Last Saturday we got a fluke of a summer day in March. It was almost a little too warm until late afternoon, when a strong wind came up and the temperature dropped by 30 degrees within a few minutes. Lucky who had packed a sweater! This warm day coaxed the first queen bumble bees out of their winter quarters. More flowers opened and brought bright colors where there were mostly brows and grays for several months.
Yellow daffodils are dominating the color palette
Few flowers shine as brightly blue as squills. Grape hyacinths have the color of lapis lazuli. Quince and early tulips add orange and a cheeful red.
Hellebores come in subtle shades of mauve, greenish pink and cream.
With Spring arriving, we’ll soon need water. LaGuardia Corner Garden has the luxury of a system of water pipes that reach almost every corner. We are lucky that way: Convenient spigots allow us to water with a hose instead of watering cans. Many other community gardens in the city rely on water barrels that gardeners must fill from a nearby fire hydrant.
Our system was installed decades ago and the PVC pipes are a little delicate by now. Each year, the water is turned off in November to protect the pipes from freezing temperatures in winter. Last weekend, our water master Jeff began to turn the water back on. This is a rather complicated and a little mysterious process as the valves and water meter are hidden in a pit underground. Jeff monitors for leaks with a camera at the end of a fiber optics cable. If all goes well, water will soon be available everywhere. Thank you Jeff!!
Last week we had a few days with mild temperatures, and on Monday, it rained. The difference to just a few days ago is amazing: Suddenly, the first daffodils are blooming. And there are crocuses in multiple colors plus my absolute favorite, the tiny Iris reticulata. The lenten roses are also coming up strong now (right on time this year).
Iris reticulata
The buds are breaking on the roses (which we had time to prune before they started to leaf out) and on the tree peonies. This is such a wonderful time of the year!
It has been a little quiet on this site, but we promise to be better for the next gardening season that is just beginning now. This winter has been pretty cold and quite long. But finally, Nature is stirring. Crocuses and winter aconites are among the first flowers to open.
Two weeks ago, on a sunny Sunday, we were happy to see that some of the neighborhood bees had made it through the winter as well.
Soon, tulips and daffodils will appear. Their leaves are already peeking out of the ground. We can’t wait!
For many years, we have had a “worm bin”, a specially designed container to keep compost worms and feed them with kitchen scraps. This works pretty well, although the worms sometimes find it a bit too hot in summer. However, come winter, they often do not survive the cold. Last spring, we had to buy new worms. (In case you wonder: ‘red wigglers’ can be ordered on Amazon.) Last fall, we were determined to keep the worms alive. Someone would have to take them home and foster them durning the winter.
Barbara found the perfect place for our worms: Two classrooms at the Winston Preparatory School on 17th Street. The students picked worms up in late fall, put them into a bucket and kept them happy, warm and fed all winter. This was a good thing: even though last winter was very mild, only one worm survived in the garden’s worm bin.
A couple of weeks ago, it was time for the worms to come back. 9 students and their teacher came to put them into heir summer home. They added shredded newspaper, a little water and some of the favorite worm food: watermelon rind. Now it is our job again to keep them healthy and well fed. In return, the worms create valuable compost that we can use to feed our plants.
And this is how worms look under a microscope!
After checking out our compost bins and looking at worms with a microscope, the students went on a tour around the garden to see how everything looks in spring. We hope that they will come back in fall and take our worms to their winter quarters.
Thank you very much for coming and for taking care of our worms!
Last Sunday, we came together to celebrate the life of our beloved chair Barbara Cahn, who passed away suddenly on the 17th of March 2023.
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Barbara had been a community garden activist for many years before she joined our group. Together with members of the NYC Community Garden Coalition, she fought to save gardens from development all over the city. Once she became a member of LaGuardia Corner Gardens in 2011, she immediately dedicated many hours of her life to working in and for this garden. She quickly turned her plot into a wonderful jungle of kale, tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers, and she was instrumental in making LaGuardia Corner Gardens the open, friendly and welcoming place that it is today. Over the years, Barbara became compost master, assistant bee keeper, rat harassment expert, youth instructor, workshop organizer, representative in countless meetings of various organizations, vice chair and finally, in 2021, chair.
Barbara was truly the life and soul of LaGuardia Corner Gardens.
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How much we owed to Barbara, how much we loved her, and how much she will be missed can’t be better expressed than in the words by our long-time chair Sara Jones:
“I am honored to celebrate the life of my dear friend, Barbara Cahn. I’m here to represent LaGuardia Corner Gardeners. Barbara was the vice to my chair for many years and we co-steered the community garden we both loved so much. I called her my “serial volunteer”. She always offered to do, to go, to help in any way; she was always game. I believe a lifetime of community service and activism was instilled in her early on in her Peace Corps days. The Garden wasn’t the only place she gave generously of her time and talents. Barbara weeded at the High Line, worked for public radio, volunteered for the NY Film Festival and was a docent for the Greenwich Village Historical Preservation Society, all while being a ceramic artist.
Time is unforgiving, moving forward relentlessly, leaving only memories, vignettes of adventures we shared. The Garden was our backyard, an oasis, a sanctuary in the big city. We did a lot more than gardening there. We used it as a creative workshop, inventing and presenting programs. We made stepping stones with shards of Barbara’s pottery, learned composting, experimented with eco dyeing, we went to the Rat academy and she even joined me beekeeping. Barbara and I participated in the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council, which mentored youth in our community garden. We enjoyed teaching, our passion. We shared the love of books and film and theater. We sat together in many Off-Broadway shows and Avantgarde theaters. We protested together for community gardens at City Hall and marched down 5th Avenue in our pussycat hats. Barbara love New York and all it had to offer.
She taught me so much about de-escalating a situation with a complement. Always speak to a persons strength, you’ll get more co-operation than if you point out their deficiencies. In 2015 the Garden initiated an open gate policy. I lived on Thompson Street and would open the gate most mornings before work. Evenings, gardeners would gather to water and chat. Barbara, Karin and I would always be the last to leave. Barbara would always close up. Those long summer evenings I thought would last forever, laughing with forever friends.
The pandemic forced me to move from NYC. I was confident leaving the Garden in Barbara’s care. Barbara helped me disburse my belongings when I moved, helping find homes for furniture, housewares, everything. We have everything away. Which was hard work. I was so looking forward to Barbara’s visit to my new gardens, but we unexpectedly ran out of time.
Let’s celebrate Barbara by becoming a little more like her: kind and generous. Let’s remember her laugh and her positive creative energy. Let’s plant something in her memory. Let’s eat kale. Let’s volunteer. I think of Barbara as a seed of generosity. Let’s keep LaGuardia Garden a public space so kindred spirits can connect and create with each other and make lifetimes of magic memories.“
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Barbara and Sara instructing students for the Youth Leadership Council
Sara closed with a poem by Patti Tana that appeared to have been written just for Barbara.
“Post Humus”
Scatter my ashes in my garden so I can be near my loves. Say a few honest words, sing a gentle song, join hands in a circle of flesh. Please tell some stories about me making you laugh. I love to make you laugh.
When I’ve had time to settle and green gathers into buds, remember I love blossoms bursting in spring. As the season ripens remember my persistent passion.
And if you come in my garden on an August afternoon, pluck a bright red globe, let juice run down your chin and the seeds stick to your cheek.
When I’m dead I want folks to smile and say, “That Barbara, she sure is some tomato!”
