Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Adult Classes Are Open

The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens has released its fall schedule of adult classes. There’s an extraordinary range of topics covered here and the classes tend to fill up quickly, so sign up now or forever hold your peace.

A few highlights:

Botanical Drawing
Meets October 27 – November 16, Tuesdays from 1 to 4pm
By dumb luck, I ended up in La Cheile in Washington Heights on Monday. As all fine establishments should, the restaurant offered a wide selection of Crayola crayons and paper to draw on. I’m not saying the landscape I scratched out wasn’t fun to draw — I’d play with crayons for hours if I could — but if this class can raise me above a 4th grade nature drawing level, it might be well worth the cost.

Birding
Meets September 8 – October 27, Saturdays from 8:30am to 1pm
I don’t know if it was the recent HBO documentary on birding, the bird-heavy canoe trip I took down the Bronx River last weekend, or just a reasonable urge to get outside before it becomes cold but this class looks like it could be a lot of fun. Pros: get outdoors in various locations, track some rare birds and learn about how they live. Cons: Birds and therefore birders are up bright and early in what I can only assume is a conscious tactic to exclude young and/or sane people at all costs.

Gardening 101
Meets October 13-20, Saturday from 2 to 5pm
There are some genuinely advanced gardening and botany courses being offered here, including classes on design and business. For the novices among us, I recommend starting at the 101 level. If you can’t cut it here, there’s always the most basic class the Botanic Gardens offers: How Not to Kill Your Houseplant.

Photo of the Lily Pool Terrace by Jean-Marc Grambert via Brooklyn Botanic Gardens on Flickr.