Greetings fellow gardeners:
I hope that you are all enjoying our fine winter weather. It looks like we had dueling ground hogs that couldn’t
determine how much longer until spring. I don’t know about you but I am going with the
one that indicated the shortest time until spring! The calendar shows the first day
of spring as March 20th. Hopefully, we can continue our mild winter until then.
I would like to thank you all for the wonderful attendance
we had at our January meeting. Ronnie did an excellent job as the “hostess with
the mostess”. There were 35 people in attendance and to date we have 36 paid members!
I am sure that more “checks are in the mail”.
Until our meeting on the 28th – think warm thoughts, June
June, Arlene, and Carla ready to start the meeting
Mark the Date
February 28th—General Meeting—
Betty Baran will speak on plant propagation.
March 29th—Think Spring Luncheon
April 14—Opening the Gardens
June 9th—Breakfast in the Garden
July 7th—Garden Tour
October 6th—Harvest Dinner
November 10th—Closing the Garden
November (to be announced)—Decorate the Garden for Christmas
December 9th—Christmas House Tour
News from the Village via Jody Garrett
The Patchogue Village is proud to announce a community garden at 380 Bay Avenue. Patchogue-Medford elementary students were creative in their submissions of possible names. The Patchogue Village community and village members approved the name Patchogue Planting Patch Community Garden".
Planting patches are four feet by ten feet and cost $25 per year. The Patchogue Garden Club members are highly encouraged to be involved, as we are the forerunners of gardening in Patchogue. This is an opportunity to join in unity, feeding one person at a time and experiencing the joy in the diversity that can produce such a positive outcome.
Membership got underway with a kick-off celebration at the Brick House Brewery on February 19th. Membership can be obtained by calling Michael West, Community Garden Leader, 631-656-8841.
News from the Library
Patchogue-Medford Library is offering a Bus Trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show
Hawaii: Islands of Aloha
Saturday March 11, 2012.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday Jan 18 at the YA Desk to district residents and Jan 23 to nonresidents.($54.00 each and limited to 4). Contact the Library at 654-4700 for further details.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County at The Academy of St. Joseph in Brentwood, April 24, 2012 and Riverhead Middle School , April 21, 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
This day includes your choice of classes from four different sessions, with information for every level from beginner to advanced.
Topics include:
• Floral Design for Beginners
• Pruning
• Garden Design
• Low Water Usage Gardens
• Shade Gardening
• Vegetable Gardening
• Growing Roses on Long Island
• And many more!
All classes are taught by Master Gardeners and Extension Educators. Included in your fee are free soil pH testing, plant diagnostic clinic, plant sale from some of the finest nurseries, continental breakfast, delicious boxed lunch, and door prizes. The fee is $55 per person, early bird registration is $50 before March 2, 2012. The registration form with a full schedule of classes and their descriptions is available for download at www.ccesuffolk.org or contact Caroline Kiang at 631-727-7850, ext. 337 or 345.
Patchogue Garden Club
2012 Committee List
Committee Chairpersons
Newsletter Margaret Atkinson
Garden Tour Paula Murphy
Program Paula Murphy
House Tour Mary Ann Tchinnis, Karen Ferb
Plant & Yard Sale Carol Tvelia
Garden Maintenance Georgia Dulmovits
Design Diane Voland
Membership Carolyn Savastano, Lynn Kane
Think Spring Luncheon Georgia Dulmovits, Arlene Lamberti
Refreshments Ronnie Manfredi
Educational Trips Josephine Miller
Community Education Josephine Miller, Bonnie Bossert
Breakfast in the Garden Open
Harvest Dinner Arlene Lamberti
Scholarship Carolyn Savastano, Arlene Lamberti, Carla
Steward
Social Committee Carla Steward
Christmas Decorating Committee Open
What’s In the News?
Richard Waldman sends us this news
1. New Plant Hardiness Zone
map release The U.S. Department of
Agriculture unveiled its longawaited update of its 1990 Zone Map
which has been revised to reflect changing
climate patterns across the country. It’s vital to
gardeners trying to determine which plants are most likely to
thrive in a certain location. This new version reveals that some
plants and trees can survive farther north than they could
in the past.
