Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Barbara Damrosch

Student Eagerly Awaits Garden Talks for Inspiration

Posted in Learning Experiences on February 17 2010, by Plant Talk

Looks to Renowned Lecture Speakers for New Ideas

Pamela Davis, a Master Composter with the New York City Compost Project, is a Landscape Design and Environmental Gardening student in the Garden’s Continuing Education Program.

Now with the winter weather, I am limited to “armchair gardening” until I start my plants by seed indoors next month. Gathering all the gardening catalogs and magazines I received recently, I sat down on my couch with a cup of hot chocolate and proceeded to review them.

The first magazine I looked at was the February/March issue of Organic Gardening. I opened to the “Features” section and noticed there was an article by Barbara Damrosch. I was introduced to her book The Garden Primer as recommended reading for the vegetable gardening class I took in pursuit of my Gardening Certificate through the Continuing Education program. Her book is clear, concise, and full of so much information for beginner and experienced gardeners alike. I read it like a novel! So I just knew that I would be in for a treat reading her article.

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Eating With the Seasons

Posted in Learning Experiences on February 9 2010, by Plant Talk

Author of The Garden Primer Encourages Growing Food Year-Round

Barbara Damrosch, author of the recently revised The Garden Primer, writes a weekly column for The Washington Post and has designed display food gardens at Stone Barns Center in Westchester. She will discuss growing food year-round as part of the From the Ground Up Lecture Series on February 18.

The anticipation of flavor is the best appetite stimulant, as all kitchen gardeners know. It’s one thing to look forward to a meal, or a favorite dish. But a favorite crop in the ground is even more tantalizing.

The global supermarket cornucopia dulls the appetite by making every food available. Cooks can make any recipe, at any time, just by tossing ingredients into a cart. As a result, they rarely know seasonal tastes like those of garden peas, sown in early spring and harvested after long anticipation, bursting with sweetness as only fresh-picked peas can. Or the juiciness of the first red, ripe tomato, warm on the vine. Or the first corn, the first melon, the zing of sprightly fall greens such as arugula or mache.

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