Off the Clock

We just submitted our "Off the Clock" project  to a trade publication in the hopes it will be featured, drawing additional interest to what we feel is an important effort. If you follow our blog you know that we are strong proponants and participants in Community Gardening and so we are proud to share our latest volunteer venture with you! Please feel free to contact us if you want to get involved - in either our garden, or your own. We are always happy to share resources that can help the idea speread to other communities. Additional information can be found on the News & Press or Resources section of our website. You can also follow the progress of our project: The Sandy Ridge Community Garden on facebook.

Food pantries are a valuable resource for families struggling to provide needed nutrition. Because they rely on an inexpensive, shelf stable and simple to prepare source of food though, pantries are filled with processed products. These foods are high in salt, calories and preservatives. Fresh produce is so needed and appreciated by these organizations and their clients. Fresh vegetables can be grown almost anywhere with only a few resources and a minimum investment, and its availability can have a positive impact on the health of the recipients.

I was inspired by the idea that an unused piece of land can be transformed by the efforts of a community to provide, beauty, education and food. As a landscape designer and company owner I saw the creation of a community garden as a way to use my knowledge, tools and resources to help others. Several years ago I was fortunate to become involved with the creation of an urban garden in the area. It provided me with the experience, training, contacts and support I needed to begin a similar project in my own community. After exploring several potential sites, I approached the pastor of the Doylestown Mennonite Church about a section of land on their property. He, the trustees and congregation welcomed the idea and allowed me the use of their grounds, facilities, and provided support in any way they could.

The garden began with an announcement in the local paper gathering interested community members for a meeting to discuss the idea. 17 people attended and I outlined my plan, asking for input, assistance and supplies. We agreed to raise a communal-style garden, donating at least 50% of the produce to local food pantries. With-in several weeks my company, Martin Shaw LLC Landscape Design & Construction, had tilled the ground, I had secured supplies, seed and seedling donations from local businesses while volunteers amended, fenced and planted the garden. Our progress was covered by several local publications bringing more volunteers and donations.

Thanks to the generosity of donors and volunteers we filled the 35’ X 145’ space with tomatoes, potatoes, onions, greens, beans, squash, melons and herbs. Our work days were held three times a week and attracted between 6 to 8 volunteers each time. I managed tasks, coordinated events and maintained communication with weekly e-mails to a list of 45 addresses and shared information, photos and ideas on a Facebook with a page that has garnered over 65 fans so far. Several potlucks and occasional meetings brought even more volunteers together socially, spawning friendships and activities beyond the garden.

Volunteers with a variety of backgrounds and opinions – Penn State Master Gardeners, Italian immigrants and Mennonite farmers - came together, worked through their differing opinions on care, watered, weeded and harvested. Together we donated nearly 90% of the harvest raised to local food pantries, for a total of near 900 pounds! I was also able to co-ordinate with a local girl-scout completing her service project to create a cookbook for pantry recipients that would help them make healthy meals and elementary students learning about business by fundraising. The idea is now spreading in our community; I have already consulted with several groups interested in creating their own community gardens.

I am inspired to continue now not only by the idea – but by the reality - of what we achieved: friendship, cooperation, compromise, training, interest and a bounty for community members in all walks of life.

Martin Shaw, LLC landscape employees prepared the garden site in early May.

By June the garden was lush and full of plants producing nutritious vegetables.

Volunteers gathered for the first big harvest of potatoes;

 a donation that provided 21 pounds of fresh food.

Participation was strong right through the fall clean-up.

Volunteers gathered to plant donated seedlings on a chilly morning.

(The arbor/bench was built and donated by a congregation member.)

A potluck picnic in July drew volunteers together for food and friendship.

