Blog Archives

#EarthLoveDay at Roosevelt Island Green Market

4/28/2019

What can we do? We can slow down and listen to the youth, relearn ways to love our Earth, bring our own bags, compost our food scraps weekly, share a plant with a neighbor, add some compost to the soil, use plants for natural dyes, share a smile and a sandwich with someone we just met, and enlarge our circles of kindness.

Roosevelt Island has a wealth of social infrastructure (libraries, athletic fields, youth & senior centers, pocket parks, gardens) that we cherish. Our Wengerd Farm green market has long been a staple for greeting and connecting with community as well as for restocking our kitchens with fresh produce.

Over three years ago, NYC Compost hosted by Big Reuse began providing us with an official Food Scrap Drop Off site next to our market. Since then, Islanders have been able to divert more than 100,000 pounds of food scraps from landfill! NYC Compost hosted by BigReuse turns them into soil enhancing compost and gives them back to the community - like they did for individuals on Saturday, April 27th!

Thanks to iDig2Learn, RIOC, and many more, our regular Roosevelt Island green market Saturday morning was transformed into a very special day for all ages. We learned more about practices that make a difference and help to reverse global warming. We found out about ways to reuse and recycle right here on RI. In addition to food scraps, clothes and electronics are reusable resources, too! RI Garden Club Outreach was honored to participate in this event.

(Most photographs above by Olya Turcihin! Enjoy the beautiful moments.)

RIGC Compost and RIOC's Youth Center

4/25/2019

On the two Thursdays before #EarthLove Day, Anthony Longo and Julia Ferguson met with RI Youth Center students and staff to discuss, teach, and experience the compost process first hand. What a wonderful connection! We look forward to more times for learning together in the future.

Community Service Opportunities Abound

4/20/2019

Late March and early April brought weekend days for painting the shed and preparing new compost piles. Sunday, April 28th, our first official Community Service day will be complete with many projects to upgrade and maintain our infrastructure: border repairs, path clean up, tool shed organization, water pipe repairs, more compost layering, and landscape planting!

If you have to miss the weekend dates, remember there is a list of possible tasks in the shed and and sign up sheet for your time. The front common area needs sweeping up weekly and we always have trips to AVAC needed regularly as well.

The gardens are now open to the public on weekends. Spring planting season is upon us. Enjoy the new 2019 season.

A Few Guidelines for Spring Clean Up

4/1/2019

Go gently with your garden clean up until the weather stays warm in the 50 degree range Fahrenheit. If you cut back and clear, try to leave some of the dry leaves, hollow stems, and branches stacked neatly standing in a sunny corner so that pollinators can hatch.

Find out more about pollinator planting and pollinating creatures. Click on this link to find a wonderful pdf booklet with extensive resources. Bee Basics North America. The end of this booklet gives specific recommendations like the following abridged list:

What You Can Do

Plant a pollinator garden. Some gardeners are fearful of being stung by bees and would rather they were not in their gardens. Most native bees are quite different from honey bees and yellow jackets (which are not pollinators) as they rarely sting gardeners and if they do, the sting tends to be mild. In fact, there are some bees, such as the Andrenid bees, that are incapable of stinging humans because their stingers are too small and weak to penetrate their skin.
Avoid pesticides or choose non-chemical solutions to insect problems.
Provide a source of pesticide-free water and mud.
Plant native plants from your ecoregion.
Allow some small wildflowers to become part of your lawn.
Provide nesting habitats for bees.

Our New Shed Has a New Coat of Paint

4/1/2019

RIGC community service in action! Many thanks to Neal, Jack, Farouk, Richard, Kas, Patty, Antonio ,Catherine, and Stephane from sections C, B, and A! The paint on our new shed matches our old shed and is looking great. If the weather holds on Saturday, April 6th at 11:00 a.m there will be more paining opportunities for the trim.

#EarthLoveDay at Roosevelt Island Green Market

RIGC Compost and RIOC's Youth Center

Community Service Opportunities Abound

A Few Guidelines for Spring Clean Up

Our New Shed Has a New Coat of Paint

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