Guy’s Greetings
A thank you is owed to Carol Tvelia, who once again chaired the plant and yard sale this year, and all the members who donated there time and “stuff”. We made $815.00 this year. Remember, the proceeds from this event go to our Scholarship for a graduating Patchogue-Medford High School senior.
As we prepare for Memorial Day, please take a moment and remember those who gave their all, so we can enjoy the freedoms we have.
It’s finally time to plant, plant, plant!!!
Mark the Date
Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 7:00 PM, general meeting at Hagerman Fire Department, on the corner of Dunton Avenue and Oakdale.
Saturday, June 6, 2009, 9:00 AM, Breakfast in the garden. Bring a dish to share and your favorite beverage. The club provides bagels, coffee, tea, and fixin’s.
Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7, 2009, Neighbors and Gardeners of Bayport and Blue Point will be having a garden tour on the 6th, 1:00-5:00 PM, and a plant sale on the 6th and 7th, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM at 63 Gillette Avenue, Bayport. For more information: P.O. Box 525, Bayport, NY 11705. Get tickets at 472-1898; more info: Maureen at 363-8913 or 806-7640.
Saturday, July 11, 2009, Patchogue Garden Club’s 9th annual garden tour. Pre-purchase tickets at $13 ($15 on the day of the tour). Gardens open at 10 AM and close at 3:00 PM. For more information, call Paula at 289-0234. The post-tour dinner will be on the same day as the tour at the home of Paula Murphy, 6:00 PM, 125 Smith Street, Patchogue, NY. Sorry, no fireworks this year.
April Meeting in a Flash
Lee Ann Sealy representing Natural Gardening the Organic way through Neudorff gave a very informative talk. She also had a variety of products for the members to look at and information to take home. There was a lively question and answer session. The information was much appreciated.
Guy spoke about meeting with Village representatives regarding the feasibility of renovating the Winona Cottage. We still don’t know the answer to if and how the cottage can be utilized.
The Design Committee reported on adding and replacing plants in the Community Garden and on working on getting it named a National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ (see below).
Bring Life to Your Backyard
Saturday, June 6, 2009, 9:00 AM, Breakfast in the garden. Bring a dish to share and your favorite beverage. The club provides bagels, coffee, tea, and fixin’s.
Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7, 2009, Neighbors and Gardeners of Bayport and Blue Point will be having a garden tour on the 6th, 1:00-5:00 PM, and a plant sale on the 6th and 7th, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM at 63 Gillette Avenue, Bayport. For more information: P.O. Box 525, Bayport, NY 11705. Get tickets at 472-1898; more info: Maureen at 363-8913 or 806-7640.
Saturday, July 11, 2009, Patchogue Garden Club’s 9th annual garden tour. Pre-purchase tickets at $13 ($15 on the day of the tour). Gardens open at 10 AM and close at 3:00 PM. For more information, call Paula at 289-0234. The post-tour dinner will be on the same day as the tour at the home of Paula Murphy, 6:00 PM, 125 Smith Street, Patchogue, NY. Sorry, no fireworks this year.
April Meeting in a Flash
Lee Ann Sealy representing Natural Gardening the Organic way through Neudorff gave a very informative talk. She also had a variety of products for the members to look at and information to take home. There was a lively question and answer session. The information was much appreciated.
Guy spoke about meeting with Village representatives regarding the feasibility of renovating the Winona Cottage. We still don’t know the answer to if and how the cottage can be utilized.
The Design Committee reported on adding and replacing plants in the Community Garden and on working on getting it named a National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ (see below).
Bring Life to Your Backyard
Join more than 118,000 folks who have already created havens for wildlife through National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program. You'll get great benefits, too! Get started at http://www.nwf.org/index.cfm
When you certify with your application fee of $20, you'll receive all these great benefits: a personalized certificate that recognizes your NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat™; a free NWF membership which includes a full year's subscription to the award-winning National Wildlife® magazine and 10% off all NWF catalog purchases; a free subscription to the quarterly e-newsletter, Habitats, full of insightful tips and information on gardening and attracting wildlife year after year; and your name listed in NWF's National registry of certified habitats...to recognize all you've done for wildlife. And, once you complete your application, you'll be eligible to purchase the "wildly" popular Certified Wildlife Habitat™ yard sign that shows your commitment to conserving wildlife. All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas: food and water sources, places for cover, places to raise young, and sustainable gardening.
