Mea culpa.   Your blogger has no good excuse for his long silence.   Here is an update in three parts:  fruit, vegetables and horticulture.

1.  Fruit Report

What a difference a year makes.   The previously parsimonious Moonglow pear, offering a single fruit in year one, and two in year two, has broken out of its arithmetic straightjacket and is now bearing in abundant beauty:

The apple trees also have come alive this year, with all four varieties (Red Fuji, Red Winesap, Macoun and Royal Gala) hanging heavy with fruit.

In contrast, the nectarine, the star of the show for its first three years on the 35^th floor, seems exhausted, and the fruit is scarce and small.   Happily, the peaches are prolific and promising:

The blueberries, however, are having a bit of an off-year.  The bushes seem to have pushed strong new growth that is fruitless, and the berries, even those fully plump and ripe, remain tart.

2.  2013 Vegetables

The indefatigable farming team lead by Annie Novak is trying all sorts of new things this year, starting with asparagus (perennial, of course, and a long-shot for a green roof).  We are happily devoting a whole bed to potatoes this year,

and have succumbed to the twining red beauty and gustatory appeal of Malabar spinach, extravagantly devoting both south-facing vertical screens to this one plant:

3.  Horticulture

The diverse non-edible planting at the south end of BRTG supports the insect population so vital to pollination of the fruits and vegetables.  The plants that have adjusted to life on the roof continue to surprise.  Judge for yourself, do the woodland-loving Trout Lily (Erythronium) and Iris cristata look uncomfortable?  Or New York States’s own Prickly Pear Cactus?

I leave you with assurances that more regular posting will resume, starting next week, with the results of the long-awaited study of insect life at BRTG.