Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden. Herbs are easy to grow and are rewarding for the culinary-minded gardener. It is better to neglect your herbs rather than take too much care or to fuss over them. The most work you will need to do is pinching back herbs so that they don’t get leggy or go to flower.
Most herbs like full sun; the few exceptions that can handle part shade are parsley, mint, dill, and basil.
Herbs like good drainage—if they are container-grown, normal potting soil will do.
Herbs tend to be more fragrant when not fertilized and kept lean—basil is the exception.
Basil, dill, and cilantro are easy to sow from seeds. Basil is not frost hardy and needs to be placed outside after the last frost date; cilantro on the other hand is a fast-growing, cool-season crop.
Mints have a tendency to be invasive and are best used as either container plants or planted in a large pot that is sunk into the ground. This will provide an effective barrier for about 3 years.
Experiment with herbs in your garden and have fun. This year we have ‘Doone Valley’ thyme and silver thyme (Thymus vulgaris ‘Argenteus’) in the vegetable garden; they both have a wonderful citrus fragrance. Cuban oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus) is a newcomer to the vegetable garden this year with its pungent foliage. It can be used just like sage in cooking. Basil ‘Red Rubin’ retains its red color even as it ages and is a staple in the Home Gardening Center, but there are so many others to choose from such as the exotic Thai basil ‘Siam Queen’.
You’ve been working for it all week long, and now it’s here! This weekend at The New York Botanical Garden is jam- packed with awesome weather and exciting programming. Plus, the magnificent trees provide us city dwellers with a beautiful, shady oasis, a great way to escape the heat and humidity.
If you are a huge fan of daylilies, like I am, then you won’t want to miss the Home Gardening demonstration devoted entirely to daylilies!
For those who love to cook—and to eat for that matter—you will be interested to know about the herbal scavenger hunt taking place in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. During the scavenger hunt you will get to smell, touch, and even taste some of the herbs.
And, if you haven’t yet seen the massive sculpture of Henry Moore, you’re missing out. There are many ways to appreciate these works, from participating in a walking tour to watching the Henry Moore documentary, the choice is yours.
Last but not least, there is a Native Plant Garden Tour on Sunday. If you’re going native, you must attend.
July finds the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden poised on the threshold of summer’s cornucopia—all promise and no produce. Okay, so there are onions. And sure, there’s rainbow Swiss chard, spicy loops of garlic flowers (scapes), and the last sweet snap peas before summer’s heat hits. But to our staff, without the happy buzz of the Children’s Gardening Program, it’s a two-acre ghost town. The vegetable beds are marked by towers of bolted lettuce. Tomato branches stick out as awkwardly as a scarecrow’s arms, while weeds fill in every available space below. Our beds seem to be groaning with the gangly green adolescence of plants. Looking over at the plots, it’s hard to imagine the bounty of eggplants, squash, cucumbers, and beans we’ll be cooking in a few short weeks. No, right now there are a lot of weeds. And not enough small hands in our plots—120 pairs of hands, in fact.
So with much anticipation, the beginning of our summer gardening program this past week left us both exhilarated and exhausted—nearly 200 children, instructors, volunteers, and parents pack into our two acres every Tuesday and Thursday morning (and another 100 every Saturday). Thankfully, at the end of each day, we feel mostly the former—an enthusiasm that has kept our program attendance burgeoning every year and our garden plots even richer as we continue to grow. Our Garden Sprouts offering is for children ages 3–5, and our Garden Crafters is for children 6–12.
One morning a returning Crafter, bent low between a row of peppers struggling to work through a thick patch of nutsedge, one of our most undesirable weeds, shook her head ruefully. “We stayed away too long,” she said, wiping her brow. “They’re taking over.” Happier news came when her instructor pointed out low-lying purslane, a succulent that snuck in between many of our crops. Popping it into his mouth, one seven-year-old Crafter reached a happy verdict: “It’s lemony!”
His planting partner, looking up from a careful investigation of his own section of the plot, had found an even better treasure: the first Sungold tomato of the season, bright orange among the green tangle. (Photo by Toby Adams)
Over the years, The New York Botanical Garden has been visited by a few of the “boys of summer” who have worn those classic pinstripes and played in baseball’s historic cathedral. Former Yankees center fielder and All-Star Bernie Williams dropped by during the winter of 2004 (seen at right with Bob Heinisch, our VP for Site Operations). Joe Torre, who guided the Yankees through four World Series Championships and was an All-Star player himself during his career, toured the Holiday Train Show with his family a few years ago as well. Other Yankee heroes and All-Stars who have enjoyed a visit to the Botanical Garden included Joe Pepitone and Willie Randolph (seen below, again with VP Bob). Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay even served as Master of Ceremonies for the Garden’s Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony in 2007.
This is the last year people will be able to step foot inside the “House That Ruth Built”—the new stadium opens next year. But you can wax nostalgic and still see a replica of the original Yankee Stadium—made of plant parts—at the Garden’s Holiday Train Show, which opens November 23.
