Gravel to Green

Beautifying Hunters Point, one tiny bit at a time. Sunday the 27th marked the sixth week since the first Montauk daisies went into the ground in our Footbridge Garden. Look what's happened since! Our watering is still the big hang up. Volunteers from two buildings have been known to come with all manner of watering devices. A 5-gallon jug on a hand cart, and a garbage pail on a dolly can be seen being rolled down 21st Street. People stare. The other day, a man coming over the bridge stopped and looked at the closed garbage pail on wheels. It was sitting in the parking lot while I was watering the garden. He stood in front of it, obviously puzzled. "What's in there" he asked suspiciously. "Do you want to see?" I asked. "I'm afraid!" was his response. When he found out it was just water, he laughed, and said, "It just looked so strange, I could not figure out what it was!" But, thanks to all, it's really starting to take shape. An...

A few of the transplants in the 5 week old Footbridge Garden. The other day I got to thinking how many people I know in New York who've come from other places. They're transplants. It takes time to put down roots, feel at home, get a good foundation going, and then start to thrive and blossom. Just like this garden. The Footbridge Garden is currently made up only of transplants from friends' gardens elsewhere. From as far away as Arlington, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, these plants have moved to the Big Apple. Only today did I receive my first plants from Long Island: a chocolate mint plant, and a small Rose of Sharon. Soon the garden will be brimming - not necessarily flowering this year, but, if all goes well, perhaps showing a blossom or more by early summer 2011.

The Footbridge Garden from above. The Plan - more or less. Here's what the garden looked like at Week 5, recently mulched, and the path laid out a bit more. So you can see some of the ideas about how the space will be divided, I've made a plan. After I made the plan I thought, does this look like Farmville? Though I am still trying to figure out who 'owns' the land, the biggest difference is, OUR garden is real! I'm checking on the names of the plants from the N.E. donors, and soon I'll have the close-ups up to see very soon. Today I got confirmation of the Rose of Sharon delivery from a supporter/neighbor, and so I'll try to get those in this weekend. This is very exciting! Any others of you out there with plants that might like to try living next to the LIRR, just let me know!

Lamb's Ear, Dahlia, and Montauk Daisy put down roots. What a great day yesterday ! A semi-anonymous supporter of the garden handed me some cash for mulch! 'Isn't this what we need? If it's so hard to water that much, then - maybe this would help hold the moisture'. Ah, great idea. I took the cash and ran for my car. At Home Depot I picked up four big plastic bags of the stuff recommended by the employee there. It seemed likely to be enough. Once back at the garden, I went through three bags in no time flat! But now the plants are snug in their pine bark beds, and will hopefully thank us all by thriving in our consistently sunny and HOT weather of late. How happy they look. I'm happy too. Tomorrow I'll upload some close-ups of the plants.

One more New England trip and my car was again filled with the overflow from two friends' gardens. And, I got tips and words of wisdom about the earth to use, a good mulch to purchase if I wanted, and which plants might have to be dormant a year before flowering. As I was trying to do thing project on as little cash outlay as possible, I tried to keep purchases to an absolute minimum. With the generosity of my friends and their abundant gardens, I have not had to purchase much. More time planting, mixing the soil, and hauling water. One month later, some losses, and many successes. The Montauk daisies look like they've rooted, and we'll see if they blossom in the fall. After a rough start it seems most of the Creeping Jenny is going to make it, and the Ajuga is doing just fine. The violets are thriving - of course - and the Lamb's Ear is amazing, and has already flowered. There's a Smartweed that appears to have survived. And, I found a few small Petunia plant...

Who would have thought this little sliver of land would have elicited so many comments? I have been amazed. Even when there was little in the ground, there were curious and helpful folk commenting. A garden? There? That first day in mid-May, after I managed to get the three Montauk Daisies in the ground was a big day. And then, my first volunteer, who came the next day to help. We laid out the path, a serpentine shape ending in a point, and tried to find as many possible stones that might work for a path. Not so easy, so we just put the few we had in a general form to be dealt with later. Then we had all the other plants to deal with. Little by little we cleared the soil best we could. Daunting! But with some help, things were starting to look possible. 'Thank you.' 'Gee, it's great someone cares.' 'It will be so wonderful to have something growing here!' 'Good luck!' 'I hope no one trashes this beautiful idea.' Comments like these continue e...

Hunters Point Footbridge As one goes down the steps from the footbridge over the LIRR tracks, after passing under the LIE, there's a sliver of land the shape of a skinny piece of pizza. Since I'd been making the short trek from the No. 7 train on days I did not drive, I'd noticed this little parcel of land. How very sad; underutilized and barren. Until a clean up in early May (I've later learned it must be the MTA who cleans here periodically), it had been a dump for tires, for cans and bottles and goodness knows what else. It was truly ugly. So, until May, I thought the idea of a garden was impossible. All those tires, all those cans and terrible weeds. Then one day, the place was cleaned up, leaving it more or less with nothing there. Few weeds had begun to peek through the broken glass and metal in the soil; nothing was visible except rocks and broken glass buried in the earth. Why not make this into a garden? Well, at least, try. But how? No water in sight. A week...