Growing

The good news is that my three sisters planting is doing well. The beans and squash have come up and the beans are starting to twine around the corn. It is not huge, but there is already an ear of corn growing.

However, the tree pit on Melrose St. where I sowed some seeds was completely dug up and repaved. On the bright side, it looks they have planned a rain garden for the spot.

Many of the other spots have seedlings, mostly clover, but also cosmos. I made the cosmos seedlings in this picture a little yellow. On the left are what I hope are marigolds or even poppies. But I often get my hopes up about a seedling that turns out to be a weed.

Sometimes there are just a few stray clover plants. I have noticed that some seeds emerge way later than listed on the package, sometimes they come up the next season.

My favorite spot is where the weeds took over. Cosmos have emerged, shelterd by the weeds. My plan for next season is to look for tree pits that have a healthy weed poplulation in the summer. Then in early spring I will sow the seeds in those places. I started way too late this year.

For the current planting, I mostly have to wait. The cosmos won't bloom for several weeks. I haven't seen any borage, but in my own garden, it appeared rather suddenly. It is very weedlike and blooms pretty quickly. 

Not Quite Guerilla Gardening

My friend Randall runs the Figureworks gallery in Williamsburg. When I told him about my seed project. He asked me to plant some seeds around the tree in front of his gallery.
 

The soil is rather compacted around the tree, which gave me a chance to try out my new aerator sandals. I realize I should have photographed the sandal from the side, to show the aerating nails. I was caught up in the heat of the gardening moment.
 

Here the young son, Julien, is putting the sandal to work. One is supposed to strap the sandals on and walk around, but this soil was too compacted. We had to stamp the nails in.

While it was not the usual clandestine sowing of seeds, the neighbor did come out and demand we explain what we were doing. She softened up when we did and offered to sprinkle pepper to keep the dogs away.