Media:

Facebook by searching “Sandy Ridge Community Garden”

Patch: http://doylestown.patch.com/articles/a-giving-garden, http://doylestown.patch.com/articles/fresh-and-simple-a-recipe-for-success 

Inteligencer Newspaper: www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/doylestown/community-garden-sows-seeds-of-sharing/article_ec5b0865-124d-51a3-96fb-5f2c743e1e25.html?mode=story

The Second Season

Football season is here and now that we finally have some nice fall weather, I wanted to share an event that I attended last month. It was a lovely mid September afternoon - one of the rare sunny ones this year - that I went to Fordhook Farms in Doylestown, PA to attend a media event hosted by George Ball of Burpee Seed. George wanted to share his ideas for the "Second Season". Garden writers, bloggers, TV and radio personalities (including locals Derek Fell and my friend, Mike McGrath) gathered on the veranda overlooking the gardens to hear Georges ideas, ask questions and share their own.

Too many gardeners are focused on the summer season, but neglect the beautiful fall weather that follows. Unlike the hot, dry and sometimes downright unpleasant days of summer, the autumn is typically accompanied by moderate temperatures, rainfall and plenty of sunshine. For many years now the landscape and nursery industries have promoted that "Fall is for Planting" because these features allow newly installed plants to focus their efforts on root growth and demand less from homeowners. By September the vacations are over and the kids are back in school allowing for better care while co-operative weather further reduces the need.

Vegetable gardens benefit similarly from the improved conditions as do the gardeners who tend them. George suggests that instead of perceiving fall as a time of  preparation for hibernation, we view it as a second season for growth. He adds the concept of "Garden-Gating" to this idea. Garden-gating ties the bounty of the harvest to the many fall events frequently celebrated by tail-gating. Instead of unhealthy snack-foods, George suggests serving flavorful healthy appetizers made using produce fresh from the garden! To demonstrate this, the staff of Burpee Seeds at Fordhook Farms prepared a table full of delicious recipes using Burpee Seeds produce grown at Fordhook. They were kind enough to share the recipes with me so that you can try them as well.

Here are Burpee Seeds recipes, photos of the event and a video interview with George Ball describing the benefits of the Garden-Gating and Second Season. You can also read his blog Heronswood Voice

Mike McGrath, host of public radio show You Bet Your Garden, smiles across a table filled with garden-fresh food.

Burpee's Garden-Gating Party Recipes

PLAYOFF PIZZA WITH LEEKS

Ingredients:

5-6 'Dawn Giant' leeks

1     teaspoon fresh common thyme
6     leaves fresh sweet basil, chopped
5     'Power Pops' cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1     'Early Italian' garlic clove, minced
½    cup Feta cheese
1     tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of ground black pepper
1     oven-ready pizza crust

Directions:

Prepare ready-made pizza crust as directed in oven until almost crisp.  Take out of oven.  (Naan bread works well.)  Cut leeks.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil in pan and sauté leeks, adding a little ground black pepper.  Add garlic just as leeks start to caramelize.  Cook for a few minutes more.  Add scallions to pizza.  Sprinkle with feta cheese and add cut cherry tomatoes.  Heat in oven for 5 minutes.  Ready to serve.

SIDELINE SALSA

Ingredients:

4  'Little Mama' tomatoes, chopped
1  'Texas Supersweet' onion, chopped
3  'Evergreen Long White Bunching' scallions, chopped
1  'El Gordo' jalapeno, very finely chopped
½ cup 'Calypso' cilantro, finely chopped
1  fresh lime, juiced
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in medium bowl and serve with chips.

A decorative - and edible - Garden-Gating centerpeice.

STUFFED CHERRY PEPPERS

Ingredients:

6   'Cherry Stuffer' peppers

1   8 oz. cream cheese
½  cup shredded Havarti cheese
¼  cup fresh chives, finely chopped
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Core and deseed peppers.  Cut in half.  Combine cheeses and fresh chives, add black pepper to taste. Stuff halved peppers with mixture.  Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

Melon Medley

Ingredients:

½  'Big Tasty' watermelon 
1   'Burpee's Hybrid' cantaloupe
½  'Super Dew' honeydew melon
4   tablespoons fresh spearmint, finely chopped
½  fresh lime, juiced

Directions:

Ball melons.  Add spearmint and lime juice.  Blend.  Refrigerate for 4 hours.  Can be prepared the day before.  Top with a few fresh spearmint leaves when ready to serve.