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
Daylilies are marvelous additions to the summer border. They are easy to grow and have large, trumpet-shaped blooms that scream out “Look at me!” Hybridizing daylilies is a passion of many, and the market is always flooded with a multitude of options. Some are short, some are tall, some have flowers the size of your hand. The latest trends are for re-blooming daylilies that flower from July into September. Rosy Returns is a popular performer, Apricot Sparkles is a peachy compact choice, the dark-eyed Moonlight Masquerade will woe you with the striking contrast of wine and cream, and Indian Giver will quickly find a way into your heart with its iridescent rose-pink flowers.
While longevity of bloom is always appealing, don’t overlook the fact that a number of daylilies have fragrance. My favorite is a pale lemon-yellow daylily named Hyperion. It has a happy home in the corner of my vegetable garden and is the main attraction in July. Often plants are described as being fragrant when they have a light scent—this one is truly fragrant. Other fragrant daylilies include Kathy Rood, Fragrant Light, Scape Stopper, and Vanilla Fluff.
Another week has come and gone at the Garden. Don’t fret though; there’s plenty of summer left to go around. The delicious weather in store for us seems like the perfect situation to see the monumental works of Henry Moore. There’s also Home Gardening demonstrations, guided tours, kids programming, and much more.
Educator Anabel Holland is giving guided tours of Moore in America at The New York Botanical Garden
This summer’s Henry Moore exhibition at the Garden has me coming back again and again. The large sculptures hulk quietly throughout the grounds, not imposing themselves upon you but waiting to be discovered. Some hide behind trees or in enclosed gardens only to be revealed when you fully take in both the sculpture itself and the setting around it. For me the most breathtaking is Large Reclining Figure, 1984. As you follow the path up toward the Rose Garden, it slowly takes shape. The brilliant white of the fiberglass contrasting against the vivid green grass is a sight to be seen.
The most amazing aspect of Moore in America is its ability to transform. While walking around with tour groups, my view of each sculpture is constantly changing. In one group everyone sees elephant bones in many pieces, while in another the focus is on the texture and the way it affects the light that reflects off the surface. Not only do the subtle changes in landscape transform the pieces, as Moore would have wanted, but seeing them through someone else’s view is unbelievably eye opening. This exhibition is definitely a must see for the summer!
Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, and Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University, are interns working in the Communications Department this summer.
Any time you visit the Farmers Market at NYBG, you’ll find seasonal recipes that incorporate the locally grown foods available. These recipes are provided by Community Markets, which co-organizes the Garden’s weekly event and is dedicated to “supporting local agriculture, strengthening local communities, and making fresh produce available to neighborhoods with limited access.”
We tried out the recipe for Blueberry Blast Smoothie this past weekend. It’s a great energizing start to the day or a cool treat on a warm summer night. A delicious alternative is adding in some blackberries and strawberries. It takes on a mix of sweet and tart and even gives the smoothie a new color. We also added bananas to kick up the fruity flavors. The recipe worked great with soy milk or almond milk, too. Try making the recipe when all the ingredients are nice and cold.
Check out some great recipes for yourself after the jump, and make your way to the Farmers Market to stock up on the delicious ingredients!
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
The best advice that I have ever heard about staking plants in the garden is twofold: Stake early before the plants need it, and don’t put your plants in a straight jacket—the idea is to see the plant and not the staking.
The aim then is to hide the stakes in the plant; when using string or twine pass it underneath the foliage and work with the natural structure of the plant. There are many different staking techniques and products available to the gardener.
You can use store-bought products such as peony hoops that fit neatly over the plant and can be raised up as the perennial grows. A plethora of stakes are available in gardening centers and from catalog companies; find the ones that work for you and your perennials.
For some jobs you can take the bounty of your spring pruning and use the branches as stakes. I have done this in the vegetable garden in the Home Gardening Center using leftover butterfly bush (Buddleia) branches to hold up peas and climbing nasturtiums. The key here is to place the twigs close to each other and get them deep enough into the ground so that they can support the plant.
Most of the staking done in this garden is done the old-fashioned way, with bamboo stakes and string. The stake generally needs to support only the bottom half of the perennial; in this way it doesn’t obstruct the view of the flower spike and lets the plant move naturally in the wind.
If the plant can only be viewed from one direction, stake from behind. If the plant can be viewed from all four sides, place the cane in the center of the plant. Drive the cane deeply into the ground to give maximum support. When tying the stems, work the strings beneath the foliage. Make a figure eight around the stem with the string and tie to the stake. If the plant has multiple stems, loop the string around all the main stems and tie to the stake.
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
Herbs are easy to grow and are rewarding for the culinary-minded gardener. It is better to neglect your herbs rather than take too much care or to fuss over them. The most work you will need to do is pinching back herbs so that they don’t get leggy or go to flower.
