garbage

Soiled Again




I saw the bag as I arrived home late last night. It was in the tree pit. I looked over in the side yard, but all was in order. It was too dark to see that the offending, aggressive individual had dumped their potting soil remains underneath the climbing rose matting down Gaura and Allium. This is the second dumping in two weeks -must be spring. Only one bit better than what I get in autumn -old, potbound soil.





NYC Tip




You have old potting soil, but that doesn't mean someone with a garden also wants your old potting soil indiscriminately dumped on their plants. The napkins and latex glove underneath aren't much help either.


Sex In The Garden

A few thought people having sex in the garden was unlikely, but, finally the evidence is in - condoms and napkins in proximity. I gotta get me one of those pickers we use in the park.

On a good note, the crocus are blooming.









 
It's been quite awhile since I have spent any time in the garden at the apartment. Fortunately, most of it supports itself without my help -and now is the time when so many plants are in bloom that you would hardly notice the mess. Two things drove me from that work today. One is the asian tiger mosquitoes, rampant now after almost none at all for most of the season. They like the dense foliage after all that rain. They sting, they drink, I itch and simply want out. The other thing is the garbage. Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before, but the nasty diaper? And the paper towels that literally filled up the poor man's patio. I know what they are for now, and if they're not, it doesn't matter because I think they are and that's enough for me to wish myself out of the garden.


Glass Act


I received a comment the other day with this info attached. If you live in the Fort Greene area, or you frequent the park, consider lending these civic-minded folks a hand.

"...my organization Broken Window is putting together a clean up of broken glass in Fort Greene Park. We intend to send the glass for recycling at a facility in New Jersey. I would love to ...get some kind of shout-out on New York City Garden, because we are still looking for more volunteers. Thanks so much!
Shana

Lord knows I've been cleaning up the broken glass in my small plot for years. I'm sure they can use all the help they can get. Check it out.


Thorn Turd



This is one side of our lovely building.

In November, the landlord decided to start replacing windows. His guy started with the upper apartments. He said he would do ours this January. So far, nothing. The window above is one of the new windows. It appears that he wanted to redo the windows before he did the siding, which he has been threatening to do since the expulsion. That sequence makes sense, and while I am loathe to open my place to the dust and debris of removing rotten window framing and walls, better now than when the garden is in season, right? I can take the dirt, the cold, but the plants, abuse them while dormant!

Unfortunately, many pieces of the old, rotten framing are tossed down below. One particular good toss unseated my rose trellis. Now the whole thing hangs lopsided. When the debris whacked the trellis, it snapped the main branches of my honeysuckle. I suppose that's not all that bad, it's never done well here anyway -too sunny and hot.

Amazing enough is how it sprouts new leaves despite the coldest winter in some time. I will move this plant this spring to the other side of the house. Where over there? I do not know. I gotta start giving things away.

One great pleasure of my neighborhood is that many people actually bag their doggy doo. So too bad that some folks decide it is then okay to wing the thing into my climbing rose. Particularly thorny the rose, particularly stuck sack of shit. Public gardening is a thorny enterprise and I grow weary.



Awesome


Chris over at The Occasional Gardener is now living in Malaysia (instead of NYC), revealing things that may be commonplace, exotic or unusual, and sometimes all three -such as this. What an idea, how silly that I didn't think of that. And how odd,too, because it is a stump, which is, well, as good looking as the word is poetry. Now I want to make one, using all my talent for re-presentation. I will make the best stump garbage container in all of NYC! How funny.



A Battery of Batteries



If your like me you've been wondering what to do with all those alkaline and rechargeable batteries that are no longer any good. I used to take them to Whole Foods, but they have since stopped taking them. I heard from a good source that they were not shipping them properly and as a result some containers were catching fire. Because it was unwieldy for them to comply with the law, they simply chose to stop the program. Sad for me and them, because the battery drop off was the only thing that would get me into the ridiculously crowded Whole Foods on Columbus Circle.

I have always been horrified by all the AA batteries I see collecting in heaps, near the drains of the subway station tracks. Take a closer look, they're dull and gray but hard to miss because of the cylindrical shape and size we all know well. This could be the worst place for people to toss their batteries. They slowly oxidize, leaking heavy metals into our waterways.

