Monday, December 12, 2022

Visiting the Urban Garden Center in Harlem

I love to visit nurseries when I travel. Gardens are only part of the picture, what are the local nurseries like? The Urban Garden Center up in Harlem was the only nursery/garden center I managed to visit in NYC.

It's location under the elevated train tracks makes for covered shopping year round.

This is what I saw upon entering. I would have looked closer but there was no way to get big cool things home, so I just left them.

There were bags of soil, gravel, and amendments—as well as hay bales and pumpkins, it was late October after all.

Most importantly, there were plants.

Celosia


Lots of ornamental cabbage and kale.

What can only be called houseplants in this climate, still vacationing out in the open.

I loved this small "grass"... the blades were roughly the size of liriope or black mondo, but with orange edges! There was no name label so I left not knowing what it was, but thanks to a Google image search I think it must be Carex morrowii ‘Everglow’.

Back in the days when I used terra cotta pots I would have been thrilled to find somewhere selling used ones, the patina is everything.


Here I spotted—and was excited about—the greenhouse/indoor plant area ahead, but I was also intrigued by the structure over my head, as well as that metal feeder.

Look up...


I wanted to ask the price of these feeders, as I loved them and there seemed to be a price tag up on the rope this one was hanging by. But in addition to the issue of getting it home, I couldn't find anyone to ask. There were a couple of people I thought might have worked there, but it was almost comical the lengths they went to to avoid me. Why!? I was there for about 45 minutes and nobody talked to me.

Inside the inner greenhouse now.

So many options for whatever ails you, or rather your plants.

Okay, when I read no #2 (POO) I thought they were saying it was made of number 2, poo (ick). But actually (duh) it was that there's no poo. You can get this stuff online if you're interested.

I wasn't paying a lot of attention to prices, but did notice that this small Agave geminiflora was going for $30.



Back out on the edges of the garden center now, walking the perimeter.

Interesting security system.

And a photo from across the street, looking back. It was only 2 miles—and a walk through Central Park—back to meet up with Andrew at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, so I was off...

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree L Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

7 comments:

  1. That place can't be any more Urban: a fitting name for the location. Did you hear any trains passing overhead? It would be startling.
    Those were very good looking pieces of drift wood at the entrance. Too bad you couldn't take any with you.
    chavli

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    1. I have to admit I don't remember if there were trains or not. I'd gotten kind of used to the sound during our week there so I may just not noticed.

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  2. The heat island effect gives NYC a much warmer climate than one would expect.

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  3. That's one step beyond the nurseries under power lines you can find in SoCal. Like Chavli, I'm curious about whether you heard and/or felt the trains passing overhead. In any case, it's a great space for a garden center and probably keeps the cost of operation down to a reasonable level in NY, where I imagine the cost of leasing or renting space is probably outrageous. The Trash Can fertilizer is hilarious - and inspired!

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    1. I wonder how well full sun plants do there long term? They must need to move them pretty fast...

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  4. Love those used pots. I’m not getting rid of mine until the bitter end.

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