Things to Do in December Cause You're Not Dead

Although, I have to remind myself that I'm not actually dead in December and to get up and out in search of the pretty little things of winter (like the remnants of the flowers of tulip trees, magnolias and cardoons past pictured here). It justs feel like I am.

 

Two Haunts

Bookends for the year: One picture taken near the year's end and one from its early beginnings at two haunts of mine. (The bike lane near Floyd Bennett and over in Prospect Park.)

 

One definition of haunt I wouldn't have guessed: "to continually seek the company of" and one I would have: "to stay around or persist; to linger". I've always liked the sound of that word, linger.

Tis The Season

Chinese Scholar tree winter silhouette

 

Here, we mark the beginning of the calendar year in the time of bare branches, the landscape largely a canopy of silhouttes and the stubborn remains of flowers past. And though I shouldn't have to remind myself to spend some time outside among these things, it seems somehow again I do.

 

                                                           Monarda seedhead and stalk

I Had No Idea

 

Seriously. I had no idea every that I was ever going to be the kind of person that enjoyed arranging boughs even a little bit. Had I never sown a spinach seed, I might have never known.It wasn't weeding a green roof or catching a sedum in bloom, but it was work, the last day of mine for the season a week or so ago and though my fingers felt like they couldn't be any colder, it was fun,

It's About that time Again

We're in shortest days of the year which means it's probably about time to go out for a walk seeking some paperbush buds.

A Day in June

What would I give for that now? This was that week in June this year when it went from spring to summer in a blast and the days were long. Next year I'm thinking of a focus on learning more about grass.

Almost

                                                                 At Floyd Bennett Field

The weather, so balmy the last few days, spoke to another season but not so the length of the day. It almost felt like spring, but the sun still sank early and its been dark now for hours.                          

Recovering

 After a week spent indoors and one illness after another, a late afternoon recovery walk to Prospect Park brought me by a most sweet-smelling Camellia on Eastern Parkway, grass catching the last light of the day in front of the Brooklyn Central library and a massive tree stump in the park that looked like it had a story or two to tell.

The air was cold but the sun on my face felt so much like a warm welcome that it seemed liked it had to be trying to comfort me. I don't formally practice a faith, but you wouldn't be far off if you said I was something of a sun worshipper.

A Man and His Bobcat

 

I think it was over 20 trees knocked down or dangerously uprooted by the storm at the community garden. But with gardeners armed with some serious tools, the hard work of cleaning up is already well underway.

This Was Last Week and Today

There are mums in a little bottle that were harvested last week at the community garden. In the wake that follows Hurricane Sandy, there are no worries about my own garden because it is a thing that can always be rebuilt, just as it builds itself anew every year. After the storm there is only the searching for news about what has been destroyed elsewhere and what survives, the finding out how family and friends are doing, who has power and who doesn't.

 Last week there were many moments of incredible beauty and warmth. The loveliness of this sweet marigold in the last light of the day in Martha's garden and Amsonia up in the skyline of midtown Manhattan.

Today in the aftermath of this insane storm it is gray, our street quiet and unscathed, but inside on the computer screen in the news the images are entirely the opposite.

Postcards on HR2606 versus PR on Floyd Bennett Field

The postcards to President Obama to Veto HR2606 stand by themselves. They are simple messages written in objection to a bill. They represent people's attempt to participate in the decision making process despite a very clear message being sent down from those in power up above that the people do not deserve a voice.

At the same time that these messages are being written and people are asking NPS and politicians to protect our park, those people who have already made the decision to run a pipeline right of way through Jacob Riis beach and alienate a piece of Floyd Bennett Field, historic hangars in order to allow a metering and regulating facility to support that pipeline, are doing a little PR by planting trees in Floyd Bennett Field. Do you think they took the opportunity to talk to the public about how they think industrial use of Floyd Bennett Field by Williams Transco and National Grid is an appropriate introduction into the park as they dug holes to plant 5000 trees?

Tree planting is an appropriate thing to do in a park. Building industrial infrastructure that is wholly outside of the park's purpose and introducing pollution is not. Back in 2009 Williams Transco admitted there were land use issues that would challenge them in finding an appropriate site for their metering and regulating facility. HR2606 removes that challenge by allowing them to build this facility right in the park. It's quite the coup for the natural gas companies considering there is only public talk by officials about making this park an example nationally of what a great urban national park should be.

At October's End

 Martha harvests some flowers to take home and pumpkin and loofah grown in the pumpkin patch get laid out for the annual Halloween party at the community garden. Before this blog became focused on the pipeline and the appropriation of a piece of  Floyd Bennett Field, our park, for industrial use, it was focused on small moments in the lives of plants and the joy of little discoveries made when immersed in that world. I still have those moments all the time at work on green roofs and in the garden or now in fall when there is much to observe, enjoy and learn as the leaves are starting to turn and fall on the city streets. The skies have been gray now for days as a storm makes it way toward us, but the brilliance of the colors of this season is undeniable in any light.

