November 1st, 2019- The East 86th Street Association planted four “experimental” tree pits today to see which plants over-winter the best. We were recently informed that the City of New York has essentially thrown in the towel on their efforts to plant the street after several mostly failed attempts to plant inkberries in close to 60 pits between Park Avenue and Second Avenue. With a short window of planting time left before the end of planting season, we figured we could get a few pits planted before winter, and that the varieties chosen should be hardy, light or shade appropriate, and salt and drought tolerant. So we have done just that. Two new pits have been planted at the westbound SBS bus stop in front of Best Buy on 86th between Park and Lex, and two more pits have been planted between 3rd and Lex in front of Shake Shack and Barnes& Noble. The sunny side plants include Rosa Rugosa, Hot Rod Fire Grass, Holly, Little Bunny Grass and assorted other grasses. The shady side plants are primarily two different types of Yew and Lily Turf. Yew planted by The Brompton Condominium last year at the bus stop in front of the AT&T store has thrived, so we figured that this would be a safe bet.

Please let us know which pits you like the best. Next spring we will see what performed best and what is most popular and we will expand our planting operation to dozens of new pits!