By LISA W. FODERARO
Published: February 26, 2012
At the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, an experimental plot was in full flower on a recent February afternoon, as the thermometer edged toward 60.
“This is the earliest I’ve seen all of these things in flower,” said Todd Forrest, the garden’s vice president for horticulture and living collections. “The ground isn’t even frozen. That’s shocking.”
There is currently a small-town political debate about whether or not Chatham will allow a family in Green Village to grow vegetables for selling via CSA, at the local farmers' market, or at a farm stand. As one neighbor on the street puts it: let the veggies grow!
Why did it take me so long to find The Village Tree Farm on Meyersville Road in Green Village, NJ? It's a family-run Christmas tree farm just a few minutes from my home and we had a wonderful afternoon picking out our tree. In addition to getting a great tree, we also got to admire their beautiful, Amish-constructed barn, built in 2004.
www.villagechristmastreefarm.com
Good news! The Sunday Farmers' Markets in Summit, New Jersey have been extended until the weekend before Christmas. I remember from last year that the number of shoppers dropped off significantly with the cold weather, so they didn't know if they were going to try to do it again this year. Alas, here's your opportunity to dress warmly and continue supporting the farmers. If enough people come out, maybe we can have a year-round farmers' market like they in other areas.
Do you like to eat fresh, organic meats? Do you serve Turkey for Thanksgiving? Do you like supporting local farms? If yes and you live in northern New Jersey, I highly recommend pre-ordering your Turkey for Thanksgiving from Vacchiano Farms. They just started taking orders last Sunday at the Summit Farmers' Market. We tried their turkey last year and it was the best we ever had.
Games, Family Scavenger Hunt, Pumpkin Carving Contest, Arts and Crafts, Face Painting, Costume Parade at 11:30AM. For more information, click here.
As a mother of five that spends a lot of time with her children outside in a region with a large deer population, deer ticks and Lyme disease are a significant concern. Several people we know have been infected with Lyme disease with negative health consequences. For some unknown reason, it seems that many doctors do not test sick children (and adults) with symptoms of Lyme disease unless they are specifically asked. As a result, people often go undiagnosed and untreated for an extended period of time, making the condition worse. On our property, we do get the yard commercially sprayed against deer ticks, even the parts that are fully fenced off from the deer. In addition, we also consciously look out for them on our children and have over the years found and removed a few, usually near the hair line. They are tiny and difficult to spot if you are not looking for them.
From the "Room for Debate" column in The New York Times:
"Is the tick problem getting worse, or does it just seem that way at this time every year? Fighting back involves a lot of individual strategies: tucking pant legs in socks, using bug spray (while hating it), obsessively doing full-body checks at the end of a summer day and building deer fences. Yet the public as a whole has been ineffective in dealing with the plague of black-legged (deer) ticks, which spread Lyme disease, a problem linked to, among other things, the overpopulation of deer, which the ticks feed on. What is important to know about ticks and their environment, and what steps might be taken to control them?"
For the full story, click here.
Yesterday around 5PM, it started to thunder. A few minutes later, the lightning started to flash. Torrential rain and hail the size of ice cubes followed. The rain was so forceful it was coming through the screens in the open windows. Next, lightning struck one of our neighbor's trees and we saw a large branch fall into our yard, right into the Long Border and the Walled Garden. After several minutes, it all stopped and the sun began to shine. Then, in our front yard, very low to the ground, there it was--a bright rainbow. We walked out to survey the damage to the garden. Many of the tall plants throughout the garden were laying on the ground, but most of the real damage, as you can see below, was limited to the Long Border.
"MYFOXNY.COM - Several rabid raccoons have been found in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx in recent weeks. That is prompting the New York City Health Department to issue a warning. Pet owners should make sure their animals are vaccinated agaisnt rabies. The health department says people should avoid contact will any raccoons, skunks, bats, stray dogs and cats and other wild animals that can carry rabies."
For the full story, click here.
From Julia Moskin in The New York Times:
"A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined, according to federal and state agriculture officials...
...Authorities recommend that home gardeners inspect their tomato plants for late blight signs, which include white, powdery spores; large olive green or brown spots on leaves; and brown or open lesions on the stems. Gardeners who find an affected plant should pull it, seal it in a plastic bag and throw it away, not compost it."
For the full article click, here.
Burpees' Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, PA
Friday and Saturday, July 10-11
Open from 10 am - 4 pm each day
Take a tour of Fordhook Farm and see our featured varieties of beautiful Hydrangea. The Midsummer Garden speaker will be:
Michael Dirr - Hydrangeas and Other Flowering Shrubs: What's New and the Best of Old, from Abelia to Virburnum
For more information, click here. If you're not familiar with Michael Dirr, he is a legend and one of the world's foremost experts on trees, hydrangeas, and viburnum. I highly recommend his books.
