Monday, March 22, 2010

GRDN Brooklyn

On our first full day back in New York I had to garden. And I needed some potting soil or compost, the latter easier to find, ironically...Garden shops and hardware stores: please stock bags of compost! Please. Pretty please?

Tony's, my regular hardware store, had only Miracle Gro potting soil. Crack for plants. So we headed to GRDN (on Hoyt betw. Pacific and State), a dangerous place, as one always leaves with something extra. I was trying to be frugal.

The shop was filled with stunningly fat and bright hybrid primroses, hardly the shy flower of the hedgerows, but they looked beautiful. Outside I found violas, and left with three quart pots, at only $4 each. Not bad at all for a retail store. Also organic potting soil, so we left with two bags.

I spent the afternoon root-pruning my fig, repotting a sage, a calamitha and the surviving oregano, and sowing some of Dan's Fire Island hollyhocks.

If it stops raining today I'll plant my garlic cloves.

12 comments:

  1. would figs grow in a sunny window? so glad you are safely home...

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  2. Thank you Karen :-) So am I!

    I have no personal experience of figs indoors and imagine some pest problems...Spider mite comes to mind. Then again, citrus can do well indoors, if scrupulously looked after, and perhaps a fig might, too. I think it's worth a try. Think of all those Victorian glass houses and what they grew...pineapples, grapes.

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  3. You're back in harness, then! Didn't take you long.... Is the cat speaking to you yet?

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  4. Marie,
    Thanks for stopping by to comment on my blog. I loved following your South African journey -- glad you're back in the U.S. now, but what a disjoint between camping in the southern hemisphere and doing garden chores here!

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  5. I did finally get a Meyer lemon, perhaps I'll see how it goes, before I try a fig...

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  6. I can understand that need to get gardening as soon as you got home...your creative and nurturing batteries probably needed recharging! I'm tempted to get a Meyer lemon, too...

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  7. I can't wait to here about your garden this spring and summer. I love all your posts, but the gardening, cooking, and hanging out at home posts are the best!!!

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  8. welcome home! wait, what is root pruning and should i be doing that to my poor figgy?

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  9. Rachel! The cat started to speak to us the minute he was back in his red coat...makes him all cuddly and cute.

    Laurrie - and yet - both are routines easy to fall back into. Is that a good thing? Don't know, but I like the sort of regular spiderweb weave of rules in different environments. Keeps insanity on the other side of the tentflap, or front door.

    Karen...but of course you do mean to keep the fig/lemon outdoors in summer? I was thinking of all-year-round indoors. Get a fig get a fig! It is Thomas' fault we're all getting Meyer Lemons, isn't it?

    QC - yes, I think you are right :-)

    David - I have taken note. Maybe I should have a sister blog for the travels. 66 Sq Ft on the road? Too much cross-pollination here...

    Bonbon - I'll write a short post about it...:-)

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  10. Love the Miracle Gro comment; I never buy it if I have an alternative.

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  11. Noilly Prat and Cassis sound just about right, exactly what I think all figs need. Wish I could find some NP here!

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