The education of a gardener

Gardeners are made via experimentation and tutelage. I've had the benefit of four NYC gardens in which to try my hand, plus the advice and help of my dear Aunt Cynthia Van Hazinga who lives in Greenwich Village and phone consultations with my father, John Van Hazinga, mad gardener of Hillsborough New Hampshire.

My first New York garden was a wonderful rooftop in a rental at Eight Avenue and Jane Street. I had the space and enough sun for about a half a dozen herbs and some vegetables, in addition to some wonderful vines (clematis and morning glories) breaking up a boring white wall. In the tally of wins and loses, the spring lettuces were outstanding but only a few ripe tomatoes were harvested from four sizable tomato plants.



My second garden is a very shady balcony at my current West Broadway apartment. There is something about the constraints of such a garden that make any successes so rewarding. Last year's highlight was morning glories climbing up strings in the one part that gets some afternoon sun (I can thank Cynthia for this wonderful idea). In the photo, there are some unsuccessful flowers in the large containers and happy hostas and ferns in the smaller, with the very beginning of the morning glory experiment. This garden has been neglected so far this year, although last year's hostas and ferns have started coming back on their own.



My third garden, using a generous definition of what is a garden, are two windowboxes facing West Broadway and thus getting some good east light. My first act of gardening this year was to stuff them with spring bulbs, which I have to admit are now in need of a mercy killing.



My newest garden is the raised bed in front of my coop building that Aunt Cynthia and I planted yesterday. Her enthusiasm for my little street garden matches my own. She had two roses to contribute (sent to her from a grower- she's a garden writer), and we set off together to Dimitri's Garden Center in the Bronx to buy perennials to fill out the rest of the space. It is early in the season, so when the garden of my imagination met with the available plants, I chose expediency over perfection, and we toted home 10 bags of topsoil, a few types of rudbeckia (daisies), and a purple and green clover-like ground cover. Some annuals would be nice as we wait for these to get going.



So many gardens, so much for for the gardener to do- some which will get done, some which won't, some which will be successful, some which won't. Lots of opportunities for education of this gardener.