Pix from the 2009 Harvest Dinner at the Patchogue Beach ClubGuy’s Greetings
Happy autumn everyone!
As we prepare to end our gardening season, it’s time to clean the perennial gardens and mulch. Mother Nature has been mulching the world each and every year since the beginning of time. We on the other hand have been removing this free mulch in favor of expensive store bought mulch that does no better. The free mulch also stops the unnecessary killing of trees to beautify our gardens and landscaping. Shredding, mowing, and composting leaves and our spent flowers and plants will keep your garden happy, healthy, and more nutrient rich for years to come. Better than that, it will keep you fit and energized and in touch with our planet, knowing you are gardening the way Mother Nature intended our gardens to winter over.
Don’t forget to search your gardens for that house plant you hid in the garden to protect from the sun; you will be upset when it dies from frost before you remember that it’s still outside. Hopefully it didn’t drown this week. Guy
Mark the Date
Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 7:00 PM, general meeting at the Hagerman Fire Department, off Montauk Highway on the corner of Dunton Avenue and Oakdale. Jody Banaszak will demonstrate fall flower arranging. Reminder: Election night.
Saturday, November 7, 2009, 9:00 AM-Until We’re Done, is the date for putting the Terry Street garden to bed. Bring your essential tools, gloves, and lots of enthusiasm. Come for as much time as you can spare because many hands make light work.
Sunday, November 8, 2009, 9:00 AM-Until We’re Done, is the rain date for putting the garden to bed.
Important note: We will not meet again until January 26, 2010.
September Meeting in a Flash
We’re back at the Hagerman fire house after a lovely summer of meeting in gardens. Our first speaker of the season was “The Garden Lady”, Lynn Thompson, gave a talk and slide presentation illustrating some of the basic design principles such as shape, texture, and focal points. She says many of us dream of a beautiful garden but don’t know where to begin, so she aimed to show us how.
Reminder: Dues are to be paid by 31 March 2010 (Really, 2010? Scarier than a bat!). The board has voted on a late fee of $5 after that date, which means a single membership would be $20 and a couple would be $25.
If you haven’t already signed on to help out, see Georgia and Arlene volunteering for the Think Spring Luncheon. They are looking for raffle baskets as well as gift certificates from local businesses. The committee will meet every Monday at 1:00 PM beginning in January.
A Tropical Invitation
In response to Frank Lerantini’s generous invitation to the Garden Club, several members visited his Mastic garden. Although we initially had some difficulty finding it, when we spotted the big banana tree in the front yard, we knew we had come to the right place. And the banana tree (only five years old) was just the beginning. The garden seemed to go on forever, crammed with tropical and non-tropical specimens. Frank’s pleasure in gardening and loving attention to his plants was clearly evident. Thank you to Frank for a lovely tour.
