This pipe in the Gowanus Canal has superfund written all over it. Has the cleaning begun?[* see comments]We walked over the bridge and looked at the garden in the sidewalk.
There is a red rose I have not seen here before. But I see it growing in the front gardens on Union Street...
And all the yellow loosestrife: Lysimachia punctata. Do not confuse with purple loosestrife (Lythrum - do not plant).
If you like this garden, here are some of my previous posts about it:Gowanus Garden in Peril
Gowanus Garden, winter.
Sunflowers at the Drawbridge
Have you read "Education of an Urban Farmer" by Novella Carpenter? It's a great account of how she did guerrilla gardening on the mean streets of Oakland. Real farming. With chickens, ducks and a pig.
ReplyDeleteDon't you really love it when a gardener says, "this is dirt. I can grow whatever I want here." even when "here" is pretty tough!
ReplyDeleteHave never seen yellow loosestrife before - gorgeous. And kudos to the gardener!
Purple loosestrife has become a serious pest on the Liesbeek River here in the Newlands area, so I am pleased that you say "don't plant" Is it an unpleasant invasive alien in the USA as well?
ReplyDeleteI love the yellow lysimachia, never seen that here in Cape Town.
Lisa - a pig! I will look for her book...
ReplyDeletewebb - yes, it reminded me of An Episode of Sparrows, a wonderful book about a little girl who starts a garden in bombed-out London - by Rumer Godden.
Lyn, really? That's bad. I made the mistake of using purple loosestrife myself before I knew any better: it's popular because it's beautiful, of course.
The pipes have nothing to do with Superfund. They are part of the flushing tunnel work.
ReplyDeleteMr Brown - thank you for a clue: so, from your site I found the Anonymous comment that said:
ReplyDelete'They are building an aeration system that will pump air into the canal water with the intent of improving the level of disolved oxygen (DO) in the water. The DO levels are typically too low in the canal to meet Clean Water standards, and are expected to plummet when the Fluching [sic] Tunnel is drained to do the rehab work.'
I had never heard of the Flushing tunnel, so Wiki said:
"The existing method to control the pollution of the isolated Gowanus Canal was the installation of the Flushing Tunnel on June 21, 1911, which for a time supplied clean water to the upper reaches of the canal through the brick-lined 1.2 mile (1.9 km) tunnel via Butler Street to Buttermilk Channel between lower Brooklyn and Governor's Island."
Totally le fascinating.
I adore this garden. I remember seeing it from the very beginning when I lived a few blocks away. amazing
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