A Flower Grows in Brooklyn (Botanical Gardens)

On our last trip to New York, our friend suggested we stop through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  It was our first (real) stop after a morning departure from home and four-hour drive. The flowery pathways and beautiful gardens made for a great place to stretch our legs and kick off vacation.

Add a visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to your New York City itinerary

There is, of course, a schedule of events and talks and demonstrations, but we didn’t do any of that. Instead, we met our friend and wandered around, enjoying the blooms and fragrances of the various themed gardens. Here's a few.

The Fragrance Garden, with all the smell-good flowers.  We might’ve even picked a mint leaf and sniffed at it through out the day.

The Japanese garden, my perennial favorite at any garden. This one has the requisite lake and pavilion.  If I lived nearby, I could imagine bringing a book and a cup of tea for an afternoon of peace and quiet.

The Waterlilies. Another one of my favorites. Flowers growing in water is quite fascinating to me. And as a black-thumb gardener, it seems like a good option, the opposite of a cactus, but maybe just as easy?

 

Bonsai Gardens.  I'm amazed by little teeny plants and trees and the patience required to cultivate such little greenery.

If you're going, what you need to know

• The Gardens are closed on Monday
• Admission is FREE on Tuesday, but a relatively good price the rest of the week ($12 for adults, $6 for kids over 12, kids under 12 are free anyday)
• It’s next to the Brooklyn Museum and you can get a combo Art & Garden ticket

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Photo challenge - Day 6: My window "garden"

I love those houses with beautiful flower gardens along the front walkway or a perfectly nurtured garden in the backyard, with space to sit and sip a glass of sweet tea and enjoy the outdoors, with a light scent of flowers.  But I am notoriously a terrible gardener.  My husband buys my fresh cut flowers and silk plants, and the few houseplants I have depend on my mother's visits for their livelihood.  But that doesn't stop me from going to the garden store, Home Depot, or wherever to buy live plants for my house.

Come spring, I always buy a few pots of herbs and, if I feel daring, a cherry tomato plant.  As long as the plants survive, I enjoy my little garden harvest.  Fresh basil with slices of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes, also all great ingredients for a grown-up grilled cheese sandwich.  Oregano for a tomato sauce or season chicken.  A mint plant - mojitos, anyone?

So far, I've picked up basil and parsley (the one on the right, already browning), but have yet to replant them into something prettier.

The plant in the middle belongs to my son.  Its a Venus fly trap that he picked out at the Flower Mart; I guess this is what I get for making a boy spend a beautiful Saturday wandering through aisles of flowers.  Apparently, as I found out that afternoon, ever since he saw his cousin's performance in "Little Shop of Horrors", he's been researching man-eating plants and wanting to get one.  Hopefully, this one will only eat the bugs that come in when someone leaves the door open and all the children will remain safe.  

Accidental herpetoculturist*

According to my 8-year old and www.allaboutfrogs.com - it takes anywhere from 6 – 12 weeks for tadpoles to fully develop into 4-legged, rippit-ing frogs. Which means somewhere between mid-August and late September, my backyard will turn into our own frog zoo.

I did not intend to cultivate 100’s of tadpoles in my backyard. Nor was I prepared for the aquatic jungle which is developing. My intention was to clean out my garden.

Several years ago, my husband spent a couple weeks clearing trees and the yard and laid out a pretty, relaxing, sitting garden. There are Japanese maples and spruce trees, a wooden bench, a bird-feeder and a pond. Although we selected features which were supposed to be low maintenance, as it turns out, its not exactly maintenance-free. Earlier this summer, I spent days shoveling out the leaves, scooping out the muck, shooing away the mosquitoes, weeding the uninvited plants, and mulching the garden space. I filled the pond with fresh water and a few plants from Johnson’s Garden supplies. With a couple new teak chairs and a small table just large enough for a glass of sweet tea, my sitting space was renewed for the summer.

Then one day, I noticed some little black things floating along in the water. Tadpoles! How did they get in there? I’ve only seen one frog and he (she?) was covered in muck, scooped out while I was cleaning the pond and eventually hopped away. Apparently, frogs leave their babies in what seems a safe environment and go on about their lives. At the same time, the 4 leafy floaters that I started with have also bloomed and grown, occasionally shooting up a pretty purple flower, and covered the pond surface.

On the one hand, the prospect of a yard full of frogs is making me a bit nervous. On the other, I’m pretty proud of myself for having a thriving garden, seeing as I recently had to throw out a cactus that couldn’t survive my not-green thumb.

I’m hoping these tadpoles will turn into some pretty colored tree frogs (but not the poisonous kind) rather than big fat bullfrogs. And I hope they don't knock over my sweet tea.

*one who keeps reptiles or amphibians for the purpose of breeding