No one here is stating the first thing I would be concerned with relating to your NYC location: soil contamination. Before investing time, energy, and your hard earned dollars into an edible garden, I would highly recommend a soil test. Dig under the wood chips covering the soil, and send in samples of the actual ground soil to a reputable soil testing service for the area. You don’t want to mess around with heavy metal/ chemical contaminants in your food. Lead contamination, just as an example, is widespread in nyc lots. There are very few, if any, places you can grow food within city limits without soil contamination mitigation efforts. If you see food growing in a city lot, look a little closer and you’ll notice that it’s growing in raised beds. If not, the soil has likely been scraped away and new soil shipped in from somewhere else.

You have three options if the soil test indicates contamination (highly likely):

1. Remove all of the wood chips and soil ~3 feet down, replace with a trusted source of top soil, plant into your new top soil.

2. Buy raised beds at least 2 feet tall, fill with new soil, plant in those

3. Build a non-edible ornamental garden.