Sidewalk Greenspace on New York's Upper West Side
We planted a few strawberry plants in one of our sidewalk containers last year where they yielded a few tiny berries, and I wasn’t sure they’d built up enough strength to survive the winter, but here we are in the middle of March and I’m pleased to see that they’ve put up a health set of new growth.
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.
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.
The grapevines have begun forming their flower buds, and with a bit of luck by the end of August this will be a little cluster of American fox grapes.
Someone left a sprouted sweet potato lying on the dirt in one of the garden planters this spring, so I dug it in just to the level of the surface and it’s been very happy, with four vines coming off of it, each six feet long and happily tangled in the fence trellis.
I’ll need to do some research to know how to over-winter it — do I just leave it in place and assume it will die back and resprout in the spring?
This year’s crop of grapes is small, and won’t be ripe for at least another month, but I was reminded of what we have to look forward to by this photo of a prior year sent in by neighbors Roy and Mary — thanks for sharing!
This week’s warm weather has encouraged the grapevines to open their first buds.
As grapevines swell with new growth, old bark splits and peels to reveal new bark underneath.
I planted the runner beans too late in the season — we did get some nice vines, and some lovely flowers, but by the time they were getting ready to set fruit it had already turned cool, and in the end there was only one actual pod that was large enough to harvest, yielding just four beans — hardly enough to be worth cooking, so I’ll set them aside to dry and be planted next year… hopefully a little earlier this time!
Last of the little yellow pear tomatoes from my windowsill.
