A Garden Grows In Brooklyn

How I would love a garden such as this! It is the Herb Garden section within the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The Herb Garden sign shows us that the food we eat every day originated all over the world. (Please click on photo to enlarge and then click on it again to make it even larger to see the map) Did you know the potato originated in South America, okra in Africa and the eggplant in Asia?

The newly designed Herb Garden in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden opened in June 2010. It is comprised of a small orchard, perennial plants, and annual beds as well as a composting area, cold frame, tool shed, overlook pavilion, and trellis systems.  It is designed to be a decorative but utilitarian potager, or kitchen garden, that freely mixes medicinal and culinary herbs, vegetables, berries, fruit trees, and flowers.

 I visited the garden in May when it was in it's early stages.

I visited it again this past weekend to see that all within it was flourishing!

In a month it went from this....

....to this!

This decorative portion of the garden was mulched with buckwheat hulls which help retain moisture, enrich the soil and control weeds.

Other gardening tips are written on chalkboards along the garden path. There is even an occasional nature quote or haiku to ponder!

Set up as a living classroom,  there are also many informative placards throughout the Herb Garden which highlight the origins and uses of particular food plants.  (Each photo can be enlarged for easier reading by clicking on it once and then again when it opens as a new page.)

I found all the placards very interesting!

Fruit trees rimmed the garden in Espalier formation, which is an excellent way to grow trees in a city garden with limited amount of space.

These placards explain the benefits and traditions of Espalier.

Most grape vines are also maintained this way.

It was truly enjoyable to stroll along the lanes of the garden to see all its bounty! The herbs, fruits and vegetables in the garden are grown primarily for display and demonstration purposes, but extra produce is donated to charity.

The Herb Garden is truly an educational place for both adults and children as it gives city dwellers the opportunity to see and appreciate the way fruits and vegetables grow, and perhaps encourage them to plan such a garden for themselves.   I hope you learned something new about what you are growing in your garden this summer by reading this post.

Linking to the "Outdoor Wednesday" event on Susan's blog "A Southern Daydreamer" and Jenny Matlock's "Alphabe Thursday" for the letter "K" for all the fruits, herbs and vegetable that begin with the letter k such as kiwi, key limes, kale, kava, kelp, kohlrabi, kumquat ..can you think of any more?

I would also be so happy if you would please visit this link to visit my review blog to see the shopping spree I went on for my bride-to-be daughter and  for a chance to win a $100 HomeGoods gift card by leaving a comment there between June 20 and 30th, 2011! (click here for official rules)

Also, until June 30th, 2011, BlogHer is giving a chance to win one of ten $25 gift cards to HomeGoods on the BlogHer Prizes and Promotions Page that I know you'll want to enter, so you can have another chance to have your own mini HomeGoods shopping spree! Click here to enter that promotion! (Here are the official rules to enter)