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June 14, 2006
Random Acts of Kindness
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Every now and then as we travel though the city, we come upon little garden moments that make the day brighter. Sometimes it's hard to tell if we're looking at the hand of God- or at a little gift left by a Good Samaritan gardener. For instance, south-bound on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverdale just before exit 22 there is a chain link fence running for a few dozen feet beside the highway. The fence, which seems to be protecting an impenetrable thicket of weeds and shrubs, has been covered in a riot of clematis for a month. The show is winding down now, but it started with a huge light blue flowered variety draped extravagantly over the fence - which is why we first noticed it - and seems to be concluding with a smaller flowered dark blue-purple variety, perhaps Etoile de Violette. You can only see this display if you are driving by, in fact you can only really appreciate it if you are a passenger in a car driving by, but it's horticultural eye candy for the initiated.
Further south on the access road to Riverside Drive from 125th street and the West Side Highway, someone has planted an entire hillside with orange and red lilies. People don't plant lilies much any more. They are fatally attractive to deer, which makes them a poor choice in the suburbs, and somehow their stiffness doesn't work in mixed borders. But there is clearly a lily lover somewhere in Harlem because this hillside gets more vibrant every year.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at June 14, 2006 07:52 PM