good compost or a mulch for controlling . . . more weeds.CULINARY APPEALThe most edible weeds usually grow in cultivated ground, which is just as well since it%u2019s unlikely that anything growing wild in a city lot is going to have culinary appeal. Of course, dandelions or chicory in the country are free for the eating, but that%u2019s a different matter.Weeds in city lots have some positive qualities, nonetheless. They include some of the most decorative wild flowers, such as delicate white Queen Anne%u2019s Lace, and the tall whitish Yarrow, with feathery foliage like ferns. These, as well as all the different daisies and asters, can be cut for fresh ordried arrangements.Some weeds can be admired onlyn____:____ u i v . i l i u v , i c u i u i v . a g g i o a i v u i L M .Ailanthus, or tree of heaven, has the most persistent will to survive, flourishing even in the pots of house plants set out for the summer. Most of the precious shade of a city lot comes from ailanthus, but it%u2019s a hard tree to love. Still, with a handbook of wild plants in hand, you can take the ultimate urban nature walk. A stroll on downtown Flatbush Avenue may offer only sparrows, pigeons, and starlings to the birdwatchers. But if you%u2019re willing to look down and around, there are dozens of flourishing plants, photosynthesizing without any help from us.Gardens Germinate in Backyards,Roofs And LotsContinuedtests, like earth sample analysis, can also be run, although on a less regular schedule; for individual schedules, call Ameroso%u2019s office at 237-0920.SUPPLY CRUNCHThe constant crunch in supplies makes the gardening business a difficult one. While advice and guidance is vital, many spots need physical attention. One badlyneeded commodity is good soil, According to Ameroso, most beginning sites have to contend with bad earth and debris which, without a layer of healthy topsoil, makes the first several years of gardening disappointing ones. %u201cThe soil in Brooklyn really isn%u2019t very good,%u201d he admits. %u201c Most of it%u2019s pure sand, or pure clay. Plus, most community gardens are working with a lot of rubble %u2014 it can take several years to build up a very good soil.%u201dTo counter this problem, there is the Ameroso Crash Topsoil Program for salvaging urban dustbowls. %u201c You have to build up the ground,%u201d he says, %u201c so you start by breaking up the soil, churning it well, down to about this deep.%u201d He indicates about six inches.%u201cThen, you grow things on it, just normally, and keep it very well watered. Plan to plant a cover crop over the winter %u2014 that%u2019s the important thing. Around August 15th or 17th, you break up the soil again and plant rye grass seed for the winter. Then, about the first week of May, you just turn it under and wait a couple of weeks, and you get some pretty good soil. Of course, you still have a pretty lousy first season, but it takes only one year to get things growing, instead of four or five.%u201dTHE LAY OF THE LAND%u201c Oh, this has just been a remarkable success,%u201d said Mary Cole, one of the organizers of the Washington-Hall Gardens, located on Washington Ave. between Willoughby and DeKaib in Fort Greene-Clinton Hill. The Garden is a two-year effort sponsored by Pratt University, and early on consulted Ameroso.Although she describes the vegetable portion of the garden as %u201cpretty ragged%u201d for this season, Cole says that plans for the future include installing an underground irrigation system to stabilize watering. %u201c We%u2019ve got about twenty plots right now,%u201d she estimates, %u201c and beyond that a real waiting list. We%u2019re growing vegetables, flowers, there%u2019s an herb garden, there%u2019s nice green lawn %u2014 it%u2019s just all been tremendously successful.%u201d This year, she says, raspberry bushes,c n A n c t v i m t n n n n o r m m t o *-%u00bb /4 c f r %u00ab u r ............... %u2019 r vr r * .......... ................... %u2022berries are being cultivated, and the selection next year should expand beyond those.Returning from that garden, Ameroso keeps an eye out forposible future garden sites. %u201c Hey, look over there,%u201d he calls, driving up Lafayette Avenue. %u201c Youth Corps workers are cleaning up an empty lot . . . that%u2019s what I like to see. Maybe we can start a garden up there.%u201dIt%u2019s easy, he explains, to start a garden of one%u2019s own: %u201c You just find out who owns it and ask. Gothrough the channels. If it%u2019s city-owned land, they%u2019ll make a lease with you for a dollar a year; if it isn%u2019t, you can still ask.%u201dThis leads to occasional heartbreak, however, where politics impinges on nature. Stopping off in a lot at Hoyt and Schermerhorn Streets where four or five people have wired off small spots, heJohn Ameroso, of the Cornell University Extension Program, stands in his plot of Kansas wheat in Park Slope's Baltic St. garden, off Fifth Avenue. (Cuiccio Photo)Kansas Wheat Sprouts In Small Park Slope LotJohn Ameroso has a penchant for strange crops.His first on-the-job agricultural training was in Viet Nam where, in the process of avoiding the draft, he was shipped out to develop 'rice-growing fields and examine the fertility of spots of ground; now, back in Brooklyn, his pet plot in the Baltic St. Garden, on Baltic St. just off Fifth Ave. in Park Slope, hosts one of the most off-beat plantings this side of the Botanic Gardens: Kansas wheat.It grows in a 10%u2019 by 10%u2019 plot in the garden and, according to Ameroso, it%u2019s the first wheat planted inBrooklyn in over a century. %u201c It%u2019s-------------- %u201d ________ 6%u2018 s* %u2022**%u2022%u00bb. %u201d - %u2014 %u2022'and brushing his hands through thecoarse stems, pointing out thegolden grains perched on the top ofthe stalk. %u201c I love standing init%u2014you can imagine a whole field ofit, just rolling and blowing in the breeze.