Greetings from the President
Happy Spring! Well, finally spring has sprung! Angelo and I took a ride out to the North Fork this past weekend. We were surprised to see that there were so many more bulbs, trees and shrubs in bloom than we have here in Patchogue. I planted some pansies this weekend and started to get my garden ready for summer, as I am sure many of you are doing also. Don’t forget we will be opening our Community Garden on April 14th with a rain date of April 15th.
All are welcome to come down and get dirty! The Board Members will be bringing water, coffee, and bagels for all who give a hand. Angelo and I will not be there as we will still be visiting our grandkids in Florida. If you are interested in signing up
to help out on a regular basis, please contact Georgia as she assigns the areas to our members.
We have had some vandalism once again to our benches. We are on top of the
situation and, under the leadership of Frank Densing, some of our male members are taking
care of “mending.” A big thank you, guys!
Hope to see everyone at our next meeting on Tuesday at the American Legion.
Until then……..keep digging. June
Mark the Date
March 27th—General meeting—-
A New Garden from the Ground Up
Hear the best methods for beginning a new perennial gar-den/mixed boarder, from the ground up. Site selection, bed preparation, compost/mulch will be discussed. The slide portion of the presentation highlights plant selection, for both sunny and shady gardens.
The garden hints and advice are worth their weight in gold (compost!) for novice and advanced garden enthusiasts!
Speaker: Lucille Forgione Hoell www.LucillesGardens.com
March 29th—Think Spring Luncheon
April 14—Opening the GardensJune 9th—Breakfast in the Garden
July 7th—Garden Tour
October 6th—Harvest Dinner
November 10th—Closing the Garden
November (to be announced)—Decorate
December 9—Christmas House Tour
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 February19th. Membership can be obtained by calling Michael West, Community Garden Leader at 631-656-8841.
Jody Garrett
Sayville Garden Club
Monday, May 21, 2012
Land’s End Restaurant
80 Browns River Road
Sayville
10-11:30 Raffle Boutique
11:30 Speaker and Floral Designer, CHRISTINE
SAROKA of Bayport Flower House
12:30 Luncheon
$42.00 check should be made out to Sayville Garden Club
Send to: 144 Handsome Avenue, Sayville, NY 11782
By May 7th
For additional information, contact:
Kay Porter 567-3567
Pat Osarchuk 567-22
New members: Bill Steward Jr. and Robin Pfister
Paula reminded members that they are invited to the After Garden Tour Dinner at her house.
Georgia Dulmovits said that 192 people were signed up to attend the luncheon.
Rolling Rock will charge $175 for two cleanups per month—May through October. There would be additional fees for any major trimming.
Georgia Dulmovits is looking for additional volunteers to care for a section of the garden on a regular basis. The library youth group might be able to help. An adult member of the library as well as a garden club member would have to be present.
Carla Buchanan’s husband and Arlene Lamberti’s son would like to assist in heavy duty gardening maintenance at no charge. There was discussion about this. Carla Buchanan will get several bids from other maintenance companies. Jo Miller suggested that we get mulch this year. Spreading mulch could be a project for the youth volunteers. Jodi Garrett suggested the possibility of Emanuel Lutheran students volunteering in the garden.
Jodi Garrett made a suggestion that the Patchogue Garden club purchase one of the plots at the Patchogue’s Planting Patch Community Garden. No decision was made.
June Petruccelli asked that anyone who has a key to the shed, contact her.
The Board made a decision to limit contributions to $50 or charitable donations, and a plant or flowers not to exceed $50 for the death of an immediate family member (spouse or child). The membership agreed.
Lynn Kane will take orders for T-shirts or sweatshirts.Notes taken from Babette Bishop’s excellent minutes.
Dues are due ($15 for single $20 for family) BEFORE March 31st so a membership list can be compiled and distributed. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please send check to:
Patchogue Garden ClubPO Box 3030, Patchogue, NY 11772
What’s In the News?
Richard Waldman sends us this news:
Long Island Plant Preservation Group Gets $75K
The Long Island Native Plant initiative has received a $75,000 grant from BP Solar. This grant will “support the organization’s mission of preserving the genetic integrity of Long Island’s native plants,” said Polly Weigand, a Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District technician and executive director of the plant initiative. “We’re trying to ensure that the supply [of native plants] is readily available for the nursery industry.
For more information on this story, read Patrick Whittle’s article in the
February 21st edition of
Newsday.
Richard found this on a site called “Dear Photograph.”
http://dearphotograph.com/post/19465201479/dear-photograph-seasonscome-and-go-and
Winter Garden
NY Times
Nancy Goodwin’s first hardy cyclamens bloomed in early December in North Carolina, looking like so many white, pink and deep carmine butterflies hovering over heart-shaped dark greeneaves. “Look at these cyclamen corms” she said, touching a velvety carmine petal. “They’re spread by ants, who eat the sugary substance around the seeds and leave them wherever.”
