Last night, I went to the garden after dark. Bags with weeds and plant clippings had to be brought to the curb for compost collection the next morning. I walked around to find out what I could see at this time of the night.
It never gets dark in New York City. There are enough street lamps, illuminated store fronts, office windows lit day and night and car headlights to illuminate every corner of the city and drown out all but the brightest stars. This is a problem for moths and other nocturnal insects and for migrating songbirds who get confused by all the light sources they mistake for the moon. And still: the garden looks magically transformed at night. Tulips and daffodils glow like lanterns and the stalks of last year’s sunflowers look like foreign objects.
I was reminded of the photographer George Hirose, who specializes in night photography and came to LaGuardia Corner Garden many years ago to take photos for a series called “Midnight in the People’s Garden”. I wonder what is going on with him and if he is still walking around the city with his camera at night.
