Don’t fold up your handkerchief just yet! You’re going to need something to keep your hands dry this Wednesday, because August may still be National Peach Month, but the fuzzy fruit’s friends–the juiciest plums and pears–are sliding right into their summer harvests. That means Bartletts, Seckels, and more Italian plums than you can stuff in your reusable bag, all waiting to make the trip from this week’s Greenmarket stalls to your own personal dining room still life. You do have a fruit bowl at home, right?

Whether it’s that first, tangy-sweet bite of a plum you’re craving, or an afternoon spent snacking on pear slices in the last of the hammock weather, you’ll find ripe fruits, vegetables, baked goods and more stacked high for Wednesday’s NYBG Greenmarket. It runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and as always, one-hour parking at the Mosholu Gate entrance and Garden grounds admission are completely free. As with many of the greenmarkets around NYC, attending growers also accept EBT, WIC, FNMP and NYC Health Bucks.
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No such thing as a free lunch? Maybe not! But free fun is another story altogether. Thanks to a collaboration with The Cultural Landscape Foundation, The New York Botanical Garden is joining organizations across New York City for a weekend of exploring the most iconic landscape architecture our metropolis has to offer, and in our case, a special focus on the important design contributions women have made to the Garden’s 120-year history.

It’s called “What’s Out There Weekend,” and it’s likely the largest tour event you’re going to see this year. Just think of it as a giant field trip through the world’s greatest city, where you get to pick and choose your destinations as you go. On October 6 and 7–following the Central Park Woodlands conference on Friday the 5th–the Garden becomes one of 25 organizations across the five boroughs to open their gates, offering expert-led tours to registrants at no cost (unless you count a couple of MetroCard swipes to zip around town).
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Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen