Smashed Plants

And so my prediction of an early end to the season in my new plot on the side of the house came true. At least in part. Workers doing tasks on the landlord's building danced on the plants. Too bad, because if I had known when they were working, maybe I could have prepared. Well I learned an important lesson: don't plant right up against a house, leave three feet of working space.


Not that my garden is some kind of foundation planting, but just that there is so little space I needed to use every last bit of it. It could be said that every street-side garden in NYC is a foundation planting. Google foundation planting and all you seem to get are commercial articles about the project. Its maybe unfashionable to talk about it in the garden design crowd, but commercial landscapers do it by the truck load. I think it is funny how one of the articles mentions that people today like to garden privately in their backyards. This is true, but its also true that I like to garden in the only yard I have-the front. Its public and I appreciate the relationship I develop with the people in the neighborhood via this activity. I'll do a post on this in the future.

Anyhow, make it possible to get to your house if work may need to be done, sparing yourself the agony of smashed plants. Or pull out the plants before the worker's arrive. So as not to end on a bad note, here is a picture of my "Sheffield Pink" Chrysanthemum, doing well in its first year in the garden.