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 and 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. Then 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 of big-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

No wonder Martha Stewart came out of prison smelling like a rose. She’s transported her Everyday brand of gardeners provisions for K-mart with an A–Z line of really cute edible and annual seed packets. And just ripe for the urban gardener she’s individually wrapped a mini-series of tomato and strawberry patch green houses. K-mart 8973 Bay Pkwy, Brooklyn NY 11214 770 Broadway, New York NY 10003 Phone: 212-673-1540 250 W 34th St Fl CONC14, New York NY 10119

FOUR

Wrapped around the back of the 10,000 square-foot of Chelsea Garden Center on 38th and 10th AVE. are 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

FIVE

If you can’t grow it, go in its place. Cherry Blossoms in May, Roses in June. All year long the Brooklyn Botanical Garden provides a vibrant-green lovers escape. BBG is 52 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

SIX

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 Saturdays in late June. — www.greenguerillas.org

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 recycle stone, wood, iron, terracotta and other natural materials in your garden.

3. THINK COLOR. Experiment with monochromatic arrangements, color themes, and contrasting one-color, two-color and three color toned gardens.

4. Grow something that will attract butterflies–you’ll never regret it.

a. Bee balm

b. Cosmos

c. Marigold

d. Sunflower

e. Zinnia

5. Keep a gardening journal. (once winter rolls around you’ll be grateful)

6. Break the rules once.