Margarets Mums This Year

 were more pink than white but no Margaret at the garden this year. She lives though and just a bit of her mums too do also in my garden, but I haven't had the pleasure of seeing her this year. I just have these mums to remind me of those minutes shared with her in the community garden.

It's Just A Little Thing at The Coffee Shop Around the Corner

Not a raisin dried in the sun, but a reminder of last year's dream deferred. Still it's important to dream and to work slowly towards something. I haven't been thinking about growing flowers a lot lately, but it's really hard not to think about bulbs this time of year. To begin the dream for a new season.

Brooklyn Grown for 596Acres

 The kids over at 596Acres had their first benefit event and we had a little fun making some small bouquets to add a little color to their tables. I hope they made some dough.

Up In The SkyLine as The Season Gives Way

 What I've found this year is that the green roofs aren't so unlike any other garden in that there is the enjoyment of the subtle shifts from day to day or week to week and the slow slipping between the seasons.

It's autumn up in the sky, or on the living roofs as Brooklyn Botonic calls them quite aptly and autumn is always a good time to pay attention to plants wherever you find them.

It's Been A While

since the last Pokeweed bloom and it's been a while since I found some time to stop and admire the roadside wilds of Brooklyn, but I remembered to take a minute today to do that on the bike ride down to the garden.

The Flowers That Didn't Make it in the House (For Jane)

They are still up on the roof and there are some in a coffee shop nearby. Thanks to Jane though for reminding me to pay attention again. The days are getting shorter and the anemones bloom.

And on the Seventh Day

ye shall covet your neighbor's vegetables. (my neighbor julia's haul)

Back to Life

back to reality as the song goes. I spend my days watching plants, weeding and paying some mind to visitors and this is enough for me now.

Under an Umbelliferae and a A Blue Sky

 or next to a patch of some by the side of the road perhaps,

is where i want to be. To me there is something so lovely about the color of the curly dock as it browns and goes to seed this time of year among the Queen's Anne's Lace blooms. (This isn't the country, just the edge of Brooklyn, by the side of the road and above in an old airfield.)

Everything at Once, 2012

I've had the either lucky or very unlucky opportunity to come to know plants in a time when the seasons and weather is changing. It's unlucky of course because the world is changing and the plants and wildlife we rely on are being effected. It's unlucky because it makes remembering the order of things (who blooms first, what to plant and when) harder.

This year for instance, everything is blooming at once in my vegetable garden. The yarrow is still going, while nearby asters are already starting to bloom ahead of schedule. (The asters aren't pictured here.) The vegetable garden is flush with pollinators.

There is a feast now. But with latebloomers that I love so much like the asters beginning already, there may be famine for the pollinators come autumn. Here is where I can see my luck swinging the other way. Because I am paying attention in this time, I can choose to sow some annual flowers now that will help provide some sustenance for the pollinators or I could buy some to transplant. You have to live in your own time and recognize it for what it is.

Monarda punctata blooms.

ZigZag Zipper OrbWeaver

Not exactly its scientific name,but that zig zag zipper that seems to echo that spider's markings is the way I'll probably know it for what it is the next time I run across it. It's common enough, but I had to go to my favorite bug source to find out its proper name. Habitat? Gardens and old fields, but in this case a garden in an old airfield.

Abundance

Granted, the lily is indeed a massive flower, the anthers like giant fuzzy-slippered landing pads, but that is one very very tiny bee. I'm not sure how to make a comparison to any feast I've eaten. But then, I've never actually sat down in my dinner plate with room to stretch out and walk around.

We had our first eggplant for dinner tonight.

On Landscape

The new "landscape" as seen from atop Brooklyn Botanic's greenroof

“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.”

Annie Dillard, Pilgram at Tinker Creek



The path of a leaf miner

On The Living Roof at Brooklyn Botanic

I learned today from Geraldine, our intern from overseas, that much of the focus on greenroofs in her home city of Zurich which has mandated laws for flat roofs, is on habitat and biodiversity. The thinking is that part of what it means to "green" a city is that there is an attempt made to replace some of what has been lost to urbanization.

Because When the Going Gets Tough

the really tough are only just getting going. Think you could survive two gnarly New York City summer heat waves with no supplemental water up on a green roof in the Bronx? I know I couldn't. I barely made it through just this afternoon intact and it wasn't nearly as hot up on that roof as it must have been last week in the baking sun.

I tried counting the bees today and I tried not to sweat. I failed at both.

The Remains of My Dad's Hosta Flowers

I only harvested a small portion of my dad's hosta buds for bouquets. The remains of some that were left behind are looking allright to me as their petals give way to time and the end of their season.

One For my Mom's Table

This year I harvested most of my garlic scapes about a month ago. Those scapes made their way into salads and one tasty pasta dish that I was surprised came from my own hands at the stove. The rest remained on the garlic plants which were just pulled this week to cure. Those remaining scapes just opening made their way into the bouquet for my mom's table above. I was getting teased down at the community garden though about leaving those scapes on. But it's win/win as far as I'm concerned. I had some scapes for eating, some for flowers and still enough garlic to harvest and of decent size to be happy with. There's more than one way to skin a cat or so I've heard.