ROASTED PEPPERS

Ingredients:

'Big Daddy' yellow peppers

Red peppers (any variety is fine)

Directions:

Wash and core peppers, removing seeds.  Place on grill, cook until each side is blackened.  Place in brown paper bag and let sit until cool.  Remove pepper skins and discard.  Slice peppers and place in serving dish.  Drizzle with olive oil.  May top with fresh cloves of garlic.

Many thanks to George Ball and  the staff of Fordhook for their hard work, including Kelly, Kriten and Laura!

END-ZONE EGGPLANT HOAGIES

Ingredients:
2  'Early Midnight' eggplants
6  large eggs, beaten with whisk
¼ cup curly parsley, finely chopped
2  cups dried seasoned breadcrumbs
1  tablespoon garlic powder
1  teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
½ dozen foot-long sub rolls
1  head 'EZ Serve' romaine lettuce leaves, whole
1  head 'Iceberg A' lettuce, thinly sliced
1  'Red Delicious' onion, thinly sliced
1  16-ounce fresh mozzarella ball, thinly sliced
Grilled peppers are optional    
Oil for frying*
Condiments 

Directions:
Peel eggplant lengthwise leaving 1-inch increments of skin on it.  Remove ends.  Slice eggplant into quarter-inch circles.  As slicing, lay all circles on paper towels, layering to absorb moisture as it takes away any bitterness.  Leave on paper towels until ready to batter dip.  Combine breadcrumbs, garlic powder and oregano in vessel and set aside.

Beat eggs with whisk.  Add parsley and whisk in.  Place eggplant circles into egg mixture in batches and coat.  Remove circles one at a time, allow excess egg to drip, and coat each side in breadcrumb mixture.  Stack all breaded eggplant on platter while coating.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees for melting mozzarella once eggplant is fried.  Add enough oil to large frying pan to fully coat bottom.  Use oil of preference (canola is suggested).  Heat over medium-high heat.  When hot, add eggplant circles in batches and fry to golden brown on each side, about 2 minutes.  If burning, lower heat.  

Stack eggplant on paper towels to drain, layering to absorb excess oil.  Add oil to pan as necessary and be sure to heat each time.  Place eggplant on sheet pans and melt mozzarella slices in preheated oven.  Slice sub rolls lengthwise.  Place romaine leaves to cover rolls.  Sprinkle heavily with shredded 'Iceberg A' lettuce.  Layer eggplant slices on lettuce, overlapping.  If preferred, top with grilled peppers.  Suggested condiments are (but not limited to) heated marinara sauce, sliced 'Big Mama' tomatoes, Italian dressing, and sliced onion.
* Eggplant can be fried on baking sheets on the grill.  Oil baking sheets, place on grill, and heat on high until oil is hot.  Place eggplant on sheets, keeping grill lid closed while cooking to retain heat.  This process may take longer to brown eggplants.

PLEASE NOTE: Although Burpee suggests specific varieties for the vegetables used in each recipe, one may substitute another favorite or standard variety for each vegetable if needed.

Filming scenes for an interveiw with George Ball of Burpee Seed by The Morning Call

Fall Landscaping Tips

How to stay warm outdoors & what to grow

This year is flying by - it's time to switch gears from worrying about how your yard will make it through the summer heat, to enjoying cooler temperatures. LandscapingNetwork.com has gathered together excellent tips that will help you extend the use of your outdoor living space into fall and guide you in selecting the best plants for the season.

Staying Warm

Tip 1: Constructing a shade structure with a solid roof and then installing patio heaters along the roofline traps the heat, making your outdoor kitchen or patio much warmer. 

Tip 2: Erecting a windbreak helps to keep decks and patios warmer during transitional seasons. A windbreak can be a man-made fence or wall, or a row of shrubs or trees. 

What to Grow

Tip 3: Think vegetable season is over? Think again; Plant a fall crop such as kale, broccoli or radishes. It also isn't too early to start thinking about building a protective cover for your raised veggie beds that will prevent frost damage come winter. 

Tip 4: Select plants that will have maximum curb appeal during the fall for your home's front yard. Try combining smokebush, blue switch grass, yarrow and oakleaf hydrangea.

