Buddy Garden » Gardening Events

Cherry Blossom at Brooklyn Botanic Garden

BuddyGarden — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:33:47 +0000

It's been a while! I wonder how many of you are still reading this blog but I haven't forgotten about it. It has been a long year and I had to deal with some health issues. However I'm back stronger and healthier than ever! The planting season has started again. I'm planning on going easy this year as our apartment complex is doing some construction work on all the decks. Our deck is in pretty bad condition and I hope to either have them re-stain it or take it down and build a new one depending on costs. We would need to move everything off the deck while they do the construction, so I will probably just do one or two plants in addition to a few perennials that I already have.

Here are some pictures I took at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The weather was perfect and I was able to take a lot of pictures.

2010 NYC Grows report

BuddyGarden — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:40:38 +0000

I debated whether or not to go in the rain because walking around Manhattan with an umbrella is no fun! Since I've been waiting for this for so long, I don't want to regret it afterwards. So I put on my blue polka dot rain boots, umbrella in my hand and hit the city! I already had plans in case the show was no good, I was going to just hang out at Max Brenner (a chocolate theme restaurant near Union Square) and go shopping afterwards.

I got there not expecting much because of last year's disappointment. As I got closer to Union Square I saw tents and thinking that's a good sign, at least they were prepared for the rain. I entered the show from the side and immediately saw many sponsor booths, gardening and cooking demonstrations, nicely decorated mini-gardens. They had big sponsors like Whole Foods, Organic Valley, Toyota, and woollypocket (will talk about this later, pretty cool stuff). I spent a couple of hours there and got a lot of goodies.

I had mixed feelings after the show. Every year I feel like this event is driven by sponsors and those sponsors are not always gardening related. I had a good time at the show but walking away wishing there would be more gardening related demonstrations or workshops, etc. I still remember when Target was the sponsor, they had more gardening related activities. Having said that, I think they did a fantastic job and if I were to pick the best booth, it would be the Organic Gardening magazine.

2010 NYC Grows

You see all the beautiful vertical garden? It's the first time I've seen such a big display of vertical garden and I have to say it's pretty impressive. It's called the woollypockets. I don't know if you can see in the picture above the hot chocolate, there's a small tree in the bottom 'pocket'. I was tempted to buy one at the booth, but I thought it was too expensive and I wasn't sure if it's going to work. I think it's great for people who live in apartments or condos who have limited gardening space.

2010 NYC Grows

BuddyGarden — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:23:28 +0000

The annual NYC Grows is coming up on Sunday April 25, from 10am to 4pm. I've been to this festival two years in a row and the first year was a lot of fun. I remember coming home with a lot of free goodies and plants. I also enjoyed the different gardening demonstrations and had fun talking to other gardeners. They even had a container gardening session which I enjoyed a lot. Last year's festival was just okay, I was kind of disappointed because there were only a few booths, no gardening demonstrations and no goodies. I had a feeling it was due to the bad economy and lack of big sponsors. I'm hoping this year will be as good as the first year and I hope the weather will cooperate! I'll see you there!

NYC Grows
Sunday, April 25, 10AM - 4PM
Union Square Park View Map
Manhattan, NY
Event website

Holiday Train Show

BuddyGarden — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:43:39 +0000

Today I attended the Blogger VIP tour of the New York Botanical Garden Train Show. This was actually my second time visiting the train show but I had a different experience compare to last year. Since the tour was during the non-peak hours hours 2pm to 4pm, there weren't a lot of people and I was able to take my time to enjoy the artists' beautiful work.

NYBG has been doing the train show for the past fifteen years and it gets better and better each year. This show is all about miniature replicas of famous New York architecture buildings. Everything is made by dried plant materials--orange slices, cinnamon sticks, pods, pine cones, twigs, bark, and berries! It takes a team of 20 for about 10 days to create the whole display. It is definitely a must-do if you're visiting New York City during the holidays.

Can someone remind what's the name of the stick-like plant (The ones in between the angels in the picture)? I think it has a japanese name but I don't remember what it's called.
- Thanks to Marc... the plant is called Syngonanthus chrysanthus ‘Mikado’ (Eriocaulaceae )- Pipewort Family

Figures are made out of pistachio shells, honeysuckle vines, and wheat grain. Hair is made of tree lichen, yarrow, and dusty miller.

New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show
November 21, 2009 to January 10, 2010
10AM to 7PM

Address: 2694 Dr Theodore Kazimiroff Blvd, Bronx, NY

http://www.nybg.org/hts09/#families

Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden

BuddyGarden — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:08 +0000

If you're going to be in the New York area, don't miss the annual Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden. They are going to transform the courtyard into a beautiful Kyoto garden. You'll see flowers and trees such as Japanese maples, Japanese black pines, bamboos, ferns, and different colors of chrysanthemums.

October 17 - November 15, 2009
The New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx (Directions)
The Garden is open year-round, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Union Square Greenmarket

BuddyGarden — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:09:25 +0000

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."

The Edible Garden @ New York Botanical Garden

BuddyGarden — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:30:38 +0000

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/