greenmarket finds

i remember the first time i came across chocolate mint (mentha x piperita 'chocolate'). it was in the tea and herb garden at stone barns and i was shocked. for some reason, i'd always thought that the combination was something that andes chocolates invented. 

claire and i went to the union square greenmarket earlier this week after a day of sightseeing (lots of visitors lately!). since it's impossible for me to be in a place that sells plants without buying some, i got this little quad of herbs. the chocolate mint is the lower left one. its leaves are a richer green than the regular mint i have growing rampant in my meadow box from woolly pockets. i also got some chamomile, thyme, and chives. yum.

clockwise from upper left: chives, thyme, chocolate mint, and chamomile. 

a garden in gowanus

on the corner of carroll street and denton place, there is a small community garden with a hot pink tree. although i've now lived for over a decade in cities that experience all four seasons, it's still pretty incredible to see the transformations - especially in trees. (you might know this already from the way that i've marveled at my japanese maple.)  

 the garden didn't used to look like much, but got a makeover last year by bette midler. or to be more precise, her non-profit conservancy organization, the new york restoration project. apparently bette is very concerned about this sort of thing. who knew? architectural digest recently featured several of nyrp's green spaces throughout new york city, which is when i realized the background to our neighborhood garden. nyrp manages 52 gardens throughout the five boroughs, and cooperates with nyc's parks & rec department, as well as with americorp. 

it's now a nice place to have lunch (which you can pick up at root hill, just across the street) or read a book. on my last visit, there was a composition book on a table, soaked from the recent downpour, so i guess kids do homework there as well. 

plant-wise, there's a lot to see. in addition to that gorgeous tree (is it a redbud? crab apple? update: garden compass told me it was an eastern redbud), there is also birch and what i think is a maple tree. there's also a "fragrance walk" with azaleas, mint, sweetbay magnolia, and ruby spice summersweet. schoolchildren from p.s. 372 next door tend to the edible garden, which included parsley, mint, rosemary, and lettuces the last time i check. (hhh and i often wonder if we are allowed to pick them? have not yet done so.) design-wise, it's actually pretty hard core. there is a "high performance storm water infrastructure," which helps to keep the area around it from flooding. one of the plaques in the garden shows the history of gowanus and why flooding occurs, and explains how the fancy-schmancy technology underneath the park (i don't understand terms like "bioswale" and won't pretend to) diverts/absorbs 150,000 gallons of floodwater a year, preventing it from overwhelming the city sewers. (nice for me, since we live just across fourth avenue.) 

urban gardening is the best.

aesthetically, it's a basic palette of unvarnished wood and brick, laid diagonally. the planners also reused some benches and concrete from the previous iteration of the space. it's modern and simple, and i wish so hard that bette midler would do the exact same thing to our yard.

speaking of our yard, it's still in an unusable state but progress is being made. a man came into our apartment today with a thermal gun (which is not for violent temperature-taking but spotting water inside walls and under floors, apparently) and told me that water is no longer going where it should not. (whew!) but it's still a long way from looking like this. 

the "fragrance walk." 

edible gardening in raised beds.

mesh to keep the bugs out. 

looking towards carroll street. 

that shade of magenta! 

stop by if you're in the neighborhood! and if you want to learn more about the gil hodges community garden, you can. 

taiwan series: shiyang culture restaurant

lucky for me, hhh's parents love to eat as much as we do. they are also weirdly knowledgeable about all the best restaurants, so when they suggested that we go to shi-yang culture restaurant during our last trip to taiwan, we didn't say no. the tea house and restaurant are deep in the mountains (or maybe it just felt like that because the car had to scrape alongside jungle-y brambles to reach our destination). as we approached, we saw a man at the road's fork, who gestured for us to wait while another car edged up the tiny path. 

we made it to the pebbled lot, and then ventured the rest of the way on foot. in taiwan, nature is overwhelming and unkempt - anything will grow, anywhere, all the time. (and it doesn't just go for flora but fauna too, especially the tiny pest varieties...i will forever be scarred by the flying cockroaches of my childhood.) it's hard to imagine the amount of effort that must go into landscaping maintenance in taiwanese cities to keep the greenery from conquering every unpaved surface. at shi-yang, though, the wildness is allowed, and the buildings co-exist peacefully with plant life. although the restaurant has only been at this location a couple of years, it looks as if it's been here for decades. (a consequence of taiwan's aggressive humidity: anything manmade starts to show age the minute it goes up.)

