PHOTOS: Tour 7 Beautiful Green Spaces in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

There’s a reason why a northern quarter of Brooklyn is called <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/tag/carroll-gardens/">Carroll Gardens</a> – the area is one of the greenest neighborhoods in all of New York City. Carroll Gardens is home to no less than seven <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/bushwick%E2%80%99s-cooper-street-garden-reopens-as-an-eco-friendly-community-green-space-in-brooklyn/">community green spaces</a>, all within spitting distance of each other. The area’s public gardens originally started as a community-fueled project to clean up the neighborhood and give the area a new image. What started as a single volunteer-created park sparked a gardening hobby all across the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/new-waterfront-park-in-brooklyn-will-spruce-up-columbia-streets-industrial-area/">Columbia Street waterfront</a>. Last weekend, we got a chance to stroll around the parks in the area - sit back and enjoy our photos and be sure to visit one or all of these gardens afterwards for yourself!

The <a href="http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/B408/">Human Compass Garden</a>, located at the corner of Sackett and Columbia Street, was and still remains to be the first community green space established in the area 21 years ago.

Founded fifteen years ago at Carroll and Columbia Streets, amateur botanists started the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theamazinggarden">Amazing Garden</a> with the help of <a href="http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/">Green Thumb</a>. The garden also uses the tall, whitewashed wall of a neighboring building as a projector screen for public film nights.

At first glance the <a href="http://summitstreetgarden.blogspot.com/">Summit Street Garden</a> looks like an out of control patch of overgrowth but that’s just because it’s one of the most vibrant and diverse green spaces on the Columbia Street strip.

Here you’ll find a variety of plantings including a peach tree, two grapevines, and a peculiar silver-colored bush known as an <a href="http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/perennial/artemisia/">artemisia silver mound</a>.

With a long lane of grass that would be perfect for a game of shuttle ball, Pirate’s Cove is the newest garden established this very summer

There are also an ever-increasing number of raised gardening beds where some planters are already growing kale, spinach and squash.

The <a href="http://backyardcommunitygarden.wordpress.com/">Backyard Garden</a> is the largest community garden in the neighborhood spread across six building lots. Among the park's features there's an elaborate landscaping project that includes a round meeting area called the ‘Labyrinth,” a small tunnel, and a short footpath around the park.

The other half of the 15-year-old community green space is dedicated to 24 growing pods for flowers and other edible vegetables.

<a href="http://urbanmeadowbrooklyn.blogspot.com/">Urban Meadow</a> is another one of the newer gardens in the area established just five years ago. In that short time, there has been constant work on greening the lot previously home to a 100-year-old church on President and Van Brunt Street.

Currently, there are also four additional chickens roaming around the park grounds after being made homeless by <a href="http://inhabitat.com/11-billion-gallons-of-sewage-spilled-into-waterways-in-hurricane-sandys-wake/">Hurricane Sandy</a>.

Urban farming is the <a href="http://southbrooklynchildrensgarden.org/">South Brooklyn Children’s Garden’s</a> main and only focus. The garden was just <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/new-south-brooklyn-childrens-garden-will-teach-kids-about-urban-farming/">started a year ago</a> in a joint project between three local public schools

Most of the Children’s garden is dedicated to raised growing plots for a variety of editable greens including cantaloupes, peppers, and eggplant.