Greetings from the President
Dear Garden Club Members,
Congratulations to Paula Murphy and her entire committee for a successful eighth annual garden tour. The selected gardens showcased a variety of gardening “microclimates”beach, shade, sun, and sun/shade. The gardens were as varied as theirowners. It was hard not to come away without coveting yet another plant, ornament,or perhaps a total re-do of a small part of your own garden.Thank you also to Carolyn Young for again having an Open Garden tour for hermagnificent daylilies.Water, water, water seems to be the mantra of the past few weeks. Although therewere many thunderstorms and downpours all around us in the past two weeks,especially to the north and west, our marine climate conditions have keep all rainaway from the Patchogue area. This is very reminiscent of last year’s summerweather. Remember to water early in the day, longer, deeper watering is muchmore efficient and beneficial, than daily short bursts. Three to four inches of mulchwill conserve water, and keep down the weeds. Do not mound your mulch aroundyour tree trunks, as you often see in homes/commercial spaces that are“professionally” maintained. You will eventually smother your trees and they will startto experience dieback. You should keep a large circle around the base of your treemulch free and be sure the dirt does not surround the root collar.
Enjoy your summer,
Carol
Mark the Date
Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 6 PM, in the lovely garden of June and Angelo Petrucelli, 111Monroe Ave., Patchogue, 730-1091. Take North or South OceanAvenue to Roe Blvd. and turn west. Turn north onto Monroe. Jennings is the street before Monroe. Bring a chair if you want a guaranteed place to sit.
Plant of the Month and Book Review:
Viburnum
The viburnums are a versatile, diverse—around 150 species-- and adaptablegenus exhibiting fine forms, sweet scents, and beautiful fruits attractive tobirds. There is scarcely a garden that couldn’t use one or more of thesevaluable pest- and disease resistant shrubs, some of which are native. Dr.Michael Dirr, a distinguished woody plant authority, has written “Viburnums:Flowering Shrubs for Every Season”, Timber Press, 2007, $39.95, but as lowas $23.98 at Amazon, or browse for free via Patchogue-Medford LibraryInterlibrary Loan.Viburnums adapt well to most soil conditions and light exposures, but ideallyprefer well-drained acid soil and full to part sun. They tolerate pruning well.They are versatile in many landscapes, so can be used in formal or informalhedges, screens, and barriers as well as in foundation and mass plantings.These lovely shrubs range in size from about three (the fragrant V. carlesii‘Compacta’, dwarf Korean spicebush) to twenty feet (V. sieboldii, sieboldviburnum).Many have outstanding fall color, all have large, beautiful flowers, and thefruits are dark or brilliant blue, yellow, or red in late summer to early fall.
Recipe of the Month:
Fruit Kebobs
2 bananas
8 strawberries
1 apple
8 pineapple chunks
1 orange
1 cup plain, vanilla, or fruit yogurt
1 cup seedless grapes
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Vary the fruit according to what is best in season—think peaches, nectarines,plums, pears, kiwi, raspberries, etc. Cut the fruit into bite-sized chunks. Mix yogurt with honey and cinnamon. Thread fruit chunks onto eight woodenskewers, alternating with different types of fruit. Enjoy your creations dipped incinnamon-honey yogurt. For an extra sweet treat, brush skewers with yogurtdip and roll in your favorite granola.
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
A WAY TO GARDEN (DOT COM) blog and Q&A forum is the latest horticulturalincarnation of Margaret Roach, whose life list also includes stints as gardeneditor at Newsday in New York, one of the country’s largest daily newspapers;and Martha Stewart Living, where she was the magazine’s first garden editorand until 2008 editorial director of all of the company’s content: magazines,books, and Internet. She recently retired (at a very young age, thank you) to her2.3-acre garden in a Zone 5B area of New York State, which was the subject ofher book “A Way to Garden” (named best garden book of the year in 1998 bythe Garden Writers Association of America and now a collector’s item). Thegarden has been open for ten years for tours as part of the national Open Daysvisiting scheme of the Garden Conservancy; check their site for upcomingdates. Want to know more about her and her relationship with both sides of thegardening equation, the hands-on and the touchy-feely? Check outhttp://awaytogarden.com/.
Read what Anne Raver said about Margaret’s country dream and blog in theNew York Times, June 19, 2008 athttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/garden/19garden.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&sq=raver%20roach&st=nyt&scp=1&oref=slogin
8th Annual Garden Tour Volunteers
A BIG THANK YOU FROM PAULA and the CLUB!
Arlene Lamberti, Georgia Dulmovits, John Dulmovits, Pauline Carlton, Carolyn Savastano, Guy Vitale, Karen Ferb, Anne Rubbo, Violet Mulligan, Mark Jeffers, Millie Zimmerman, Marie Magnano, Barbara Aragon, Carol Tvelia, Susan Scala, Jo Miller, Sandra Franco.
THANK YOU, PAULA!
MUCH APPRECIATED FAN MAIL
It was with great pleasure that I received the notice for this year’s Garden Tour. I’m looking forward to it so much.The past tours have been wonderful. There is something to be learned and admired at each one, and the hostswere all so helpful and hospitable.The Garden Club is to be commended for all its fine works. It has added so much to the community (and in such ashort time). Patchogue is very fortunate to have such a wonderful and active Garden Club.The Spring Luncheon is a great way to start off the season. We look forward to it each March. The baskets are so beautifully put together. Your members (and donors) do a fantastic job, which I know involves an enormous amountof work.The Christmas House Tour was another lovely event. Each home had such gracious hosts and festive, warmdecorations. I hope that it will become an annual event.Keep up your great work, please, and thank you for all you contribute to make our environment so much nicer.The gardens at the Terry Street parking area is so very beautiful and should serve as a model for other villages thatare interested in making their public parking areas attractive.Long live the Patchogue Garden Club and its dedicated members!
Sincerely,
Anita Tim
Timely Tips for August Water plants:
take advantage of cool morning hours, use daytime shade, usemulch, water plants deeply and less frequently. Manage cutworms, larva, grasshoppers, mosquitoes and other garden pests. Deadhead, deadhead, deadhead!!! Weed, weed, weed!!! (Same old story)Harvest and preserve extra fruits and vegetables. Read, listen to music, practice your musical instrument, relax, sleep in theshade, or whatever comes naturally during the dog days of August.
