We’ll be hosting a small social event in our sidewalk garden next week, and if you live nearby or are a friend of the garden, you are welcome to come and socialize with neighbors from the block.
Garden Party, June 11
Welcome to the Garden!
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.
Scroll down for more photos and updates, or follow the garden on Bluesky.
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.
Curbside Rainbow
It turns out that the hose is good for more than just keeping the plants hydrated…
Edifices With A Colorful History
The set of three residential buildings that abut the garden were built at the end of the 1800s, and have been home to a succession of interesting characters over the intervening century, as laid out by Tom Miller in his blog Daytonian in Manhattan.
Spring Showers, Vibrant Greens
We’ve had a good bit of rain this last week, and it’s helping to keep everything looking bright and verdant.
Planting the Broadway Median
A number of volunteers joined the staff of the Broadway Mall Association this week to add some native plants to the median between 106th and 107th.
It was fun to meet some other folks who care about greening urban spaces, and to spend a couple of hours digging in some aster cuttings and spreading a layer of mulch to nourish and protect the soil.
The association’s horticulturist, Ian, shared a bunch of interesting details about the median plantings — it’s amazing how much life can be sustained in just a couple of feet of soil piled up on top of an urban subway line!
[Update, June 8:] A pair of contractors swung by that same spot this afternoon to repair a rusted-out section of the low chain boundary that runs along the edge of the median.
Welcome Our New Gargoyle!
Earlier today we spotted an online “curb alert” from a neighbor who had seen a small gargoyle sitting in a sidewalk trash pile, spurring me to dash out in the middle of a video call and snag it for addition to our sidewalk garden.
It’s currently surveying the herbs, but next week I might move it to sit among the sunflowers…
Potager Garden Bed
Most of the garden is accessible from the street, but there is one bed that’s behind a locked gate, which is where I’ve placed much of this year’s herbs and vegetables.
It’s just five square feet, so it’s not going to replace many trips to the grocery store, but I’ve crowded a bunch of things in so my neighbors and I can have a couple of tasty nibbles this summer.
From left to right, more or less: bibb lettuce, ghost peppers, sweet banana pepper, chives, two varieties of spinach, basil, habanero peppers, leeks, peppermint, Caribbean red hot peppers, and corn.
(The corn is unlikely to produce any edible ears, as it’s tricky to pollinate in isolation like this, but hopefully it will at least be picturesque.)
Garden Signage
I finally got around to putting up a little sign with the name of our tiny sidewalk garden, and a link to the website for folks who might like more information about the various plants.
Broadway Treebeds
I did a bit of cleanup work in the treebeds along the east side of Broadway from 106th to 104th Street this week: cleaning out some trash, breaking up the compacted top soil, and mixing in a couple of bags of compost. I’ll come back next week to scatter some flower seeds and hope that a few of them will come up over the summer.
Caring for treebeds in this high-traffic area can be frustrating — fresh trash is tossed in them on a regular basis, dogs routinely urinate along the edges, and it’s challenging to get the storefronts to put any effort into maintaining them — but I remind myself that they’re still better off with some care than without, and perhaps over time we’ll see greater community engagement.
Spring Cleaning
After a long winter, and a couple of weeks out of town, I finally spent a few hours out in the garden getting ready for the growing season: cleaned up a bunch of last year’s foliage, mixed in two cubic feet of compost, and planted two flats of colorful annuals.
I was super pleased that two neighbors jumped in to help — one aerated the planters behind the fence and dug in some flower seeds, while another cut and attached new pieces of bamboo to reinforce the outdoor bench. (A third had swept up trash and dried leaves while I was out of town last week.) So nice to have the community support!
