A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Although most of our jobs are on the great island of Manhattan, we do sometimes get the pleasure of crossing the river to work in the ever green and always lovely Brooklyn.

This past week, the entire team (about 10 workers in total) transformed a rooftop in DUMBO from a simple place to get a good view of downtown Manhattan, to a menagerie to be viewed FROM downtown Manhattan!

 

Above: The rooftop prior to it's All Decked Out makeover

We started the day at 5am with a trip out to our nursery to get shrubs, grasses, pansies, and planters. Then, once the goods were delivered, the team set to work to bring our designer's plans to life.

Above: The rooftop after 8 hours of genius at work ;)

After a long hard day and a successfully completed installation, we of course all had to stop for pizza and a beer at the famous Grimaldi's before making our way back to across the bridge. Until next time...!

Plagued by Pollen and Poles!

After two long weeks, we're back on the blog! (miss us??)

We have officially hit the ground running (sprinting, really) here at All Decked Out, and we have been busy nearly every day installing new gardens all over the city, all while fighting the good fight-seasonal allergies!

As you may be able to guess, one of the most exciting and equally daunting parts of Spring installations is that you never can tell exactly what to expect-especially in a city as old and storied as New York. 

Last week, during a backyard installation on the Upper West Side, we encountered the remnants of a chain-link fence installed at least 80-100 years prior. While digging a large hole for a new Cherry tree, we struck concrete and metal. Unable to stray from the original design of the garden, we spent the next THREE HOURS with a sledgehammer and pick steadily chipping away at the antique foundation.

Above: Diego, Gui, and Jessica posing in a pollen fog of victory with the enemy pole

After all our hard work, not only were we finally able to pull the (3ft long!) metal pole and it's concrete base out of the ground, but the Cherry tree looked perfect in it's corner spot :). A job well worth the work!

Sunshine is here, and Tulips are too....

 ...But with all this heat, they'll soon bid us adieu!

It's the first hot day of 2012, and the city is alive with color! As ladies lunch in billowing sundresses and hipsters lounge in their neon-hued denim, millions of tulips are standing tall all over Manhattan.

Unfortunately, however, these beautiful little additions of color to city-life won't be holding their own for long. It may be common sense to assume that warm weather and sunshine brings more flowers rather than less, but in the case of Tulips, that's not true.

Tulips, like the "All Temples of Beauty" bulbs pictured above from this morning, prefer cooler weather and less sunlight. That's why these early risers are always the first spots of color you see in the Spring.

All this sunshine and the heat from a day like today are like hitting the fast forward button on the life span of a Tulip, which is why they seem extra full and marvelous. In the same token, that fast forward button will stay on all day today, and by as early as tomorrow those same tulips will begin to wilt and die.

In the end, as sad as it may be that the last day of a flowering Tulip's life is it's most beautiful, the same heat and sun that are scaring away these Springtime plants are what will bring us even more beautiful summertime plants in the months to come!

Friendly Goodbyes and New Beginnings

Good Morning!

Has everyone recovered from their respective Holiday weekends yet? We like to think that whether you were celebrating Passover, Easter, or simply two days off after another work week, this past weekend symbolized the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

That said, this weekend here at All Decked Out we celebrated our own form of the ever continuing cycle of endings and beginnings. One of our most beloved members of the team, Nathan, is moving on from ADO, and Friday afternoon we had a small party in his honor.

Gifts were given, drinks and many laughs were had, and goodbyes were sadly exchanged.

 (Above: Nathan receives a nearly lifetime supply of his beloved Snyder Pretzels and Hot Tamales from Killian)

Now, as a fresh week begins, we excitedly move forward with some new team members, a fresh outlook on the always changing future, and clear eyes and full hearts.

Back to planting!!!

A Quick Latin Lesson

Happy Thursday! As many of you may or may not know, in the professional world of horticulture all plants and flowers are generally classified by their Latin names, and not the common ones we are all familiar with. This means that our daily trips to the nurseries for your beautiful gardens are almost like traveling back to Ancient Greece! (emphasis on ALMOST)

That said, we thought we would take some time today to teach you the proper Latin names of the early Spring bloomers we are all currently seeing pop up around the city.

First up we have a newly flowering Apricot tree, otherwise known as Prunus armeniaca. This literally translates to "stone fruit", and is a very close relative of the peach tree (Prunus persica). 

 Another flower that has taken NYC by storm this Spring is the Daffodil. The proper Latin name for these are Narcissus. The flowers were named for the vain star of Greek mythology because it has been said that after Narcissus drowned from his obsession with his own reflection in a pool of water, a Daffodil sprung up in the place where he died.

Finally, we've also been seeing some pretty Pansies popping their heads up lately. These flowers are called Violax wittrockiana (say that ten times fast!), and bloom in both the Spring and Autumn.

...And that wraps up your Latin vocabulary lesson for today! As more flowers begin to bloom throughout the season, we will continue to teach you about the origins and proper names of what you're seeing, and hopefully by the end of this season we'll all be writing our own flowery renditions of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey".... or something similar ;)

Vade in pace!

Spring Cleanup, Part 2

Hello Again from the ADO Crew! As the days gradually get warmer, Spring cleanup means not only raking and pruning, but power-washing, too. Our power-washing specialists here at ADO have been waiting impatiently to end their winter dry spell, and finally got to get a little wet this week! Below is a client's backyard garden prior to the treatment:

Our power-washers then spent about 4 hours perfecting their cleaning technique of detail orientation and efficiency:

...After which we were all able to enjoy the final product!