Probably, quite a few newer members never got a copy of this. It's pretty old, but I think that's a good thing.

Gardener's Orientation Brochure
Liz Christy Garden
by Kim Mulcahy and the Green Guerillas 1989
Revised by Don Loggins 1999 and 2003

1. GEOLOGY, CLIMATE and ECOLOGY
The land where the Liz Christy/Bowery Houston Garden now stands has seen many changes in its history. Before European settlement, the area was a forested hunting ground for local Native Americans and later it was part of an early Dutch farm or Bowerie. After New Amsterdam became New York, a succession of buildings stood here; one of them probably a church. By the time Houston Street was widened and the subway station underneath it was built, all that remained here was a treeless empty lot, filled with garbage and saturated with rubble and broken brick. This is the daunting, if typical, beginning for many urban community gardens.

Before anything could be planted, our founding gardeners had to tackle the huge job of clearing and preparing the soil. The soil in our garden was built up over many years by adding large amounts of organic material--compost, peat moss, loam, wood ashes, etc. This practice needs to be maintained for the continued productivity of our soil. Because we started with so much mortar (limestone) and brick dust in the soil, our soil is classified as "sweet," having a high pH number. This differs from the native East Coast soil which is naturally more "acid," having a lower pH number. Our present pH is well within the range tolerated by most vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs. A small number of fruits, ornamental plants, and especially local native wild flowers prefer or require a lower pH. These plants include members of the Rhododendron family and Holly family. We lower the pH for these plants by mixing an extra amount of organic material with the planting soil and feeding the plants with an "acid" type fertilizer. In our garden, the layer of topsoil is about one foot deep. In a few spots it’s as little as five inches. Under that is usually a layer 1/2 to 2 inches thick of hard coal cinders. Beneath that is very sandy soil, mixed with large stones, bricks, cobblestones and other rubble fill. Below that is the Houston Street subway station.

Our soil is very well drained. It tends to dry out quickly. Adding organic material and using mulches helps the soil retain moisture. Watering is a necessity during the hot summer months and sometimes during dry periods in spring and fall. Our microclimate in the garden is pleasantly modified by a number of favorable circumstances. Winter is slightly milder because we're located near the ocean, in the middle of a big city, and protected from cold north winds by high brick walls. These walls also act as solar collectors to release warmth at night. Since New York City's usual minimum winter temperature is 0 to 10 degrees, we are classified as USDA Zone 7. But because of our warmer microclimate, we can even over-winter more tender, herbaceous Zone 8 plants. These plants include: dahlias, gladiolus, calla lilies, snapdragons and agapanthus. Even wax begonias and impatiens behave as hardy annuals here. They pop up in spring from seed dropped the year before.

Of course our garden doesn't escape summer heat waves. Our trees and some ocean breezes do lower the temperature a few degrees and make things more bearable. Ifs the high night-time temperatures, as much as the sizzling days, which determine the types of plants you can grow well during the "dog days." Tomatoes set fruit poorly during bad heat waves, but resume when the weather returns to normal. Vegetables that grow well only in cool weather, especially in spring and fall, include:
Peas Arugula
Radishes Turnips
Spinach Mustard
most Lettuces Radicchio

Annual flowers that prosper in these same cool conditions include:
African Daisies Camations Calendulas
Ice Plant Larkspurs Forget-Me-Nots
Bachelor's Buttons Pansies Poppies
Linaria Nasturtiums Lavatera
Sweet Peas Lobelia Stocks

In hot weather, these plants will set seed and die, or go semi dormant until cool weather returns. Take advantage of our long-growing season to replant a spent spring crop with a heat-loving summer crop for fall. Peas can be planted in early March, to start the growing season. The growing year ends with a killing "black" frost anytime from mid
November to late December.

There are only about 25 species of weeds in the garden. You'll become acquainted with them quickly. The most bothersome are bindweed and wild morning glory. They require real diligence to keep under control. We discourage the planting of morning glories so as not to add to the problem. Also, Bittersweet vines, Japanese Honeysuckle, Matrimony vines and Rosa multiflora are all suggested no-nos.

