Posts Tagged ‘flowers’

25 Jun

Blackbook’s Brownstone Brooklyn Stoop Garden

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

stoop-to-conquer

No roof access? No excuses. Why not plant a garden on your stoop … or windowsill … or the tree well in front of your building. Scrounge up some space this summer.

But before you get started, check Blackbook for sage urban gardening advice. #10 is the best: Spend the extra couple of bucks on quality potting soil, it’s worth it.

They’re right. We’ll confess: R* and I potted some plants in soil from the dollar store. It made a muddy mess and taught us a lesson. Now we cab back to Brooklyn with huge bags of $$$ soil from Home Depot. If you pay plenty for plants, spring for the extra money for quality potting soil and treat yourself to a cab ride home.

We home Blackbook publishes a follow-up post with more pictures later on in the summer.

Image: Blackbook

25 Jun

A Pink And Green Container Garden

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

photo1

We put together this pink pot from plants on sale at the Greenmarket yesterday.

The Anisodontea can grow as high as three feet. We’ll see about that. We like how the vine coordinates with the Slightly Strawberry (silly name!) flowers. We plant white flowers in every pot we can for night vision.

More about Thriller, Filler, Spiller design concept here . . .

19 Jun

The Roof Garden at The Caledonia

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

thecaledonia_roofgarden_chelsea_highline

Last night I went to a part last night for Sferra linens, held on the sun terrace of The Caledonia, a posh new apartment building just off the High Line in West Chelsea. Even through the rain clouds, this Manhattan roof garden is stunning. It looks like the plants were carefully chosen to stand up to all the wind and unpredictable weather.

I wish I’d brought a better camera to share a sharper sense of the place, but wow — check this out! There was also an outdoor bar and kitchen too.

caledonia_windowboxes_chelsea_maritime

Here’s another photo with the Maritime Hotel and the Port Authority building in the distance. Does anyone know what these purple flowers are growing in the long boxes? Any Caledonia residents have more pictures to share? The best part about the Caledonia’s garden is that it over looks two or three more roof gardens along with this view of the Hudson River. Thanks for having me, Sferra.

17 Jun

Spillers for My Thrillers

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

spillers_ivy_petunia

I didn’t learn the Thriller, Filler, and Spiller design concept for container gardens until I read about it in Fine Gardening. Of course, I read these instructions *after* we planted our containers.

Tonight I’m going to add some jazzy spiller plants to live with our thrillers. I’m adding these white low-growing petunias and some white and green ivy. I chose white flowers because they show up the best at night, when we’re usually up on the roof. I hope they will be able to endure the wind and summer heat.

This yarrow wasn’t doing well and looked super ugly so I had to pull it out. First casulty of the season. Maybe it couldn’t take all the rain?

Thrillers, Spillers, and Fillers make me think of the first album I ever owned:

thriller-album

3 Jun

If You Spend a Lot of Time in Your Roof Garden at Night . . .

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

containergardening06Plant white flowers!

Duh, why didn’t I think of that before we bought so many plants. I’m reading Container Gardening 2009 and picking up a lot of advice, but this is my favorite tip so far.

“I like to slip in white flowers whenever possible because they are the ones you notice at night,” wrote Kimbery Crane from EarthArt. She was talking about window boxes, but this is especially relevant for rooftop gardens since the light there can be limited.

R* and I were up on our Brooklyn rooftop at 12:30 a.m. this morning, watering and checking in on our ailing rose bush. White flowers would definately be more visable.

Here’s more pondering on white flowers at night: “As I think of white-blooming plants, I envision flocks of white geese flying in the night sky. They are like reflectors, mirrors that toss back to the earth all the available light.”

29 May

Co-planting Roses with Lavender, Sage, and Thyme

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , , .

lavenderI had a meeting near Union Square this afternoon and stopped at the Greenmarket on my way back to the office. I can’t help myself — I bought more plants for the roof.

I bought two “True English” lavender plants plus purple sage, purple basil, German thyme, oregano and a variegated sage from The Blew Family’s farm stand. This article on companion plants for roses was my guide.

All these herbs will be co-planted (a phrase I just learned) with the English heirloom roses I bought R* for his birthday: a lilac-pink Yesterday and the explosively apricot Cottage Garden . I like puzzling over the combination of each pot — coordinating color, fragrance, height, light plus water and soil requirements.

28 May

Home Depot: More Pots and Some Yarrow

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , , , .

yarrow_onthe_nyc_subway

A gardener friend of ours toured the Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Upper Montclair, NJ and gave us two iris plants. We want to get them set up on the roof before our cat attacks them, so I went to Home Depot last night to buy more pots.

We’re not sure if the irises will flower this summer or not, so I picked up this yarrow to plant with them. That should keep things colorful all summer. (They looked great on the subway trip home anyway!)

According to Wikipedia: “Nursery rhymes say if you put a yarrow sachet under your pillow, you will dream of your own true love. If you dream of cabbages (the leaves do have a similar scent), then death or other serious misfortune will strike.” Yarrow is drought-tolerant and attracts butterflies.

R* and I are determined to have all of the pots in our garden match — same curved shape and same terra cotta color. We bought all of the big plastic pots we could get at Target in Brooklyn, but now they’re sold out. Luckily, Home Depot in Manhattan sells the exact same line of plastic pots, though they are more expensive at Home Depot.

27 May

One Plant at a Time

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , .

r_gap_plant

Plant by plant, our garden keeps growing. R* and I picked out this hanging basket at Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on Saturday. Here’s R* walking it home.

We’d planned to hang it on an pipe that punches through the corner of our garden space, but quickly learned it is too windy and hot there. We hung it on the poll a few hours on Saturday and it wilted. A quick spray with the neighbor’s hose (shhh!) and it was good as new again, but we’re keeping it out of the direct sun for a while. This is the only mega-flowery plan we have. We need the color and don’t want to kill it!

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