Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Street Tree Gardens Blog is Born

Winter is setting in around NYC streets, and most of the tree pits are filled with fallen leaves, planted with cabbages, or simply weeded and left empty. It is a sad time to begin writing about street tree garden pits, as they close up shop for the year, and yet, some tree pits already have bulbs in them, tucked neatly underground, dreaming of spring.

I'm beginning this blog to write about tree pit gardens, if they can be called that. These small, exposed squares of soil, sandwiched between parked cars and garbage cans, abused by dogs, peds, bikes, and kids: it is amazing that anything will grow in them at all! I'm starting this blog to chronicle what IS able to grow in and around street tree pits, and the stories of the gardeners that cultivate these tiny, yet frequently visited gardens.

If anyone out there has some street tree garden stories or pictures to share the successes, failures, or other misadventures in street tree plantings, please send them in. Like the bulbs nestled next to the roots of the city's street trees, I too am dreaming of spring.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great to see a blog on this fascinating subject. It is amazing what people do in those small spaces (even if it is sometimes ill-advised -- I mean would you eat anything grown by a NY street?) Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Please let us know if you find edibles in a street tree garden!

I am so excited about this blog. When I wrote for treeinfo.org (now defunct) I collected photographs of tree wells. If I can locate the photographs I will share them with you.

Something tells me you were an English major. Great writing.