So what to do then? I bumped into David Hurd, Director of the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education at GrowNYC (formerly CENYC), last Thursday evening after work, which is the best time to get him talking about work. I asked him about the batteries. The next day he forwarded me these details:

  • It is illegal to throw rechargeable batteries in the trash (or subway tracks!)
  • You can recycle rechargables at select Greenmarket locations: the list.
  • Big box stores that sell rechargeable batteries must take them back. Use the locator!
  • The City of NY is working with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation for collection. You can join- its easy to get a drop-box near you!
  • What do they do with the batteries: see what here.
  • Ordinary alkaline batteries can be thrown in the trash: see the NYCWastele$$ site.
  • Or you can choose to recycle them at these somewhat out of reach, Dept. of Sanitation, non-commercial drop-off locations:
BRONX: Hunts Point at Farragut Street and East River.

BROOKLYN: Bay 41st Street and Gravesend Bay, south of the Belt Parkway (adjacent to the DSNY Brooklyn 11 garage).

QUEENS: College Point at 30th Avenue, between 120th and 122nd Streets.

STATEN ISLAND: Foot of Muldoon Avenue off the West Shore Expressway (440) adjacent to the DSNY Staten Island 3 garage.

MANHATTAN: DSNY garage at 605 West 30th Street, between 11th & 12th Avenue.


For even more information, see NYCWastele$$



Spring Cleaning

The warmish weather this weekend got me fired up for cleaning out the garden. I usually leave all the dead perennial branches over the winter, then wait for the first signs of life, usually crocus, to go out and cut them down. In that time, many of the blowing leaves get caught up at the crowns of the shrubs and perennials. Although many argue the points of cleaning up before winter or after, I choose to leave these and have had little problems for it.

Because we can have a late winter cold blast, I take my chances clearing out the leafy protection the new shoots enjoy. That said, those young shoots are pretty hardy and the chances of a prolonged deep freeze are unlikely. My plot here benefits from strong all day sun (equal to October 10th or so), a protective wall to the north and a warmed sidewalk to the south. All the more amazing that my crocus are just up now, where usually they come up somewhere in February.

The only real danger comes in cleaning out too late. I am always eager to get out there as soon as it warms enough to see green shoots popping through the leaves, but life gets in the way sometimes and I get out there later than I would like. If the bulb greens and new leaves of perennials are putting on lots of new growth, I may damage them with my rake (or my hand) as I clear the leaves. I can only avoid this by getting in to clean as soon as possible.

The hardy Aconitum -last to go in fall and first up in spring.


Surprised to see these daylilies coming on strong

I cleaned out two full size trash bags, which is hard to believe. Twigs, stems, leaves and lots of trash. All in all, it was a good 3 hours of work. I left the rose pruning to "some other time." I also got to chat with some neighbors, all of whom I haven't seen since I was last in the garden.



The Nearness of Spring

Hard to miss over the last few days, despite the remains of past snowfalls lurking in shadowy places, is the return of spring. Its in the air and the garden calls. I have not, as anticipated, planted any vegetable seeds for this years garden. We're going herbs and flowers in the side yard.

The side yard is a mess as always and now it has a pile of yew branches. A quick clean up of this winter's city garbage, a swift shoveling of the cat scat, and we're on our way. Some wooden planters will be disposed of, one or two will be kept. The compost pile might be transferred to a large nursery tub. Herbs will stay in pots. I do hate the tainted soil.


No Plant's Land



Have you ever seen those aerial photographs of managed landscapes and not managed landscapes adjacent to each other? They're meant to startle through the visualization of untenable differentiation. Not to minimize that, but this spot where the front yard meets the side yard has the qualities of those photos. Nothing, not even these dayflower weeds, will grow beyond this line. Its as if they know that that spot belongs to my landlord and just won't take the chance! He's a killer, a mad man they think. Do not cross that man. Don't even try it!


About three feet away where the Commelina communis grows rather wildly, people/person still like to leave cat food garbage in front of the garden. I have resisted to this point, but in spite of upsetting some feline friender (a word now, like friended), I will make a sign asking whomever it is to just quit it. I mean, do it in front of your own house. Isn't this despicable? Every day feeding the thousands of street cats in front of my house instead of their own -where, apparently, they would rather not lure them. I don't mind the cats so much, but you know, the garbage, and just the idea that they think my building, as trashy as it is, is the appropriate place for leaving stinkin food.

