New Camera Mania

Here are a few pics from work this

week.

This is a roof top garden I maintain in a fancy neighborhood in lower Manahattan. One of my co-workers did all the plantings and, for now, I go weed and water once a week. It is nice to pretend that I live in a fancy building with a private rooftop garden. I also like seeing all the other rooftop gardens around me as I work.

This is one of the areas that I rotate through for watering it is called hoops and frames. It is my favorite place to water because I get to be alone, I get to do a lot of grooming, and you get to experience plants that are in a variety of life satges i.e. seedlings, diseased, dormant, rooted cuttings, damaged, and etc.

This is a pic of potting up which were grown from digitalis seeds, common name fox glove, that I had collected about five weeks prior.

Here are some cuttings that Will and I did. After trimming them off the plants and dipping them in rooting hormone we firmly plant them in these trays and then they get put underneath a mister for a few weeks to a month.

The first pic is of an Eryngium species that I collected seed from and the second pic is the seed separating process.This is super fun process which reminds me of grade school science class when you dissected a marigold to understand all of it's reproductive parts. If you have a magnifying glass it is also fun to take a closer look at the seeds. The magic/science of a seed is so amazing to me. The power in nature around us is truly inspiring.

Here I am working at the potting bench dividing Bromeliads. This was fun too, but I felt like a bone doctor when they have to

break something to repair it. The roots are very dense and not easy to cut through, I actually broke a sweat. Bromeliads flower and then they send out new baby Bromeliads which are called pups. Once these pups reach a certain size some people prefer to go in and remove the mother plant, which is what my goal was here. At Wavehill they don't have enough space to keep every mother plant and all her pups. If they did eventually they would be known as Bromeliad Hill. HA!HA!

Here is Diana's plant of the week Berlandiera lyrata in the Asteraceae family.

This was Rachel's family of the week Thymus. There are many different species of thymus in the dry garden so she chose to do the genius as a whole.

Osi chose Salvia discolor which is in the mint family Lamiaceae.

Jen chose Lavendula which is also in the mint family Lamiaceae.

I chose Santolina but I can't fit anymore pictures into this post.

Have a nice week/end y'all!

Birthdays and over due Blogging

Well Well!
I just got back from a great trip to Chicago and southwestern Wisconsin. I go home for my birthday every year because I like spending it with my family. I need that grounding that celebrating my birthday with my family gives me. We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden and I got to test out my new digital camera. I also had a very nice visit with the director of Horticulture, I felt like my dad and I got as close to VIP treatment as is possible for not knowing anyone in the hort dept.

As per usual the CBG was in full swing looking beautiful despite a staff decrease, pay cuts, and benefit cuts. It is hard out there for public and private gardens right

now. They just aren't getting the funding that they are used to. I know we are going through the same thing at Wavehill Garden in the Bronx.

At Wavehill Garden none of the gardeners took pay cuts but they had to reduce their staff and take unpaid furlough days last winter. Anyway I got a little excited about my new camera so please pardon all the plant photos.

I had to snap a shot of this beautiful Copper Beech they have, which

is looking very healthy! I always liked this tree as a younger person and now that I am working in the horticulture field I have a even greater appreciation for this tree. The name Copper Beech comes from the color of the newly emerging foliage in the spring. The copper color of the new leaves is quite a thing to see as the light passes through them. Though it only lasts a few days as the foliage quickly turn to the deep red green you see in this photo. Unfortunately many Copper Beech trees are dying because of a higher incidence of bleeding canker and a type of fungus that both affect the bark and trunk area. This tree is probably half the age of the ones we have at Wavehill.

This plant smells amazing! I

couldn't believe the aroma that came into my nose the moment I stuck my face into the thick leaf growth of this commonly known Curry Plant!

First time seeing this super cute vine. It has a great chartreuse color and asparagus fern/cypress leaf feel.

This is not all I saw but I don't want to make this post to long. Lets just say the more I learn and do in horticulture the more I like it. I was staunchly against growing plants for non-edible purposes. But now my ideas about that are changing and I am understanding the validity in propagating ornamental plants more and more.

