apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How did you create it? When we first moved in, it was a mud pit with a bathtub sunken in the middle of the space (the previous tenants used the bathtub to keep a penguin). With a northern exposure , only two to three house of filtered sunlight each morning, poor drainage and clay soil, I have to passionately work the garden through trial and error. Along the way, I have battled tent caterpillars, mealy bugs, slugs and even a stray raccoon who stole a suet feeder right off my maple tree. As an urban gardener, my annual plant purchases are a combination of what I want and what I know will grow. The deck has evolved from its first construction out of scrap pallet lumber to its current multi-level incarnation made from pressure treated 5/4 planks. Two triangular sections were built with 16" lengths requiring every bit of urban ingenuity just to get them through the Upper West Side brownstone's anything-but-straight corridors.

Recommended store, site, product or resource? Sources include Metro Plant Exchange (NJ), Rosedale Nursery (Westchester), Home Depot, Lowes, a garden center on 96th & Broadway and occasional purchases at our local Sunday Flea Market. Several attempts at ordering plants online have proven unsuccessful.