Intelligent Design - Landscape, Business and Art; Herman Silverman

I recently had the opportunity to interview Herman Silverman, founder of Sylvan Pools (among many other ventures!) for an article in Suburban Life Magazine. He is an amazing and inspiring businessman and philanthropist who I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with. Unfortunately the profile being published was limited to 600 words which hardly do justice to his incredible story, so I am including the entire version here on our blog.

The Preservationist – Herman Silverman

By Sharon A. Shaw

Silverman may be a bit of a misnomer, for nearly everything this 91-year-old year old business man has been involved with has turned to gold. Herman Silverman is the founder of Sylvan Pools, once the country’s largest pool builder; Silverman Family Partnership; the Art Mobile; the Doylestown Hospital Heart Club (now the Heart Institute); The James A. Michener Art Museum; past president of his alma mater Delaware Valley College and board member of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Hard work and creative thinking have helped Silverman overcome obstacles he faced in both life and business. “Einstein,” he notes, “said that imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Herman Silverman was born in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia.  After his father passed away, he and his two brothers were raised by their mother, who sold coal door-to-door to support the family, and assisted by the generosity of local relief organizations. One such benefactor was a businessman who gave him a book of Horatio Alger stories while Silverman was at summer camp. From that book he learned the three pillars of success; be good to your mother, be honest and work hard. “Do these,” he says, “and you will succeed.”

After graduating high school in 1937, Silverman attended Farm School at what is now Delaware Valley College and farmed for six years before serving in the United States Army. There he taught classes and ran the shows, providing entertainment at Camp Croft. “We wanted to put on a musical written by composer Oscar Hammerstein,” said Silverman. “So I wrote to him to ask for the score and told him that we had been neighbors in Bucks County. He sent back a booklet [two inches thick] with the music, set and costume design.”

When the war ended and he returned to civilian life, Silverman turned his ambition towards business. “At that time you could buy any surplus Army vehicle if you had $500 and your discharge papers,” Silverman says. He chose a two ton pick-up and began Sylvan Landscape Services. ‘Sylvan’ is a Latin word referring to idyllic rural locations and wooded forest areas, an apt description for Bucks County, a retreat for many famous artist and actors of the day. Oscar Hammerstein soon became one of Sylvan’s clients. When Hammerstein asked Herman to build him a pool, Sylvan Swimming Pool Company was formed. Hammerstein’s referral introduced Herman to a number of wealthy clients but it was his own quick-thinking helped his business grow and survive.

Sylvan pools ultimately had offices located in 12 states and in several countries. In the days before advanced market research and analysis Silverman says he had a simple formula, “When I flew, I watched out the window to see where homes were being built.” Wherever it looked promising, Herman established his business. He was not selfish with his talents either. Silverman says one of the keys to his business relationships was to “Do something without asking for anything.” This mantra helped gain him a position as a board member on the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, a program of the Governor’s office which raised funds for low-income housing projects.

When drought restrictions one year threatened his ability to install pools, Silverman contacted the Pennsylvania State Governor with a proposition. He suggested that the Governor waive the ban on filling swimming pools if the owners would sign a contract agreeing to allow firefighters access to the water if needed. “I told the Governor that the pool industry was in danger of collapse if we couldn’t fill pools, but I also knew that emergency services were having difficulty with the hydrants.” It was a win-win solution.

His talent for creative problem solving again benefitted the community when Silverman established the Doylestown Hospital Heart Club in 1977. After his accountant suffered a heart attack, Silverman asked his doctor what the newly built Doylestown Hospital would need to establish a cardiac unit. Based on those needs, he and three friends began holding an annual $100 lunch to raise funds. “It would have been difficult to ask for $10,000, but not one hundred,” he says. Ultimately they helped to create the Heart Institute at Doylestown Hospital.

Silverman also recalls an incident when that creative thinking helped his business survive; a bad year had made it difficult to pay his company’s bills. “I called all the [suppliers] I owed money to and invited them to lunch,” he says. At this lunch he presented an eight-page advertising supplement that he hoped to run in the newspapers. “I told them that I didn’t have the money to do it, so I was asking them to loan me a percentage of what I already owed them.” This bold move paid off, on March 15th five-million copies of the supplement ran in newspapers from Washington, DC to the suburbs of New York City and customers began to call. Silverman was able to pay his debts and the additional loans that year.

