Caliente!

It makes sense.  In May when I selected my window box flowers, I was STARVED for color.  

It's fine, I enjoy how loud it is.  

In the right window, I have a clematis vine that has survived four years in that small container. 

Root pruning this plant each spring prevented the vine from becoming root bound and choking itself to death.  

If a root system is naturally larger than the container it lives in, root pruning is necessary.  

It's also important in this case because I like to plant annuals in the other half of the box.  

There seems to be a little bit of everything.  The orange flowers are calibrachoas, the yellow are lantanas, the fuchsia are petunias and the vertical light blues are salvia.  I have a couple angelonia mixed on the right... it really is packed in there.  

Things are tight but it's fine for these kinds of plantings.  I will be changing it in a few weeks to the autumn style. 

 

I'm thinking about mounting larger boxes.  It would be quite a handsome addition to the facade of my otherwise blah building front.  

Some beautiful french iron work perhaps?

We shall see. 

Every day is a Saturday

A quick project kick-starts a new store in Soho's back yard this past week.  

Saturdays Surf NYC is a coffee & surf shop at 31 Crosby Street fulfilling your aquatic accouterments and caffeinated desires.  It also just so happens to be the only surf shop in Manhattan if your looking!

Grab a cup o' joe and shoot the breeze out back next to one of the few planters I arranged.  It's so nice back there, and the folks inside aren't too shabby themselves!

Saturdays used reclaimed wood for their interior shelving systems as well as the containers and benches out back.  It looks so sharp!

You may have missed the big opening party last weekend, but Saturdays is open 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm!   

I ripped this photo from their Facebook page of the opening party. (thanks dudes)  Go on, "become a fan" of theirs!

Stop in, tell em Missy sent ya!  Surfs up!

Really, September?

It is just a day away.  The summer is nearly gone... One that started off super soggy and is now somewhat warm, a good amount of seaside adventures (yes, NYC has amazing beaches), picking wild flowers in the rain...

and a good amount of garden maintenance work,  Brooklyn Planting has almost completed our 3rd year!  It seems like only yesterday that we were a small seed of a company. Now, we look into the future and may be expanding and morphing into a new identity.  

There are so many new projects in the "green" urban communities now!  Rooftop farms,  back yard farms, to  raising your own chickens... It has not only become important for our communities and self to get back to the basics but it's also a huge social trend, which I love.  If becoming in tune with how your food becomes part of your meal, perhaps an appreciation and interest beyond the simple consumption will create a more interested youth.  

The joy people get when they see they can grow a cherry tomato plant or have a whole slew of herbs at their fingertips, it's lovely! 

I think of the old "give a teenage student an egg to care for" class in high school (which I never did)... What if each student was given a plant to care for?  What about a class on growing your own food?  OR a summer vacation project where they grow something!  

Start small, both in the plant world and people world.  

... Just some things I'm thinking about as we break into September.  

I have some nice photos of window boxes in their full glory.  It should be fun to see the 1st day planting pics and the three months later shots!  

Support your local small farms!!!... oh did i ever post a link to my family farm in CT?  My mother is Deb, the cutest little thing around.   Wades Farm Fresh  Don't mind the silly reporters in the beginning. 

Terrarium making over at N.A.

Check out the blog I write for once a week!  Every thursday, something new for New Yorkers to do to enhance their green in such a brown & grey city.  This weeks post is a pretty good one, try it out!

The Terrarium Project at Naked Apartments

If your looking for a place to live, or are in real estate, this site links both parties together for an easier way to find a great place to live.  The blog just helps you settle in nicely. 

ENJOY!

Rainy season

June Gloom is all the buzz.  

We have been having a good amount of rain recently, which is fine by me- I love the rain.  But my poor plants are starting to feel the effects.  

These containers are planted with colocasia, sweet potato vine, nepeta, and no longer wave petunias.  I had a few deep purple wave petunias for a rich color burst but the rain just kept these beds super moist, causing mold to grow and kill off the softer plants.

I'll replace them this week I suppose. 

But with all this rain, my Cornus Kousa Dogwood is going NUTS!  So many flowers- it's a little unreal.

Spring is on it's way out.  I dug up all these pansies and will save them for the fall.  Replanting them in rich soil, cutting the back hard ... They should be great in September/October when I am ready for them again.  

The pansies below were replaced by bright red calibrachoa, fuchsia wave petunia, yellow lantana, lavender angelonia, blue annual salvia and apricot portulacas.  

- But that photo will come when they get nice and established... it's a bit dainty at the moment.  Patience, patience.

And finally,  

Late in the day downtown. 

Brooklyn Planting has some things in the mix.  New gardens, possible new business ventures, that new blog I'm writing for!

Which reminds me- Thursdays, check out my urban gardening tips at Naked Apartments !  

Dig around!

From Spring to Summer

I have a new camera, finally.

It works like a dream and I was able to use my original memory card in it so I could view the old photos from my Los Angeles trip through May. 

A few days before leaving L.A. I had the chance to visit Huntington Botanical Gardens. 

http://www.huntington.org

It was March so most plants were still dormant for the winter- which gave me the opportunity to sit in on an amazing lecture. 

It was on the art of Tussie-mussies!

"Tussie-mussie" is a term from the 1400s in England for small, round bouquets of herbs and flowers with symbolic meanings.  There were thought to be other bonuses to having a small cluster of sweet smelling flowers.  Holding them up to your nose would mask smells and was thought to purify the air a bit. 

There is a cute website that has a list of the Victorian flower meanings:

http://victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html

This is a tussie-mussie I made for my friend zack. It lacked meaning because I just wanted to give him a purple and orange burst on his desk.

So here's a bit of Brooklyn Planting that the old camera was holding hostage from this past spring.

This was from the lake house upstate that I occasionally garden at.  It is such a pleasure to work there. 

...

And these are just a couple shots I will be posting to the other blog I write for... (nakedapartments.com/blog)  

Window boxes make even the view outside more enjoyable.  

And this one will be about finding ways to get plants up off the floor on on tables.  Think vertically in NYC.  It's all we have. 

Glad to be back blogging. 

Lots of fun projects on the horizon.  Stay tuned!

Contributing

Fun new work!  

I'm now a contributing writer to a new blog that focuses on making New York a bit more livable.

The company is called Naked Apartments, scandalous- I know, but it's a really cool group that helps brokers and renters make the most of the apartment hunt... sign up at their home page if you are interested. 

My first post went up today.  I just wanted to introduce the public to a few good places to find plant material.  The more you see what is available, you can decide what you are interested in and then start asking questions like light requirements or watering needs.

Check me out!  I guess my bio isn't up yet... meh. 

http://www.nakedapartments.com/blog/

Thanks Shankar!

P.S.  My camera is dead.  The battery area is busted and won't turn on anymore.  I now need to get a card reader for my March-May pictures as well as a whole new piece.  UGH.