Times Profiles Joralemon Gardener Catherine Fitzsimmons

By on February 25, 2011 11:02 pm in Brooklyn Heights

Friday’s “Habitat” section of the Times has a profile of Joralemon Street resident and urban landscape designer Catherine Fitzsimmons:

The New York Times: THE cobblestone part of Joralemon Street is among the loveliest stretches of Brooklyn Heights. Come spring, and well into the fall, the front gardens of the brownstones that line the street will be lush with greenery, and the window boxes will explode with flowers. But even on this beautiful strip, the low-slung red brick building just off Hicks Street stands out.

Catherine Fitzsimons, who has lived here for three decades, is a landscape designer who specializes in what she diplomatically calls “city-sized” gardens. Throughout most of the year, her narrow, paved front yard is filled with small trees and pots of flowering shrubs waiting to be delivered to clients.

Follow the link for a slide show of photos of Ms. Fitzsimmons, her garden, and the interior of her apartment, featuring her cat, Aurora.

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  • clyde turner

    Kathy’s work on city gardens shows a wonderful sense of scale in the small spaces that we have to cultivate. She has also been an outspoken advocate for open spaces in our community including the unsuccessful campaign against the LICH parking garage. The lessons I have learned from Kathy transcend garden design alone and include local politics as well. She is our own neighborhood “Landmark”

  • bklyn20

    Cathy does a lot of beautiful work for her neighborhood and she does it all pro bono! I’m glad to see her get this attention.

  • Gerry

    I love the gardens done by Catherine Fitzsimmons.

    And I love Brooklyn Heights the gardens that residents carve out of nothing on Joralemon Street the beautiful gardens buit on man made planters with cinder blocks and slate, and the front of the old Mezcals restuaunt they had greens and flowers and ivy growing in front on the sidewalk.

    And that great garden at 9 Montague Terrace that is now full of garbage cans like clockwork the guy who used to live in that apartment on the sidewalk kept the garden going seasonally his Chrstmas decorations were great too bad he moved,

    And the handsome guy with the big nose who lives at Piererpont and Hicks with 2 wood window boxes he has a great summer garden and a great Chrstmas display hanging out of his windows,

    And ALL of Willow Place those gardens. I appreciate all of the small niche gardens as much as I do the grand Brownstone gardens I love them all.

  • Gary VanderPutten

    I first met Cathy when Fulton Ferry Landing was attempting to change the design of the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage Park and she was presenting Vorhees park at CB2. Her plan was both impressive and practical and very appropriate to the neighborhood. She was helpful with some design idea but also in understanding the process for dealing with government the locally elected.

    As an avid urban gardner of a ‘city-sized’ garden, I really appreciate all her work and dedication in WillowTown. She was also responsible for re-landscaping the Willow Street gardens at the A. T. White Community Center.

    A real community asset.

  • Gary VanderPutten

    Correction – I meant Cathy’s plan for Palmetto Park, not VanVorHees park.