One of Silverman’s most enduring legacies in the region though does not bear his name.  In the early 1980s Silverman was working with officials to promote the arts in Bucks County through the creation of an Arts Council, the appointment of a poet laureate and with a traveling Art Mobile that taught children about painting, sculpture and other mediums, but his ultimate goal was to create an art museum to showcase the style popularized in Bucks County during the first half of the century.

Opportunity finally presented itself in the form of a new jail. The relocation left the county in charge of the former jail building which stood in the heart of Doylestown, the county seat. With the same creativity that helped propel his business forward, Silverman set out to turn it into a museum. Among the first decisions made was the one to use the name of his well-known friend and famous Bucks County native, author James A. Michener. This selection enabled the organization to raise more funds than it could have otherwise.

Silverman and Michener had grown up in similar circumstances and agreed on the importance of public art. Herman and his friends enjoyed visits to the nearby Philadelphia Art Museum while young, a free form of entertainment. “I got to see all of this wonderful art,” he says, “and realize there was so much more to it.”

A prominent name alone was not enough build a museum though, so Silverman and his fellow board members sold signed limited-edition prints and Key Club memberships to raise the funds needed for their goal. Of course, they also approached friends, neighbors and government officials with the same sort of audacious requests that Silverman employed to grow his business. In 1988 the James A. Michener Art Museum opened its doors to the public featuring many pieces of artwork on loan from friends and locals.

In 2011 Herman Silverman brought his support of the arts directly to the artists. “The Michener celebrates old artists, but young talented ones were having a hard time selling their work. I asked ‘What do you need?’” he says. “And they told me; ‘Wall space and publicity.’” Being the owner of several commercial spaces, with a keen eye for business and many connections in the community, Silverman knew he could change the public’s perception of the new artists’ value and opened The Silverman Gallery in Buckingham. The gallery offers “investment affordable art” showcased in an upscale gallery with a museum-like setting - professionally decorated and properly lit. “Good art is an investment, something you can pass on to your children,” he says. “It becomes more precious each year.”

Silverman has built quite a legacy to share with his four children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. “I have been able to do all these things because of the encouragement and support of my first wife, Ann (to whom he was married for 65 years before her death,) my current wife Elizabeth Serkin and my family.” As for how he continues to accomplish so much; The secret, he says, is that he enjoys his life. Each day Silverman drives his BMW convertible to his office at Silverman Family Partnership. “There is always time to do something else,” he says.

New York, New York! (It's greener than you think) - Part 2: High Line

We recently visited NYC's High Line Park. This unique public space was created on the platform of an old elevated rail track built to service the Chelsea neighborhood's meatpacking district. It is beautifully well designed, encouraging all sorts of interteraction; from playful water features and areas which encourage visitors to watch traffic below - while also being framed for veiwing - to a market, relaxing chaise, benches and, of course, gardens. The plants themselves are chosen to withstand the variety of challenges this unique setting poses: strong winds, reflected heat, dry conditions, pedestrian traffic, limited space and a low maintenance requirements. The gardens are both wild and defined, urban, yet naturalized.

(more photos below article)

Highline - New York City's Park in the Sky Was Once Just a Pie in the Sky

The following peice, describing the creation of the park, was broadcast on NPR September 3, 2011. The original content can be found at:
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/03/140063103/the-inside-track-on-new-yorks-high-line?sc=fb&cc=fp
This link also contains a slideshow, information on the book; High Line - The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky, a podcast of the show and downloadable audio tour.

In August 1999, Joshua David walked into a community board meeting in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. People were debating what to do with an old, elevated rail track that ran through the neighborhood between Gansevoort and 34 Street. It had been abandoned since 1980. Before that, it was built to haul goods into the city's meatpacking district.

David thought it was kind of a cool old relic, and he thought other people would feel the same.
"I went into that meeting thinking, 'Oh, we'll find some historic preservation group that's all into this,'" David tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan. "We'll just give them 20 bucks, lick a few envelopes and feel good about it."

