Above a parking garage, a community garden is growing with help from volunteer Monica Willis. (MICHAEL SOFRONSKI)
Brooklynites Emily Wood and Jeff Lai put the “Garden” in Carroll Gardens. (
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Greenhouse developer BrightFarms just announced massive plans to build a 100,000-square-foot hydroponic garden — which would be the world’s largest rooftop garden — atop a warehouse in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. It’s projected to yield 1 million pounds of produce per year. But New Yorkers don’t need to have massive financing or an endorsement from Mario Batali to reap their own fruits and veggies.
“People have been gardening in the city for a long time — forever, probably,” says Monica Willis, a contributing senior editor at Country Living. “Any random empty space in New York City, somebody’s trying to figure out how to grow something on it.”
Willis is one such urban gardener. For 17 years, she’s been working the soil at the Lotus Garden, an Upper West Side community garden. Need more food for thought? Here’s the dirt on some different types of gardens around the city.
BACKYARD GARDEN
When Emily Wood, 31, and Jeff Lai, 33, first moved into their Carroll Gardens apartment in March 2006, they decided to reclaim the backyard as farmland (the previous tenant had turned it into a sandbox for their children). The couple had intended to get rid of the ugly clumps of sticks jutting out of the ground, but in May, when leaves sprouted, the plants revealed themselves to be a fig tree and a Concord grapevine. Every year since, the couple, who dubbed their row-house plot “the Brooklyn Farm,” have added another container of plants, figuring things out by trial and error. “It just keeps getting better and better,” says Lai, a graphic designer who hadn’t had any gardening experience until then. This weekend, the home farmers are adding compost to enrich the soil in preparation for planting beginning late next month. Follow their progress at brooklynfarm.blogspot.com.
Good to grow: Tomatoes, red peppers, green beans, tomatillos, blackberries. “We’ve tried to buy tomato plants from the farmers market, but they don’t compare to the productivity you get from Home Depot,” says Lai, who doesn’t start plants from seeds. “It takes a lot of work,” he says. “You start them inside most of the time, but our apartment is so small, we don’t have the space.”
Growing pains: Feral cats run around and trash all the plants. “We tried putting plastic forks in the pots, which worked, but then we had plastic forks sticking out of everything,” says Wood, a floral designer. “It was so ugly, we couldn’t take it. But [the cats] keep away mice and squirrels.”
Pests: Even Brooklyn has crop-destroying aphids, so the couple alternates between natural sprays and aphid-eating ladybugs, which they purchased in previous seasons from Gowanus Nursery (1,500 bugs for less than $10).
Planting time: Late May, early June. “Plants won’t survive unless it’s consistently warm,” says Lai.
Farm to table: “Last summer, we made a lot of tomato sauce using just raw tomatoes and garlic, and then tossed it with hot pasta — it’s amazing,” says Wood. “We steam the green beans with a little lemon and butter — they taste so alive and fresh. We eat the blackberries — plain, or make jam or cupcakes with them.”
COMMUNITY GARDEN
When Monica Willis first walked up the gated stairway and onto the roof garden above an Upper West Side parking garage, she was dumbfounded. “I couldn’t believe that steps off Broadway, you’re in this magical garden with a peach tree, Concord grapes and two fish ponds,” says Willis, who’s lived nearby for nearly 20 years and is one of 29 volunteer gardeners for the 7,260-square-foot plot.
The Lotus Garden, on 97th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue, is about 20 feet above the street and surrounded on three sides by apartment buildings. It has thrived on a 3 ½-foot soil base since it opened in 1983. The north perimeter is lined by a metal guardrail that doubles as a grapevine trellis. At the height of the growing season, the vegetation is so lush, visitors work their way through the garden like a maze.
Access: Open to the public on Sundays. Or, join the roughly 700 other members to get your own key for a $20 annual membership fee.
Good to grow: Concord grapes, peach trees, Alpine strawberries, tarragon, witch hazel, chervil, parsley, lemongrass, several varieties of basil and mint, catnip, lemon verbena and lavender.
Farm to table: Last summer, Willis used ripe peaches she’d harvested to bake a pie. “People have also made jams and pies with the grapes,” she says. “I’ve made a glaze for pork with peaches.”
How to join a community garden: Check out the city’s community garden program at greenthumbnyc.org, or try just walking around your neighborhood to find one.
ROOFTOP GARDEN
In Bushwick, Elaine Espinosa has been rooftop gardening since 2008. “My original intent was to save money and have better tasting food,” says Espinosa, a 35-year-old real estate agent. “Now, it’s more for pleasure.”
When searching for her current Brooklyn apartment, she wanted a place that had private roof access with ample sunlight. She found the fourth floor of a Bushwick low-rise. Espinosa has since become a serious gardener, offering tips and instructions via her Web site (bucolicbushwick.com).
She starts everything from seed. “It’s a lot easier to start with plants, but the price of convenience is limited options,” she says. “From seeds, you have the entire Internet to choose from.”
Lesson learned: Start with only one or two crops. “I first started with peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers and peas,” says Espinosa. “I didn’t realize the amount of labor and time it involved.”
Roofer’s tips: Watch the sun’s path. “I have the entire roof, but I only garden on 20 percent of it,” says Espinosa. “In the summer, it gets really hot, so you need shade during the hottest part of the day. I cluster the plants next to the chimneys so there’s minor shade and wind protection.
Be vigilant about watering: “With tomatoes, you have to watch out for water stress,” says Espinosa. “It can be very hot and windy on a roof — so keep them hydrated.”
Good to grow: Orange Paruche cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, Tasty Bite melons, Gretel eggplants, Lipstick sweet peppers.
Farm to table: You don’t have to be a gifted chef to use what comes from your garden. “I’m not the world’s greatest cook, so I’ll do something simple, like a tomato sauce,” says Espinosa. “Or I’ll just eat fresh fruit raw as soon as I take it off the plant.”