Brand Spankin NEW!

I started building my new and improved website!  

www.melissavbateson.com

Here I'll show off my beautiful gardens as well as the work I do with photographers and stylists on photos shots.  This past year I have worked on such a great variety of jobs... Fashion editorials, childrens portraits and product/lifestyle shoots.  

Check it out and let me know what you think!    I am still adding more and more photos each day, creating more of a solid collection... so things are still a work in progress.

Also, what happened to fall??  This amazing maple was from last season.  With our warm days and rainy weather (not to mention our New England freak blizzard) the tree colors are somewhat stunted this year.  Boo.  I love autumnal colors.    

Time to plant bulbs!  Get your orders in now!

This season was so beautiful... Part 1

Humid & Misty

April has been a nice mix of pleasant warm sunny days with a few rainy & dreary ones like today.    Working in the rain has produced it's fair share of issues - muddy gloves, transporting all my tools, amendments & garbage backs to and from a terrace through white carpeted rooms... but the sweetest part of April is to see what made it through the hard winter.


NYC had three storms back to back with heavy heavy snow that stuck around for weeks.  With this months rounds of seasonal maintenance at the Wild Pistil and Brooklyn Planting gardens, I've been finding lots of broken branches on the woody shrubs.  A few hollies looked like they were parted straight down in the middle.
Thuja arborvitaes seemed to bend over, almost to the ground, but not snap!  A few ties with some twine and it's back to it's original position. 

Everything gets a good haircut and some organic fertilizer.  I til the soil and mix in some great  composted manure.
Most of the daffodils, redbuds & plum trees at this point are finishing up in the city. Next round is the cherry trees, dogwoods, late tulips and alliums!
The akebia vines are just about to bud out in a few of my gardens, the lilacs and muscari alongs with the wisteria vine should be amazing this year.  Depending on how much sun we get in the next week, we could see a whole new burst of spring colors.


This is a sweet sleepy garden in Tribeca... It's got a great view of the Hudson River but very windy!  Most of the terrace is shadowed by the building next door, so things here open up a bit later than the sunny warmer rooftops in the city.  

This very tidy shade evergreen, skimmia, will bloom in a week or two.

The large sedum, Autumn Joy, is making it's comeback.

 I love this subtle golden paint for the fence and boxes. 

 The akebia almost ready to bloom a purple bloom

An simple but solid row of evergreens at each window.

I am gathering more of my spring flower photos to post this week... Enjoy the days!

To Do's

It's the last week of March and I am feeling springs pressure already.  I saw lots of daffodils blooming along the highway in Queens yesterday.  This means its the time to get myself super organized & begin another season.

Although it's been snowing and is extremely cold out, we have been doing a few miscellaneous gardening things like winter clean ups.  Lots of broken branches and compacted soil.  A quick list of spring to-do's:


- Take inventory of the tools. Sharpen, oil and clean what needs it.
- Organize soils, plant food, oils/sprays
- Prepare for the cool weather plantings by selecting plants & putting in orders with the farmers.
- Clean out gardens from the winters havoc!
- Enjoy the beginning of spring- forsythias are bright yellow in the city

I found this fantastic veggie garden calendar on veggieharvest.com!

Use it to plan out your edible garden this year! 

Speaking of veggie gardens, new gardens:

A great couple in Brooklyn has inquired about a vegetable garden in their back yard.  Since my family owns and operates a vegetable farm in Connecticut, Wades Farm Fresh, I'm elated to get back to my roots!  The new clients are chefs and host a dinner club so we are hoping to grow exotic and hard to find herbs and veggies.  Excited to keep you all posted on our progress...


I'm also helping out a friend who has a great backyard... He's gotten custom planter boxes built to match the mahogany decking.   We are bringing in glazed pottery, three amazing trees and a whole slew of shrubs and under plantings.  It will be quite the transformation.   

We are also reviving a home in Long Island with some fresh curb appeal.  Since the 1950's, the large shrubs have grown and gradually hedged together into an undulating mass.  Azaleas, acuba, pieris japonica, rhody are all now a "azacupierody." It looks fine but a bit dated. Along with a new planting, we are taking out the old slim path to the street with a 4' wide multi-color stone walkway  Photos soon!  Project starts May 1st!

Happy spring gardening everyone!

Cape Fear Botanical Gardens

Fayetteville, North Carolina         March 19th, 2011         78 degrees F     Sunny skies.

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The bearded Irises were in peak bloom!

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 We walked along the edge of the Cape Fear River... Very raw.

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 Camellia's were in full bloom.  The evergreen shrub collection ranged from pure whites to red mixes... Very beautiful.

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 a massive saucer magnolia flower

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The gardens were very relaxed... Sections were manicured and planned while other sections were completely natural.  If you're in the area, swing by.  It takes about an hour to go through... prob a lot more color once things start growing this spring!

A growing garden

This was the first planting from back in 2004...

And this was from this past spring 2010.  The climbing hydrangea has grown along the top trellis and the lace leaf maple has filled out... It looks so lush all these years later.  The bench looks so inviting!

It may still be cold outside...

... And perhaps snow is still mounded in the shadowy parts of the city but I can just smell SPRING in the air! Yesterday I walked around with-out my jacket and it felt perfect.

Today, not so much. It was 27 degrees out when I got up this morning. Yikes.

But Groundhogs Day has come and gone... Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Feb. 2nd which means an early spring!!

...Which means I need to start dusting off my old gardening tools and saddle up for Spring 2011!

Now is the time to contact me if you are interested in a garden or need help maintaining an existing area. We work with any style & budget.

This season we hope to install more working gardens. These are gardens that focus on edible plants like herbs, vegetables, fruits. They take lots of planning before anything gets planted. Starting now so your veggies and hit your table on time!!

Imagine this growing up on your rooftop, on your balcony, in your back yard!

Stay warm New York!

Food Photo Thanks to: www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=2406&catId=8

The Royal Horticultural Society, UK, released a new report that found numerous benefits to children who work in gardens.

Punxsutawney Phil Photo from movie Groundhogs Day