Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 29 2013, by Matt Newman
Her expression suggests she’s not too fond of the wildlife paparazzo, wouldn’t you say?
Today, Debbie Becker leads one last Saturday Bird Walk before putting these popular group binocular outings on hiatus until September 7. Join her at 11 a.m. near the Reflecting Pool of the Leon Levy Visitor Center!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 28 2013, by Matt Newman
“Then it was that the monstered moth
Which had lain folded against the blue
And the colored purple of the lazy sea,
And which had drowsed along the bony shores,
Shut to the blather that the water made,
Rose up besprent and sought the flaming red
Dabbled with yellow pollen—red as red
As the flag above the old cafe——”
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on June 27 2013, by Matt Newman
I don’t think this compilation of critters needs much chatter to introduce. Pat Gonzalez was with the New York Botanical Garden long before becoming a Visitor Services Attendant—as a child growing up in New York City, and a burgeoning photographer, and a wildlife enthusiast. She’s put countless hours into capturing the lives of our furry, scaled, and feathered residents, and continues to do so with an enviable passion.
She put together this compilation of video footage shot at the Garden between 2009 and 2013, and thought you all might like to have a look. I’m of the same opinion.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 27 2013, by Matt Newman
No swimming in the Rock Garden cascade, please! Admiring, daydreaming, basking in the hint of a breeze cast off by the flow of the water—yeah, those are okay.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on June 26 2013, by Michael Bevans
Michael Bevans is the Information Manager for Digitization at The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium.
The William and Linda Steere Herbarium at The New York Botanical Garden houses over 7 million plant specimens gathered from around the world over the course of 250 years.
Plants supply most of the world’s food, fuel, shelter and medicine, and plant specimens help us answer the most critical questions facing our planet. How many species are there and how are they related? What environmental factors control their growth? And how do plants respond to climate change? Now you can help scientists to better understand our planet by transcribing plant specimen labels in our newly released crowd sourcing effort, hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia.
Choose an expedition studying the Oaks of North America or the Plants of the Caribbean. Click the “Start Transcribing” button to log in and get started.
To learn more about the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, make sure to watch “Treasures of New York: The New York Botanical Garden” this Thursday, June 27th at 10:30pm on Channel Thirteen.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 26 2013, by Matt Newman
Eschscholzia californica — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on June 25 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
This past weekend, we were out in the Louise Loeb Vegetable Garden in the Home Gardening Center covering vegetable gardening basics. Knowing how to plant and grow vegetables is one thing, but the love and the labor means nothing if you don’t know what to do with the harvest. Bearing that in mind, I made the visitors a simple tomato and bread salad that was loaded with fresh herbs. Traditionally it is an old Tuscan recipe made from left-over (read: stale) bread. It is a quick and easy recipe that adds life to everyday meals.
The ingredients for the recipe toss together the most basic herbs and vegetables from the home garden:
– 4 ripe tomatoes cut into ½-inch cubes
– 3 small Persian cucumbers cut into ½-inch cubes (or one small regular cucumber, deseeded)
– Handful of basil (approx. 2 tablespoons)
– Handful of parsley (approx. 2 tablespoons)
– Small handful of oregano (approx. 1 tablespoon)
– 4 scallions chopped into small pieces
– 1-2 garlic cloves minced (optional)
– 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (optional: tear a few basil leaves and soak them in vinegar for a few hours overnight to give the vinegar more flavor)
– ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
– 2 cups few-days-old Italian or French bread cut into small cubes (optional: toast the bread lightly in the oven)
– Salt and pepper to taste
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 25 2013, by Matt Newman
We’re glad summer waited until its allotted solstice to get here, but wow, did it ever arrive. It’s warm out this week, and the flowers are basking accordingly!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 24 2013, by Matt Newman
Trying to remind myself that I’m limited to only one criminally bad pun per month, if I can help it.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 23 2013, by Matt Newman
Nifty Wild Medicine factoid: it’s been found that residents of the islands east of Panama, who drink a lightly-processed cocoa beverage up to five times a day, are almost entirely free of hypertension. Researchers lean toward the chocolate as a prime suspect in this discovery, though I’m guessing most of us don’t need a peer-reviewed report to justify buying ourselves a treat now and then. Just remember to go for the real thing—at least 70% cacao!
Check out our cacao-focused table in the Conservatory when you visit, and be sure to keep an eye out for the pods growing in our cacao trees.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen