Summer Bonus Episode: Finding Lavender and Sheep on Governors Island

enough science to make you sound like an expert. We are on summer break right now, but the truth is Molly and I can't stop won't stop our plant addictions, so we're bringing you some mini episodes to brighten up your feed and grow your plant curiosity. Throughout the summer. We're dropping incredible stories from growers, fund advice from experts, and we'll have some great conversations around fascinating plant facts.

For this episode, Molly and I took a field trip to explore Governor's Island and all its natural wonder in New York City, and I think you're gonna of it. So just a little background. Governor's Island is a one seventy two acre island in New York Harbor, just east of the Lower Tip of Manhattan, and since the early eight hundreds, the island has been this important military base. Today it's not really that. It's one of the largest public parks in New York City. They have lavender fields

and public hammocks and modern art installations. There's clamping and food trucks, playgrounds and urban farm and this last spring they offered a flock of sheep residency on the island through the summer. That's right, they gave residency to some sheep. And one other thing I love about the island is

the only way to get there is by ferry. Yeah, we are in the cabin on the ferry to Governor's Island, and I'm glad I got on this ferry rather than the one to Staten Island, because although I'm sure Staten Island as gorgeous gardens, I don't know how many sheep they have. How about you? What are you excited to say? I'm determined to find your sheep. Every time I go to Governor's Island, I find something new I'm delighted by.

And on this trip, I was on a mission to find the sheep they brought to the island this year. And then the hammock grows right across from that entrance. Nice, and we're certain they're still sheep there. I don't know, however, those sheep seem to be continually hiding from us as we searched. But in our quest to find the flock, we stumbled across another hidden gem. I wonder, what's going on our here? That's okay, legit, gardening happened right here.

Oh my gosh, oh my god. It starts smelling so good, Oh my god, so good. I'm just gonna roll around all these different kinds of let's walk through here. We stumbled into the lavender fields of Governor's Island. It's a small patch of garden containing four main varieties of lavender, along with some lesser known ones like my favorite, this

new varietal I learned about called fat spike. In total, they have over five hundred individual lavender plants, and the lavender was apparently planted on the island in June of two thousand seventeen. But here's the really wonderful part. Every Sunday, the public is welcome to harvest some of the blooms, and one of the loveliest parts of the spot, aside from the incredible fragrance and all these glorious waves of purple is watching all the different pollinators flutter and buzz

from plant to plant. You know, lavender is such a unique plant. Aside from attracting pollinators, a single lavender plant can survive fifteen to twenty years in the right environment. They are super sturdy, heat and drought tolerant, and they can grow in a variety of soils from being potted indoors or out in the backyards. But you know, I was told if you're planning outside, it might be best to choose late spring or early summer when the soil

is warmer. After spending a good half hour wandering through these gorgeous purple blossoms, Molly and I accepted a bouquet of freshly cut lavender from some of the gardeners there. It was such a sweet gesture, and then continued on our way in search of these evasive sheep. You might

be wondering, Mango, why are you obsessed with these sheep? Well, the wooly creatures go by the name's flower sam, Evening philip aries, and my favorite chad and they've been imported from Albany, But they are not on the island to sightsee. They're here to work, and their residency is designed to help keep the invasive plant species in control. And for the next four or five months they're going to be super busy feasting on grasses, fragmites, mug war and sun flowers.

But in the full lushness of the Hammock Rove area, these sheep were not easy to find. Sheep chip chip chip chip chip chip chipchip cheep. What's she called? Shipipchip chip cheep. No sheep yet, it's like a scavenger hunt. Yeah, we honestly asked everyone we saw, and we nearly gave up after finding one empty enclosure. But then, just like the fresh lavender, the smell of the sheep wafted in on the wind and we caught a big whiff of them before we could see them. So Molly and I

followed our noses straight to them. I definitely smell them. Yeah, I know, We're just gonna have to follow our noses stronger. I know, I agree. I sent this stronger, and eventually, peeking between the branches of a second enclosure, Molly and I finally found all five of those beautiful fluffy monsters. Sam evening flower philip aries and yes, of course, Chad like that looks like there, I think, yeah, basking in the shade over there. Oh two two of them and

did that make my day? So okay, we've been looking around for a while. Yeah, so we've been wandering and there are three paths we could go down to try to find the sheep, and we took two of the wrong paths and asked a lot of people who pointed in vague directions which I forced you to chase down. And then finally we bumped into one guy who said he had no idea where the sheep were, and they were right around the corner for room. And we've been

but we couldn't really see them very well. But we could. We were We're like real like creeps to the sheep. Oh yeah, completely creep. Were sheep creep sheeping toms. But then it was it was so joyous to like spot like one fluffy tail and then see there's another body next to it, and then another body and then like the whole crew was there. Yeah, yeah, you were so excited. I know, it's a good day. Someone hands me a bouquet of lavender and you get to see sheep. It's

pretty good day's work. I agree. I agree. That's it for today's episode, but check back here again soon for more bonus episodes this summer. And don't forget no matter what season it is or where you're at in your gardening journey, there are some incredible resources is waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your friends at

Miracle Grow. Our show is written and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mony Fatiga there thank you so much for listening.