Hanging Gardens Sheepshead Bay Style

squash hanging garden ave v e 17 st corner

While the Brooklyn Eagle writes about Southern Brooklyn’s roots as a farming society, in their recent article, Historically Speaking: Raising the (Wyckoff Barn) Roof,  Sheepshead Bay residents are busy recreating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or growing their own vegetables — depending on your perspective.

This front-to-side yard garden, located at Avenue V and East 17th Street, is ready for harvest and from the looks of the number of squash(?) growing under the leaf canopy, we’re thinking that there must be enough for quite a few families. These squash are so large that they need support in the form of large containers stacked one on top of the other.

A visitor from Queens who noticed the garden said,

Wow. I don’t think we have anything like that over there in Queens. I thought there were regulations about corner houses and the type of landscaping that can be erected. I remember when we tried to grow sunflowers and the city made us cut ’em down. But, I’m not sure if droopy vegetables fall under landscaping.

Readers, we’d like to hear from you. First, help us identify this vegetable and let us know if you heard anything about the city regulating corner house plant ornamentation. Finally, if anyone knows the owner of the vegetable garden and can hook us up with some of that hanging gourd…by all means write in.

squash hanging garden canopy ave v e 17