%u201dFrom the seeds of this lot. he plans to make another planting for next year. %u201cI should be able to plant 400 square feet with this yield,%u201d he estimates. %u201cCan you imagine it? A whole wheat field, right here in Brooklyn. It%u2019ll be wonderful for city kids%u2014you never see wheat, except in movies, great big fields of it, and here they%u2019ll be able to go out and see it right here.%u201dMore than half the wheat has already fallen to the harvest, and Ameroso expects to cut the rest within the next week. \th .o c o 9 * * Vin n x lrp ~%u201c **%u2022' o p m u u gopen one of the grains to test its moisture. %u201c Here l am, harvesting wheat, right in the middle of Park Slope.%u201d %u2014LZGbemoans the lack of an organized garden on the site. %u201cWe could fit at least fifty people into this space,%u201d he estimates.Overall, the gardens do vary as to their age. The longer one has been around, the thicker and more luscious it looks; new efforts are, as promised, bare and sparse. The Washington Hall Community Garden is choked with vegetation, and parts of the brand new Hallenback Garden seem arid by comparison. Some of the older ones, like the 12th Street Block Association's effort at Bridge and Concord Streets off the Manhattan Bridge, have taken on a manicured and dapper orderliness in their old age; others, the 200 Bergen BlockUniversity GivenScience GrantLong Island University%u2019s Brooklyn Center was awarded $225,462 by the National Science Foundation for renovation of its science laboratories and purchase of major pieces of equipment over a three year period, 1979-82.The funds will allow the University to establish a tissue culture laboratory, renovate a teaching laboratory for organic chemistry, carry out additional faculty training, provide summer science workshops for entering freshpersons, and purchase such major equip ment as a liquid scintillation counter and an ultra-centrifuge.Sound OffContinuedgrowing dissatisfaction with President Carter and the way in which the Democratic National Committee orchestrated the convention to make the President look good %u2014 it didn%u2019t work. I decided, at that time, to support Ted Kennedy and will work actively for his election.While the feeling exists among a small and uninformed group that it may be too soon to commit support to an undeclared candidate, it has become very clear that there is a ground swell of support for a Kennedy candidacy from every quarter of the reform, liberal & progressive sections of the Democratic Party in the country. Political, labor, congressional and other leaders are calling upon Kennedy to run because of the growing discontent with the President . Those who choose a wait and see attitude, because the Party Leader hasn't given the O.K. or because they think that withholding support will gain them something, all I can say is, this is the big time, not local politics.%u2014 Peter Drago, Henry StreetAssociation%u2019s tract between Nevins and Bond, for example, are quainter and reserved, holding little more than a tree and a deep lawn.THIS IS THE PLACEAmeroso confirms what many locals already seem to have figured out: that Brooklyn is an excellent locale for growth, despite urbanity, poor soil and all the rest. Although there is less rainfall, which translates to more hand-watering, the growing season is a long one. And, just to keep life interesting, the area also sports almost every kind of insect life imaginable.%u201c Because of all the heat and humidity, you have to deal with a lot of insects,%u201d Ameroso warns. %u201cThis area has got just everything, from Mexican Bean Beetles to Squash Vine Bowers . . . it%u2019s just amazing.%u201d%u201c But, on the other hand, you don%u2019t have a lot of problem with diseases %u2014 1 don%u2019t know why. Maybe diseases can%u2019t live in the city. Who knows? %u2014 Maybe the air pollution affects them, or something.%u201dPublic NoticeDEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONPublic Notice for Hearings on N.Y.C. RedHook Water Pollution Control Project.This announcement is to inform allconcerned that a hearing will be held to takecomments from the public on therecommendations for a 201 Facility Plan forthe design of the Red Hook WastewaterTreatment Plant. This hearing is being heldpursuant to USE PA regulations found in 40Code of Federal Regulations, Part (i, toconform with the National EnvironmentalPolicy Act, Part .15, to conform withregulations of the construction grantsprogram, and Part 105, Public Participation,and Section 101 lei of the Federal WaterPollution Control Act of 1972, Public law 92-500.This hearing will take place on September 6.1979. at 7:30pm at the follow ing location:Dr White Community Center200 Gold StreetBrookly n. New York 11205All persons who wish to comment on theDraft Facility Plan for design of the treatmentplant and on the Environmental AssessmentStatement may do so at this hearing. Averbatim transcript of the hearing will bemade, but written statements for accuracymay be submitted at the hearing The hearingrecord will 'remain open for 10 days after thehearing to receive further written comments,and should be sent to:Joseph Miller, Assistant CommissionerDirector, Bureau of Water Pollution Control40 Worth St., Rm 1.317, N Y , N Y 10013Detailed information on the project will beavailable at the same address. Summaryinformation may be requested to be mailejifrom the same address.All persons present will be heard in the orderof their requests The chairman of the hearingmay limit the time per speaker to assurefairness to all persons wishing to speakThis hearing is also being held pursuant toSEQHA regulations found in Part 617,Statutory authority: EnvironmentalConservation I a %u00ab . 8-0113 per 617 6 li 1 1 11 of thealaie r.m lioiiiiiciiiai yuaiiiv Review Aei.Written comments, pursuant to SEQRA,should be sent to Frances Carroll, Director,Office of Environmental Impact. Departmentof Environmental Protection, MunicipalBuilding, 1 Centre Street Room 2344, NewYork, New York 10007. i.J19iJuly 19.1979. The PHOENIX. Page 17