Off The Record- A New York City Gardening Primer
ONE The Union Square Farmers market in New York City is a perfect source for inexpensive but hearty regionally grown plants, herbs, and flowers.
Get there first thing in the morning and you'll quickly discover there's too much to choose from.
Stroll among the market stalls and weave between the Blew Family's jumbo packets of rosemary , and the Migliorelli Farms sugar snap peas.
Bring along your kitchen scraps and drop it off at the Lower East Side Ecology Center's stand, and while you're at it pick up a bag of 'black gold' (worm casting compost) for only 50 cents a pound.
--In its place, decide on home baked garlic & duck fat Ciabatta along with a too- beautiful- to -pass -up bouquet of freshly cut snapdragons.
Bordered by 17th Street, Union Square West, 14th Street and Union Square East Directions: 4, 5, 6; N, R; L at Union Sq.
TWO CREST a neighborhood HARDWARE store in Williamsburg Brooklyn on Metropolitan & Union Ave.
is unique in a sea ofbig-box chain stores.
As soon as you walk in you hear TOP TEN AM-radio playing and, 'Mike' whose been there for over two decades, sings out'hello sweetheart!' Everyone is dubbed sweetheart, even 'Finley'the African grey parrot whose been in residence for 5 years.
Isles 4, 5 and 6 are a gardeners Eden-- laden with plant food, organic seeds & soil, hanging baskets, rain wands, marble chips, pea gravel, green hoses, and watering cans.
The prices are friendly too! 558 Metropolitan Ave Directions: L train to Lorimer THREE Wrapped around the back of the 10,000 square-foot Chelsea Garden Center on 38th and 10thAVE.
are 100's of wooden barrels, black clay urns, Italian & Hungarian terra-cotta containers, stunningly hued Vietnamese glazed pots, and natural cedar crates in every imaginable size.
-In one way or another, everyone is a certified horticulturalist,largely through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens education program.
Just ask any idiosyncratic garden question and the easy going staff has a solution.
499 10th Ave, New York, 10018 - (212) 727-7100 FOUR Snatching up abandoned and derelict city lots, planting flowers & vegetables, creating green-space and invigorating a neighborhood is essentially illegal.
That said, it's been happening since 1973 in all 5 boroughs with unshakable influence by the Green Guerillas of NYC .
Visit them online and find a community garden in your neighborhood,and while you're at it, stop by the 18 gardens on the annual 'Green With Envy Tour' spread out over two Saturday's in late June.
-- http://www.
greenguerillas.
org FIVE If you can't grow it, go in its place.
Cherry Blossoms in May and Roses in June.
All year long the Brooklyn Botanical Garden provides a vibrant-green lovers escape.
BBGis52 acres of urban horticulture and botanical resource.
Apply on line and help out in the gardens extensive volunteer and education program.
Or become a member and enjoy the plus side of members only summer picnics, tour & class discounts, and pre-view seasonal plant sales.
1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11225 · 718-623-7200 Directions: The B or Q train to Prospect Park station.
(The B train does not run on weekends.
) The 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway.
BONUS Gardening is like any great adventure and a pocket sized guide or a list of rules is always handy.
1.
Spend your money on good soil and the soil will feed the plant.
2.
For beauty's sake use stone, wood, iron, terracotta and other natural materials in your garden.
3.
Recycle.
Rusted metal for your hard-scape,cement bricks for boarders and other odds n ends found on the street (look near construction sites there's usually lots of natty debris nearby).
4.
THINK COLOR.
Experiment with monochromatic arrangements, color themes, and contrasting one-color, two-color and three color toned gardens.
5.
Grow something that will attract butterflies--you'll never regret it.
a.
Bee balm b.
Cosmos c.
Marigold d.
Sunflower e.
Zinnia 6.
Keep a gardening journal.
(once winter rolls around you'll be grateful) 7.
Break the rules once.
Get there first thing in the morning and you'll quickly discover there's too much to choose from.
Stroll among the market stalls and weave between the Blew Family's jumbo packets of rosemary , and the Migliorelli Farms sugar snap peas.
Bring along your kitchen scraps and drop it off at the Lower East Side Ecology Center's stand, and while you're at it pick up a bag of 'black gold' (worm casting compost) for only 50 cents a pound.
--In its place, decide on home baked garlic & duck fat Ciabatta along with a too- beautiful- to -pass -up bouquet of freshly cut snapdragons.
Bordered by 17th Street, Union Square West, 14th Street and Union Square East Directions: 4, 5, 6; N, R; L at Union Sq.
TWO CREST a neighborhood HARDWARE store in Williamsburg Brooklyn on Metropolitan & Union Ave.
is unique in a sea ofbig-box chain stores.
As soon as you walk in you hear TOP TEN AM-radio playing and, 'Mike' whose been there for over two decades, sings out'hello sweetheart!' Everyone is dubbed sweetheart, even 'Finley'the African grey parrot whose been in residence for 5 years.
Isles 4, 5 and 6 are a gardeners Eden-- laden with plant food, organic seeds & soil, hanging baskets, rain wands, marble chips, pea gravel, green hoses, and watering cans.
The prices are friendly too! 558 Metropolitan Ave Directions: L train to Lorimer THREE Wrapped around the back of the 10,000 square-foot Chelsea Garden Center on 38th and 10thAVE.
are 100's of wooden barrels, black clay urns, Italian & Hungarian terra-cotta containers, stunningly hued Vietnamese glazed pots, and natural cedar crates in every imaginable size.
-In one way or another, everyone is a certified horticulturalist,largely through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens education program.
Just ask any idiosyncratic garden question and the easy going staff has a solution.
499 10th Ave, New York, 10018 - (212) 727-7100 FOUR Snatching up abandoned and derelict city lots, planting flowers & vegetables, creating green-space and invigorating a neighborhood is essentially illegal.
That said, it's been happening since 1973 in all 5 boroughs with unshakable influence by the Green Guerillas of NYC .
Visit them online and find a community garden in your neighborhood,and while you're at it, stop by the 18 gardens on the annual 'Green With Envy Tour' spread out over two Saturday's in late June.
-- http://www.
greenguerillas.
org FIVE If you can't grow it, go in its place.
Cherry Blossoms in May and Roses in June.
All year long the Brooklyn Botanical Garden provides a vibrant-green lovers escape.
BBGis52 acres of urban horticulture and botanical resource.
Apply on line and help out in the gardens extensive volunteer and education program.
Or become a member and enjoy the plus side of members only summer picnics, tour & class discounts, and pre-view seasonal plant sales.
1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11225 · 718-623-7200 Directions: The B or Q train to Prospect Park station.
(The B train does not run on weekends.
) The 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway.
BONUS Gardening is like any great adventure and a pocket sized guide or a list of rules is always handy.
1.
Spend your money on good soil and the soil will feed the plant.
2.
For beauty's sake use stone, wood, iron, terracotta and other natural materials in your garden.
3.
Recycle.
Rusted metal for your hard-scape,cement bricks for boarders and other odds n ends found on the street (look near construction sites there's usually lots of natty debris nearby).
4.
THINK COLOR.
Experiment with monochromatic arrangements, color themes, and contrasting one-color, two-color and three color toned gardens.
5.
Grow something that will attract butterflies--you'll never regret it.
a.
Bee balm b.
Cosmos c.
Marigold d.
Sunflower e.
Zinnia 6.
Keep a gardening journal.
(once winter rolls around you'll be grateful) 7.
Break the rules once.
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