Long Island residential gardens range from small urban lots to large acres. Often they have gardens to match.
However, this is not always the case. Some people with soil issues will do whatever it takes to be surrounded by plants, even if it means laughing at how much or how little they have.
Take the example of Nicole Gadaleta. When she moved into her Seacliff home in 2016, she didn't know what to make of her new front yard, which was the size of a postage stamp.
“The previous owner was a chiropractor, so there was a spine sculpture in the garden and two large pine trees surrounded by red mulch and lava stones,” she recalled. “and [the former occupants] Since they were cat lovers, they also had an outdoor cat jungle gym set up. ”
My then-husband soon took over the garden. He planted pansies, hydrangeas, and sweet potato vines and meticulously tended the 10-by-12-foot plot.
But when she moved in 2022, Gadaleta said she ignored the garden. Within a year, she said, “the grass was overgrown and I didn't know what to do with it.” Eventually, she hired her gardener to help. But after watching him cut back plants and remove weeds, she realized it was a job she could do too. And with that in mind, she did.
“I got a little carried away,” said the 40-year-old mother of two. “I went shopping and started putting up plants, and they were beautiful,” she said. “Every time I went to the nursery, I'd see a new plant and say, 'I want this!' So I just kept adding and adding and adding.”
Gadaleta said she lost her job as a television casting director in the summer of 2023, but found solace at home. By then the garden was full of lavender, ornamental alliums, hostas, creeping phlox, and annuals. And she kept digging.
“I just looked at the plants and thought they were pretty and put them in the ground. I just love the look of that lush 'Fern Gully,'” she says of the 1992 animated film set in a lush rainforest. she said about. A giant coral canna, which she said reminded her of another movie, “Jurassic Park,'' took center stage in front of her balcony.
Gadaleta said that in just a few months, her small front garden has grown into a gathering place for friends, who often stop by during the summer to hang out and drink rosé on the porch overlooking the garden. Ta. It also served as inspiration for her new career. Ms. Gadaleta said she enrolled in an online landscape design course and that she is currently employed as a landscape designer.
It may sound dramatic, but this garden saved my life.
Nicole Gadaleta, Seacliff resident
Credit: Dawn McCormick
“It may sound dramatic, but this garden saved my life,” she said. “I love the satisfaction of putting something on the ground and seeing how healthy and beautiful it is. It's very satisfying and makes me very happy.”
The neighbors are also happy. “I'm getting compliments. [from passersby] Always,” Gadaleta said. “Sometimes my boyfriend thanks me, but then I jump out and say, 'He doesn't even live here.'” Yay! ”
a dead end hobby
Syosset's Chandra Sinha echoes this attention. His small front garden flower bed is filled with begonias, impatiens, dahlias, roses, gladioli, cannas, rubber plants and geraniums among the shrubs and groundcovers. “People often stop and take pictures, and I try to direct them to take a closer look,” he said.
Rubber necking is guaranteed. Despite having limited gardening space on his 0.2-acre property with a mostly paved backyard, Mr. Sinha, 72, is making the most of every available space. A consulting architect, he spends much of his free time growing plants from seeds, propagating geraniums by cuttings, and cultivating the countless annuals, perennials, and edibles that grow in pots, small beds, property lines, and strips. spending time taking care of.
Sinha, who lives with his wife and son's family, said he caught the gardening bug as a teenager growing up on the banks of the Ganges River in Patna, India, when a teacher asked all students to choose a hobby. Told. Despite his inexperience, “I chose gardening and the plants grew really well,” he said.
Encouraged, he started gardening at home and as an adult installed a green roof on his house in Patna, which he still owns today. “We spread about two feet of soil on a flat roof and planted bananas, lemons, and seasonal vegetables such as okra, cucumber, spinach, coriander, broccoli, lettuce, and eggplant,” Sinha said.
Sinha says she can't grow all of her favorite plants on Long Island because “we don't have the best weather here,” but she does grow some tropical plants, including banana trees, rubber trees, aglaonema, dieffenbachia, and areca. He said he was able to do it. The palms and monsteras are grown in a greenhouse attached to the house and converted into a sunroom, moved outside during the summer and brought back inside when the weather cools.
