After we’d been living in the Harlem Laboratory for a while and gotten our bearings, we turned our atttention to the 50-square-foot patio that overlooks a glorious park in New York City. What to plant? Our friend-with-a-green-thumb Maria Robledo said simply: “Grasses”.  Grasses? “Yeah, plant ornamental grasses on one side of the terrace. They’ll form a screen from your neighbors, they wave in the wind so they’re like a kinetic sculpture, and come Fall, they send up wonderful flowers. Over winter, they’ll brown and still keep stand tall and windswept, so you can watch them through your window.”
 
So we took trusty Maria’s advice planted grasses. We enjoyed them all summer…

…and then all winter long, watching them through the window. Even in our urban environment, we were reminded of country fields…

…A number of people kindly said it wasn’t our fault, that it had been a rough winter for a lot of plants. Maybe we’re just not that good at gardening….yet.

So we took our big shopping cart down to Urban Garden Center under the railroad tracks on 116th Street and Park Avenue, which had also had a rough winter. They are directly across the street from two buildings that collapsed from a gas explosion last March. They were almost wiped out and we were worried for them. But THE’RE BACK!