As a follow-up to my prior post (heirloom gardener: Piet Oudolf's High Line Gardens Open in New York City), the blog inhabitat: design will save the world, has great pictures of the gardens here:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/09/new-yorks-high-line-park-in-the-sky-opens-today/
As a follow-up to my prior post (heirloom gardener: Great Blog Posts About Piet Oudolf), the High Line in New York City opened this week. From Nicolai Ouroussoff's architectural review in The New York Times:
"A subtle play between contemporary and historical design, industrial decay and natural beauty sets the tone. The surface of the deck, for example, is made of concrete planks meant to echo the linearity of the old tracks. The path slips left and right as it advances, so that at some points you are right up against the edge of the railing and at others you are enveloped in the gardens.
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And those gardens have a wild, ragged look that echoes the character of the old abandoned track bed when it was covered with weeds, just a few years ago. Wildflowers and prairie grasses mix with Amelanchier bushes, their branches speckled with red berries. Mr. Corner designed planters to hold the taller trees, and the Gansevoort entry is marked by a cluster of birches. On Saturday the gardens were swarming with bees, butterflies and birds. I half expected to see Bambi."
For the full article, click here.
I learned of Green Hour, a great online resource, on The Homeschooler's Guide to the Galaxy blog. On this website, you can type in your zip code and find all of the closest public parks, campsites, and gardens. I tried my zip code out and saw all of my favorite places, as well as some that I'll now have to explore. Check it out:
http://www.naturefind.com/greenhour/
Summit Farmers' Market opens on Sundays starting on June 7th, 8AM-130PM:
http://www.summitdowntown.org/images/farmersmarket09.pdf
Chatham Farmers' Market opens on Saturdays starting on June 27th, 8AM-1PM:
http://www.chathamboroughfarmersmarket.org/
To find a farmers' market near you, type your zip code into the Local Harvest website:
http://www.localharvest.org/
heirloom gardener: The Garden Conservancy's Open Days 2009: Opening America's Best Private Gardens
As a follow-up to this prior post, I unfortunately had to miss the open days due to a family emergency. Fortunately, Mary from the Little Red House blog posted some lovely pictures of the day:
http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2009/05/kennelston-cottage.html?showComment=1243562397864#c1218587063196415001
From The New York Times: "More than 100 different kinds of perennials and grasses from the Battery gardens in Lower Manhattan designed by Piet Oudolf, the Dutch landscape designer, will be available for $10 each at the Battery Conservancy plant sale on May 7, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m...'We have over 3,000 divisions to sell, all from the incredibly strong plants in our gardens,' said Warrie Price, right, the founder and president of the Battery Conservancy, created in 1994."
You can see some of these plants in my pictures from Battery gardens here.
What gardener doesn't like to visit other gardeners' homes? The Garden Conservancy's Open Days for 2009 are beginning around the country this weekend. In their words:
"Here at the Garden Conservancy, we believe that the best way to learn about gardens and to appreciate them, is to simply spend more time in them. Through the more than 300 gardens that will be open in 2009, we invite you to explore first-hand examples of outstanding design and horticultural practice that are growing in America’s gardens."
For the whole schedule, click here. Around my area of New Jersey, I am looking forward to seeing the following private gardens on May 16th:
The Hay Honey Farm
Far Hills, New Jersey
Nestled in a valley with long pasture views, the gardens reflect a diverse range of interests, and include an early spring patio garden, a summer-to-fall perennial border, and a wide variety of trees and shrubs. A walk along a stream leads past a wet meadow to a rhododendron glade with year-round interest. There is also a large vegetable and cutting garden.
Kennelston Cottage
48 Post Kennel Road
Far Hills, New Jersey
Several gardens surround the early 1900s main residence, reflecting the English Tudor architecture of the house and the European tradition of creating garden rooms. Organized along axial lines, the gardens form enclosures within walls, fences, or plant masses, each for a different function and each with its own ambiance, enhanced by a rich planting palette. There is a courtyard garden with a reflecting pool, a potager, a shrub garden with its millstone, a sunken garden set within an old stone foundation, a conservatory terrace garden, and a pool garden. Further away, there are less formal lines of a pool garden, bird garden, and a shade garden. The property also features an English greenhouse by Alitex and a small nursery and boxwood garden near the barn complex and, at the main entrance, an early colonial gatehouse surrounded by an old fashioned cottage garden. Evolving over the past twelve years, the gardens were designed by B. W. Bosenberg & Company of Far Hills and Ania Bass of Peapack.
Hedgerows
200 Old Chester Road
Chester, New Jersey
The landscape surrounding this nineteenth-century farmhouse unfolds to reveal several acres of gardens with different themes, set in meadows where a flock of sheep graze. There are perennial borders, a formal herb garden, and woodland gardens with a reflecting pool and stream. The owners are enthusiastic collectors, and many rare plant species are growing on their property. Island beds showcase unusual shrubs and trees, and a series of trough gardens contain rock and alpine plants. The gardens are planted to create interest throughout the year.
The Native Plant Society of New Jersey is hosting several wildflower and native plant sales around the state. For the full listing, check out this link:
http://www.npsnj.org/events.htm
For Morris County, check out the sale being hosted by Chester Township. The plant list and order form is below. Orders must be received by April 30th for pick-up on May 9th.
http://www.chestertownship.org/form/annual-native-plant-sale-2009.pdf