the wooden walkway along the event space.

the food was delicious and creative, and the space was gorgeously simple. it made me think that maybe mountain life wouldn't be so bad. there are several wooden structures on both sides of a bubbling mountain brook (so idyllic!), and a bridge that spanned the water. all the rooms are lined with tatami mats and set with low tables. there is one large building that looked as if it could host parties, which also housed a plum blossom arrangement that i desperately wished was in my apartment.

i mean, look at that. i bet you wish you owned it too. 

another angle of the same lovely arrangement.

it's definitely worth going at least half an hour before your reservation (which you will need in order to eat) so you can walk the grounds. i obsessively took photos of all the plants i dreamed about putting in my yard, even though i had no way of then figuring out what they were at the time. good thing i just discovered this amazing app called garden compass, which will identify plants for you via email. from the description in itunes, it actually sounds like a real live plant expert looks at the photo and writes you back. you get 20 IDs a month - not just of plants but also plant diseases (so if your houseplant seems to be floundering, you can ask the app what ails it!). i already tried it out with two plant IDs, and so far so good. 

i would die to get a fern that big to grow in my yard. but somehow i don't think this guy would enjoy northeastern winters very much...

anyway, it was super exciting to discover this spot. i get the feeling it's pretty special. now you should go, and then tell me how you like it. xoxo

the plant sale!

the brooklyn botanic gardens had its annual plant sale this week. the weather was totally uncooperative (i.e., gusty winds and flash floods), but it cleared on the last day so i went to check it out. i'm glad i didn't let my laziness get the better of me, because it was awesome. i know my love of plants is old news, but i get seriously giddy around all this green. 

plants on plant on plants.

i really wanted to eat that rainbow chard right then and there.

it's almost better than the regular gardens, because if i like it, i can have it. (within reason.) the bbg sale was a lot cheaper than going to a regular nursery. there were a bunch of japanese maples, red clumping bamboo, peony bushes, loads of herbs and lettuces, succulents and orchids, and hundreds of other plants i have yet to make friends with.

a big bowl of hens and chicks. 

also, they had these little red wagons in lieu of shopping carts! it was cute to see all the little old ladies pulling these radio flyers around. i kind of want one now. they seem handy for all kinds of things. 

my little red wagon of plants: blue grama grass, coleus, lemon-scented geranium, and yarrow. 

this yarrow (achillea) has fuzzy fronds.

this geranium is deliciously lemony.

thanks for coming along, sarah! who wants to go next year? 

the giant tent, set up on the cherry esplanade. 

grass!

i don't like lawns. maybe there has been too much written about the uselessness, wastefulness, and general horror that is lawn-ness for me to ignore. perhaps i was persuaded by this 2008 new yorker article, which laments that "the essential trouble with the american lawn is its estrangement from place: it is not a response to the landscape so much as an idea imposed upon it—all green, all the time, everywhere." or possibly: lawns epitomize the suburbs, which i enjoy visiting (such an exotic way of life!) but where i don't intend on ever putting down roots.

it might be weird to say, then, that i love grass. i recently acquired a carpet of astroturf, inspired by some i saw at the nyc home design show, and had also been eyeing the wild, colorful, feathery grasses that are so plentiful on the highline. so yes to fake grass and yes to ornamental grasses, but no to boring, over-fertilized expanses of sameness. 

they are green now but will develop flower plumes and turn white and pink.

after doing some research online, i deduced that the grasses i was drawn to are varieties of feather reed grass. these are non-invasive, clumping grasses with a lot of height and can thrive in full sun. they are also perennial in new york city, which is key since i don't want to buy the same plants over and over each year.

sedum cauticola 'lidakense'

in addition to the grasses, i got some lovely purple-y green sedum, another maple (it's tiny!), and dwarf japanese knotweed. sadly, the yard is currently a demo zone, so these plants have been living in their quart-pots since they arrived. it's not ideal, but they seem to be doing okay (although there is some yellow). 

the baby maple.

the dwarf japanese knotweed will have clusters of pink flowers in the summer. 

here's to keeping them alive!