Free Daffodils for our Pits

Mark your calendars: Daffodil bulbs are coming! Free from the Daffodil Project. I have ordered 1,100 and they arrive October 21. We should also be getting mulch, hopefully around the same time.

A Grand Proclamation

Everyone had a terrific time at the Proclamation last week and Sen. Tom Duane made time in his busy schedule to stand with us. Melanie in Speaker Quinn's office is making copies of the Proclamation so every gardener can have one and the large framed version is currently with Paul. If you would like to have it for a week, it can circulate. Just send me an email request.

There are lots of pictures and I will post them on the Facebook page. But here is one from Lisa at 20th & 8th. (Note our signature cosmos and Dennis's vase of pit flowers which he presented to Speaker Quinn)
A golden cosmo to Sen. Duane, Speaker Quinn and all our gardeners. Flower Power!

Our Proclamation

A proclamation honoring the all the hard work of the club's gardeners will be read Wednesday, August 22 at City Hall at 1:30pm. Congratulations to gardeners and supporters alike.
Flower power!

Rotten tomatoes and other lovely things

Frederick Fleming House on 22nd has been making their own compost for a while now and has generously offered to provide the Garden Club gardeners with some of their extra compost.  I think if gardeners sign up for it then we can have each person pick it up as it become available. Send me an email that you would like to be on the list for compost and when your name comes up, I will let you know. (cgc.nyc@gmail.com)
Also our own compost bin at 22nd and 8th still could use some coffee grounds, fruit & veggies, brown napkins, leaves and plant matter. Remember when you clean out your pits, to save the stems, leaves etc. and put them in the bin. The sooner we fill it, the sooner we'll have compost!

Pit destruction and its aftermath...

Jared in Tom Duane's office did us a solid this week:
Several pits around 12th Street and Eight Avenue (our formerly unknown southern district) that Robert (17th & 8th) had also gardened, were ripped up without notice and all of the plants there destroyed. Christine Quinn's office helped find out who committed this dastardly deed and Tom Duane (and Jared) penned a terrific letter so that this does not happen to any other adopted pits without appropriate advance notice.
The letter is below.
A giant "thank you" to our guardian angels!

A Disturbance in the Force

So Eric caught a woman rifling through the plants in his pit this week and a nearby crossing guard told him she had taken plants out of his pit before (and possibly Paul's pit as well)along Ninth Avenue. Eric snapped a pix so if you see this woman (from behind) at a pit, tell her nicely to look but don't touch!

Beautiful Tree Bed Contest (deadline August 3rd)

Hurry, there are only three more days to enter the "Beautiful Tree Bed Contest" sponsored by Million Trees NYC!! Deadline is August 3. The winner gets a Home Depot gift card and other loot. Enter your tree pit or vote for Luis (who's already entered). Go to http://www.facebook.com/MillionTreesNYC/app_254553244581393

Experimental Compost Station

Some of you may have noticed the compost tumbler next to the pits on the south side of 22nd Street and 8th Avenue. It is an experiment in creating our own compost. (This is an unofficial project so let's keep its existence on the down low.)
**Bring your dead leaves, coffee grounds, egg shells and vegetable peelings and put them in the bin labeled #1.
 **We are supposed to have an equal mix of green stuff and brown stuff so if you bring vegetables, be sure to include an equal amount of brown napkins, shredded cardboard, newspaper, coffee grounds or dead leaves.
 **Please chop up both the greens and browns before putting them in the bin; The smaller the pieces, the faster we get compost. For example, if you put a whole head of cabbage in there, it will take more than a year to beak down.
 ** I will post a flyer above the composter for more detailed information.
 **Once bin #1 is filled we wait 3 months (fastest) to a year (for chunkier matter) until we get fine compost. Meanwhile we start filling bin #2.
** Remember patience is a virtue

 Flower Power!

