We’re looking at something of a harlequin schedule for this NYBG weekend. We’ll be bouncing between ancient meditative arts and the trade secrets of the rosarian, then back over to organic gardening, garlic and onions, and around to a tour of Monet’s Garden. It’s the best kind of variety! And after enduring what felt like a month’s worth of rain in only a few days’ time, the forecast tells us mother nature is taking a welcome breather. Not only is the weekend likely to sport sunny afternoons, but there shouldn’t be any frightening thermometer readings to scare you back indoors.

For those coming to see Monet’s Garden in its summer finery, the Conservatory display is in rare form right about now. The delphiniums along the Grand Allée are a dusky sky blue, and just outside, the courtyard’s water lily pools are brimming with colors of their own. Even the later-blooming tropical pool is starting to strut a bit! But my personal favorite is easily the ‘Green Smoke’ Nymphaea I found bobbing along the water’s surface yesterday; I can’t think of a better way to phrase the sight than “petals like absinthe.”
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Skip your morning affair with the everything bagel and get to the root of summer’s freshest garlic and onions! As Assistant Manager of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, Annie Novak’s got a direct line to the most basic of foodie cravings–a knack for not only raising all things allium, but putting them through their paces in the kitchen. So if you happen to catch a whiff of this pungent pair as you wander the NYBG between now and the end of the month, simply “follow your nose” to our Sweet and Stinky events.

That’s just what we were doing when we found Annie hard at work in the Family Garden yesterday, tending to the herbs and alliums that star in this flavorful summertime activity. But she can explain the fun of Sweet and Stinky far better than I can, as you’ll see below. Just think of it as a double whammy: you’ll have something to engage your kids while they’re out of school, and they’ll be trying new things in our one-acre vegetable garden to boot.
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I read in the paper (I’ll give them up the minute subway tunnels offer 4G) that Wednesday’s thermometer topped out at 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Times Square, placing New York City’s temperatures almost on par with those of Dubai. We’re better off at the NYBG, of course; lush grass and acres of shady trees tamp down the heat some. But don’t get me wrong, Manhattanites–it’s not like I’m trying to rub it in or anything. Not really.

There’s an upside to summer in the city beyond fruity cocktails and flip-flops, and it’s none other than “Sweet and Stinky,” launched just this week to celebrate the passing of the solstice. As an amateur chef, albeit one paradoxically awful and ambitious, I feel like this is the kind of hot-weather activity every cook-out fan should get in on. This stuff smells heavenly with some heat behind it.

“If you’re walking around the Garden and you smell sauteed onions, you’ll know it’s us!” said Annie Novak, Assistant Manager of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.
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