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
A Guy’s Guide to Gardening by Kate Elizabeth Queram
Last weekend, I went to a party and watched a guy and girl engaged in
conversation across from me. They were smiling, heads together, and when I got up to refill my drink and caught a snippet of their talk, I was surprised to hear that they were talking tomatoes. Specifically, her troubles growing them in her garden. “I’m having trouble with the wiring,” she said. “And I’m never sure how much to water them.” “Well, it’s not too complicated,” replied the guy, who had mentioned earlier that he’d been growing his own veggies for several years. “I could come over and show you, if you want.” They exchanged numbers. I looked around to see if anyone else found this surprising, but no one batted an eye. Maybe that’s because vegetable gardens, with their inherent healthy, green and money-saving qualities, are incredibly popular right now. It makes sense, then, that the male gardener would wear his healthy, thrifty green thumb as a badge of honor; I just hadn’t considered the idea until right then. It seems I was in the minority. For some guys, assuming the traditionally masculine role of provider contributes to the appeal of gardening. Dan Link, a manager at my gym, began his garden three years ago with potted tomatoes and herbs, a venture that’s now blossomed into a 60 x40-footplot, growing everything from corn and cauliflower to jalapenos and sweet basil. Initially, he said, he was attracted to the challenge of gardening, but now the draw lies in knowing he’s capable of providing for himself without anyone else's help. “It gives you a level of confidence that you can be independent,” Dan said. “You don’t have to rely on someone else to provide you with food. And I just find enjoyment in being able to see something develop from a seed to a harvestable asset.” Growing his own food also means he doesn’t have to head to the store as often, which Dan estimated saves him several hundred dollars per month. “A $200 investment can yield $1,800 in crops,” he said. In fact, 54% of new gardeners say they’re primarily interested in saving money, according to the NGA. While the tangible benefits of gardening are inarguable), perhaps one of its greatest assets is an intangible —the effect that the male gardener has on women. I’ll admit that I hadn’t really considered this before seeing it in front of me at last week’s party. According to Molly Merrick, a 25-year-old clinical social worker from Massachusetts, the idea of dating a gardener is immensely appealing. “I like what a garden represents: nurturing and commitment,” she said. “Gardeners make something from nothing. I like that. I also like the idea of a guy who’s dirty from working the soil. You want to give him a bath and then make him dirty again in a whole new way.” The only time Molly’s ever gardened was when her mother made her, she added, but she’s infatuated with the idea of having a gardener boyfriend and everything it implies. “He can grow me things! He can go nurture the little seeds. Meanwhile, I will sit in the grass nearby and read, and when things grow, I will cook the veggies for us to eat. By the way,” she added, “I’m single and I have a backyard.” [Richard wants you to know these days you can find info on gardening most everywhere, even at www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=78281.
New York Times, September 3, 2009
IN THE GARDEN: Restoring Manhattan as It Once Was
By Anne Raver
IN 1609, when the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed the river that would be named after him, he looked out on an island of hilly forest and wetlands teeming with wildlife. Four hundred years later, that paradise has been crushed by steel and concrete, with pockets of green made up mostly of exotic plants like Norway maples and English ivy But a patch of that lost landscape, so eloquently described by the Mannahatta Project (themannahattaproject.org), is evoked by a 2,200-square-foot native woodland garden being planted at Schwartz Plaza next to the Bobst Library on the New York University campus, just south of Washington Square. There, beneath the lindens and Japanese pagoda trees, are sweeps of native ferns, columbine and wild ginger. Young beech seedlings are barely taller than the mayapples. “We’re not trying to recreate a woodland, it’s a stylized version of a woodland,” said George Reis, N.Y.U.’s supervisor of sustainable landscapes, who became a gardener at the university in 1995. He knew nothing about gardening, but the job included free tuition. “I couldn’t identify English ivy,” he said. “I came to study Portuguese literature.” Nevertheless, he took a few classes at the New York Botanical Garden. And one day he heard Darrel Morrison, a landscape architect renowned for his use of native plants, speak at Columbia University. “It was all about making a design suited for a specific place,” said Mr. Reis, 42. “How can we evoke the natural history and even the social history of that place through design?” He started changing a few areas around campus, replacing the English ivy and leggy boxwoods in front of the admissions building with native azaleas that bloomed at graduation, and filling the sunny expanse around the sports center with swamp mallows and sea oats.
The Mannahatta Project also inspired him to imagine Manhattan before the rest of the world landed here with its seeds and its culture. And when the class of 2008 put out a call for a worthy project for its $25,000 legacy gift, Mr. Reis submitted a proposal — for a native woodland garden designed by Mr. Morrison. The idea won hands down over a proposal for plasma TV’s for the gym.