Long Island Natives
The use of native plants in landscaping and restoration activities on Long Island are being increasingly encouraged by local government, environmental organizations, and scientists, as the impacts of invasive species and development on biodiversity are understood. The all-volunteer Long Island Native Grass Initiative (LINGI) is one of the efforts to provide native plant material to the public. Species currently available at LINGI’s first annual sale are Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), Little Bluestem (Schizachryium scoparium), Big Blue Stem (Andropogon gerardii), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Purple Top (Tridens flavus) and various forbs. The sale is June 12, 13, 26, and 27 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Suffolk Community College Eastern Campus Greenhouse. For more details contact Polly L. Weigand, 757-2315 Ext. 3, or polly.weigand@suffolkcounty.ny.gov .
Soil District Technician & LINGI Coordinator
Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District
423 Griffing Ave. Suite 110
Riverhead, NY 11901
(631) 727-2315x3
(631) 727-3160 (fax)
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
So You Think YOU Have a Bug Problem?
24 April 2009, Wall Street Journal by JIM CARLTON
TUSCARORA, Nev. -- The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They'll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault. Then they'll turn up the volume. Rock music blaring from boom boxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way. The 2-inch-long blooded, ravenous insects often carpet the arid landscape in the spring and summer, devouring vegetation and driving residents to distraction.
But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. "It is part of our arsenal," says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town's 13 residents.
They march in columns that in peak years can be two miles long and a mile across, swarms move across the badlands in search of food. Starting in about May, they march through August or so, before stopping to lay eggs for next year and die. In between, they make an awful mess. They destroy crops and lots of the other leafy vegetation. They crawl all over houses, and some get inside. "You'll wake up and there'll be one sitting on your forehead, looking at you," says Ms. Moore. They swarm on roads, where cars turn them into slicks that can cause accidents. So many dead ones piled up on a highway last year that Elko County, Nev., called in snowplows to scrape them off. Squashed and dying crickets give off a sickening smell. "For us, it's mostly the yuck factor," says Ron Arthaud, a painter here.
Many springs, the infestation is negligible. But every few years, far bigger swarms hatch. From 2003 to 2006, armies of crickets went forth. They smothered the county seat, Elko, causing pandemonium as residents fled indoors. Realtor Jim Winer couldn't, because he had to show homes. "I carried a little broom in my car," he says, "and when I got out, I would sweep a path through the bugs to the house."
Every half-century or so, plague like numbers hatch. The critters got their name in the 19th century after a throng of them ravaged the crops of a Mormon settlement. But "I don't think they care about Mormons or Baptists," says Lynn Forsberg, who runs Elko County's public-works program. "I don't think they care about anything."
Including one another. Mormon crickets are programmed to march. Any cricket that falls by the wayside is eaten by others, ensuring that at least some cross the hot, barren stretches well-fed.
Charm to Cricket Menace"Taking the gong and a club, she faced the army of crickets and beat hard." Read the 1934 article from the Elko Free Press.
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Following an unseasonably warm winter, some in Elko County fear a big crop this year of Mormon crickets, known more precisely as shield-backed katydids, or Anabrus simplex. State entomologist Jeff Knight is using computer models to document when the crickets will hatch, and "once they have hatched, we will start going in and mapping where all the crickets are," he says.
Towns in their path aren't waiting to find out. Elko County officials have stored tons of poison bait, which they'll soon start handing out. Placed properly, it can help. In 2003, which was a bad year, residents organized a bucket brigade to lay poison bait in the countryside, luring many bugs to their doom.
But last year Diana Bunitsky sprinkled the bait too close -- right outside the rural diner she runs, Lone Mountain Station -- and crickets swarmed onto her property to gobble it. Ms. Bunitsky ran outside and sprayed them with a garden hose, "but when I looked back, they had gone around and were all over my walls," she says.
Some people use chalk dust to try to smother crickets. Lori Roa, a job counselor in Elko, swears by Lemon Joy. She sprinkles the detergent over her shrubbery. In Jarbidge, Nev., Rey Nystrom, proprietor of the Jarbidge Trading Post, says a neighbor uses a squirt bottle loaded with soapy water. "But you're squirting one at a time, so it's spitting against the wind, so to speak," he says.
Here in Tuscarora, signs are worrisome this spring. Numerous cricket nymphs in the sandy soil are beginning to wiggle, says Elaine Parks, a local artist.