We are not a purely "organic" garden, but because the garden produce is eaten by many people, and the garden is a home to bees, butterflies, turtles, fish, earthworms, birds and cats, only a very minimal amount of chemical pesticides are used, and never on food crops. Wherever possible, we prefer to use insecticidal soap, biological controls including ladybugs and praying mantises, and proper horticultural techniques to manage destructive insects and diseases.

Many of our plants, including shrubs and trees, increase themselves all over the garden by means of dropping their own seeds or spreading sideways with creeping underground roots. We end up with lots of extra valuable plants in this way through no efforts of our own. We try to give these "volunteer" plants away to other community gardens rather than compost them. There are regularly scheduled giveaway days held at the garden during the year. You can always transplant any "volunteer" plants you find into the raised planting bed, located in the service area, for future giveaways. Volunteer plants you're certain to encounter include:
Mimosa trees (Albizzia julibrissen),
Rose- of-Sharon shrubs (Hibiscus syriacus),
Boston Ivy vines (Parthenocissustricuspidata) and
Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus).

We keep bees in the garden because they pollinate our fruit trees and plants. They also produce superb honey and are simply a pleasure to watch. One colony of bees is maintained on the shed roof. Honey-extraction parties are held in the garden one or two times a year during the growing season. These events take place in the late afternoon
and run through the evening. You're invited to help spin the extractor and get some honey for your efforts.

The honeybees we keep are not aggressive towards humans. Bee stings are rare and only seem to happen if you inadvertently brush against or disturb a bee that is gathering pollen or drinking. If you get stung first remove the stinger and then put ice on the area to reduce the swelling. Sometimes a bee will fly around your head. It is just smelling you, and has no reason to sting you. Be calm and it will fly away soon.

You'll often find bees drinking water at the edge of our pond or at the water faucet. In the springtime, many young bees will drown in the pond because they don't know that they're not able to swim. You can help out any struggling bees with a stick, but DO NOT attempt mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Rarely, a rapidly growing honeybee colony will outgrow the space in its hive. Part of the colony will swarm from the hive to establish a new hive elsewhere. This swarm may rest on its journey somewhere in the garden. The beescling to each other in a solid mass, usually hanging from a tree branch, and make a temporary pouch-like home entirely from their own bodies. Although a swarm looks startling and dangerous, the bees are actually at their most docile while swarming. Should you ever see a swarm in the garden, let the G.G. office know[212 594-2155, so it can be removed. Meanwhile, enjoy this interesting natural event.


II. TOOLS and SUPPLIES
You could do all your gardening here without purchasing anything yourself as we have a supply of tools available in the shed. However, many gardeners like to buy their own plants and seeds when they want specific types at specific times. Also, many of us buy our own hand tools such as pruners, trowels and hand weeders and bring them with us each time we come to the garden.

You don't have to know anything about gardening to begin gardening at Liz Christy. Many of the gardeners are glad to share information. The Green Guerillas can also put you in touch with an extensive network of horticultural experts and professionals, as well as sponsoring regular workshops on many garden-related topics. If you want to learn more about gardening, you've come to the right place.

The tool shed door should be kept closed while you're working in the garden, so that any expensive tools are not on public display. If you're the only one in the garden when its open to the public, it's wise to keep the shed door locked as well. Of course, make certain the shed door is locked when you leave the garden if you're the last one to go. This goes for the entrance gates as well. If for some reason the locks don't work, telephone another garden member for help. There are public phones at the comer of Second Avenue and Houston Street.

It's simple courtesy to clean and return tools to the shed when you're through with them. Hang them up where you found them (or where they should have been). Put daily-use tools in the front part of the shed and more unusual items in the back (north) part of the shed. Sprinklers and hose nozzles are also returned to the shed after use. If anything breaks, let us know so we can try to fix or replace it The shed always seems to revert to a state of chaos, so any organizing and cleaning up efforts will be appreciated by all.

One last point: when you unlock a street gate or the shed door, store the lock right back on the gate or door. Then lock it. That way, whoever locks up will always be able to find the locks. Its no fun searching for locks after it's gotten dark outside.

III HOUSEKEEPING
Housekeeping chores are necessary to the running of our garden. These jobs are small when everyone helps out. Litter is a problem. We are responsible for keeping the sidewalks directly outside our garden clean. The Sanitation Department does some sweeping, but we have to help out with it ourselves. If we can't maintain our property, our status in the community becomes threatened. Be sure you put on garden gloves when handling litter;
glass and other sharp objects may be present.

