Union Square Greenmarket
http://www.cenyc.org/greenmarket
1 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003 (Map)
Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday from 10AM to 6PM
Lots of locally grown fruits & vegetables, flowers, wine, seafood, and baked goods, etc.
Click here to launch a PDF which lists all the Farmers, Fishers and Producers at Union Square.
Some of the great reviews from Yelp:
"This place is a great way to support local growers and producers."
"Then we gulped down some icy, homemade apple cider ($1), and that was absolutely delicious."
Plant of the year 2009 – Nicotiana
The National Garden Bureau has named Nicotiana the plant of the year. Nicotiana is also called the tobacco plant. It's very easy to start the seeds, I didn't get these seeds until a few weeks after the last frost date, so I just sow the seeds directly outdoors. The seeds are very fine, so when you plant make sure you mix it with the top 1-2 inches of the soil, this way the seeds don't get blown away by the wind.
Nicotiana is new to me as they're not normally available in the regular neighborhood nurseries. What caught my attention about this plant is they have a very sweet scent, long blooming, drought tolerant, and takes full sun. These seeds were won from a container gardening tips contest by Life on the Balcony.
The Edible Garden @ New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden is hosting a special event called The Edible Garden. This event is all about growing your own vegetables and fruits. Compare to last year, I've grown more vegetables and herbs this season to save on grocery bills. Many New Yorkers don't have acres of land to grow vegetables but I've noticed more and more dwarf varieties are available these days. It is very easy to grow vegetables in containers. Take a look at the "NYBG Plant Talk" widget I added to the right-hand side of this page, you'll find some interesting topics such as "Gardening in Tough Times" and "Vertical Gardening".
So what kinds of vegetables can you grow in containers? Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, cucmbers, loose-leaf lettuce, and bush beans do very well in containers. Here are some suggestions from NYBG for container vegetable gardening:
Tomato: 'Patio Princess', 'Tumbling Tom', 'Husky Gold', 'Sweet 100', 'Roma', and 'Better Bush Improved'
Bush cucumbers: 'Salad Bush', 'Spacemaster', and 'Fanfare'
Watermelon: 'Bush Sugar Baby'
Cantaloupe: 'Honey Bun'
Pumpkin: 'Baby Bear', and 'Baby Boo'
Carrot: 'Short n' Sweet', and 'Little Finger'
Lettuce: 'Baby Oak'
And of course, a blog post is not the same without pictures, so here are some pictures I took at NYBG. Happy container vegetable gardening!
The New York Botanical Garden
200th St
Bronx, NY 10458
http://www.nybg.org/