Tuscarora began as a gold-mining town in the late 19th century, and by 1878 had a population of 5,000. But the ore mostly petered out by 1900, and the town has been dwindling ever since, to its current size of just over a dozen. ("But in summer we get up to 20," says postmaster Julie Parks.)
What to do with all that Rhubarb: Rhubarb Almond Bars
These simple tangy rhubarb bars with an almond shortbread crust have all the sweet-tart flavors of rhubarb pie without the fussiness of pie crust—and you can still serve them topped with ice cream and/or whipped cream. The bars can be made through step 2 up to a day ahead of time.
Total Time: 2 hrs 40 minutes. Makes: 24 bars.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 pounds rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 6 cups)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) frozen unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup whole unsalted almonds, toasted
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine rhubarb and 1 cup of the sugar in a medium nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, stir to combine, and cook until rhubarb releases some juices, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is soft and just starting to fall apart, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to a bowl and let cool.
2. Combine flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Grate butter on the large holes of a box grater, add to flour mixture, and rub between your fingertips until ingredients just hold together when squeezed, about 3 minutes. Add yolks and combine until dough forms large, fist-size chunks when squeezed, about 1 minute (the dough will be crumbly). Shape dough into a flat disk, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 375°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coarsely chop the almonds and set aside.
4. Evenly crumble chilled dough over the bottom of a 13-by-9-inch baking dish, then firmly press it into the dish using your fingers or the bottom of a measuring cup. Sprinkle almonds over top and press lightly into the dough. Using a slotted spoon, evenly spread cooled rhubarb over the base. If you have any remaining syrup, pour up to 1/3 cup over the top. Bake until dough is brown and rhubarb mixture is bubbly around the edges, about 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. –Ed.
“Come Hither, Bumblebee, and Pollinate”
In the New York Times, April 30, Anne Raver wrote about research showing that native species are more attractive to pollinators than non-native species. A thousand different plants were surveyed, only 50 of which were native, but 80% of them attracted pollinators. Of the 950 non-native species, only 10% were. While the European honeybee population has dwindled, there are many other pollinators to take its place, e.g., native bumblebees, large and tiny wasps and flies, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, and solitary native bees. Many of our native bees are better than the European honeybee at pollinating because they can vibrate the flower, causing the pollen to fall from the stamens to the stigma where it fertilizes the ovules. The more habitat we provide and desirable species we plant, the more we will attract pollinators and increase their numbers. No one suggests giving up your lavender, catmint, oregano or rosemary; just pack in more natives, perennials such as black-eyed Susans, coneflower, giant hyssop, coreopsis, larkspur, Joe-pye weed, blanketflower, sunflower, lupine, evening primrose, poppy, penstemon, salvia, goldenrod, asters, and sedum. Annuals and biennials to plant include milkweed, cosmos, poppy, mullein, daisy, and verbena. Attractive shrubs include wild roses, blueberries, berry brambles, elderberry, and sumac. –Thanks to Paula Murphy
Timely Tips for June
Remove old flowers, not foliage, from spring-flowering bulbs & perennials.
Prune shrubs that just flowered—weigela, philadelphus, deutzia, etc.
Many shrubs can be propagated from softwood cuttings thru early July.
Sow seeds of fast-growing annuals for late bloom—marigolds, zinnia, cosmos.
Last chance to fertilize trees and shrubs!
Remove faded flowers from rhodies and azaleas.
Establish regular watering schedule for tomatoes to avert blossom-end rot.
Give house and greenhouse plants a vacation outdoors in a shady area.
Remove old flowers, not foliage, from spring-flowering bulbs & perennials.
Prune shrubs that just flowered—weigela, philadelphus, deutzia, etc.
Many shrubs can be propagated from softwood cuttings thru early July.
Sow seeds of fast-growing annuals for late bloom—marigolds, zinnia, cosmos.
Last chance to fertilize trees and shrubs!
Remove faded flowers from rhodies and azaleas.
Establish regular watering schedule for tomatoes to avert blossom-end rot.
Give house and greenhouse plants a vacation outdoors in a shady area.
Thought for Memorial Day
Our battle-fields, safe in the keeping
Of Nature's kind, fostering care,
Are blooming, - our heroes are sleeping, -
And peace broods perennial there.
~John H. Jewett
Our battle-fields, safe in the keeping
Of Nature's kind, fostering care,
Are blooming, - our heroes are sleeping, -
And peace broods perennial there.
~John H. Jewett
