Persistence

 
At the end of the Pelham Bay 6 train line. . .











. . .high above a bustling Bronx street,

life's persistence never ceases to delight and amaze. . .

. . .each and every day.

In the Heart of Midtown...

. . .a different kind of pulse.

GuestPeek: Butterfly Garden

My friend Karen and her daughter, Kalena created a butterfly garden in their back yard!

Karen is a Librarian (woo hoo!) at Riverview Branch Library in Florida and she'd hosted a Master Gardener program on butterfly gardens at her branch a couple of months ago. She thought it sounded like an easy gardening project for non-gardeners as well as being good for the environment, so decided to gave it a try!
 

Why is this exciting?

Due to destruction of their native habitats or the plants they eat, butterfly populations are decreasing or even going extinct. The creation of a butterfly garden represents an intentional act to try and create or restore habitats favorable to their life cycle and survival. 

Since butterflies also happen to be flower and plant pollinators, they are an essential part of the food cycle. Environments that attract butterflies also tend to attract other types of insect pollinators. 

Basically, if WE want to keep eating,
we need the pollinators!

As you can see, Karen and Kalena already have a few visitors!

Hat tip to Karen and Kalena for taking on this project, and thanks so much for sharing, with us here at Permie Peeks! If you live down in that area, and want to learn more about the Master Garden Extension programs, click here.

Restaurant Greens

Urban Renewal

GuestPeek: Kady's Herb Garden

Even in a NYC apartment space can be found to grow food. . .

Pictured here--  basil, rosemary, mint, chives, thyme, tarragon, parsley, and chili peppers. . . 







. . .but with the change of  seasons there are plans to swap out the herbs for some winter veggies. . .potatoes, carrots and beets. . .

Mmmmm. . .yummy! 

Kady, thanks for sharing 
your gardening pix and plans with Permie Peeks!

GuestPeek: Fresh From the Balcony!

My friend Jennifer and her boyfriend, grow edibles on their balcony.  I'd been asking her to send pix for while and she finally did!

Pictured here are lettuce and kale.

Thanks Jennifer!

GuestPeek: Neighborly Gardening

A brief but unexpected break between posts at the Empathic Writer blog (authored by Erik Harris) prompted some concern on the part of her listeners/readers. In response, Erika was quick to assure us that all was well. Not to worry!

With the arrival of the warmer weather she had turned some of her attention to a few outdoor projects, one being several vegetable and herb beds she and her neighbors had planted in a shared residential yard.

 



Engagement with nature and one's neighbors in the real world, is a wonderful excuse for taking a break from the virtual one!

Erika, thanks so much for sharing these shots of your shared
gardening space with us here at Permie Peeks!

Path to Paradise

The future site. . .

. . .of my Indoor Edible Garden Paradise. . . !

. . .bringing a little bit of the outdoors inside. . .

Stay tuned!

Pedal to the Metal

NYC launched its bike sharing program this week, with 300 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, for a total of 6,000 bicycles.

There's a station in the pedestrian plaza across from my office building, which seems to be getting a fair amount of use.

It is hoped that bike sharing, among other things, will help to reduce traffic congestion, while boosting air quality and physical fitness for users.

Just Getting Started!

At work, last month, we celebrated Earth Day by inviting Anne Pope (Founder & Executive Director) and Kady Ferguson (Director, Zero Waste Program) of Sustainable Flatbush to talk about the organization and all the great things they're doing to green their Brooklyn community.


As an added bonus, they showed us how to make little seed starter pots by wrapping newspaper around a jar and then tucking in the ends.

 

If all goes well, a few baby basil sprouts should be poking their heads out any day now.

Fingers crossed!

Urban Infill

Beantown Serenity

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few days at a conference in Boston.

Respite. .  .

Amidst the Prudential Center's complex comprising of 3.2 million sf of office, retail, hotels and a ginormous convention center, was this wonderful little open air park and garden. Read more about it here.

click image to enlarge

In NYC, during a comparable weekday, a delightful place such as this would have been filled to the brim with people, but in Boston (at least while I was there), incredibly, it was almost always empty.  Go figure!

. . .Habitat

It combined both straight edges along with curvy, rounded ones. . .and had two fountains (nice Feng Shui!), one in the shape of a spiral!

But what I found really exciting were the

         beautiful plantings

                           gently sloping grass area

                                                           winding gravel pathway

                                                                                      slate pavers

. . . Permeable Paradise!

Down in Front

One of my neighbors is nice enough to take the time to plant flowers in the front of our building. 

They're just a couple of small planters. . .

 

. . .on either side of the entrance,



but I still enjoy them and that he makes this effort. 

Life is But a Dream

Row, row, row your boat . . .

 . . . gently down the stream. . .

 

 

. . .merrily, merrily. . .

. . .merrily, merrily. . .

   . . .life is but a dream!

Idyllic?  

Perhaps. . .

. . .but eventually we will need to wake up to the fact that whenever it rains or snows, precious resources, are irreparably lost down the city's sewers, which can lead to other problems, like CSOs (combined sewer overflows).

 You can read more about those here.

Taking Back the Streets. . .

 

. . .slowly, but surely.

Green on the Go

This weekend I volunteered at the New New York DIY Block Party.

One of the vendors there was the Biobus. That would be interesting enough, but what really caught my eye was a little patch of green on the roof at the back of the Biobus.

It's called Bus Roots and was conceived of by Marco Antonio Castro Cosio. His idea is to create a fleet of mobile green roofs on the tops of city buses!  Read more about it at here).

Sounds like fun to me!

Subversive Blossoms

Sometimes a solution cleverly disguises itself
as a problem or adversity.

Some may view these plants tucked away behind bars with dismay, but I choose to look at it another way . . .

. . .as an unequivocal statement on the part of the residents

 on this block to include beauty and nature on their street. . .

One. Way. Or. The. Other.

YOU GO!

Here Comes the Sun!

Earlier this year I was pleasantly surprised to spot this installation of solar panels on the roof of a home in my neighborhood. Although I am aware of a solar panel installation in a nearby commercial district (about a mile away) I think this may be the first  (only...?) residential installation.

I hope the first of many!