Bottles, cans, paper trash and other very strange objects are thrown into the garden by the public and need to be picked up and disposed of. All litter and trash goes into our garbage can located next to the tool shed. It can also be bagged separately and left at the Sanitation Dept. pickup area. This is located outside the garden, about 20 feet north of the N. W. comer of Houston St. and Second Ave. Put it at the base of the lamppost, next to the garbage cans by the curb. When the garbage can next to the shed is full, the bagged trash can be tied securely and brought to this area. You can also leave things like tied bundles of branches here. We usually have a supply of plastic garbage bags in the shed.

The holding area at the east end of the garden tends to get messy quickly. Sweeping, organizing, and trash removal is often needed here.

Try not to store things outside the shed in the grape-arbor area. Pots, flats, boxes and miscellaneous odd things seem to grow here as if they were fertilized and alive. Store as much garden paraphernalia as you can either inside the shed or in the service area.

We try to keep the picnic table and garden benches clean so that they are always usable. Please use them yourself.

You're welcome to use the barbecue as well: just clean up afterwards and replace any picnic supplies you use.

Unfortunately, there are no bathroom facilities in the garden. We go into the shed and urinate into a watering can or other large container[ the ladies room plastic container ]. This container is then filled up with water to produce a safe, high-quality nitrogen fertilizer. This is then poured over the compost area. Please wash the container out after you use it.

IV. PUBLIC USE
The only way we can justify our continued existence to a land-needy community is to encourage the general public to visit the garden during regularly scheduled hours each week on Saturday afternoons year round and Tuesday evenings/Thursday afternoons in the spring/summer. These hours will vary with the seasons. We take turns making sure the garden is open at these times. Some of us are at the garden more often than these relatively few scheduled hours per week and enjoy opening up the garden at these nonscheduled times also. The more we can be open, the more likely we will continue to exist.

Opening the garden simply means unlocking both sidewalk gates (NOT the large double service gates), and setting the signs out on the sidewalk. While the public is inside, keep a general eye on things, making sure the garden is not abused by any visitor. This very rarely happens. We discourage kids from rough play and running around because they can easily damage the plants. While the garden is open, you can act as a Host if you wish, answering questions, giving out brochures, or sharing a story about the garden.
We are required to open the garden to the public anytime a gardener is there. Contrary to appearances, the large homeless/addicted population in our area gives us very few problems and generally act in a respectful manner towards the garden.

Often members of the public come by and want to help out for an hour or two. This is great if you're willing to supervise them. Simple jobs you can assign are either clean-up, or weeding and removing bindweed and other weeds from the fence and tree pits.

Remember, an unsupervised helper can do more harm than good, no matter how well-intentioned.

V. SECURITY
The chronic problem of thievery is decreasing as our security measures become more effective. In the past, tools and equipment have been stolen from the locked shed at night. Shrubs and plants, hoses and other garden equipment have also been stolen from the garden at night.

Our present security measures include: keeping the street gates and shed door locked when the garden is closed; making the perimeter fence more impassible; strengthening the shed; storing all equipment when not in use; "hiding" from street view any valuable items that can't be locked up; physically restraining valuable shrubs with wire or chain and/or not planting species that seem particularly attractive to thieves.

Our most frequently stolen plants have been:
Broadleaf evergeens such as: Azaleas, Rhododendrons,Aucuba,
Southem Magnolia, Cameflia, Hofly, Euonymous;
Dwarf conifers like Mugho pine;
Cannas, Caladium, hardy Ferns, Coleus, fancy-leaf Hosta, Liriope, Sedum spectabile;
Any plants growing in pots and container.
You'll note that the majority of these plants resemble tropical house
Plants; though the majority won't grow in home conditions.

Pilfering of individual fruits or vegetables and flower-swiping are minimal problems in our garden. The most successful strategies for dealing with thievery seem to be a combination of flexibility and persistence.

VI. COMPOST BINS
Compost bins are located in the service area of the garden. Composting is the venerable horticultural technique of turning organic garden waste to a fertile, soil-enriching substance called compost. Composting really makes a silk purse from a sow's ear. It is the most valuable garden tool, bar none. Besides being an excellent garden fertilizer, it improves the structure of all soils. In our garden, compost helps our sandy soil retain moisture and lowers the pH. It also gives our sod greater substance and density (especially important for growing roses). It's wonderful stuff, and best of all, it's free.

