Blog Posts

Fall For Arts 2019 Brings Another Beautiful RIGC Mural

9/29/2019

Abundance and Variety! Peggy Roalf, artist, teacher, photographer and RIGC member for many years designed and painted a beautiful and unique mural sponsored by garden club this year. Amy Geller, Anthony Longo and Jenna Longo painted alongside Peggy on the day of the event.

Peggy, who can often be seen painting in our garden or on Cornell Tech campus was the lead artist and the design genius for this piece. With a background in art history and architecture, Roalf took simple acrylic paints and created colors that invite us to really stop and see the sky, the water, the trees, the bridge and the people of our Island.

RIOC's Fall for Arts theme in 2019 was Earth Love: Protect, Renew, Grow. Peggy showed us how to protect the vibrant colors of our world, how to renew our passion for art and beauty, and most of all how to grow in our connections with each other. Thank you, Peggy, for your abstract and realistic mural reminding us that nature and art protect us, renew our spirits, and help us grow.

Fall For Arts 2019 Earth Love: Protect, Renew, Grow

9/28/2019

RIGC was honored to provide a nature based art activity for Fall for Arts this year. Children and adults made watercolors of butterflies, birds, bees, rainbows, and more to celebrate the pollinators! Thanks to RIOC's careful planning, we were located on the lawn at South Point park right next to iDig2Learn with compost games and composter giveaways and Roosevelt Island Girl Scouts making reusable bags from reused t-shirts! A beautiful day for a beautiful theme. Thanks to Robert Ostergaard, Iliada Bass, Halima Aouchette and Julia Ferguson for helping to sponsor this activity.

Sad News in September: Don Sinisi's Passing on 9-11

9/25/2019

On September 11, 2019, our garden neighbor and friend, Don Sinisi passed away. Don was a joyful person, cool and accepting of others, and a founding member of RIGC who along with his wife, Susan, helped to build and establish our garden club.

Even in recent later years, when walking was difficult for him, Don would still come often to sit in his garden and enjoy the nature around him and talk to his fellow members. As his daughter wrote, "Although his body was giving out he was so positive and I loved speaking with him. His brain was a beautiful medley of thoughts and stories. He was also a great artist who loved painting images in oil paint from the garden. The garden and the gardeners inspired him."

Don is survived by his brother and sister, his daughter and son-in-law, his grand children as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews who will miss him. Don, a former Brooklynite, enjoyed taking the train to Coney island will be missed for his upbeat spirit and good cheer..

Don's daughter also said:
"Thank you for remembering Dad and for seeing his charm and beauty. He was special and unique. Please give his garden to somebody who loves the sun and tomatoes as much as he did."

Classical Musicians' Rehearsal Symphony Orchestra

9/16/2019

The Classical Musicians' Rehearsal Symphony Orchestra was founded by Arlene Stock. RIGC has enjoyed their music in the garden now for three year running. At 4:30 p.m. on Sept.15th at least forty people joined Takelu Gross, RIGC Board member and host, as well as neighbors, garden club members, and music lovers for for this free September Sunday concert. Once again it was a beautiful afternoon of classical music among the late-summer flowers. The audience brought chairs or strolled the paths of the garden while music filled the air!

September Community Service - Compost Learning!

9/15/2019

Community Service Day on Sunday, September 15th from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. was focused on compost learning! The compost committee invited everyone to the Worm Dance to to learn about composting in the garden, to help us start a new compost pile, and get volunteer hours at the same time! We had 8 students from the UN International School high school who came to help out as well. Other volunteers worked in the front common area, the landscape beds, and the pathways to clean up for our 3rd Annual Classical Music Concert in the garden. Thanks to all who were able to come out for this beautiful day.

Welcome to the Garden!

7/24/2019

Click HERE to read and listen to the Roosevelt Islander Online blog post highlighting RIGC.

This post presents an invitation to enjoy the garden (open to the public every weekend) and an interview with Anthony Longo.

July "Around the Garden This Week"

7/5/2019

"Around the garden this week" by Iliada Bass

Although we see new growth and constant transformation in our little plots week after week, month after month, come July, Mother Nature’s accelerated pace becomes awe inspiring, if a bit overwhelming. Growth seems out of control. Everything’s taller and bushier every day; you get excited about the first bud of a flower and next time you look the whole thing is in bloom; then weeds of course grow faster than everything else…. I stand there a bit stunned, moment of truth for my grand garden design from early spring: some of the new seeds barely came out, hesitantly, plants that were supposed to be 2-3 feet tall are now my height, while older plants have been reseeding themselves happily all over, popping up wherever they please: cosmos and lupines everywhere, strawberry shoots in the middle of plant clusters. I have a hard time saying no to those precious seedlings so I am always trying to regroup and re-plan around them, giving up my big plan, embracing the new and just enjoying the beauty and incredible growth all around the garden.

At the end of the day, I feel like gardening is a constant lesson in awe - I think we’re here to learn from nature, enjoy it and adapt around it, not the other way round.

So what’s awesome and awe-inspiring in our garden this week?

Monarda! Rebellious and proud, like a queen holding court with a swarm of bees around, monarda used to intimidate me when I was little. I know the citrusy scent of the leaves, but to this day I have not been able to smell a flower; every time I tried a few bees would take flight around it and, sure enough, this morning the same thing happened when I got my phone closer to take a picture.

The marigolds, with their strong woody, earthy smell and their compact, rich cups of gold, - such reliable blooms all the way into December sometimes, or until the first tough frost. They are my go-to flower, every time my grand garden design planned in March starts to go wrong in July, basically every year.

