On Sunday evening, I waited out the rain on the Lower East Side terrace of two lovely friends, Deborah Mills and Daniel Rabuzzi. We talked plants and sub-irrigation and kept our eyes trained on the Chrysler Building, hoping to catch the exact moment it lit up.
The skies were grey, but the colors on the terrace were as bright as can be. I think there might be no better way to look at the city’s skyscrapers than over a foreground of pink and white ‘Cameo Elegance’ Morning Glory and vivid yellow Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora) peeking through periwinkle Lobelia erinus.
I’m getting jealous, just hearing myself describe it! So enough of that — I won’t keep you from all the pretty pictures any longer! Click on through for the full tour, all the details on that clever watering system, and the lowdown on Deborah’s favorite plants.
Photos above:
- Top Left: The view from Deborah and Daniel’s living room, with the Empire State Building in the background.
- Top Right: Deborah, looking over her little bit of heaven.
- Bottom Left: The tube, which leads to the “sub” part of the sub-irrigation system.
- Bottom Right: Lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), at perfect height for running your hands through it.
Deborah and Daniel bought their apartment on Grand Street seven months ago. She’s a
wood carver and he’s a
novelist (take a close look at
the cover of his book — it features carvings by Deborah) and the place is, as Deborah says, “the apartment of my wildest, no-holds-barred dreams.” The biggest part of that dream: a balcony with a view and enough sunlight to grow a little garden. This is their first season on the balcony, and some of Deborah’s favorites from past garden, like
Lantana camara, didn’t take off the way she expected, but others, like the
Neon Rose Petchoa have been blooming all summer.
- Top Left: All the colors of the garden, bright as can be even in a thunderstorm.
- Top Right: Pops of fuschia from the Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa)
- Middle Right: The amazing leaves of a Cardinal Vine (Ipomoea multifida)
- Bottom Left: Moss Rose mixed in among the Lobelia.
- Bottom Right: A folk art bird perches in the herb garden.
The biggest experiment of the new balcony is the sub-irrigation system Deborah installed in all her widow box containers. You can get full directions on the system
here, but the quick version is this: bury perforated water bottles in the bottom of the containers, then connect them up with a pipe to the surface. Instead of watering the plants on the surface, you pour water into the pipe, and then moisture is available to the plants’ roots on a continual basis through the water bottles. No overwatering, no underwatering, the plants just wick up moisture as they need it. So far, Deborah says, they systems isn’t without bugs. The Moss Roses seem too wet (they’re succulents that don’t need much water after all) and the water distribution isn’t perfectly even. But thanks to the system, Deborah and Daniel have been able to leave town for long weekends and not worry about their plants. As someone who worries about my plants when I’m away the way other people worry about their pets, that’s something! (The other secret to their weekends away, Deborah reports, is a
wicking mat under the handful of pots she traditionally waters. You drape one end of the mat in a watering can and place the other under the containers. The plants are then able to go several days, pulling moisture up from the mat).
- Top Left: ‘Cameo Elegance’ Morning Glory climbing the walls.
- Top Right: Begonia with Dianthus and Lobelia in the background.
- Bottom: Daniel and Deborah, proving that even a rainy night can be a great night in the garden.
Thanks for a lovely Sunday, Deborah and Daniel!
