Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is pleased to announce the 36th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom, Brooklyn’s yearly kickoff of the spring gardening season. Gardening enthusiasts from throughout the New York metro area gather for this spring event, which features a full day of conversations, presentations, and films to inspire and engage gardeners of every type and level. The day includes workshops by community gardeners, BBG staff, and other experts.
This year’s conference theme, “Connecting the Drops,” is inspired by BBG’s newly opened Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden, a 1.5-acre wetland and riparian environment designed to highlight the beauty of water elements at BBG; educate visitors on native plants and wildlife, water conservation, and the role water plays across ecosystems; and anchor BBG’s garden-wide Water Conservation Project, a multifaceted approach to water conservation and sustainability—the first project of its scale and complexity in North America. Through workshops, discussions, films, and more, “Connecting the Drops” will give special attention to water wisdom, interconnectedness, and citizen action.
This year’s Wilbur A. Levin Keynote Address will be delivered by author and environmental activist Courtney White. Of White’s recent book, Grass, Soil, and Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country, author Michael Pollan said: “Hope in a book about the environmental challenges we face in the 21st century is an audacious thing to promise, so I’m pleased to report that Courtney White delivers on it.” White’s most recent book is Two Percent Solutions for the Planet: 50 Low-Cost, Low-Tech, Nature-Based Practices for Combatting Hunger, Drought, and Climate Change.
White’s keynote address for Making Brooklyn Bloom, entitled “Grassroots: Regenerative Solutions for a Changing World,” covers his journey from environmental activist to member of the New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association to his current role as author of books on soil carbon, sequestration, and regenerative agriculture. In the address, White will talk about collaborative conservation, the radical center, land health, progressive cattle ranching, ecological restoration, grass-fed beef, resilience, the carbon ranch, climate change, and a variety of hopeful solutions for 21st-century challenges.