The lilies, standing tall with their regal blooms in all colors, always remind me of the famous bible verse: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”. “Exactly!” a friend of mine always says, "So, why do we have to do it?" True… maybe we have to work, because we humans have become so good at hiding simplicity and inner beauty under layers and layers of beauty norms, decrees and endless schools of thought?

The purple clematis - I think there are several different varieties around the garden. They are simply stunning and, if you haven’t stopped to look at them yet, you must have been in a really big hurry, because they are breathtaking show-stoppers. Personally, I am not just in awe of their purple splendor, I am also in awe of the gardeners ‘raising' them.

I love the modest, sweet butterfly weed - such an unfair name for a friendly, beautiful plant that produces ‘copious amounts of nectar’. Whoever called it weed must have been a stuck-up gardener disgruntled with this trouble-free plant, basically growing itself and not needing any of his/her superior gardening skills.

The zinnias, the black-eyed Susans, the snapdragons, the phlox, the daisies, they all bring memories of lazy summer vacation afternoons with childhood friends in the shade, playing board games and dreaming up big expeditions and adventures. I love catching the scents of herbs in passing, of lavender, of mint, sage, thyme, oregano, basil. There are so many more colorful treasures in our gardens, but we’d be here all day if I were to go on.

Most importantly this week, have you seen the fireflies? A free-for-all, in-plain-sight reminder of nature’s magic software, each one of them a tiny little lesson in awe.

Manhattan Rose Society Award Winning Roses: 'Best in Show' From RIGC's Rose Garden

6/29/2019

This spring has been a very difficult season for gardeners with all the rain. In spite of that, Marjorie Marcallino entered two roses in the Manhattan Rose Society Flower Show for The Roosevelt Island Garden Club. I'm happy to say she won two blue ribbons in a judged show for the club. Both roses replace ones that had to be destroyed last year due to the rose rosette disease.

Rosanna (pictured on the left) was judged as the best climber. It is a deep pink and is on the left as you enter the garden on the hard blacktopped path. The other one( pictured above on the right) is Moonlight Romantica a yellow Hybrid Tea. It was also ranked, Queen of Show. This rose is also located to the left of the entrance arch and can easily be. seen from the front hard path.

We are very happy to be so well represented as a community garden.

from Carole Kennedy

What Are Community Service Days All About?

6/23/2019

Watch the community service slide show below for pictures of our 6-22-19 morning. Thanks to Takelu for the photos and to Karen L., Aiesha, Dave, and others for another almost zero waste picnic with music after our service.

What are Community Service Days Really All About? by Iliada Bass
For most of us, with the exception of those few gardeners you constantly see around the garden, rain or shine, mending a fence or tending to a public area, carrying around some power tool or dragging a cart heavy with everyone’s “green material”, community day seems to oscillate between a social event, a reason to bake, a chore or just another day in the garden. The little Tom Sawyer poster kind of mirrors some of those feelings, too.

I think all or any of those feelings are alright, as long as we show up. Some people come to all community days, some people put in the minimum time just to give their dues, some people happily go around to connect, partake of snacks and socialize, some people just get their task done and then quietly retreat to their garden to continue their toil…

Beyond the main purpose of getting every single corner of the garden and all public areas in top shape and getting some projects done that require more than a handful of people, there are some side benefits to these community days. There is no right or wrong and every helping hand counts; however, I noticed that, irrespective of our social approach or personal inclinations, a few things always happen during community days, besides the work, of course:

1. On those days, we get to actually talk to some garden neighbors we’ve known by sight forever but hardly ever spoke to; at the very least, now our ‘hi’ going forward might be a bit less absent and a tad warmer, which never hurts in a community
2. You might get a great snack idea or even a recipe. Although I haven’t always tried the snacks in the past, now at least I look to see what unique things people are bringing - the latest picnic offering was especially nice. A special shoutout to the kind neighbor always bringing the utensils and the cloth napkins - a thoughtfulness that elevates our gatherings, not to mention the turntable we had! That alone turned a garden club picnic with slightly tired, sweaty and slightly nerdy green aficionados into a garden event that every hip millennial would brag about.
3. You will definitely learn something new on those days. Whether it’s the name of a plant you never knew, or how to take care of certain plants, how to use a tool that might make your gardening easier, there’s always something. Special learning treats, like learning about the bugs living in our garden from top entomologists, make these days a do not miss.
4. You feel very good that day - I am pretty sure we all agree on this, we leave the garden those days with a very nice feeling.
5. It’s fun - there’s quite a lot of unexpected laughter, and a lot of times coming from people you’ve never imagined laughing before.
6. Again, most importantly, at the end of the day, the garden looks spic and span, like we’d like our own backyard to look… wait, it is our backyard!

iDig2Learn Bugs Out with RIGC: Learning How and Why to Love Insects

6/22/2019

To honor Pollinator Week, we were quite excited to welcome experts Dr. Parker Gambino and Dr. Matt Schlesinger, who joined us from 2-5pm on Saturday 6/22 under the Cottonwood tree after our community service morning and picnic. Parker Gambino is an expert entomologist with deep knowledge of bees and wasps who led a “catch, identify, and show” experience. Matt Schlesinger, who grew up on the Upper West Side and now works as a zoologist with the NY Natural Heritage Program in Albany, NY, spoke to us about the importance of insects in the ecosystem and as pollinators. He showed us how to collect data using our phones and the iNaturalist app for those who are interested in participating in a citizen scientist program for pollinators in the Empire State.

It was a really wonderful afternoon of discovery for all ages! Thank you to Christina Delfico and iDig2Learn for bringing this event to our front common area. Let's do this again!

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