During a walk in Long Island City yesterday, I came across this group of old warehouses covered in ivy. I noticed the ivy had been deliberately planted on the sidewalk along the building. The ivy was neatly trimmed to be clear of the windows and doors, and the structures on either side were free of it, too. Turns out it's owned by a company called The Plant Specialists.
Back home, I looked up the company on the web. So I shot off an email asking how long it had taken the ivy to get to that stage. The owner wrote back immediately and said,
"it was planted in mid 1980s as purely an aesthetic thing
this was a very depressing neighborhood back then
it looks great but really is not good for the old brick?"
this was a very depressing neighborhood back then
it looks great but really is not good for the old brick?"
That's exactly what he said.