By the way, I am developing a notion that folks think vegetable gardening, as opposed to flower gardening, is a trashy activity. Why? All variables taken into consideration, people seem to dump more trash in my vegetable growing side yard. Is it because it speaks of work over beauty? Both sidewalks are residential and active. But the front yard always has flowers and the side yard pots with vegetables. Is it the weedy look of tomatoes? I suppose I'll never know, but it don't matter. Next year, I'm back to perennials over in the side yard with a handful of herbs because only those you need close at hand.

Bottled Up




If this were the first time, I'd be biting my tongue. But its not. In fact, just two weeks ago someone had deposited two bags of bottles and a 12-pack box of beer bottles in the vegetable garden. Why?

These are all recyclables. There are recycling containers in front of every building. Weekly, maybe even daily, there are folks who come by to take these returnables to the redemption center as a way of earning cash (I appreciate these folks), so why not leave these out on the sidewalk for them.

I know, drunk people doing drunken things. But doesn't it seem like more work to deposit bags and boxes behind a fence than to just drop em where you are? Why hide them? Are the owners planning on coming back to pick them up at some future date?

I put these out on the sidewalk and went inside. Shortly after a guy on a bike with trash bags attached to handles swooped in and picked the bottles up. Its that simple when bottles equal money.

Which leads me to supporting the new bottle bill that includes water, juice, and anything else in a bottle. Let's do it.

Proud To Be Your Neighbor



First of all, I found this to be both hilarious and effective -I mean if I had a dog I certainly would respond to Obama's authoritative affirmation.

The other day I was in the side yard watering vegetables. A tall, young man walking a tiny dog was crossing at the opposite corner. Out of nowhere I hear "You gonna pick that up?" yelled down the sidewalk. I look and see my diminutive neighbor, who I just met the other night over garden conversation, walking his big dog. Caught-in-the-act! Finally, someone is caught. And I was pleased that it was another dog owner that spotted him. The tall guy shrugs, no baggy man. My neighbor gives him a bag and a little bit of shit to go along with it. I was so proud.

The Colicky Gardener


I should've darted out to the garden this morning, but I stalled. By the time I got out there, I felt unmotivated, disabled from making decisions. I need to re-organize the vegetable planters for tall tomato growth and green beans. The soil beneath has lead amongst other things, so I need to put a barrier in so that the tomato roots do not tap the soil beneath as they did last summer. June is the worst time to organize the garden. Everything is in its prime and I'm fussin with it all. Its worse in the front yard perennial garden. All that heavy rain and quick growth led everything to surge forward into the fence and leave the back sparse. I do not like the look. Other things are overtaken, plants need to be tied up.

I blame it on post-residency depression. I suppose its only natural to swing low after the high of time in a new place, with all the time to do whatever you want. Now I must show up at work and while that isn't so bad, it makes me cranky -at least this week. And the work to do to catch things up to where I would like them to be seems overwhelming.




Trash in the Garden




I've gotten complacent, I just let it sit like fallen leaves. Unless its a telephone book or newspaper circular flattening some bulb shoots or something of that nature. I used to clean it up regularly, but now only so often. It keeps coming, never ceases no matter the season. But its in winter that I let it be the longest. It mostly blows in (infernal wind!), but I can tell a tossed bottle of beer or drug baggy from the blown trash. Bottles are more common in warm weather.


I live on a short, little-respected block. Two buildings on it, mine and the neighbor's. The neighbor's fronts the intersecting block so that the side of their house becomes a no-man's land of mostly dog-shit, no fault of their own. The opposite corner, mine, stands without entry or sentry and becomes a good place to toss bottles. But the whole garden fills up. I am reminded of Jonathan Letham's Fortress of Solitude:

"A fair question, actually. Did the renovators think this was Park Slope? Or what? Why should Dose have to carry them? Abraham and Dylan was one thing, but some of those brownstoners, David Upfeld, Isabel Vendle, the Roths, wouldn't look him or Junior in the eye, seemed to begrudge their place on the street. Upfield, out there each day in his Red Sox cap and handlebar mustache, picking litter from his yard. Glaring at PRs on crates in front of Ramirez's store, like they were ever going to quit tossing bottle caps and empty packets of plaintain chips in his forsythia."
pg. 461

Something else entirely? I dunno. I've gotten accustomed to the winter flower, the bleached colors of clinging trash. In the front yard, you gotta be cool. Or lazy.