The April Harvest
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
So did any of my etymologically inclined readers stumble over the title?   Yes, you’re right: “harvest” is derived from the old English “haerfest,” meaning autumn.   So a harvest in April is a contradiction, or perhaps more charitably, a paradox.   But, as the pictures below attest, it is nonetheless a real thing. Parsnips Parsnips are said by unreliable sources to have been “the favorite” vegetable of the Roman Empire, in part because of its reputation as an aphrodisiac.   What is certain is that the wild parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, has sap in its leave ..read more
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Peaches 2016
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
The headlines were breathless but accurate: “Valentine’s Day Massacre of Peach Blooms,” screamed the headline in Growing Produce; “Cold snap decimates peach crop in Massachusetts and beyond,” said another.   Even the staid Gray Lady declared, “East Peach Crop Almost a Total Failure; California Will Furnish the Principal Supply to New York.” There is nothing unusual about cold weather in February, but specialists say that the problem this year was caused by the unusually warm days, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s, that preceded the February deep freeze.   This provides ..read more
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Pollinators for Urban Gardens: The Case for Hole-Nesting Native Bees
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
Note from the Battery Rooftop Gardener: Crown Bees, which bills itself as the “The Gentle Bee Company,” is a solitary bee (mason and leafcutters) company based in Woodinville, WA that advocates using managed native bees for pollinating fruits and vegetables (see www.crownbees.com ).   I invited Demarus Sandlin of Crown Bees to explain the potential of native bees for urban farmers.  Her guest blog follows. Urban gardens face a host of special problems: space restrictions, sunlight availability, water sources, and excessive heat.  Pollination is perhaps the most fu ..read more
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Getting to Green
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
If you have read this blog for some time, you will know that my adventure in urban rooftop agriculture is just one manifestation of a broader interest in environmental issues.   Having spent more than two decades working for various Green causes, I am frustrated by our lack of progress.   My diagnosis of the problem, and practical suggestions for how to move forward, are the subjects of my new book, Getting to Green, Saving Nature: A Bipartisan Solution (to be released by W.W. Norton on April 18). To make environmental progress in the United States, we need to acknowledge ..read more
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Manhattan Rooftop Terroir
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
Today I enjoyed the first rooftop asparagus of the season, which of course raised the knotty question of Manhattan rooftop terroir. Let’s start with the question of what terroir is: the unique, organoleptic qualities associated with food and drink from a specific place, reflecting that place’s distinctive blend of mineralization, soil chemistry, moisture, temperature, altitude, slope, and light. Or, for the geneticists out there, think epigenetics: the genes of two plants may be the same, but their expression differs depending on the environment in which the plant is grown. More recently, wri ..read more
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The Rooftop Growing Guide
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
Since the 18th century the country’s heartland has sprouted a hardy crop of farmer philosophers. The 21st century Brooklyn-based example of this great American type is Annie Novak. Her new book, The Rooftop Growing Guide (Ten Speed Press, available February 16) not only gives us the perfect recipe for rooftop soil, but quotes Virgil and Proust. She invokes Aldo Leopold before revealing the mysteries of growing vegetables in containers. The sensibility of Wendell Berry is woven into every page. The barriers between rural and urban, ground and roof, and ancient and modern all collapse as Annie ..read more
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Breaking News: Urban Fruit is Better
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
A few years ago, I told an environmentalist friend of mine, who is also a medical doctor, about my green roof and plan to grow food.   She looked at me strangely, obviously torn between disapproval and an instinct to be polite in the face of my enthusiasm for urban agriculture.   Finally she shared her opinion that urban food production was dangerous, due to the high levels of lead and other contaminants in so many urban soils. I explained that green roof soils were sourced from outside of the city and no more likely to be contaminated that any others.   She point ..read more
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Hot, Hot, Hot — Part II
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
The interview with Suzanne Roberts on Headline News (see previous post) was part of her show, “Seeking Solutions with Suzanne,” which aims to give practical advice to retired Americans. Her visit was followed a couple of days later by the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, whose audience is a bit different.   Their video site is, in fact, quite specific: “advice for families with assets of $5 million or more.”   On Tuesday, I found myself trying to convince retirees that they can grow vegetables in plastic tubs on the fire escape, and on Thursday my job was to convince milli ..read more
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Hot, Hot, Hot
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
No, I’m not talking about the genus Capsicum, whose many species of peppers thrive on a green roof. I’m talking about green roofs themselves.  For years, we rooftop farmers have attracted the attention of periodicals like Urban Farm and Living Architecture, worthy to be sure, but hardly mainstream.   This year, that seems to have changed.  In one week earlier this autumn three separate video crews dragged their equipment to the 35th floor to explore the wonders of urban agriculture. The first of those – an interview with Suzanne Roberts on Headline News Network (HLN ..read more
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All right, Mr. De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog
by batteryrooftopgarden
3y ago
Norma Desmond may have been over the hill, but here in early July some of the stars of Battery Rooftop Garden are in their prime. Nature at landscape scale, such as the views of New York Harbor from the roof, can be sublime and inspiring. But I am convinced that the most profound appreciation of the natural world grows out of close observation. The scale of the smaller vegetable garden, and especially a roof top garden, is particularly conducive to this kind of intimate interaction.   All urban spaces are compressed, and the forced communion with plant life in a city garden is qu ..read more
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