See Page 4 for Web site information“All the dirt you need to know . . . and a whole lot more!
Guy’s Greetings
In the doom and gloom of the weather these past few weeks, Mother Nature, in conjunction with the weatherman, managed to give us a beautiful morning for our “Breakfast in the Garden” last weekend. I want to thank all who attended and brought something to nibble on. We had some very tasty treats to savor, and I don’t think anyone who attended left wanting anything we didn’t have. I also want to thank our historian, Jo Miller, for bringing some club memorabilia to share. It really shows how the Patchogue Garden Club, our garden, our members, and our community have grown over the years. I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting and at the 9th Annual Garden Tour coming up in July. Guy
Mark the Date
Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 6:00 PM, general meeting at the Long Island Flower Garden (courtesy of Doug Steigerwald, one of the original Patchogue Garden Club members) on South Country Road between Hedges and Orchard Streets. Bring your own chairs. Sandra Franco is hosting the July meeting, and Guy Vitale is hosting the August meeting.
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. Bring your own bottle and an appetizer or dessert (the club provides the protein) and a seat if you want to be assured of having one. There is a performance at the band shell, so parking will be at a premium. It is best to arrive from the east.
Garden Gazette Page 2
May Meeting in a Flash
Carol Tvelia reported that we made $850 at the Plant and Yard Sale to support the Scholarship Fund. Josephine Miller had donated time to the Boys and Girls Club raffle for 2½ years resulting in a $200 donation.
Josephine asked members if anyone was having trouble with their boxwoods. There have been quite a few reports of them suddenly turning brown and dying.
Mary Ann said she has four houses for the Christmas tour on December 13, but would like two additional houses. The houses do not have to be members’ houses, just interesting ones, nicely decorated for the season.
The Memorial Plaque will be moved to the other side of the new barberry shrubs after they are planted. The plaque was loose, so Guy has it for safe keeping.
Caretakers of sections of the Community Garden should discuss what they want to change/plant with Diane from the Design Committee.
Georgia spoke with an elderly gentleman in the Community Garden requesting more benches in the shade. It will be looked into.
Millie Zimmerman opened up her yard to the Garden Club Members to visit on Sunday May 31st between 1PM and 5PM. [Ed. note: It was a lovely day for a change. Millie put out a nice variety of food and drink. Many members came and enjoyed the history of her place and the company.
Carol Tvelia reported that we made $850 at the Plant and Yard Sale to support the Scholarship Fund. Josephine Miller had donated time to the Boys and Girls Club raffle for 2½ years resulting in a $200 donation.
Josephine asked members if anyone was having trouble with their boxwoods. There have been quite a few reports of them suddenly turning brown and dying.
Mary Ann said she has four houses for the Christmas tour on December 13, but would like two additional houses. The houses do not have to be members’ houses, just interesting ones, nicely decorated for the season.
The Memorial Plaque will be moved to the other side of the new barberry shrubs after they are planted. The plaque was loose, so Guy has it for safe keeping.
Caretakers of sections of the Community Garden should discuss what they want to change/plant with Diane from the Design Committee.
Georgia spoke with an elderly gentleman in the Community Garden requesting more benches in the shade. It will be looked into.
Millie Zimmerman opened up her yard to the Garden Club Members to visit on Sunday May 31st between 1PM and 5PM. [Ed. note: It was a lovely day for a change. Millie put out a nice variety of food and drink. Many members came and enjoyed the history of her place and the company.
What? A Paper Birch Resistant to Bronze Birch Borer?
And not only that, but with great stress tolerance too. Introduced by North Dakota State University in Fargo ND, Betula papyrifera ‘Prairie Dream” has been tested for 30 years. With snow-white exfoliating bark it is Zone 3 hardy.
Always wanted a smoketree, but didn’t have enough room?
Now available from Holland is the dwarf smoketree, Cotinus coggygria ‘Young Lady”. It grows only 4-6’ tall and can be ordered from RareFind Nursery, 957 Patterson Rd., Jackson, NJ 08527.
How about a double-flowered gaillardia?
