September 24
10:30 am to Noon
Adopt-a-Pot Preview
TEA PARTY
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September 24-25
9.24 noon-6 pm
9.25 11am-6 pm
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October 9
11am-2pm
(raindate: October 10, 2016)
Bring children to our
Free Annual Harvest Festival
Pumpkins & Cookies by
Citarella
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Annual
Holiday Tree Lighting
sponsored by
date and time
to be announced
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Donations in all amounts are welcome. Every donation helps our plants, shrubs and flowers thrive, maintain our infrastructure, and our community service grow.
Send
your tax-deductible contribution to:
70A Greenwich Ave
PMB 372
Check on Garden Hours and Events, view photos of events, learn our Garden's History, identify Birds and Flowers.
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For a special Garden Wedding, contact our
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A Summer of Music
in the Garden
Photo Gallery
2016 Free Musical Events for our
Community
Sunday Irish Harp & Song Concerts
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Art in the Garden
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Friends Party
A solemn remembrance
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Photos in this issue thanks to: Bill Thomas
Fern Gail Estrow
Laurie Moody
Jack Intrator
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Summer 2016 Garden News
Greetings to everyone who has had, we hope, a chance to spend some time in Jefferson Market Garden this summer. Right now the flowers in the Garden are at their peak, many blooming far above our heads. However, this Garden is not immune to the fact that things fall apart. The Board of JMG has spent much of this year overseeing the rebuilding of infrastructure that had outlived its expiration date.
A living lawn that we use judiciously is a treasure that needs almost constant care. This Spring, our lawn, damaged by heavy use last year was resodded, but then its lush beauty was ravaged by a fungus, which was treated and it partially recovered. Nevertheless, it will be replaced at the end of this season. While the lawn was removed, repairs were made to the sprinkler system and underground electrical lines to new outlets were installed.
Nature's freezing and thawing plus years of heavy use by the community dislodged and damaged our brick pathways. This spring the wobbly bricks were reset, broken bricks were replaced and an extension was added behind the greeters' table to open up the space behind the gate for our visitors. After the Garden closes, the shed where tools and materials are kept will be replaced.
 And even then, we will not be finished. You may have noticed that a vertical bar of our historic fence is missing along Sixth Avenue. The Garden is now protected by a wire that has been threaded between the two existing bars. Less noticeable are missing finials on the fence near the Library that protect the Garden from nighttime incursions. Even worse, there are many more repairs that are required before a much-needed scraping and painting can begin. These repairs and the painting will be the largest expense the Garden will face this year. And of course, we dream of a continuation of our beautiful fence along the back of the Garden to replace the original chain link fence. Accomplishing this dream will require a new funding source.
YOUR contributions at the gate, through the mail and online make this stewardship of YOUR Garden possible.
WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT!
Best wishes,
George Paulos, Chair & Elizabeth Butson, Vice-Chair
& the Jefferson Market Board
Bill Thomas photo
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Garden Design & Horticulture
At the same time that repairs were being made this spring, our Horticulturist & Garden Designer Susan Sipos was adding new design features that delight our senses. A natural stone wall was added behind the Koi Pond, where new fish and frogs have been growing bigger by the day. Two new beds were added to the lawn area and a row of boxwood now protects the lawn behind the table.
Have you noticed the tropical additions to our plantings? A pineapple near the pond is thriving. Oleanders are blooming behind one of our benches. Soon, perhaps, we will have Birds of Paradise blooming in two locations. While we wait, we can enjoy viewing the enormous Elephant Ear leaves under the Crabapple trees on the corner of 10th and Greenwich. And don't forget the polka-dotted Angel Wing Begonia (Wightii--not a misspelling!)
And new fruits and vegetables? White eggplant and, yes, those are watermelons in our Rose Garden!
And most stunning, the plantings for the birds, bees, butterflies and dragonflies? 16-foot Skyscraper Sunflowers and 6-foot Datura, producing large white trumpet flowers, and purple-flowered Butterfly Bushes (Buddleia) that are best viewed through the Sixth Avenue fence. As a result of these select plantings, the Garden is full of natural life and sometimes when you sit on a bench for a while, you can even hear buzzing and chirping in this noisy city.
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We give special thanks to both the Gate and Garden Volunteers who keep our Garden accessible and beautiful and the unseen volunteers who prepare publications, create and maintain our social media, donate photos and art work, staff weddings and other Garden events, and our Board Members who oversee all aspects of the Garden and work to continue its financial stability.
We applaud the time, energy and skills that so many of you give to the Garden.
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Central Park in Greenwich Village
By Jack Intrator
If you live downtown, why go to Central Park when you have it all in Jefferson Market Garden. All that is, except for size. Yes, Central Park is much larger than the Garden, 843 acres versus less than one acre (0.36 of an acre to be exact), but all the Olmstedian design elements found in Central Park can be found in this small patch of green in Greenwich Village. By the term "Olmstedian" I am referring to landscape design elements of Frederick Law Olmsted who with Calvert Vaux created Central Park between the years 1858 and 1873.
Olmsted and Vaux designed Central Park employing several basic landscape concepts. These included formal, picturesque and pastoral areas and generally no straight paths. The latter element was used to draw the visitor into the park and to create a mystery about what lay around the bend in any path.
In Central Park these concepts translate into the following landscapes:
Formal - Bethesda Terrace and Fountain and Conservatory Garden; Picturesque - The Ramble, North Woods and Hallett Nature Sanctuary;
Pastoral - Sheep Meadow, the Great Lawn and water bodies.
And as for the paths, none was designed to be straight except for the Mall, which is part of the formal landscape leading to Bethesda Terrace and Bethesda Fountain.
And now for the landscapes in Jefferson Market Garden. All the Olmstedian elements can be found here:
Formal - The rose garden and fountain adjacent to Sixth
Avenue; Picturesque - The terraced and dense landsca
pe along West 10th Street; Pastoral - The lawn that comprises the center of the Garden.
And there are no straight paths. Look along the main path in the Garden and you don't know what lies around the bend.
In addition to being the Garden historian, I am also a Greensward Guide for the Central Park Conservancy, so I have been able to see the Garden and Park up close and on a very intimate basis. And what I see is the influence of Frederick Law Olmsted on our very small and beautiful Garden.
Enduring Beauty Since 1975
Women's House of Detention (built 1932) and the Jefferson Market Courthouse (built 1877)
In 1975, visionary Greenwich Village activists took back the land where Jefferson Market, a farmers' produce market, stood before the Women's House of Detention (1932-1973) was built and then demolished. Their dream garden is now a reality.
Listening to a Jefferson Market Garden concert in the rain
Village Committee for the Jefferson Market Area
Our latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
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