So this spring, Mr. Reis and Mr. Morrison, with the help of a small student crew, began planting 2,000 plants that were all thriving on Manhattan in the 17th century. Beneath the lindens and a Japanese maple, sweeps of hay-scented ferns undulate against waves of New York ferns, interrupted ferns and Christmas ferns, each species planted en masse to accentuate subtle differences in shape, texture and color. Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), a shrub that once turned the Eastern woods white with its blossoms in early spring, signaling that it was safe to journey into the mountains to hold services for those who had died in the winter, will bloom next spring over wild columbine and bloodroot. A handful of American beech seedlings, grown from local seed by the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, on Staten Island, were only a foot tall. But those little trees are a sign that this urban native landscape is already taking hold.
Why not put a little Mannahatta in your own shady backyard, terrace or tiny front yard that faces the street? Columbine, wood phlox and wild geranium would do well in a small yard, in light to full shade, Mr. Morrison said, and would also work in large pots. Bearberry, a low, rambling evergreen with pink or white flowers in the spring and red berries in summer, is a good ground cover for a sunny, sandy space. Partridge berry, another low-growing evergreen with red berries, prefers fertile soil and shade. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
A Guy’s Guide to Gardening by Kate Elizabeth Queram
Last weekend, I went to a party and watched a guy and girl engaged in
conversation across from me. They were smiling, heads together, and when I got up to refill my drink and caught a snippet of their talk, I was surprised to hear that they were talking tomatoes. Specifically, her troubles growing them in her garden. “I’m having trouble with the wiring,” she said. “And I’m never sure how much to water them.” “Well, it’s not too complicated,” replied the guy, who had mentioned earlier that he’d been growing his own veggies for several years. “I could come over and show you, if you want.” They exchanged numbers. I looked around to see if anyone else found this surprising, but no one batted an eye. Maybe that’s because vegetable gardens, with their inherent healthy, green and money-saving qualities, are incredibly popular right now. It makes sense, then, that the male gardener would wear his healthy, thrifty green thumb as a badge of honor; I just hadn’t considered the idea until right then. It seems I was in the minority. For some guys, assuming the traditionally masculine role of provider contributes to the appeal of gardening. Dan Link, a manager at my gym, began his garden three years ago with potted tomatoes and herbs, a venture that’s now blossomed into a 60 x40-footplot, growing everything from corn and cauliflower to jalapenos and sweet basil. Initially, he said, he was attracted to the challenge of gardening, but now the draw lies in knowing he’s capable of providing for himself without anyone else's help. “It gives you a level of confidence that you can be independent,” Dan said. “You don’t have to rely on someone else to provide you with food. And I just find enjoyment in being able to see something develop from a seed to a harvestable asset.” Growing his own food also means he doesn’t have to head to the store as often, which Dan estimated saves him several hundred dollars per month. “A $200 investment can yield $1,800 in crops,” he said. In fact, 54% of new gardeners say they’re primarily interested in saving money, according to the NGA. While the tangible benefits of gardening are inarguable), perhaps one of its greatest assets is an intangible —the effect that the male gardener has on women. I’ll admit that I hadn’t really considered this before seeing it in front of me at last week’s party. According to Molly Merrick, a 25-year-old clinical social worker from Massachusetts, the idea of dating a gardener is immensely appealing. “I like what a garden represents: nurturing and commitment,” she said. “Gardeners make something from nothing. I like that. I also like the idea of a guy who’s dirty from working the soil. You want to give him a bath and then make him dirty again in a whole new way.” The only time Molly’s ever gardened was when her mother made her, she added, but she’s infatuated with the idea of having a gardener boyfriend and everything it implies. “He can grow me things! He can go nurture the little seeds. Meanwhile, I will sit in the grass nearby and read, and when things grow, I will cook the veggies for us to eat. By the way,” she added, “I’m single and I have a backyard.” [Richard wants you to know these days you can find info on gardening most everywhere, even at www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=78281.
