TEACHER FEATURE // Annie Novak: Urban Farmer With Serious City Gardening Tips

Interested in growing your own garden? Well, solemnly swear no one who can give you better tips than urban farmer and 3rd Ward teacher Annie Novak.

Novak runs the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm and the non-profit Growing Chefs, in addition to working with the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. "Spring is the season of seeding!" she says, and right now she's working on transplanting tomatoes and planning for summertime at the community garden plot that Growing Chefs started with Red Shed Community Garden, which is not too far from 3rd Ward.

Here are a few city gardening pointers from Novak: 

• Invest in good soil! Buy a nice organic potting mix with no chemical fertilizers. Or make your own using coconut coir, a bit of compost, and some internet research!
• Buy healthy plants!  Look for nice, upright plants with no roots showing on the bottom of the pot. Buy locally at the farmers' market for plants that have been grown in our growing climate. If it's a veggie, give it lots and lots of sunshine. 
• Sow seeds wildly! If you don't have a yard or rooftop, visit a native plant center or buy native seeds, then seed bomb with abandon in open lots! Think ahead 100 years to a better city: call 311 to get a street tree planted.

The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is located at 44 Eagle Street in Greenpoint and his open for a farm market and a chance to volunteer this coming Sunday, May 15 and Sunday, May 22 from 9am-4pm. 

For more about Annie Novak check out a great profile of her on the Urban Outfitters blog.

-- John Ruscher