Composting can be done in very sophisticated and precise ways, but a more informal approach seems to suit us better. The theory behind having 2 compost bins is to have one bin contain finished, ready to use compost, while the other contains compost-in-the-making. It doesn't always work out that way, but that's the idea.

This is how we make compost: Into which ever bin contains compost-in-the-making (the freshest greenest material) you dump the following organic stuff: Weeds, plant prunings and trimmings, spent and dead plants, fallen leaves, fruit and veggie rinds, sawdust, small amounts of soil and sand.

DO NOT add these items:
Thorny material, diseased plants, ripe seed heads of problem weeds such as Aster and Bindweed, rocks, paper,
plastic, metal, woody branches, large amounts of soil and things that could attract rats, such as food scraps or meat.

At various times, we accumulate large amounts of soil in the service area. This shouldn't all be put into the Compost Bins. Use it elsewhere in the garden, or pile it neatly in the service area for future use or give away. Too much soil in the compost reduces its value considerably.
Tree branches and other woody material take too long to decompose and should not be put in the Compost Bins. They can be bundled and tied. Bundled, tied wood can be left at the Sanitation Department pick-up area at Second Ave. and Houston St.

Depending on the type of material it contains, a compost pile can take anywhere from 2 months to 2 years to finish. Moisture, oxygen and high air temperatures speed the composing process. Shoveling the contents of a full bin in to an empty one helps too. Once compost is finished, you're encouraged to use it throughout the garden, either by
digging it into the soil or using it as mulch.

Besides compost, we use whatever we can get our hands on to improve our soil. We get donations of loam, peat moss, potting soil, bark mulch, sawdust, and wood shavings.
We use supplemental organic and chemical fertilizers in our garden, but ifs secondary to our soil-building efforts. If soil is not periodically replenished in the garden in one way or another, it will deteriorate and you simply won't get healthy plants or decent yields from your flowers and veggies. When you consider that the soil in our garden was once just ground-up building rubble, you can see the results of persistent soil improvement. (Our earthworms agree.)

VII. GENERAL GARDENING POINTS
Make sure you garden only in communal areas and the plots that are assigned to you. The plots get reassigned, when necessary, to better meet the needs and wishes of our current, available members.
If you're gardening in a communal plot its a good idea to go over your plans with other gardeners. After you sow your seeds, you should mark or label your efforts so that someone else doesn't come along and re-plant your seed bed with something else. You can use branches, stakes, string, and/or labels to mark your plantings. It's even a good idea to mark or label things in a personal plot; it will remind you where you put things and discourage people from walking through your plot and stepping on things.

A. Watering
You can't tell if watering is needed simply by looking at the soil. The soil is often quite moist under a thin, dry surface. You should poke your finger into the soil or dig a small hole with a trowel to find out what's going on down there. After you've been at the garden for a while and learn how the soil behaves throughout the seasons, this won't be so necessary.

It's better to water long and deeply once a week than to water shallowly more often. Shallow, short sprinklings don't penetrate the soil much, and encourage plants to root just near the soil surface, leaving them even more susceptible to drought stress. An exception to this is newly sown seed beds, which require constant moisture at the surface until the seedlings have germinated and are established. As a rough guide, leave sprinklers in place for at least a half hour in one spot. Then dig a small hole with a trowel to see how deeply the water has penetrated You may be surprised to see how much water it takes to water an area well. Some parts of the garden also dry out much faster than others. Our large trees and especially the huge Boston Ivy vines on the north walls have extensive root systems, and dry out the soil faster in their surrounding areas.

As you move the hose around the garden, be careful not to drag it through planting beds and damage the plants.

B. Weeds
As every experienced gardener says (in one way or another) a weed is just a plant in the wrong place. Besides the fact that weeds in a planting bed look unattractive to most people, we remove weeds because they compete with more desirable garden plants. In the dog-eat-dog world of mother nature, the weeds usually win. They are more vigorous, efficient, adaptive, prolific and promiscuous than the pampered pets we'd rather grow. While some weeds are relatively harmless and can be removed easily, others are pernicious. Things like bindweed will grow rapidly, strangling everything within reach, sow huge amounts of seed if left to flower and even spread far and wide under ground to come up year after year in ever-widening circles. Sounds like a horror movie, right? You
could almost admire its will to survive, if it didn't happen to be strangling your zinnia at the moment.

