Pregnant Spring

April 16, 2005

by John Cannizzo

Spring arrived almost unperceived, but undeniably everything is changed subtly, pervasively.

"Work seems like it is behind schedule -- and it is," Alex said on Monday. Outside Dimitri's (the oldest family owned nursery in Manhattan) a trailer truck is unloading succulent Cherry trees, emerald green Thuja and slender birches. But it is only because Easter is so early this year.

Today HSNY digs out the plants from Rockefeller Center's historic landmark Channel Garden. Firs with heavy roots systems, silvery Andromeda, and many big cypresses must come out to make room for Easter lilies. It is 6:00 a.m. No tools in hand, the GreenTeam - Carolyn, Lorenzo, Adeline and Paris - sleepily emerge from the gray dawn shadows on Fifth Avenue. Not a soul around, serene, calm, sequestered, it is like an enchanted city.

Carolyn says, "You look at it and you slow down."

Officer Guzman has commandeered a Department of Corrections truck (complete with flat tire). We've rented our own 14-foot truck. Plants get packed tightly as sardines. Each cypress probably weighs 200 lbs. Three of us move one. Our first real job this season starts. Spring anxiously anticipated is here all at once. It is a beautiful day.

On the way to Brooklyn, Paris says, "It was great living the MTV lifestyle but I'm tired of it now. I need to spend time with my kids."

We get to Brownsville first though the truck's governor insures it will never exceed 45. Brownsville Branch Library garden is an HSNY GreenBranches projects. In autumn the pergola went in. The red wood already looks weathered.

When the plants are all in we stand on the platform of the elevated train waiting, Carolyn, Paris, Adeline and Lorenzo. Under the influence of the first trees planted this season it is easy to feel good. Looking down on everything the little garden glows in the afternoon sun. Spring is pregnant. We have passed some invisible border.

Paris says, "My three-year-old son asked me, 'what does die mean?' Already he has a clue."

Adeline says, "A plant dies and gives up its seed so it can grow again."

* Photos courtesy of John Cannizzo

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Six a.m. Rockefeller Center. Not a soul around except GreenHouse Director James Jiler and GreenTeam interns Lorenzo and Carolyn.

The landmark Channel Garden of Rockefeller Center is completely replanted each season. The winter planting was donated to HSNY for our community gardens.

It is a massive job to remove the trees and shrubs. Adeline digs out one of the big Cypresses trees. It will take three of us just to lift them onto the edge of the raised bed. A forklift will take them the rest of the way to our truck.

Lorenzo loads on the Andromeda. The trees are packed into the truck as tightly as sardines. They can even be stacked on top of each other. Their own weight is no worse than the weight of a heavy snow.

By 7:30 a.m. it's all over and we are on our way to Brooklyn.

9:00 a.m. Brownsville, Brooklyn. Lorenzo operates the loft gate. GreenTeam interns (Left to Right) Adeline and Paris get ready to haul the trees and shrubs to their new homes. The holes were dug the day before. Phil talks to Lisa the Director of GreenBranches.

Brownsville Branch Library was built by the Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and is a landmark. The library has been waiting 100 years for this day. Finally HSNY's GreenBranches will install the garden -- a program dedicated to completing the landscaping at these landmark libraries. Later in the season the garden will be host to after-school and summer literacy and gardening programs taught by HSNY GreenBranches and Apple Seed instructors.

By the end of the day the big Cypress trees have been planted. Some of the Andromeda will be used in the landscaping here the rest will be given away to residents of the NYC Housing Authority Project next door to the Library. This is our first big planting of the season. Spring is really here.