‘Dakota’ stands 15” tall by 18” wide at maturity. Its blooms are yellow with a red throat, and it has the usual gaillardia virtues of long bloom and great drought tolerance. Shown here, Gaillardia grandiflora Dakota ‘Reveille’ is a double-flowering type with trumpet-shaped petals throughout. The tight center buds are lime green with red tips before opening. The trumpets flare out larger as the plant ages. Removing the spent blooms will fuel the flowering performance to continue into early fall. Outstanding cut flower.
‘Dakota’ stands 15” tall by 18” wide at maturity. Its blooms are yellow with a red throat, and it has the usual gaillardia virtues of long bloom and great drought tolerance. Shown here, Gaillardia grandiflora Dakota ‘Reveille’ is a double-flowering type with trumpet-shaped petals throughout. The tight center buds are lime green with red tips before opening. The trumpets flare out larger as the plant ages. Removing the spent blooms will fuel the flowering performance to continue into early fall. Outstanding cut flower.
Garden Gazette Page 3
Serious Dirt from Paula Murphy [Richard is on leave this month]
Maple-seeded Madness
By Kendra Meinert at greenbaypressgazette.com
Someday I'd like to start a support group for homeowners with old maple trees. I say someday, because as the owner of three of the towering, helicopter-spewing beasts, who has time for support groups? Not this week anyway. But if I did …I'd call it MOA: Maple Owners Anonymous. The fact that you can put an "n'' on the end of MOA and get "moan'' is just a happy coincidence because that's exactly what we do when they start littering the yard with seeds this time of year. Our meetings could be held under the shade of — what else? — a maple tree. But not one of those silver maples that seemingly every homeowner on every street in our neighborhoods planted in the 1950s. No, no — much too messy, not to mention counterproductive. We'd commiserate instead beneath a nice, new, well-behaved variety of maple, perhaps a lovely "Autumn Blaze.' We would be identifiable by the stray helicopter hiding in our hair or sticking out from the hood of our sweatshirt. Fellow members would know better than to laugh, because they've all experienced the embarrassment of being caught out in public with their seeds showing. Sessions would start something like this, "Hi, I'm Kendra. I have three maple trees. I've been cleaning up after them for seven years now.'' Applause.
Rookies would find strength in the resilience of the veterans, like a neighbor who has been raking up seeds for more than a half-century from trees he planted himself for $1.50 each. Members like that would earn a Golden Helicopter Badge, akin to the 10-gallon pins the American Red Cross gives to its blood donors. Mostly what we would do at meetings is openly complain — without apology or guilt — about how something as simple as little yellow seeds the size of our pinky make us hate our yards for about two weeks every year in early June. How they find their way absolutely everywhere — in between the slats in the deck, the cracks in the sidewalk, the shingles of the roof and the rocks of garden borders. How they congregate in the center of hosta leaves and on top of Asiatic lilies. How they plant themselves in pots. How they turn perfectly nice spring garden beds into chaos. How they make a freshly mowed lawn look like somebody shot a confetti cannon over it. How they clog gutters — and then add insult to injury by starting to sprout if we don't get to them soon enough. How they have an uncanny knack for transforming an otherwise clean birdbath into a disgusting bowl of helicopter booyah. Knowing it was a futile effort, we would then engage in a lively exchange of the best ways to clean them up. Don't bother with a broom unless it's a push one. Those suckers are so streamlined that they don't sweep worth a darn. Blowers? Good luck corralling them into something that resembles a pile without blowing your garden beds clean of mulch in the process. Rake? Sure, so long as you've got hours to kill. Shop-Vac? Don't laugh. If we haven't tried it ourselves, we've seen a neighbor do it. At the end of the session, we would open it up for parting thoughts. Things like who could top whom with how many bags of seeds they've hauled so far to the yard waste site, or how we could dream up a way to turn helicopters into an alternative source of energy. Then we'd pat each other on the back as a sign of fellowship, politely point out that stray seed in our fellow MOA member's hair and recite a little prayer that next year is "a good year'' — a relative term in the world of us maple tree owners.
