Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Archive: September 2013

Poetry in Passing

Posted in Around the Garden on September 12 2013, by Matt Newman

Every now and then our visitors step up to surprise us, and this is certainly one of those times. Our Director of the Thain Family Forest, Jessica Arcate-Schuler, was making her way across the grounds this week when she came to the waterfall overlook of the Bronx River. It’s not a roaring cascade, but calm and picturesque, with a talkative rush that even the Garden’s caretakers seldom hurry past without a pause.

Standing at the rail, Jessica noticed the corner of a note poking out from a gap behind the sign there, but it wasn’t trash. Someone had wedged the paper there to be found. So she plucked it out from its hiding place and read it.

Morning Eye Candy: Dusky Angles

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 12 2013, by Matt Newman

Seldom-seen sunset lighting should lean toward common as we near the winter months. The Seasonal Walk seems all the more dramatic with the sun signing off for the evening.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

The Redback Salamander’s True Colors

Posted in Wildlife on September 11 2013, by NYBG Science

Not every research program that takes place in the Thain Family Forest is geared explicitly toward the trees, though the work done there does tend to knit together at the end of the day. Think of it as a domino effect; an influence on one organism can herald a drastic fallout for others in the web of an individual biome. And, in some cases, certain varieties of plants or animals are relied on as indicator species—”canaries in the coal mine” that speak to the overall health of a given area, signifying changes for better or worse that might otherwise be too subtle to recognize. Salamanders, wherever they’re found, are often a flagship example.

In recent years, a handful of studies here have focused on the small salamander species that call our Forest home: the northern two-lined salamander (Eurycea bislineata), a water-reliant species native to the U.S. and Canada, and the terrestrial redback or woodland salamander (Plethodon cinereus), a species that has evolved to live away from water. Considering how delicate these quick, slippery little amphibians are on average, it’s quite the feat to strike off and make a living under rocks and leaf litter. Of course, even a particular resilience among their own kind doesn’t excuse them from the effects of climate, urbanization, and other challenges.

Morning Eye Candy: In Memoriam

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 11 2013, by Matt Newman

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

This Week at the Greenmarket: Fill Your Crisper Drawer!

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 10 2013, by Matt Newman

I know it’s hard to wait an entire week between visits to the Greenmarket. Your crisper drawer dips below “stuffed” into “somewhat full” territory and you start wondering what you’ll do for your next vegetable soup, salad, or ratatouille niçoise. Lucky for you, it’s almost Wednesday! We’ll be back tomorrow with our local farmer friends, offering plenty of options for refilling your stock of fresh, late-summer edibles.

This week, expect plenty of apples, pears, plums, melons, tomatoes and peaches, along with some fresh Concord grapes ripe for snacking. On the vegetable front, we expect to see another wave of piquant peppers, including jalapeno, cayenne, and sweet varieties. You should also see corn, tomatillos, herbs, beets, cabbage, and no end of varied baked goods. Something tells me there could be some Mexican-inspired dishes in your future if you know how to mix and match your produce picks, but that might just be my lunch cravings talking.

The NYBG Greenmarket runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Wednesday through November 27, with free short-term parking for Greenmarket shoppers. The market accepts food stamps, EBT, WIC/FMNP, and Senior coupons, in addition to cash and credit or debit cards. Learn how to use EBT, WIC and FMNP at the Greenmarket.

Basil Bonanza

Posted in Gardening Tips on September 10 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

We all have good intentions. Recently I was perusing well-known quotes on ‘good intentions’ when I came across one that I liked from Jeffery Kluger, a senior writer at Time Magazine. It reads as follows: “There’s a deep-freeze of sorts for all good intentions—a place that you store your plans to make changes in your life when you know you’re not going to make them at all.”

This blog entry is about making good on ‘good intentions’ which may incidentally involve a deep freeze. Every year I plant at least four different types of basil. I do this partially for experimental purposes, though mostly because I love having fresh basil around in the summer. But how often do I actually use it?

That is where good intentions come in. Often basil from my garden or from the store lies around the kitchen before it is all used up. I am ridiculously frivolous and wasteful when it comes to basil. Try as I might, there is something about summer that just does it to me. I swear I will be more vigilant and still it blackens and wilts before my eyes.

What, then, can be done to excess basil to ensure that it is put it to good use throughout the year? When I buy or pick a large bundle of basil, the first thing I generally do is stick the long stems in a glass of water to keep it hydrated. I use it like a vase arrangement and place it on the corner of my kitchen counter at arm’s length from my cutting board.