But there were no groups. No one wanted to save the old track — except for one other guy at the meeting, Robert Hammond. Neither David nor Hammond had ever been to a community board meeting before, but they exchanged business cards and decided to start a nonprofit, Friends of the High Line. With a few more meetings and some fliers, they thought, maybe they could convince the city not to demolish the old track.

"My mom asked me, 'What's the chances of it happening?'" Hammond says. "I said, 'You know, 1 in 100.'" It took 10 years of fundraising, permit applications, feasibility studies, and wooing city and state officials, but Hammond and David beat those odds. They tell the story of how they did it in a book out next month, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky.

Early Opposition
Today, the High Line is one of Manhattan's most popular public spaces: a mile-long, modern, high-concept park built on the old railroad track. In the 10 months after it opened in 2009, it drew 2 million visitors and — in a rare ratio for a public space in New York — about half were tourists. Half were native New Yorkers.

There are hints in the modern park of the High Line's history: You can see the original rail tracks sticking out from areas of shrubs and trees. These rails date back to the 1930s, when they carried trains loaded with goods into the meatpacking district on tracks that ran along 10th Avenue.

The last train ran in 1980. "It was a trainload of frozen turkeys coming into the meat market," Hammond says, "to give New Yorkers turkeys for Thanksgiving." Over the next 20 years, many people in the neighborhood came to view the High Line as an eyesore and wanted it torn down. Many thought it was holding up development of the neighborhood. "Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani really wanted to demolish the High Line," Hammond says. "One of his last acts in office — two days before he left — was signing the demolition order."

By that time, Hammond and David had the support of Chelsea's gay and art communities. The two eventually gained support from celebrities like fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and actor Edward Norton, both of whom contributed to a growing list of benefactors funding legal efforts to save the High Line. Early on, no one had any big plans for a park. They just wanted to keep the track around.

Rail-Banked
For Hammond and David, the "holy grail" of saving the High Line was something called a Certificate of Interim Trail Use, or CITU. Issued by the Surface Transportation Board, a CITU allows the government to "bank" out-of-use rail corridors as trails on the grounds that the country might need them again. The term of art is "rail-banking." Without a certificate to rail-bank it, the land beneath the High Line would have been lost to local owners and developers. "We originally thought we could just apply and get one, they way you'd send away for a prize by mailing in a couple of cereal box tops," David writes in High Line.

After five years of fundraising, permit applications and even a lawsuit against the city, they had their CITU authorizing development of two-thirds of the full High Line. "Nothing more stood in our way," David writes. "We could break ground." A few years later, Hammond and David were on a roll. They'd settled on a design team to work around a "wildscape" of weeds and wildflowers. They'd secured both city and federal funding, including $18 million that came with the help of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton.

They'd wooed the Bloomberg administration with an economic feasibility study that showed the High Line would easily double its original $150 million cost in tax revenue from increased property values in the area. (That revenue figure has since been raised to nearly half a billion dollars.)

Still Wild
If you start at its southern terminus and walk the entire length of the High Line, you eventually arrive at a locked fence at 30th Street. Hammond and David have the combination. One the other side is the final, undeveloped third stretch of the High Line. It goes all the way around Manhattan's west side rail yards.

Hammond and David are trying to secure development rights for this part of the High Line. For now, it's just the way they found it years ago: nothing but rusty railroad tracks and waist-high weeds. "To me," Hammond says on a tour of the site, "this was the magic we wanted to save. Like right now, we're alone. It's just us, up here [in] this private garden right in the middle of New York."

Hammond says he was always secretly fearful he wouldn't like the new park as much as the old, secret High Line. "What's made me so happy is that I like the new park better," he says. "The design influences the way people interact. "I always notice when you're up on the High Line you see people holding hands. And you don't see that, just in people walking down the street. New Yorkers don't do it. But on the High Line they hold hands, and so I think that's the testimony of it really working."

New York, New York! (It's greener than you think) - Part 1: Gramercy Park

Gramercy Park is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The approximately 2 acre park is one of only two private parks in New York City; only people residing around the park who pay an annual fee have a key and the public is not generally allowed in – although the sidewalks of the streets around the park are a popular jogging, strolling and dog-walking route.

