It’s time to talk about Garden Lady. She plants ground cover in other people’s tree pits. She pounces off her stoop down the street to rescue mostly dead plants from trash cans. And she loves forwarding deals on bone meal to the block association email list. She wouldn’t give me any of the block association’s daffodil bulbs because she felt I didn’t dig deep enough trenches in our tree pit.
In early June, I caught Garden Lady kneeling in front of our tree pits. All day I wondered what she was up to. I was surprised when I got home that night and didn’t notice anything different in our tree pits. I couldn’t figure out what she did. Duh! Garden Lady slipped some seeds in there. Now we have morning glory vines climbing up the tree pit cage. They haven’t flowered yet. I’ve had to snap off some of their tendrils in valiant defense of my purple petunias and Autumn Joy sedum.
I was re-considering Garden Lady’s crimes this morning when I passed these morning glories and Black eyed Susan vines (Thunbergia) down the street. I wonder if Garden Lady planted these too? The Morning Glory stands for “love in vain” and is the flower for 11th anniversaries. I’m not so good on dates, but weirdly I think this is my 11th summer in my apartment.
All of Garden Lady’s crimes seem so banal now, but at the time I was really ticked. July’s calmed my tree pit turf war. Now we’re hand-watering the tree pits almost every night and I’ve started rooting for her morning glories to bloom. All along it was the Tree Branch Breaker I should have been looking out for.
Brooklyn Roof Garden 
Posted by revelgardener on August 28, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Hi there — a neighbor/gardener friend recently called the plant in the pic above a morning glory. Growing up in Wisconsin, I knew the morning glory to be a different plant: intentional, majestic, white flowers that opened in the a.m., and closed for the most of the day. I’m not very “up” on a lot of flower (or weed, call it what you may) varieties but I am very familiar with the plant/weed/vine/invasive/whatever-you-want-to-call-it pictured above. Are you saying that someone planted that in your yard? I would be PIIIIIIIISSSSED! They are highly invasive. I spent the better part of an afternoon recently hacking them away from my other plants recently. They’re crawling over fences separating me and neighbors on two sides, just to get to my elderberries. Be careful if you have them anywhere near your other plants because they will take over. An elderly neighbor who grew up in the house next to me was in his 90s when he spotted me fighting them back several years ago and asked, with a glean in his eye, “You know what kind of plant grows best in Brooklyn?” “No, what?” “Weeds.”
Any update on that morning glory?