Gardening and things

Well!
It has been a while since I posted anything I guess I have been busy. I just got back from a very lovely weekend in Pittsburgh! I love that place! It's a beautiful city full of people I adore. I am moving into a new place this week and the internship is going great.
Today I spent the day working in the shade border planting. I have been doing a lot of weeding lately and I feel like I am pretty darn good at IDing weeds right now. I also have successfully rooted three cuttings from a curly willow. Which I hope to turn into bonsai over the next few years one for my dad, one for my boyfriend and one for me. But if even one grows with success I will be happy.
It's so easy with this particular plant. I just stuck the cuttings in a glass with some water and let them go.
I have now worked outside all day in the pouring rain, the blazing humid sun, and cold windy overcast days. I have to say while not always pleasant I love being outside. Experiencing all weather is, I feel, one of the beauties of life. Although I do prefer to watch the rain from a porch or a window, I can honestly say working in the rain makes me feel alive.
Wavehill is a beautiful place and I feel it is and honor to work there. I know I am an intern, which means I do a lot of hard labor, but most days it really isn't that bad.
Thats all I really have to say. One of these days I will get a camera and I will be able to show you all the beauty that I help tend to everyday.
Peace and love'
Tronners

Wavehill Spring

last week was nice,
And the week before that for that matter. The weeks seem to be flying by and I can't keep up with blogging all that I have learned. At first I was blogging everyday and then once a week and now it seems every two weeks. The work days are so full of different activities that need to get done, because it is spring, that before I know it is is Friday again. Another thing I have been dealing with is getting used to the schedule. I am so tired at the end of everyday, If I didn't live with my boyfriend, who is amazing and has dinner ready for me when I get home from work almost every night I don't know what I would do.

Well lets get down to it. Pricking is the process of pulling apart tiny little seedlings that have grown up together and potting them up into tiny little pots. This is a big task this time of year because of how many seedlings Wavehill does each season. Unlike other gardens they still propagate a huge amount of their own plants.
I have also been working in the dry garden on divisions of different herbs, mints, and oregano. I also learned the three d's of pruning, meaning you can prune anytime of year if these conditions are present. Thd d's are disease, dead, and damaged.

I will be starting a new watering area this week which is kinda sad because I have become very attached to the palm house. But I will still be working with the same gardener I worked with last week. Also this weekend will be my first weekend that I work. This means starting today I will be working seven days in a row.

Have a good week folks!

Wavehill Week 3

Well Well,
Another gorgeous sunny day in the Bronx or should I say Riverdale. By the time I got home form work last Thursday at 7:30pm I was cursing New York up and down. I was pissed about my hour and twenty minute commute, my measly pay, and the high coast of living in New York, the lack of produce at Traders Joes, plus the super long lines at TJs, and of course walking home tired and wayed down by dirty work clothes and groceries. But then the weekend came and it was fabulous, I went to the MOMA to see Marina Abromavic's retrospective, ate cheap idian food, ate cheap mexican food, had lovely espresso with my man after a great bike ride, and went to my beekeeping class. So I love New York again and all is right until the next super deadly slow commute day hits me again.
Anyway more to the point what did I do last week at Wavehill and what did I learn!
Well I worked with one of the full time gardeners most of the week weeding, dividing grasses and things, staking peonies, grooming plants, potting up cuttings, taking cuttings, weeding some more, dug out a tree and a vining euonymous, and had plant of the week.
My plant of the week this week was Equisetum ecripoides which dates back about 375 million years.

All in all a good week but a late post about it.

peace y'all

poem sunday ;)

my heart
wrapped up tight
in the flesh of your skin
settles in between
tight airy places,
the life wrinkles of palm,
the crevice of elbow meeting arm,
the envelopes of hairy thighs.

my heart
becomes a warm water
when looking upon
your Mediterranean eyes
and that strong boned nose

my heart
wanders over our bodies
as we sleep
and makes
quiet love between
our touching toes

After the Rain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RniiekRdbZg
this is hottttt!