New York Times, September 3, 2009
IN THE GARDEN: Restoring Manhattan as It Once Was
By Anne Raver
IN 1609, when the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed the river that would be named after him, he looked out on an island of hilly forest and wetlands teeming with wildlife. Four hundred years later, that paradise has been crushed by steel and concrete, with pockets of green made up mostly of exotic plants like Norway maples and English ivy But a patch of that lost landscape, so eloquently described by the Mannahatta Project (themannahattaproject.org), is evoked by a 2,200-square-foot native woodland garden being planted at Schwartz Plaza next to the Bobst Library on the New York University campus, just south of Washington Square. There, beneath the lindens and Japanese pagoda trees, are sweeps of native ferns, columbine and wild ginger. Young beech seedlings are barely taller than the mayapples. “We’re not trying to recreate a woodland, it’s a stylized version of a woodland,” said George Reis, N.Y.U.’s supervisor of sustainable landscapes, who became a gardener at the university in 1995. He knew nothing about gardening, but the job included free tuition. “I couldn’t identify English ivy,” he said. “I came to study Portuguese literature.” Nevertheless, he took a few classes at the New York Botanical Garden. And one day he heard Darrel Morrison, a landscape architect renowned for his use of native plants, speak at Columbia University. “It was all about making a design suited for a specific place,” said Mr. Reis, 42. “How can we evoke the natural history and even the social history of that place through design?” He started changing a few areas around campus, replacing the English ivy and leggy boxwoods in front of the admissions building with native azaleas that bloomed at graduation, and filling the sunny expanse around the sports center with swamp mallows and sea oats.
The Mannahatta Project also inspired him to imagine Manhattan before the rest of the world landed here with its seeds and its culture. And when the class of 2008 put out a call for a worthy project for its $25,000 legacy gift, Mr. Reis submitted a proposal — for a native woodland garden designed by Mr. Morrison. The idea won hands down over a proposal for plasma TV’s for the gym.
So this spring, Mr. Reis and Mr. Morrison, with the help of a small student crew, began planting 2,000 plants that were all thriving on Manhattan in the 17th century. Beneath the lindens and a Japanese maple, sweeps of hay-scented ferns undulate against waves of New York ferns, interrupted ferns and Christmas ferns, each species planted en masse to accentuate subtle differences in shape, texture and color. Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), a shrub that once turned the Eastern woods white with its blossoms in early spring, signaling that it was safe to journey into the mountains to hold services for those who had died in the winter, will bloom next spring over wild columbine and bloodroot. A handful of American beech seedlings, grown from local seed by the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, on Staten Island, were only a foot tall. But those little trees are a sign that this urban native landscape is already taking hold.
Why not put a little Mannahatta in your own shady backyard, terrace or tiny front yard that faces the street? Columbine, wood phlox and wild geranium would do well in a small yard, in light to full shade, Mr. Morrison said, and would also work in large pots. Bearberry, a low, rambling evergreen with pink or white flowers in the spring and red berries in summer, is a good ground cover for a sunny, sandy space. Partridge berry, another low-growing evergreen with red berries, prefers fertile soil and shade. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
And since so many of you asked for it:
Paula’s Cheddar Cheese and Onion Pie
Buy or make according to you favorite recipe a 9” pie crust.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 Granny Smith or other tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into very thin slices
2 1/2 cups strong farmhouse cheddar, coarsely grated
2 large eggs;
1/4 cup heavy cream
Leaves from 1 sprig thyme, finely chopped
Sea salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until softened. Add the apples and cook for a few minutes; they should not lose their texture. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool to room temperature, then add the grated cheese, 2 eggs, cream, thyme and salt and peppers to taste, mixing well. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease a 9” pie pan and line with dough.
Add the cheese and onion filling. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. Serves 6-8
Timely Tips for November
This is the best time to fertilize trees and shrubs.
Take advantage of fall sales and plant deciduous trees and shrubs throughout November.
Mulch perennials with evergreen boughs or straw to keep temp constant.
Clean out old annual and vegetable plants, fallen leaves, and perennial tops and compost them.
Winterize your mower or take it to the shop for cleaning and a tune-up.
