Sidewalk Greenspace on New York's Upper West Side
I’m still gathering details, but earlier today I heard second-hand that a city inspector had announced the sidewalk garden was in violation of regulations and would have to be cleared.
I’m working to get official confirmation of this order, and if necessary, to find new homes for all of the flowerpots and plants that have made their homes here over the last decade.
Bloomingdale Garden is a tiny patch of green in public space on New York City’s Upper West Side. (The garden’s name pays homage to a traditional moniker for this area that dates back more than three hundred years.)
Located in containers and tree beds along the sidewalk of 219/217/215 West 106th Street, the garden only occupies about a hundred square feet, but provides a welcome splash of color to the neighborhood.
My name is Matthew Cavalletto, and I’ve created this site to showcase the flora and fauna that make their home in and around my garden, and to answer some common questions asked by passers by. I’ll also share some notes about my experiences as a gardener, in hopes that this will encourage other people to create their own pocket gardens anywhere they can.
In addition to planting a few hundred bulbs (yes, we know that it is late in the season), Peter and Michael of the Columbus Amsterdam BID also put in some work to remove invasive shrubs from the cycle lane median along Columbus.
(Not pictured: my son Alex, who had been operating the power auger to speed bulb planting.)
As is to be expected, many of the annuals in the garden have died back for the season — but a fresh layer of powdery snow highlights the ones that have retained their color despite the frost.
I thought our (very limited) harvest from the sidewalk garden was done for the season, but I discovered a few more jalapeño peppers hiding behind the foliage on the stoop next door.
I spent a few hours out with volunteers from the nascent 109th Street block association and then with the Columbus Amsterdam BID, planting flowering bulbs in the tree beds on four blocks just around the corner from us to bring up a little color in the spring.
Our little holly bush has set some colorful fruit for the oncoming winter season.
Summer may be over, but the sidewalk garden is still ticking along.
The asters which have looked plain all year are suddenly showing their delicate little flowers.
A couple of the rose bushes are still putting out new buds that are so intensely colorful that my phone’s camera doesn’t really know what to do with them.
The tomato plants are dying back, but throwing the last of their energy into ripening just a few more fruits.
And the giant sunflower has decided to go out with a bang.
It was only this spring that I learned that coleus is a member of the mint family — square stems, pointy leaf tips, spike of little flowers — but despite this fact you definitely should not eat it.
These little mushrooms popped up in one of our treebeds earlier this week, and will likely be gone in the next week or so, after they’ve finished releasing their windblown spores. But their web of mycelium will remain underground, where they help to break down dead plant matter, exchanging water and nutrients with plant roots in vast networks of underground fibers extending beneath the sidewalk.
I don’t know enough about mushrooms to be sure, but I believe these are examples of “Shaggy Parasol” a type of mushroom known as chlorophyllum, and I’m glad I caught sight of them during their brief visit aboveground.
Typically I’m excited to find unexpected plants cropping up in the garden; I know many people would classify these surprise visitors as weeds, but I’m usually happy to find something new that’s vibrant enough to make a go of it in the challenging environment of our sidewalk containers.
However there are a few exceptions, and when I noticed that a “tree of heaven” (Ailanthus altissima) had cropped up in one of the big grapevine planters, I knew it had to be removed. This invasive species not only has a tendency to crowd out other plants, it’s a preferred food source for the spotted lanternfly — spotted lanternflies flourish and produce more eggs when tree of heaven is present, and then go on to attack other nearby plants.
This unwelcome volunteer has now been banished to the city’s organics recycling bin, and I’ll keep an eye out for any siblings that may be lurking nearby.