Hydrant water

I have spoken with two people who assured me that the gardeners would not get into trouble for using the hydrants to water our pits. The first person was at the firehouse on 19th and 7th and the other was from Green Thumb, part of the Parks Department. She said she would see about getting us a letter we could laminate in case someone tries to ticket us. In the meantime, I have a hydrant opener so if you need water, let me know and we'll give it a whirl. Email me at cgc.nyc@gmail or call. You know the #. FP Missy

A very grateful and admiring shout out to the pits at 30th Street and 8th Avenue (right now our northern satellite garden). Easily one of the toughest locations to work but the plants and flowers really make a difference and look just lovely. Allen just quietly and with no help took it on and transformed that corner. Another spot/and person I have been loving lately is Kent who took on 23rd and 7th. I walk by there often and instead of feeling sullen and harassed there, I now smile at his beautiful flowers. Same goes for the southside pit with Phil's roses. You make me very proud. A golden cosmo for all of you. Flower Power!

Trees NY Party Thursday!

You are invited
to
Trees New York's Fundraiser Party!
Apr 19, 2012
6:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Collab
304 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013


Join us next Thursday at Trees New York's fundraiser party! Enjoy good company, drinks, food and fun while you support our programs!

The $40 ticket includes drinks, hors d'oeurves and a raffle ticket. Bring a friend to take advantage of the 2 ticket discount (2 people for $70)!

The raffle is full of great prizes including this beautiful coffee table made from a storm-downed Honey locust NYC street tree!

Since 1976, Trees New York has worked to plant, preserve and protect New York City's urban forest. Please come and support our programs!

We hope to see you there!

Warmly,
Susan, Cheryl, Nelson, Sam, Maeve & Lucian

Guerilla Gardeners

Luis sent me a notice of the annual meeting of the
Green Guerillas
(a community of NYC gardeners, farmers, composters and food advocates)
April 24th from 6 to 8 pm
Community Church of NY,
40 East 35th Street in Manhattan
RSVP at am@nycgreen.org

It sounds like our kind of people and a fun event.
Go to www.greenguerillas.org

Rough weekend

Sunday afternoon the pigeon lady showed up as I was helping Robert cut some netting (to keep her out!). As I stood on the curb and told her to leave the pit alone, she started whacking my legs with the bamboo backscratcher she was using to clear the plants. Well one thing led to another (no violence on my part) and the police showed up then all sorts of people appeared saying how awful the woman was. By that time she had stopped cursing and pinching me (hard) and started playing the "I'm old and confused" card to the police. She walked away, probably to another pit.

Earlier on Saturday as I was working on my pit, a couple of Williamsburg-type yuppies with a Llasa Apso, started screaming at me saying that I was vandalizing public property by putting netting up and that I had no right to garden in a public space and why didn't I just get a house upstate and garden there.

Aye carumba! All for a few flowers. But I'm attaching a picture that reminds me why it's worth it.
Flower Power!

Our neighborhood flower haters

As the daffodils peek through with the promise of Spring, the garden club is already facing threats from dogs and others out to damage the pits. The south pit on 21st Street and Ninth Avenue has become the go-to place for dogs, and along Eighth Avenue starting at 17th Street, a woman regularly sweeps away plantings to make room for her pigeons.

So if any of you see this type of activity, please ask the person (nicely) to stop. Take a picture and I will post it.

Also I have some deer netting we can put up to protect the pit. Just email me.

I have posted Chisholm Gallery's plea below:

Dear Chelsea Gardeners,
We need help and some advise. You might have noticed this “pigeon lady” around the neighborhood. For the last six months, daily, religiously, she has been tearing up the garden, so she can throw out food for the pigeons. After we politely pointed out to her that the pigeons will go anywhere to eat, and she doesn’t need to do it in the garden, she comes back with a vengeance. Annoyed that we would even ask, she has taken to pulling up the plants, when ever they might get in the way of the pigeons. She has even come up to our Gallery and pulled the small boxwood out of there pots and thrown them on the ground. Another time she threw on of the pots into the doorway. We have tried the police, but they never come in time, if at all. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Robert Chisholm
Chisholm Larsson Gallery
**** Now the jonquils are coming up in the garden and the hordes of pigeons just love their tender tops.

Less than 3 months until we see blooms!

I'd like to get everyone together in March to start planning our next season so start thinking about what we want to accomplish this year. Perhaps, fences, benches, plaques and grants? And don't forget composting!

Lots to do! Pencil in the first or second weekend in March. I might try and get an expert to come and give us some advice on plants and planting. If you have anyone in mind, let me know and I can collar them.

Flower Power!
Missy