Queens Botanical Garden - A Green Resource In Flushing

Queens Botanical Garden Location & History

Flushing Queens NY / Fall 2008. The Queens Botanical Garden is situated along the perimeter of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but it’s entrance is from Main Street in Flushing, which is easily accessed by walking or taking a bus for eight blocks after getting off the # 7 subway line at the end of the line on Main Street.

The Queens Botanical Garden was built for the 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It is currently comprised of numerous gardens, each of which has a definitive purpose. We won’t list them all here as you can see them on their website which is posted further down the article, but among them are: 1) the Composting Gardens which enable the recycling of biodegradable materials like excrement from the toilets [fun on dates], 2) the Bee Garden which given the rapid loss of bees worldwide is becoming increasingly important, 3) the Herb Garden for which the Botanical Gardens provides a number of classes on how to use herbs to enhance your life, 4) the Parking Garden which will is currently undergoing construction so parking is limited [effective September 2008] and 5) numerous other gardens including one for roses, weddings, woodlands and wetlands – to name just a few.

Queens Botanical Garden State Of The Art Energy Efficient Building

In September of 2007, the Queens Botanical Garden opened in its new facility which has a platinum LEED [Leadership Engineering Efficiency Design] rating which was the first in the city of New York and the second in the state of New York [the first was awarded to another NYS botanical garden].

This new building has numerous facets, some of which I will relay to you, compliments of Valerie Jurado, the woman at the desk on my unscheduled visit. She informed me that the red poles on the front overhang recycle rainwater to the gardens so that the gardens don’t have to use ‘extracted water’ [like we all use daily] to water the gardens.

Queens Botanical Garden Building Is Very Very Green

All of the heating and cooling mechanisms are environmentally-friendly and rely upon geothermal / ground water mechanisms to provide temperature control. Much of the lighting is ‘sensored’ so that if you leave a room it will turn off automatically. The paint used on the structure has a low VOC rating [VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound], which is good for the environment. The walls are made of bamboo, which is a member of the grass family and grows somewhere between a half foot to a foot per day, making it the fastest growing woody plant in the world. I’ll bet you didn’t know that. Composting is used for the staff toilets, which uses some sort of suds to flush and doesn’t leave a smell, like an outhouse. None of the waste is sent back into the sewer system but rather is harvested and used as compost for the trees. I could make a few humorous adolescent remarks here but I’ve been advised to refrain. The green roof provides insulation which keeps the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The photo voltaic cells on the roof also provide 20% of the building energy needs.

Queens Botanical Garden As Wedding Location

The Queens Botanical Gardens is frequently the host to a number of weddings so that at any given time you might see one, two or even three bridal parties throughout the park. The day I was there I found many, many people out enjoying the fresh air and the quiet beautiful surroundings. Some were reading, some out walking and some nuzzling like the two lovers I spotted on a remote park bench.

Queens Botanical Garden Educational Programs

The Queens Botanical Gardens offer a number of programs, many of which are for free or a small fee. All or almost all programs cost less for members. The programs focus on environmental and plant-related topics such as cooking, aphrodisiacs [see related story below], composting and other topics.

Queens Botanical Garden In Flushing Queens NY - Related Links
Click here for a map showing the location of the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing NY. Click this link to obtain the contact info and website url for the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing Queens NY. Click here to read / view another story about an aphrodesiac class at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing NY.

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