Friday, June 10, 2016

Sidewalk garden tour


Before they disappear from the June streets, a quick look at some nearby rose gardens within a 10 minute walk (I walk fast and have long legs) from home. Above, a block from the Gowanus Canal.


This (above and below) is Carroll Street again (it featured in a recent Gardenista story I wrote), the particularly garden-rich block just east of Smith.


And my old favourite, what I call the Gowanus Garden, started and still cared for by Kirstin Tobiasson.


Below, a perfect plant for naturalizing on a hardscrabble sidewalk where hand watering is a forgotten dream, Lysimachia punctata is beautiful but also invasive. Liatris in the background (left) will bloom soon, and the yucca spikes seem taller every year.


Dachshund point of view:


And the Gowanus Canal itself, a few feet away from the garden. White scummy stuff pouring from a pipe in the background is held back behind a floating pollution barrier. When I moved to Brooklyn that skyline did not exist. 



3 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers, disturbing scummy stuff!

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  2. There are flowers in the city. I always love to walk around when I visit Glendale to see what the neighbors are doing with those tiny front yards...some are very creative. The last pic I can't place (husband could) He was born, raised, schooled, started a bussiness and a family in NY. Nice walk ,thanks.

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  3. MV! Just sent you a shady plants email, then thought I'd have a quick sunday adventure through your 66sqft. What a smile to see my (mother's) lysimachia punctata all busting out in bright yellow and vibrating with the salvia. And the 3 'asparagus' in the background.... yikes, talk about GRITTY.... plus the very unfamiliar (and somehow ubiquitous) buildingscape on the gowanus' horizon..............
    The roses were from a longtime renter neighbor who dug up a couple scrawny clumps for me from his backyard before moving to a more affordable neighborhood.
    And there they are, a most unrefined but hearty and local (when does something become labeled 'local' or 'native'??) gowanus rose explosion.

    Gotta try your drunken strawberries delight. Or some such variation on the theme.
    Yum Buzz.
    Beautiful blog as ever.
    Kirstin

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