The backyard, which is almost entirely paved with brick or covered with a wooden deck, has a kaleidoscope of potted plants, tropical trees, and vegetables along the fence, around the pool, and in every nook and cranny. It is being
A bona fide botanical garden on the property had already taken root 10 years ago when Sinha moved in. “The previous owner kept it very well kept,” Sinha said, adding that many of the tropical plants overwintering indoors came with the house.
However, there are some disappointing points. “The previous owner's dahlias could not be protected,” said Sinha, whose two hydrangeas did not bloom.
But overwhelmingly, this garden thrives without the use of any pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Instead, Sinha said he uses homemade compost and a layer of fallen leaves left to rot and naturally enrich the soil.
I feel very happy when I see the plants I have grown come out.
Chandra Sinha of Syosset
Credit: Alejandra Villa Loarca
Strolling through the gardens, Sinha recalls the first spark of joy he felt as a student in India. “That look gives me great joy,” he said. “I feel very happy when I see the plants I created sprouting.”
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Mary McDonnell of Huntington understands that joy. Her front garden is 10 by 30 feet and includes hydrangeas, hardy geraniums, cannas, honeysuckle, mandevilla, Spanish lavender, petunias, verbena, catmint, and about 20 annuals that she incorporates each spring. It is abundantly planted.
Sometimes I enjoy sitting on the grass in the rain and looking at the garden.
Mary McDonnell of Huntington
Credit: Rick Kopstein
“Sometimes I enjoy sitting on the grass in the rain and looking out at the garden,” she said. And her front yard is directly across from the mailbox bank in her apartment community, so her neighbors can enjoy it, too.
“I've had pictures taken in front of my garden for communion and prom,” McDonnell said, adding that neighbors often ask her for gardening advice. “It’s become a social thing,” she said.
When McDonnell, 66, retired from her job as a construction company manager and now works as an animal rescuer, she and her husband moved into their home in 2003, they knew they wanted a garden. But, she said, “she had to learn the local conditions and the condominium rules.”
For example, new planting beds are not allowed within overgrown areas, McDonnell said. Also, there are no barriers of any kind installed. Patios may not be blocked by large shrubs, and planting in common areas is prohibited.
So McDonnell started small, planting crape myrtles and impatiens. But when his impatiens burned out in the unfamiliar south, he switched to begonias, McDonnell said. Soon, she added dinner-plate dahlias, lantana grown in cylindrical tubes, and vines like passionflowers and morning glories winding their way through stands of boxwoods, perhaps exceeding the imposed limits. She said it was not, but it would never be surpassed. “I respect the rules and do my best.”
Near her driveway, she carved a large flower-shaped flower bed in the dirt, filled it with purple ageratum and white begonias, and added a towering canna in the center.
While other gardens in the community are well-maintained, turning the corner onto the McDonnell property feels like stepping into the Technicolor world of The Wizard of Oz.
But the garden isn't just visible outdoors. McDonnell strategically grows some of the crape myrtles and limelight hydrangeas by trimming them to the same height as the kitchen window so they can be enjoyed from inside. She lets the others grow up to her second floor to match her second floor window.
Make the most of your small garden
Do you like plants but have limited space? Here are five tips to make the most of your space.
Maximize vertical space with trellises, hanging baskets, and wall-mounted planters. Use containers strategically to increase interest. Create dimension by lifting several pots onto a stand or pedestal. Group containers in clusters instead of lining them up or placing them individually in separate areas. Choose dwarf or compact varieties of your favorite plants. You get more bang for your buck when you use plants that have multiple benefits. Crops with beautiful leaves and flowers, such as rainbow chard, sweet potatoes, chives, amaranth, and some lettuces, do double duty, bringing both edible and ornamental value to your garden or container. Arrange the plants in layers, with taller varieties in the back and back. Add depth to your garden bed by placing shorter ones in front.
— Jessica Damiano
