Category Archives: Gardening

Concrete Jungle: Laxton’s Progress Shell Peas, Manhattan Bridge, NYC

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One of my pleasures in life—one that combines in a strategic way my humanistic impulses with my unbecoming “Told ya so!” competitiveness—is proving to people that they will in fact enjoy foods they now despise, so long as they have them my way.

Dark greens like kale and collards are prime catalysts for achieving this conflation of the altruistic and the vain, but so are peas, an early treat from the year’s bounty.

Most of us know peas as at best little green balls filling up a freezer bag best used as an ice pack and at worst mushy gray globs taking up plate space next to the mashed potatoes.  This is a travesty.

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Seedlings of the Night

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Cheeky little scamps! I recently came across some personal ads and glamour shots that our seedlings had been planning on posting in the local paper. And you try to raise ‘em right….

Morning glory seedlingMorning Glory

Long, leggy beauty seeks someone to wrap herself around. Enjoys sunrises and hopping fences. Shorties need not apply.

Pea shootEnglish Peas

Fancy a little British invasion all your own? Early bloomer seeks same. We could be like two in a…well, you know.

Rainbow chard seedlingsRainbow Chard

Me: A colorful personality who’s not afraid to be different. You: A connoisseur who won’t skimp on the butter when you saute me over a long, low heat.

Kale seedlingRagged Jack Kale

Tired of that limp-legged sissy chard? Right this way, baby, to the manliest of the greens. Don’t believe anyone who says I’m too tough, though—slide me into your oven and I’ll crumble.

Lessons Learned

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vegetable summitPas de Carrotte

Conferences are not really my scene. The crowds, the terrible coffee, the frenzied schmoozing—it all makes me grumpy, even (or maybe especially) if it’s to celebrate a rather quiet and solitary pursuit like gardening. But I’d landed in an auditorium in the Bronx with thousands of other community gardening folk for 2012 GreenThumb GrowTogether, listening to the NYC Park Commissioner tell us that children needed to play with mud pies instead of Xboxes. It’s a sentiment that I don’t disagree with, but something about this preachy and half-assed pandering to the crowd sparked a flame of irascibility in me that was to burn steadily for the duration of the event. Luckily, the political speeches were broken up by a group of adorable Brooklyn dancers recreating a scene from Harlem’s Savoie in the 1930s. Everyone was too relieved to question what any of this had to do with gardening. Continue reading →