When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Gramercy Park Historic District in 1966, they quoted from John B. Pine's 1921 book, The Story of Gramercy Park:

The laying out of Gramercy Park represents one of the earliest attempts in this country at 'City Planning'. ... As a park given to the prospective owners of the land surrounding it and held in trust for those who made their homes around it, Gramercy Park is unique in this City, and perhaps in this country, and represents the only neighborhood, with possibly one exception, which has remained comparatively unchanged for eighty years -- the Park is one of the City's Landmarks.The area which is now Gramercy Park was once in the middle of a swamp. In 1831 Samuel B. Ruggles, a developer and advocate of open space, proposed the idea for the park due to the northward growth of Manhattan. He bought the property, which was then a farm called "Gramercy Farm", from James Duane, a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant.To develop the property, Ruggles spent $180,000 to landscape it, draining the swamp and causing about a million horsecart loads of earth to be moved. He then laid out "Gramercy Square", deeding possession of the square to the owners of the 60 parcels of land he had plotted to surround it, and sought tax-exempt status for the park, which the Board of Alderman granted in 1832. It was the second private square created in the city, after Hudson Square, also known as St. John's Park, which was laid out by the parish of Trinity Church. Numbering of the lots began at #1 on the northwest corner, on Gramercy Park West, and continued counter-clockwise: south down Gramercy Park West, then west to east along Gramercy Park South (East 20th Street), north up Gramercy Park East, and finally east to west along Gramercy Park North (East 21st Street).

Gramercy Park was enclosed by a fence in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s. Landscaping began in 1838 with the hiring of James Virtue, who planted privet inside the fence as a border; by 1839 pathways had been laid out and trees and shrub planted. Major planting also took place in 1844, followed by additional landscaping by Brinley & Holbrook in 1916. These plantings had the effect of softening the parks' prim formal design.

At #34 and #36 Gramercy Park (East) are two of New York's first apartment buildings, designed in 1883 and 1905. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, nineteenth century brownstones and carriage houses abound, though the 1920s brought the onset of tenant apartments and skyscrapers to the area.

In the center of the park is a statue of one of the area's most famous residents, Edwin Booth, which was dedicated on November 13, 1918. Booth was one of the great Shakespearean actors of 19th Century America, as well as the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. The mansion at #16 Gramercy Park (South) was purchased by Booth and renovated by Stanford White at his request to be the home of the Players' Club, which Booth founded. He turned over the deed to the building on New Year's Eve 1888.

Next door at #15 Gramercy Park (South) is the National Arts Club, established in 1884 in a Victorian Gothic mansion which was originally home to the New York Governor and 1876 Presidential Candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden had steel doors and an escape tunnel to East 19th Street to protect himself from the sometimes violent politics of the day.

On September 20, 1966, a part of the Gramercy Park neighborhood was designated an historic district, the boundaries of which were extended on July 12, 1988. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.


In 1983, Fantasy Fountain, a 4.5 ton bronze sculpture by Greg Wyatt was installed in the park.

Information gathered from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramercy_Park

Intelligent Design - Bringing Inspiration to Reality: Part 2

We continue our series on Intelligent Design, and bring you photos to follow-up the drawings and concepts presented in Bringing Inspiration to Reality: Part 1. If you recall, we had a client interested in recreating the atmosphere of a Balinese spa in their backyard with custom designed concrete seating, fountain, an outdoor shower, hot-tub, privacy and tropical looking plants. Of course, this being the Northeastern portion of the country we had to use plants and materials tolerant of the climate. Here is the resulting landscape:

The water feature, surrounded by ferns, provides soothing sounds.

Tropical hardwood decking was chosen for it's color and weather resistance.

A stepping stone path leads to the secluded shower and spa.

The custom teak and concrete bench found a home amid the large foliage of hostas and gold specked Acuba.

Sleek contemporary pots filled with colorful annuals provide additional interest.

Many annuals are tropical, allowing for their use as seasonal accents in the garden.

Vibrant colors and sleek styling create a zen spa-like vibe in the landscape.

The use of containers allows arid succulents to grow beside hostas in front of the bamboo shower screen.