Name: Laurel
Location: Woodside, Queens
Size: 76 s/f
Favorite Resource: This year I visited Dimitri's in Harlem, the Chelsea Garden Center, several farmers at the Greenmarket, and the Matterhorn Nursey in Spring Valley (just north of Westchester). I would have to say my favorite is the Chelsea Garden Center, for its selection and accessiblity.
Pitch:
"This is my second summer with a space to garden! I have a very sunny, west facing balcony in Woodside Queens. It is "L" shaped, wrapping around a fire escape. The largest part of the "L" is 4 by 13 feet, along the railing. The other part of the "L" is 4 x 6 and crowded; it's where the practical 'human' tools live: a table & 4 chairs, work bench, hose and grill..." [more below]
I grow a lot of different things on my balcony, and it's easiest to sort them by their purpose.
Herbs: thyme, lavender, orange mint, parsley, chives, sorrel, basil, bay, and rosemary.
Greens for my uromastyx lizards: escarole, curly endive, mizuna, bok choi, red dandelion.
Fruit: meyer lemon
Non-edibles: roses, nigella, chinese lantern, morning glory, amarylis, pitcher plant, juncus spirales, ivy, sedum, blue fescue grass and about five other flowering & foliage plants I can't remember the names of.
Often my houseplants make spend sunny days on my balcony; these include an avocado tree, a string of hearts, and a variety of cacti & succulents.
Everything is doing well, despite exposure to a lot of dust generated by ongoing brick work on my building.
I have attached three pictures of my balcony garden. One 'general' shot that captures most of my plants. One detail of my 'bog' planter, with the pitcher plant & the juncus. The last has my rose, but it's mostly the view over my railing, it was a little hazy this morning, but you can just make out the Citibank, Empire State & Chrysler buildings.
oh i love it! and i love that you have bog plants, very cool.
This looks like the neglected back room of the Home Depot garden section.
I disagree, rascal. And I gotta say--you're being mean!
Growing stuff in containers on a windy balcony is TOUGH. The climate is extreme, often inhospitable, and the damn containers dry out unbelievably quick.
Also, it is difficult, especially if you don't have a view like those lucky folks over in Brooklyn Heights, to make a little balcony garden look good in a photograph.
I think that this tiny garden is pretty cool, especially since she's growing edibles. That's a hard task in this amount of space.
I agree. This is truly lovely. Rascal, don't be a twit.
Oh, stop coddling; we're here to help people see better. Yes, the plants themselves are well-tended, but you don't get any points in a design blog for growing in challenging conditions, especially when the layout is perfunctory and uninspired. You don't need space to arrange aesthetically pleasing vignettes but you do need additional levels, better clustering, and more imaginative planters. All the elements are here, but they are NOT well arranged. Good design is not for the feint of heart, people, get a spine!!
I stand by my initial comments.
gardens are not exclusively about design or about "seeing better." They are, literally, alive. So they tend to have their own, intrinsic concerns, obligations, difficulties. Sometimes, keeping something alive feels more important than buying an "imaginative planter." Especially when your plant may die by august.