Sidewalk Greenspace on New York's Upper West Side
We had a first flush of strawberries a few weeks ago, with several coming ripe each day for weeks on end — and then there was a long dry spell, and I figured the heat had been too much, and we’d have to wait for the fall for more fruit… so I was pleasantly surprised to find another cluster of flowers forming, and am glad that we can look forward to a few more sweet treats later in July.
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.)
I think these might be ready to eat by tomorrow…
There are several varieties of mint-family plants that have colonized our sidewalk planters and return from seed every year, but my eye is not acute enough to figure out which this is — hopefully it’s a spearmint, but more likely to be a lemon balm or catnip.
[Update:] Jury is still out but it’s most likely a lemon balm.
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!
