Did Monday’s blissfully warm weather inspire you to plant a window box for the first time, to spice up your back or front yard with some new flowering perennials, or to try out your own rooftop garden? You’re in luck.
There are several excellent stores in our vicinity prepared to get you going – from the expansive Chelsea Garden Center in Red Hook to the artsy boutique in Boerum Hill. Here are some tips and ideas for working out your green thumb this spring.
Before you shop, know your location!
Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Part of the secret to success in gardening is understanding the environment where you’re going to plant. There are perennial shrubs that like full sun, and others that like shade. Most vegetables like full sun.
What does “full sun” mean? Stacey Maire, Garden Center Manager at , explains that “full sun” means that you get a good portion of the light that falls between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., "the peak sunlight hours of the day.”
Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
All vegetables need a good amount of sunlight to thrive, though some delicate crops, like lettuce or cilantro, don’t mind a bit of shade for relief during part of the day.
"Partial sun" occurs in an area that receives sun only in the early morning or late in the day, or if the area is covered, or gets dappled light.
If you aren’t sure what kind of sun you get, it’s useful to look around and see what plants are thriving on your block, or your neighbor’s front stoop, backyard or rooftop. If you see roses growing and blooming next door, you can probably grow them too.
Bring this information with you when you go shopping – the helpful and intuitive staff at each of these locations will be able to point you in the right direction towards species that will do well in the space you have.
Start small: Plant an herb, salad mix or flower window box.
Maire offers this helpful advice to gardeners who want to test out a new plant:
“Window boxes are about fun, color and what am I feeling this year? Window boxes aren’t a big investment, so they are a cheap way to test out a plant you’re madly in love with.”
Mazzone’s has a great selection of window box-worthy plants, from appealing succulents (water retentive plants) and cacti to beautiful pink and yellow Dahlias ($4.99 each). In addition, Mazzone’s (like all four garden centers featured here) has a diverse array of durable terracotta planting troughs, urns and plastic window boxes. Red Hook Urban Garden Center, in particular, offers an eye-catching assortment of hand crafted pottery from Rakira, Columbia.
In Boerum Hill, the delightful garden supply store GRDN offers USDA Organic herb starts for $4.50 each. GRDN also offers a great selection of succulents, including different Sedums and the ever popular “Hens and Chicks,” running $8.95 for a quart size pot.
Window boxes are also about whimsy – you can get playful and creative, planting herbs side by side with ornamental grasses and flowers, to create a collage-like display that will provide instant cheeriness to any home.
GRDN features a selection of beautiful ornamental grasses, including sedges and wood rush, as well as deep green ferns, sweet potato vine and nasturtiums. Chelsea Garden Center offers a couple varieties of creeping mosses, which can add interesting texture to a window box.
Window boxes are also an ideal place to plant your herb garden – dill, spearmint, lavender, thyme, rosemary, parsley and lemongrass (Chelsea Garden Center only) can be found at most of these featured stores. Shallow-rooted salad mix will also do well in a window box.
It’s spring – plant perennials!
All four garden centers feature an array of perennials – in other words, plants that survive winters, and come back every year. The best time of year to plant perennials is spring or fall, so now is the time to shop if you’re considering taking the plunge on some plants with longevity.
Chelsea Garden Center has an impressive collection, from small flowering perennials such as Bleeding Hearts and Creeping Phlox (in season now), to evergreens and an incredibly diverse assortment of trees such as Magnolia, Japanese Maple, Birch and Weeping Hemlock.
Rose DiCostanzo, a very knowledgeable horticulture staff member, is available to answer your questions about what perennials can grow where. A small Japanese maple costs $135, while a 8’-10’ Weeping Birch runs about $900.
Stacy Maire at Mazzone’s has been taking suggestions from the locals, ordering in nostalgic perennials such as Lilacs, but in conveniently dwarfed varieties (starting at $30). Maire says special orders can be accomodated.
“Now everyone can have a Lilac, even if they have a tiny, tiny terrace!” says Maire.
Plant a backyard or rooftop garden
For aspiring urban farmers, jumbo packs of “cold crops," that is, vegetables that can survive outside in early spring or late fall, are available at all four garden centers profiled in this article.
Cold crops include onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, peas, kale and Swiss chard. Chelsea Garden Center sells appealing veggie flats (8 packs, or enough to fill two window boxes) for $19.95. (One cabbage pack featured the humorous tag “Future coleslaw.”) Mazzone’s sells veggie flats for $11.99.
Plastic window boxes are ideal for a rooftop garden or terrace, as they are lightweight.
After May 15, our last frost date, it is safer to plant more heat-loving crops outdoors. These include basil, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes and okra, among others.
When starting your garden, you can source potting mix, soil, compost and other amendments from Chelsea Garden Center, GRDN or Mazzone's.
Consider starting from seed
Many people forgo the experience of starting their own vegetables or flowers from seed for understandable reasons – it requires time, good care and a good south facing window, rooftop or backyard.
However, starting your own seeds is by far more cost effective – imagine paying around $2 for a seed packet containing 50 broccoli seeds versus purchasing one broccoli start for $2 - $5. Most seeds will last for 2 - 3 years.
Aside from the economic advantages, seed starting is exciting and rewarding, as you get to nurture a plant along from infancy to flowering or fruiting. Indoor seed starting also allows you to get a jump start on the season: by starting less cold hardy crops indoors now, they will be much more mature by the last frost date, and therefore further along on the road to being harvested!
A word to the wise: Baby seedlings do require a lot of light and diligent watering, so be sure you have a good window
All four garden centers sell seeds. GRDN features a great selection from Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating and preserving heirloom seeds.
Keep it local (and Native)
Another consideration when it comes to choosing perennials is to purchase native plants. Native plants tend to be lower maintenance: they are hardier, more resistant to pests and diseases than non-natives, and promote native birds, bees and “good” insects. At Mazzone’s, native plants are identified by light green pots. A 2-gallon native Rhododendron costs $35.
GRDN owner Susanne Kongoy makes every effort to purchase her plants from Connecticut and Long Island growers, minding the carbon footprint of shipping plants from far-off locales. Her store also features locally made treats like pickles, ketchup and maple syrup.
“We try to keep it hand made, local, and fair trade as much as possible,” she says.
Have it delivered
Luckily, if you are outfitting your home with a virtual new backyard, you don’t have to cram it all in a cab afterwards. Most garden centers deliver. Mazzone’s charges a $15 flat rate for sidewalk delivery.
“Everything you can fit in our truck for $15,” says Maire.
Chelsea Garden Center charges a $60 flat rate for delivery to Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights, with an additional $20 per flight of stairs. Backyard access is preferable, but they will walk through an apartment. The rate for locations further afield in Brooklyn starts at $65.
Featured Garden Centers/Stores:
Chelsea Garden Center Red Hook, 444 Van Brunt St. (adjacent to Fairway)
Red Hook Urban Garden Center (Formerly Liberty Sunset Garden Center), 410 Van Brunt St.
, 103 Hoyt St. between Atlantic and Pacific streets
, 470 Court St.