On the old map, most of long
Island fell into Zone 7, except for a strip in the
center of Suffolk County around the Pine Barrens, which was
in Zone 6. The update puts the majority of Long Island in
Zone 7a, but the northern section of western and
central Nassau, and the southern part of the Island from the
Queens-Nassau border all theway east to the Gilgo Beach
area is now part of 7b, which is warmer. A few small,
scattered spots around Manorville, North Hampton and Baiting
Hollow also now fall into 7b, with the rest of Suffolk,
including the formerly 6a Pine Barrens region, in 7. Experts believe there will be more changes to come….To read more of this article,
go to Jessica Damiano’s Newsday article here:
http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029/new-plant-hardiness-zonemap-released-1.3481391
2. Late winter is the perfect
time for pruning most woody plants. (Newsday, Feb 8, 2012) They're still
dormant, you can better see what you're doing because your view isn't
obstructed by leaves, and it's when plants heal fastest. If you're unable to
prune before April 15, wait until July, which is the next-best time to prune.
There are two types of pruning
- selective and rejuvenation. Selective means what it sounds like: You select
certain branches to remove, and you have a reason for doing so. Rejuvenation
pruning is the extreme cutting back of overgrown, unproductive shrubs, but
plants must be healthy to withstand it. To rejuvenate, you have three options: Sever the whole plant at the crown, where the
stem meets the roots; prune all the branches at unequal heights all at once, or
prune a little each year over thecourse of a few years. The latter method is
the least severe but requires the most patience. The first method is actually
the best, but it requires a certain level of intestinal fortitude. Plants
should be fertilized well after undergoing any rejuvenating pruning.
Broadleaf evergreen shrubs
(laurels, rhododendrons, etc.) should undergo only
selective pruning, and they can take it at any time of year. Narrow-leaf
(needled) evergreens should undergo selective maintenance pruning only. Always
remove more from the top than from the bottom, which will allow sunlight to
reach the base of the plant. Take care not to overshear or cut holes into
narrow-leaf evergreens; with the exception of yews, they won't ever fill back
in.
When it comes to hedges,
there's only one basic rule: The bottom must remain wider than the top. If the
plant thins out at the bottom, the only way to correct it is to cut the entire
hedge down to 6 to 8 inches from the ground and wait for it to grow back. You
don't want to go there.
When pruning shrubs and trees
with thin branches, use pruners to remove dead wood, crisscrossed limbs and
branches that are growing into the tree's canopy. But when removing a branch
with a diameter of more than one inch, never make a flush
cut, which would remove the branch collar and create a bigger wound. Instead, use
your saw and the three-cut method .
Pruning notes and
exceptions: For lilacs and similar spring
bloomers, it's best to wait until after their flowers fall so as not to remove
flower buds and spoil the season's
show. Forsythia should be pruned every
year right after flowering. Spirea and weigela should be pruned every two to
three years. Clethra and
cotoneasters should seldom be pruned. Butterfly bush (Buddleia) should never be
pruned in fall, or it will die. Instead,
cut it all the way to the ground every year in early spring. Deadhead rhododendrons and mountain laurels
only if they aren't full enough, and do it immediately after flowering. Waiting
even a week will defeat the purpose, and the plants will remain leggy. Hydrangeas are in a class all their own. To
read more about them, go to the Newsday
article here:
http://www.newsday.com/columnists/jessica-damiano/theultimate-pruning-guide-for-trees-and-shrubs-1.1738034
3. Here’s a National
Geographic article about a “Porta Potty”
flower discovered on an island off
the coast of Madagascar, the newfound plant grows up to 5 feet high and blooms
once a year with a really foul stench—smelling like “rotting
roadkill” or “porta potty.” Read more about it here:
4. Gardens and
Gardening: An article in the NY Times
begins, “Do not let any gardener tell you he or she loves spring, because for
gardeners, spring means anxiety, pressure, backaches, leg cramps, fears of
needing hip replacements. It means cleaning up the winter detritus and planning
ahead and wondering if it is the right time to plant the zinnia seeds. For
gardeners, spring is a race against time. Those who beat the relentless
deadlines stand a chance of having a great garden. Those who don’t have a long
wait until next year.