A suggestion is to meet each kind of weed, one by one, like a new friend (which you are going to treat horribly). You can start meeting our weeds in a place like the strawberry patch. Once you know what a strawberry plant looks like, everything else in that area is a weed. If you take just a moment to observe each weed as you pull it, you'll be surprised how few kinds there really are. We have only about 25 common ones in our garden. Once you recognize a weed, you'll be able to weed any area with confidence, not by knowing all the hundreds of kinds of desirable plants we have, but by knowing the few weeds.

It's easier to pull out weeds when the soil is moist, especially after rain. Try to get the roots out along with the tops. You can use the hand cultivator for this in small, tight areas or a long-handled hoe for larger areas, such as around vegetables. Either leave the weeds exposed on the surface of the soil, where sunlight will kill them quickly, or add them to the compost pile. Weeds grow fastest (unbelievably fast) in just the kind of hot, sticky, summer weather that makes most people want to go swimming rather than weed the garden. Keeping the garden weeded at this time of year separates the men from the boys (and the women from the girls).

Laying down mulch at least 2" thick inhibits weed growth. You'll also discover that some kinds Of weeds only grow in the cool spring and fall weather (like chickweed). Others (Re Purslane) adore the heat and humidity of summer. As a reward for weeders, both Chickweed and Purslane among others are delicious and nutritious to eat. They actually taste better than many expensive, French salad greens.

Be careful of glass shards and other debris in the soil as you work it. Unfortunately, glass bottles and other trash are regularly thrown into the garden. You can put all this garbage into the trash can next to the tool shed. Large stones, bricks and cobblestones should be saved for paving paths and making bed edgings or other artistic efforts.


C. HARVESTING
All members of the garden are welcome to harvest and enjoy fruit from the peach tree, grapes, strawberries, veggies from the communal plots and herbs from the herb garden. For your own enjoyment make sure what you're going to pick is actually ripe (ask if you're not sure). Use judgment and courtesy to take only your fair share of the bounty, especially of things always in short supply, such as peaches. However, when bumper crops are not being gathered by others, take as much as you can use and really pig out on this good stuff.

Most of our members are happy to share flowers and vegetables from their personal plots as well. You must always ask ahead of time and only take a small amount from what is in abundance. You might get murdered for taking a prized dahlia or first pepper. Seriously, these issues don't come up when courtesy and judgment are used.

As for the safety of city-gown crops, previous testing has shown small amounts of lead in our soil, tiny amounts of that may be taken up into the fruits and vegetables. Most health professionals say that as long as you don't use produce from the garden as your primary source of nutrition, you don't have to be concerned. However, other knowledgeable and respected experts say that any amount of contaminant is too much, so you have to decide for yourself what's sensible.

NOT all the plants in the Herb Garden are edible. Many are grown only for their fragrance and are not edible. If you're not sure, ask for help in what and how to harvest. There are actually quite a few plants grown in our garden that are poisonous if eaten, so ask.


TRIED AND TRUE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
MOST COMMONLY ASKED BY THE GENERAL
PUBLIC

"Yes, you're welcome to come in and look around."
"The land is owned by the city. We depend on community support to survive. Call the Green Guerilla office for information on how to help."
"Yes, we get honey from the bees."
"No, we don't have killer bees (yet)."
"No, we don't sell flowers or honey."
"Sure you can/No you can't have a rose/tomato."
"The pond is about 2.5 feet deep in the center."
"The fish and turtles all live through the winter."
"The building behind us will be torn down and made into apartments”
"No, I can't pay you to do any work for us."
"I'm really sorry, but we can't let people sleep in the shed at night"
"Chinatown and Little Italy are to the right, Orchard Street is to the left."
"That pink fuzzy thing is a Mimosa Tree."
"Read this brochure."
“No Tripods are allowed”
"I'm too busy to talk right now."
"The garden is 7,500 square feet"
"Its not available for private parties"
“The cats are happy and well feed”
The garden website is lizchristygarden.org
The turtles are red eared sliders.