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Megan MacDonald Brosterman

@foxcliffgardens

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🌿 Mom, wife, friend, master composter, soil & ecosystem steward, garden experimenter, COO @gothamparknyc 🌿 #NYC | #FLX 🦊🧗‍♀️🌿

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Amazing to see @govkathyhochul, @briankavanaghny and @amgracelee all right here in @bogardusplaza! 💗

#gotv #govote #tribecanyc by @foxcliffgardens

Our family has a new baby and @gothamparknyc has a new Office Manager! ❤️

Meet Buttercup: She’s a good girl. 👍🐶🌸

#princessbuttercup #cavapoo #cavapoopuppy by @foxcliffgardens

It was a difficult summer with not as much gardening as other seasons, and to top it off, our milkweed patch didn’t come back for some reason. But a few volunteers popped up in our vegetable garden and I found these little guys by our peppers the other day. I’m so glad they found it!

#milkweedformonarchs #monarchwaystation #nativeplantsforpollinators #gardeningismytherapy by @foxcliffgardens

Gung Hay Fat Choy! 🧧 Today was a beautiful Super Saturday! We started with a very special Lion Dance by Team Manjushri at @gothamparknyc and then headed up Park Row to join the iconic Chinatown festivities.

It’s days like this that make me so grateful to be a New Yorker. ❤️❤️❤️🗽

Photos 2,3, 7 & 8 by the amazing @julienneschaer , others by me 🤷‍♀️

#happylunarnewyear #supersaturday #i❤️newyork #manhattanchinatown #gothamparknyc by @foxcliffgardens

It was the summer of squash, leafy greens and cherry tomatoes. Sweet peppers did ok, spicy peppers were a sad harvest compared to other years. Our Gold Medal, Paul Robeson and Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato plants were a big disappointment. I think that had a lot to do with me letting the volunteer tomato plants grow in the beds - all the volunteers ended up being cherries and they overtook all my big tomatoes… next year I will pull almost all the volunteers!!! And only one eggplant to pick as of September 1 - other years I would have been swimming in eggplants by now.

I think the soil has been depleted a bunch by both the invasive jumping worms and five straight years of abundant harvests in these beds. I’ve also read that a lot of gardeners’ tomatoes have been pretty late this year. I will add a bunch of compost and biochar in the off-season. And maybe some nematodes if I can get the timing right.

#amateurgardener #regenerativegardening #organicgarden #harvest2025 #flxgarden #foxcliffgardens by @foxcliffgardens

Happy first big #tomatotuesday now that it’s almost Labor Day 😵‍💫 by @foxcliffgardens

Found a straggler yesterday enjoying our Agastache foeniculum! I thought she might be the fat caterpillar we saw 5 days ago (last photo) but that doesn’t line up with the normal pupation time. 🐛

Agastache foeniculum/Anise hyssop is a favorite late summer nectar source for monarchs. It was one of the earliest native plants I planted here in the summer of 2020 and I remember being mesmerized by the pack of butterflies that seemed to find it as soon as I planted it. 🦋 It also smells amazing (like anise!) and makes a delicious tea! Definitely one of my favorite plants, and now it has self seeded all over the garden 💜

#monarchbutterflies #monarchmigration #monarchconservation #gardeningismytherapy #nativeplantgarden #agastache by @foxcliffgardens

My August garden is a Monet, but even the areas that look like the apocalypse bring me joy. 🥰 Also the fact that I have butternut squash growing in my lawn.

This week I’ve been working on spreading my 2-year old wood chip mulch mixed with 4-year old Biochar all over the garden in a renewed attempt to slow down the invasive jumping worms that appear to have spread everywhere (while giving the plants some much-needed TLC after a very dry month).

#gardeningismytherapy #biochar #regenerativegardening #organicgardening #summerofsquash #foxcliffgardens #flxgarden by @foxcliffgardens

Very first tomato harvest of the year that wasn’t all cherry tomatoes 8.17.25. Finally 🍅!

#latetomatoseason2025 #organicgardening #gardeningismytherapy #foxcliffgardens by @foxcliffgardens

I know nobody wants to think about anything besides @taylorswift ‘s new album rn but can anybody tell me what type of squash this is? I bought the plants at the Amish market and I’m pretty sure it said something not entirely helpful like “summer squash.”

Oh and btw my tomatoes and eggplants still are not ready so it’s squash, lettuce and herbs for days over here…

#gardeningismytherapy #amateurgardener #iamreadyforit #swiftiefamily by @foxcliffgardens

Another day, bigger caterpillars. 🐛 And this time with a photobombing butterfly. 🦋🧡

It’s been so tempting to bring them inside to watch as they form their chrysalises, but experts like @xercessociety say not to do that - it can spread diseases to the monarchs and it does not help the monarch population- if anything, it may hurt it.

Instead, to help the monarchs, we should:

🌸 Plant milkweed species native to your area to provide food for Monarch caterpillars. Here in New York State, I’ve planted Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) and Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa).

🌼 Plant a variety of nectar-rich flowers to support adult Monarchs throughout their lifecycle. I’ve seen Monarchs enjoying all types of goldenrod (solidago), Anise Hyssop (agastache foeniculum), and blazing star (liatris), and of course swamp milkweed!

💚 Ensure that milkweed and nectar plants are free from pesticides. (That includes mosquito spray!!)

Have you planted a Monarch habitat? Are you seeing Monarchs this year?

#monarchcaterpillars #monarchbutterflies #monarchmigration #monarchhabitat #gardeningismytherapy by @foxcliffgardens

We found the caterpillars! It’s funny, they must have been there the other day, but smaller. Once your eyes adjust, you keep finding them. We counted at least six today, plus several more eggs and two monarch butterflies dancing in the sky around them.

I think I could sit all day and just watch the caterpillars eat and move around. 🐛 I think they were posing for me.

#gardeningismytherapy #monarchcaterpillar #monarchmigration #milkweedformonarchs by @foxcliffgardens