December Comes

We came to work today and the ground is frozen and the remaining plants are also frozen. The season is officially over because this is a frost date. We are preparing to rip out every remaining plant, cut them into small pieces, sow the cut up parts into the soil and sow winter wheat seeds as a cover crop. Over the past weeks we had another successful annual harvest festival. We continue to save seeds to cut costs for next season and are seeing numerous garlic plants already growing as another winter cover crop. Once again we made bird feeders and we also made Christmas ornaments and wreaths using balsam branches and lip balm using beeswax, sweet orange oil and lavender oil.

The End of the Season

(An Arrangement of Mums at the Bronx Botanical Garden)


(Flowers at the Bronx Botanical Garden)

(An Herb Garden at the Bronx Botanical Garden)

(Stacey)

(Pat, Tara and Caroline)

In preparation for the end of the season we have been planting garlic as a cover crop at Morris Ave., E. 111 St. and W. 108 St. We also added more green at E. 6 St. by planting 4 more hostas and 1 hydrangea there. We are also beginning to save various seeds from plants that bolted and regular plants like sunflowers to reduce some of the cost for seed next year and also to learn about different seed-saving techniques. We visited the Bronx Botanical Garden, walked around the grounds, visited the gift shop and were able to view an exhibit of Japanese Chrysanthemums. Finally, we have come up with two possible sketches for a mural that we will be painting on a wall in the backyard at E. 6 St. It will be nature/horticulture related and will add to the beauty of the backyard.


-Stacey Van Rossum

Final Photos of E. 111 St. & Morris Ave.

(Newly constructed tiers that are planted with 3 varieties of lettuce)


(Growing Bed #1)

(Bed # 2 & Bed # 3)

(Growing marigold/calendula)

(The view of the 3 upper tiers from The Pit)

Final Photos of E. 111 St. & Morris Ave.

(Growing tomatoes and broccoli)


(Tara hard at work)

(The Garden at E. 111 St.)

(The Garden at E. 111 St.)

(The Garden at E. 111 St.)

Summer departs and Fall arrives

(A woodpecker in the tree)


(Growing kale)

(Stacey with some wild sunflowers)

(A wild rose)

(Two growing baby watermelons)

The season is coming to an end. Many plants are still in the ground at our two main sites at Morris Ave. and E. 111 St. Over the past month we have continued to harvest and also sow some late season seeds. This year we had the same success with our leafy greens like collard greens and swiss chard. Tomatoes were also successful as was the Chinese cabbage (bok choy). The pictures that are posted show the variety of plants that we were able to grow and I will post one final photo of both sites to show how once again our garden went from plain soil, to which we added compost, seeds and hard work, to a lush and fruitful garden. We also harvested the wormbin for the 4th time and added the worm compost to areas where we recently planted new plants.

-StaceyCarrie Van Rossum

Mid Season pics from E. 111 St. Farm

(The growing garden)


(A bee in the garden)



(Growing peppers)

(Growing peppers)

(Emerging head of broccoli)

Mid-season pics from Morris Ave.

(Black Beans)


(Growing second tier)


(Audrey-Stacey in front of many headed sunflower)

(Chamomile)

(Cucumber)

A Trip to Highline

(The view across the river)


(The view from the Highline)

(Joyce, Caroline, Stacey and Tara)

(Natalie, Tara, Caroline and Joyce)

(One of the plants amidst the former train tracks)

On Friday July, 10 2009 we went on a trip to Highline which is an elevated walking area in downtown Manhattan filled with various plants. We had lunch, walked through and ended up on the west side near the Hudson River. Here are some pictures.

More Gardens = More Work

We met at site # 2 at E. 111 St. and uprooted the stumps in the small space in the front and planted foxglove, wildflowers and coleus in their place. Hopefully they will grow because the soil is very poor quality there with little sunlight. We filled in the path around the sun with small red rocks and planted lettuce around the tomatoes and broccoli. We also cut back branches and leaves in the front and back to allow more sunlight to shine in the garden.
At site #3 at E. 6 St. we met up with Mark from the Horticultural Society. There we cut back some dead limbs and branches from the lone tree there and we planted 2 plants that he provided in the limited space in their backyard garden. We will return later with more plants and fill the space with more plants.
At Morris Ave. we continue to do most of our work. We continue to plant, weed and water. We also cleaned up the trash in the back yard at Sheridan Ave. and we also weeded there. We cut back parts of the arugula and radishes that bolted. We also harvested arugula, Swiss chard, collard greens, bok choy, romaine lettuce and lettuce. We also began staking the tomatoes. We did our old method from last year with the metal circular frames and I also followed John C.'s advice and used a few bamboo sticks intertwined at the top and bottom between a row of 5 tomato plants. Both the cherry and beefsteak tomatoes are showing noticeable growth and are about 1-2 feet high.




-Lloyd Stacey Van Rossum

More pictures from E 111 St.

(Growing Buttercup Squash)

(Rose Bush)

(Rose Bush)

(Bench, Shrubs and Trees)

Pictures of E. 111 Garden

(Garden at E. 111 St.)


(Leaf and flower of tree at E. 111 St.)


(Growing Buttercup Squash)




(Growing Sweet White Pepper)

(Garden at E. 111 St)

Hello to all. We continue to sow seeds and harvest from what is ready to be harvested. We recently harvested more bok choy, collard greens and salad greens. I made a salad with olives and the salad greens and it tasted good. This weekend I will saute the bok choy and collard greens and eat it with dahl and wild rice. It will taste good. We planted more radishes, marigold and 6 rose bushes at E 111 St. We also cut back the trees and shrubs in the front yard at Morris Ave. which were growing wild and taking up unnecessary space in the garden.

-Lloyd Stacey Van Rossum

Replanting the Roof Deck & Maintaining E. 111 St.

(One of the climbers planted on the roof deck)


(Growing Beans)

(Another climber planted on the roof deck)

(Another climber planted on the roof deck)

(Primitive map of the sun pattern of the E.111 St. Garden. Yellow areas are the paths, Green areas are the different plants)

The herbs that we planted on the roof deck did not grow so I went again to replant them. Hopefully they grow this time. I replanted shiso, summer french thyme, basil and rosemary. I also went to the new garden at E. 111 St. and maintained it. I cultivated the soil around each new plant, continued to fill in the rock outline of the paths and lightly watered the entire garden including the trees & shrubs.

-LLoyd Stacey Van Rossum

The First Harvest

Over the past few workdays we have accomplished alot. We went to the roof deck at W 108 St. and planted roses, climbing hydrangea, honeysuckle and wisteria. The purpose of which is to have them climb attached to the lattice work near the fence and entwined around the wooden furniture. I brought in compost from my worm bin in my apartment and added it to some of the most recent plants that we planted. We planted black beans & pumpkin. We went over to E 111 St. and added soil mixed with compost to the area where we removed the rocks, stones and construction debris. We began to harvest crops that are starting to sprout. So far we have harvested collard greens, radishes, arugula, lavender, bok choy and mint. Natalie made ice tea with the mint for us to drink. We have not yet made a decision as to whether we will sell our produce at a farmer's market or to the food Co-Op that I recently joined, so each worker has been taking the harvested plants for our own use.



- Lloyd Stacey Van Rossum

Work at a new site

(John C. & Natalie)


(Tara using the shovel)

(Stace hauling away debris)

(Juan hauling away debris)

(Johnny watering the shrubs and trees)

We began work on a new site. We began to remove gravel, large stones and buried construction debris from a back yard on East 111 Street. With help from John C. and the Green Team we will turn the back yard into a garden.


- Stace Van Rossum