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.

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.

Appearance in BNHG “2020 Project”

Thank you to local musician Vita Wallace for submitting her photograph of the garden to the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group’s “2020 Project,” a multimedia record of life in our community during the pandemic.

The gardens on, around, below, and above the stoops here are always fruitful and wildly wonderful. This year, the Black Lives Matter messages made them especially poignant.

Vita Wallace, July 14, 2020