This Weekend: Bronx Diversity in the Family Garden

Posted in Around the Garden on August 17 2012, by Matt Newman

Despite what the average travel agent will write on your final quote, you don’t actually have to max out your credit cards to enjoy a taste of the global landscape. Instead, you could just spend some time driving through the Bronx. Block to block, you’ll pass through communities sampled from a half-dozen continents, enclaves built on traditions of culture and cuisine. Korean, Irish, Chinese, Italian, Caribbean–they’re all represented in the people of our borough. And they’re all here, too, growing in the NYBG‘s Global Gardens!

This weekend, the Garden celebrates the bounty of our efforts with the Summer Harvest Festival, joining our knowledgeable Global Gardeners for a romp around the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. Bring your kids along for garden games, crafts, or a taste of what’s ripening in our many diverse plots. And for the parents (or especially precocious young chefs) there will be cooking demonstrations taking place at 2 and 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Afterwards, hitch a ride on the tram and make your way to the Home Gardening Center, where our ever-insightful Gardener for Public Education, Sonia Uyterhoeven, plans to dole out the fruits of her knowledge on the harvest of your most eye-catching crops. You’ll not only come away with a better idea of how to groom your flower garden, but a beginner’s education on creating an envious flower arrangement to boot.

Home gardens can be pleasant to look at, and useful, too! So think about getting outside this weekend; hop the subway uptown to the NYBG, and learn your way around the practical side of the grower’s art–whether edible or aesthetic. Just don’t forget the sunscreen. These 80-degree afternoons suggest fall is well on its way, but nobody’s told the sun just yet.

Saturday, August 18

Global Gardens Summer Harvest Celebration Weekend
In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden

Celebrate the summer harvest season of our five Global Gardens. Earn stamps in your passport by exploring each of the Global Gardens: meet the Global Gardeners, play garden games, create cultural crafts, or sample pickles. Cooking Demonstrations at 2 and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Home Gardening Center ASL Tour — 12:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center

Join a Garden docent on a guided ASL tour inside a series of model gardens and display areas whose plantings and programs are designed to teach anyone how to create a beautiful, productive, and trouble-free garden.

Home Gardening Demonstration: The Cutting Garden – 2 p.m.
In the Home Gardening Center

Experience your garden inside as well as outside. Join Gardener for Public Education Sonia Uyterhoeven as she takes you through the cutting garden. Learn the best tips and techniques for cutting and arranging flowers.

Monet’s Garden Tour – 2:30 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

Join one of the Garden’s docents for a tour inside the galleries of the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where horticulturists of The New York Botanical Garden bring to life stunning re-creations of Monet’s most iconic gardens at Giverny. In the Conservatory Courtyard, the focus on the artistry of the great Impressionist continues with a display of water lilies.

Sunday, August 19

Global Gardens Summer Harvest Celebration Weekend
In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden

Home Gardening Demonstration: The Cutting Garden – 2 p.m.
In the Home Gardening Center

Forest Tour: Secrets of this 50-acre Woodland – 12:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center

Experience the beauty of the Garden’s 50-acre Thain Family Forest on this one-hour walking tour with an expertly trained docent. You’ll learn facts about the trees, history, geology, and ecology of this original, uncut woodland.

Monet’s Garden Tour – 2:30 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

Ongoing Children’s Programs

Children’s Outdoor Nature Explorations: Observe and Create
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, through September 30
Weekdays 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. / Weekends 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Let your inner Monet run wild and be inspired by nature to create art in all different forms. Movement, music, drawing and painting abound in this outdoor studio for children. Stop by Inspiration Station to play our outdoor marimba. Paint with water and experiment with colors in our Color Clash Studio. Step inside to experiment with the engineering behind aquatic plants. Nature is art–discover it at the Adventure Garden. Also on view: an exhibition by students from Studio in a School.

The Edible Garden
Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, through October 31
Daily, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The Edible Garden returns to the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden this year, bringing plenty of events for both adults and kids alike with daily, family-friendly activities, cooking demonstrations in the Whole Foods Market Family Garden Kitchen, and hands-on gardening fun.

A Garden friend and chef extraordinaire, Mario Batali takes a featured role in this year’s Edible Garden. Visit the beds of herbs and vegetables in “Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens,” where you can pick up some of his favorite recipes. Later, join Mario and other top chefs for The Edible Garden Festival, featuring tastings, harvest activities, and a chance to sit down to dinner with the man himself. Your culinary delight begins in the garden! Visit summer through fall for the best of the harvest.

This Weekend: Bronx Diversity in the Family Garden

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