My seasonal garden is a
modest patch in Saltaire on Fire Island in New York. Every garden has its
idiosyncrasies, and mine is that it is basically a dune, which means I garden
in sand amended by trucked-in manure and topsoil and what is left of my compost
heap once the squirrels have had their fill. I have gardened on Fire Island for
about 20 years. Every spring I take an early ferry out to see what winter has
wrought. I ventured out, and what a mess. Dead branches were everywhere, the
Montauk daisies needed pruning, the honeysuckle was out of control and the
sweet autumn clematis (clematis terniflora) was flopping over with new growth,
smothering the Linda Campbell rose. For
more of this article, look here:
Get to Know a Fellow Gardener—Karen Ferb
Where were you born, and where have you lived?
I was born in Evansville IN, and
have lived elsewhere in Indiana, as well as in Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, before coming to
New York.
Tell us about your family?
Tom, my husband, and I have
been married over 45 years. We have two children, Lara and Adam, and one
grandson, Tommy, who is 15. We feel very lucky to have them all close by. And
we are all “cheeseheads,” meaning we’re crazy about cheese.
What gave you your first interest in gardening?
Apparently, I have my mother
to thank for that. I have photos of us together in her garden when I was a
little girl in the 1940’s. It must be genetic since ancestors on both sides of
my family were farmers and flower shop owners. There’s even a Hawley apple that
originated on the farm of Matthew Hawley in New Canaan NY. He was a captain in the Revolutionary War,
my 5th great-grandfather, originally from Connecticut.
Large fruit with smooth, waxy skin,
greenish yellow in
color with an inconspicuous brown blush.
Russet
dots and flecks cover most of the
surface, especially
toward the cavity and the stem is about
3/4" long in a
wide, deep cavity. The flesh is
yellowish white, finegrained,
soft, juicy and subacid.
Do you have a favorite gardening style?
I admire many styles of gardening,
but my own preference is for “rooms” and no grass.
Outside of gardening, what are some of your interests?
You can probably tell from
two answers ago that genealogy is one of them. The Vietnam War, a seminal event
in the lives of people in my cohort, is another. I also enjoy volunteering, cooking,
traveling, birding, opera, art, and film.
An accomplishment you are proud of—
Helping to form the Patchogue
Arts Council four years ago.
An interesting place you’ve traveled to or visited—
South Africa in 2010. It was
amazing! I rode an ostrich, played with cheetahs, and
lived to tell about it.
A television show you like—
Tom and I do not have access
to network TV, but get programs from the library. We especially like BBC
productions, but CSI had us hooked, as did The Borgias, The Wire, Luther, Ugly Betty,
and The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, among others.
Your favorite dessert or food—
The answer to that will
change on any given day, but for dessert it will always be crème brûlée unless
Grand Marnier soufflé with crème Anglaise is on the menu. If neither is on the
menu, then chocolate.
A talent you have we may not know about—
I can hang a spoon on the end
of my nose. Seriously, I have no special talent.
Favorite sport (to play/to watch)—
When I was younger I played
serious league volleyball. Now I’m happy to watch Olympic gymnastics and
competitive dancing, and ice skating.
A favorite internet site—
The Patchogue-Medford
Library, hands down.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
If I won big time, I’d endow the
Patchogue Arts Council, and help the library expand its Young Adult services,
among other things.
Something you keep postponing—
Washing my windows.
An interesting job you’ve had—
I worked at a “think tank” in
educational research for years in Cambridge, MA, evaluating government programs
such as Head Start, Magnet Schools, and Rural Community Development.
Education, job experience—
A BA in Sensory and
Physiological Psychology from Indiana University.
Anything else you’d like us to know about you—
I feel that overall I am a
very fortunate person, and wish everyone in the world could be at least as
fortunate as I.
Timely
Tips for the Garden in March
·
Good luck planting peas for St. Pat’s Day. You’ll have better luck
if you wait for the soil to get warmer and drier.
·
Start seeds of warm season vegetables and flowers indoors.
·
Force some spring blooming trees and shrubs like forsythia, pussy willow,
quince and crab apples.
·
Keep tabs on plant crowns that may have heaved out of the ground during
a thaw.
·
Begin removing mulch at the end of the month, as temperatures
increase.
·
Avoid walking on wet soil in the garden.
·
Get your soil tested.
