Brooklyn: Nighttime weeds along the Gowanus Canal

On a recent warm night while traversing the Gowanus Canal, I spied a couple suspicious green characters lurking about, like this many-headed ivy monster…

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Brooklyn: Trees wearing sweaters

The weather has been very mercurial lately, swinging from warm summery days for short sleeves to gusty days like today when I go back inside to get my sweater. The weather is whipping the trees around too and I bet some of them would be happy to have sweaters too, like these trees I saw in Brooklyn back in January. 

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Brooklyn: Oak treeling discovered in windowsill garden

My housemate, who tends a garden in our backyard along with a few pots inside the house by her window, recently discovered a volunteer sprout in one of the indoor plant pots. But when she pulled up the “weed,” she discovered it had taken root from an acorn! A tiny little oak tree had developed inside of her room!

Impressed by its tenacity, we placed it in a jar with some water. Maybe we’ll plant it outside somewhere one of these days.

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Drainpipe tree sealed up

On November 16, 2009 it finally happened. Two men went to work clearing out the drainpipe tree and sealing up the corner of the church on 17th Street at 5th Avenue. This “tree,” really at least 2 or 3 young trees growing out of the side of the building through cracks created by a broken drainpipe system, had captivated me since the summer of 2008 and through the frozen months of winter. For the sake of the church community, I hope the workers got the entire root system out! Otherwise, I’m afraid, there could be a dormant tree waiting for its chance to break through once more…

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Our residency at Open Source has begun!

Urban Plant Research’s first New York exhibition and residency began last Saturday at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn! It kicked off with an opening party filled with friends, neighbors, fellow artists and plant lovers, pizza and beer.

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Brooklyn: Urban Plant Videos!

On July 12, in the high noon sun, I caught sight of a plant living down below the street, underneath the subway grates at 9th Street and 6th Avenue.

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Brooklyn: Climbing plants (in and out of control)

With the ivy-graffiti still on my mind, I’d like to share some more amazing instances of climbing plants I’ve discovered in Park Slope. This photograph that I took a little while ago, with its lush, dark ivy, reminds me of Leslie’s photograph of Juncker’s Hotel Garni, minus the beautiful way the ivy flows into windowboxes.

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Brooklyn: Ivy-graffiti, revisited

Last fall, I was impressed by the multi-colored transformation of ivy on the side of a building above the Prospect Highway, which outdid the artistry of the graffiti underneath it. To my dismay, I recently discovered that the ivy has been cut back and entirely removed from the lower part of the wall, leaving a mass of dead leaves on dead branches still clinging to higher part of the wall, extending almost to the roof, out of reach.

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Stockton, CA: “Family Sees Image Of Michael Jackson In Tree Stump”

Photo courtesy CBS

Though perhaps a bit off topic, this CBS13 article from my hometown, “Family Sees Image Of Michael Jackson In Tree Stump,” was too good to go unmentioned. Talk about plants making shapes and speaking to us! And holding mirrors up to our minds…

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Brooklyn: Garden space

My roommate Phyllis working in her vegetable garden in the overgrown garden in our backyard. Bird’s eye view.

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