To read more of this article go here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/garden/
nancy-goodwins-montrose-garden-bloomsin-a-mild-winter.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Patrick Blanc
has a waterfall wall in the Orchid Show at the NY Botanical
Gardens until April 22. This looks so amazing! You can read about it here.
http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2012/03/exhibit-news/the-orchid-show/imagining-the-green-wall/
http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2012/03/exhibit-news/the-orchid-show/imagining-the-green-wall/
You can also see some of his other amazing “walls” at this site:
What the “Unwinter” Means to Gardeners
—NY Times
“A snow-free winter can be hard on some trees, shrubs and
perennial flowers if it is combined with frigid air. That’s because snow serves as an insulating blanket to keep the cold from damaging roots.
So far this winter that hasn’t posed a problem. But there are other concerns. Will the warm weather allow more insects to survive? What about fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases? And if we do yet get a blast of winter weather—some of the biggest snowstorms in the Northeast have come in April—could that kill tender new growth on trees and flowers in what promises to be an early spring?”
However, “this winter is likely to be as beneficial for ‘good’ insects such as Asian lady beetles, as it is for the bad bugs themselves.”
To read more pros and cons about mild winter weather, look
here:
910.html?mod=WSJ_HomeAndGarden_LEFTTopNews
Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?,
Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?,
by Kristofor Husted,
NPR iPhone App, Feb 22, 201:
“If you haven't noticed, gardens are popping up in some unconventional places – from prison yards to retirement and veteran homes to programs for troubled youth.
Most are handy sources of fresh and local food, but increasingly they're also an extension of therapy for people with mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; depression; and anxiety.
It's called horticultural therapy. And some doctors, psychologists and occupational therapists are now at work to test whether building, planting,
and harvesting a garden can be a therapeutic process in its own right.
Much of the science behind just how gardening affects the mind and brain still remains a mystery. What scientists do know is that gardening reduces stress and calms the nerves. It decreases cortisol, a hormone that plays a role in stress response. So what about the biological mechanism behind mental disorders? That's a bit tougher.
Variables in the environment — such as climate, location, diet and genetics — have complicated some of the early research on horticultural therapy. So to pinpoint a causal relationship between gardening and mental rehabilitation, researchers have to use a balance of qualitative and quantitative studies, according to Elizabeth Diehl, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture.
A 2011 study at a juvenile rehabilitation center in southwestern Ohio with a gardening program showed that horticulture therapy helped the kids see themselves in a more positive light and helped them better manage their emotional and behavioral problems. And most of the kids said they would continue gardening after the program, according to the findings in the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture.
To read more about this study, go here:
Huntington residents support bamboo rule
Deborah S. Morris
More than 20 Huntington residents came to Tuesday night’s town board meeting to voice their concerns about bamboo, sharing horror stories of how it has destroyed relationships between neighbors, damaged driveways and yards, and threatened water and septic systems. Town officials say, if not properly restricted, bamboo can migrate to an adjacent property, potentially causing damage to landscaping, foundations and infrastructure, and call for a 10-foot buffer between new plantings of bamboo and the property line. It would also require a property owner whose bamboo
has migrated, to dig a 4-foot-deep trench and fill it with something such
as concrete to stop its spread.
Town resident, Mary Jarrett, said bamboo is a beautiful plant, and she understands why people love it. But she acknowledged that planting bamboo entails responsibility for it. “If you have bamboo, you should be responsible for everything it does. If you want to keep it, you keep it on your
property, not my property.”
Dwight Andrews, a Bay Shore landscape designer, asked that the legislation cite specific bamboo, because not all forms of bamboo are invasive.
(Richard Waldman thinks this is an important point.)
(Karen Ferb suggests http://www.bamboogarden.com/Hardy%20clumping.htm for a list of hardy clumping bamboos that will not run invasively.
This, That, and the Other
I’d like some Black Raspberry runners to put along my back fence. If anyone’s thinning their “crop,” or throwing any away, would you call me, and I’ll come get them. Margaret Atkinson 475-1137
Patchogue Garden Club
2012 Committee List
Committee Chairperson
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 Georgia Dulmovits
Luncheon Arlene Lamberti
Refreshments Ronnie Manfredi
Educational Trips Josephine Miller
Community Education Bonnie Bossert, Josephine Miller
Breakfast in the Garden Open
Harvest Dinner Arlene Lamberti
Scholarship Carolyn Savastano, Arlene Lamberti, Carla Steward
Social Committee Carla Steward
Christmas Decorating Open
Timely Tips for the Garden in April
In a sunny location with poor soil, plant nasturtiums for a colorful show. They require warm soil to sprout and
start blooming in about 50 days. Too much water and fertilizer gives you leaves, but fewer flowers.When chrysanthemums show signs of life, dig up and divide large plants. Discard woody portions and replant
divisions 12-15 inches apart.
Scatter annual poppy seeds in flower borders. The fine seeds need no covering. The plants grow rapidly and
provide colorful flowers in early summer.
Cut flower stalks back to the ground on daffodils, hyacinths, etc. as the flowers fade, but leave the foliage. The
leaves are necessary to produce strong bulbs capable of reflowering.
