Woodbine Garden

The Woodbine Garden, on Woodbine Street in Bushwick, is looking incredibly good these days. I stopped by on the way from getting my bike fixed, and was blown away. The Woodbine is an older garden that went through a kind of fallow period. Then a couple years ago Sean and John kickstarted a refurbishment, pulling in several new, very committed gardeners. The garden is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust. On June 21 they’ll be hosting a musical event as part of the Make Music New York festival. I think I’ll try to stop by. You’ll see some photos below — and more here on my Flickr account.

155 Hull Street

This is an inspiring front yard container garden. I especially appreciate the recycling bag in the middle picture. The cross street is Rockaway Avenue — it’s a block from the Phoenix Garden.

Junk Yard Wisteria

This wisteria grows at where Chauncey Street runs into Central Avenue, near my home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It’s a corner at the edge — it’s next to the egress to a diesel truck depot, next to a school bus depot, Cemetary of the Evergreens, turn-of-the-century tenements. The building on the right in the top photo is a vegetable oil packaging plant; on the left they make tortillas. This wisteria is spectacular in the way only wisterias can be — clambering aggressively to show drooping pea flowers of soft violet — a gesture of beauty planted when? I’m feeling at least 50 years ago. It is one forgotten gardeners legacy.

New Peony

I have planted thousands and thousands of plants. Thousands of bulbs, thousands of vegetables, thousands of annual flowers. And well maybe hundreds of perennials and shrubs. And a few dozen trees. But peonies just always seemed too grown up. Maybe it was May Sarton’s description of planting a peony in her book Plant Dreaming Deep. Peonies supposedly hate transplanting — I can’t testify, because I never have and don’t know anyone who has. They’re one of the longest lived perennials. Basically you put them in the ground, and they stay put for decades. I know the peonies at the Garden of Union were the one perennial that stood there ground for the 20 years I gardened there. I moved on, and the peonies are still there.

But today I bought my first peony. And I intend to plant it in the front garden. It feels like the time I ordered my first martini– which was on my 40th birthday. I’ve grown up. And can now be a little dissolute even. Because face it, there’s no more dissolute flower than a peony. Big, blowsy, and fragrant — only tuberoses are more dissolute.

Stupid Art Project

I saw this photograph in the New York Time this morning, and my first thought was what were they thinking? They might as well as sow the seeds directly on the sidewalk as sprinkle them around the compacted, dog urine drenched soil around the base of a street tree. Clearly these people have never done any real urban gardening.

The article reported on the neighborhood response. The most astute:

“Do I go into your living room and tell you where to put your furniture?” Keith Henry said as he got out of his car near his home on Putnam Street. “It’s not so much about the flowers. It’s about the idea.”

His advice? “Take it easy. Before you change something, become a part of it.”

Weeping Willow

I miss the spring-time acacias in California. They bloom a bright, clear yellow — so much more happy than the muddy brown of forsythias that seems to be the east coast substitute. This is the weeping willow that I can see from our dining room table. The yellow is clear, and it does make me happy. That’s the L train to the left.

Living Room Garden

Living Room Garden, originally uploaded by digfree.

I took a long bike ride today through Highland Park and then down Jamaica Avenue. I found this garden on a little side street off of Jamaica. It’s not exactly a horticultural showpiece, but it’s sweet in its way. Somebody is making an environment that’s maintained and shared — if a little eccentric.

First Snowdrop

First Snowdrop, originally uploaded by digfree.

Bopped out the door and was thrilled to notice this one tiny snowdrop. I planted several hundred bulbs in the front yard last fall. There’s been lots of shoots, but this is the first real bloom.

Nick Cave Show

A Nick Cave Soundsuit that I felt was appropriate image to this blog.

Yesterday I finally made it over to the Jack Shainman gallery on 20th Street to catch the Nick Cave show. It was a wonderful show. Soundsuits are his signature piece. These towering garments make the point, for me, that out clothing is a kind of sculpture. They shape us, give us texture and color. His work also reminded me of Joan Halifax’s essay on the shamanic robe, how the making of the garb is integral to the ceremony. Of course, the radical faerie in me loved the work.

Afterwards I went shopping for clothing. Everything seemed so drab and uninspired. I wanted interesting form, color, texture. Instead, it was all “basics.”

Holy Field

Poster Boy Mash-up at Bushwick-Aberdeen L Stop

The Times reported this morning that Poster Boy was arrested, or was he? If you haven’t been there yet, check out the FriendsWeLove.com profile. The image above was taken at my local station. I find it amazingly well-crafted.