Someday I'd like to start a support group for homeowners with old maple trees. I say someday, because as the owner of three of the towering, helicopter-spewing beasts, who has time for support groups? Not this week anyway. But if I did …I'd call it MOA: Maple Owners Anonymous. The fact that you can put an "n'' on the end of MOA and get "moan'' is just a happy coincidence because that's exactly what we do when they start littering the yard with seeds this time of year. Our meetings could be held under the shade of — what else? — a maple tree. But not one of those silver maples that seemingly every homeowner on every street in our neighborhoods planted in the 1950s. No, no — much too messy, not to mention counterproductive. We'd commiserate instead beneath a nice, new, well-behaved variety of maple, perhaps a lovely "Autumn Blaze.' We would be identifiable by the stray helicopter hiding in our hair or sticking out from the hood of our sweatshirt. Fellow members would know better than to laugh, because they've all experienced the embarrassment of being caught out in public with their seeds showing. Sessions would start something like this, "Hi, I'm Kendra. I have three maple trees. I've been cleaning up after them for seven years now.'' Applause.
Rookies would find strength in the resilience of the veterans, like a neighbor who has been raking up seeds for more than a half-century from trees he planted himself for $1.50 each. Members like that would earn a Golden Helicopter Badge, akin to the 10-gallon pins the American Red Cross gives to its blood donors. Mostly what we would do at meetings is openly complain — without apology or guilt — about how something as simple as little yellow seeds the size of our pinky make us hate our yards for about two weeks every year in early June. How they find their way absolutely everywhere — in between the slats in the deck, the cracks in the sidewalk, the shingles of the roof and the rocks of garden borders. How they congregate in the center of hosta leaves and on top of Asiatic lilies. How they plant themselves in pots. How they turn perfectly nice spring garden beds into chaos. How they make a freshly mowed lawn look like somebody shot a confetti cannon over it. How they clog gutters — and then add insult to injury by starting to sprout if we don't get to them soon enough. How they have an uncanny knack for transforming an otherwise clean birdbath into a disgusting bowl of helicopter booyah. Knowing it was a futile effort, we would then engage in a lively exchange of the best ways to clean them up. Don't bother with a broom unless it's a push one. Those suckers are so streamlined that they don't sweep worth a darn. Blowers? Good luck corralling them into something that resembles a pile without blowing your garden beds clean of mulch in the process. Rake? Sure, so long as you've got hours to kill. Shop-Vac? Don't laugh. If we haven't tried it ourselves, we've seen a neighbor do it. At the end of the session, we would open it up for parting thoughts. Things like who could top whom with how many bags of seeds they've hauled so far to the yard waste site, or how we could dream up a way to turn helicopters into an alternative source of energy. Then we'd pat each other on the back as a sign of fellowship, politely point out that stray seed in our fellow MOA member's hair and recite a little prayer that next year is "a good year'' — a relative term in the world of us maple tree owners.
Garden Gazette
Page 4
ROAD TRIP
For more details, see
http://www.nybg.org/edible_garden/?xsc=eml_soe_2008_06_15_evt
http://www.nybg.org/edible_garden/?xsc=eml_soe_2008_06_15_evt
GardenGazette Page 5
Timely Tips for July
Young crucifers should be transplanted from the seed bed by mid-month.
Put a summer mulch on roses to conserve soil moisture and control weeds.
Deadhead spent blossoms to promote continuous flowering.
Prune climbing roses after flowering to promote new growth.
Divide and transplant Oriental poppies if necessary.
Mulch shrub and flower borders and beds if not done already.
Sow seeds of English daisy, forget-me-not, and pansy now.
Don’t use lawn weed killer in 75+ heat or damage to ornamentals will result.
Put a summer mulch on roses to conserve soil moisture and control weeds.
Deadhead spent blossoms to promote continuous flowering.
Prune climbing roses after flowering to promote new growth.
Divide and transplant Oriental poppies if necessary.
Mulch shrub and flower borders and beds if not done already.
Sow seeds of English daisy, forget-me-not, and pansy now.
Don’t use lawn weed killer in 75+ heat or damage to ornamentals will result.
