Native Plant Garden at NYBG

Today I took a break from the Bronx River to work with Jody Payne, curator of the Native Plant Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. NYBG has always had a Native Plant garden but recently the Leon Levy Foundation gave a gift to completely redesign and rebuild to garden. Jody was offered the opportunity to become the curator of the Native Plant Garden and to help redesign and replant the garden. 

I first got a glimpse of the project back in May when I toured the garden as part of NYC Wildflower Week. At that point, the garden more resembled a construction site than a garden at one of the most famous Botanical Gardens in the US. As part of the project the entire space was renovated, graded to make it accessible to everyone and expanded to 3.5 acres. The different sites within the garden; from dry shade to wet meadow were design to hold different collections of plants with the interest of planting the right plant in the right place.  

One challenge of planting in a construction site is working around the construction, Jody shows me where they have to stop plantings so that nothing will be damaged from by the ongoing construction crews. Even though the project is vast, simple tasks around the garden for general maintenance are still important so I help weed amongst some river birches, Betula nigra while Jody’s head gardener John rigs up a complicated weave of hoses and sprinklers.