On Friday, April 22nd, while nations signed the Climate Agreement at the UN, RIGC witnessed local learning and education. iDIG2Learn's founder, Christina Delfico hosted a workshop by GrowtoLearnNYC on pollinators and beneficial plants for school groups. We had school leaders from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx who made their way to the stand just outside our gates at the Butterfly Corridor Site.  Grow to Learn staffers Rasheed Hislop and Jessie Kerr Vanderslice facilitated this talk and garden walk about bugs that help us! We looked at insects that play a critical role in the life cycles of your garden plants. Participants were able to take seeds back to their local school groups and also painted lady caterpillars.  iDig2Learn caterpillars became butterflies in May and were released at the gardens! 

IDig2Learn says "Thanks for a spectacular day!" 

Thanks to the custodial staff at 217, school leadership and PTA, Roosevelt Island Garden Club and iDig2Learn today we witnessed full circle our weekend food scraps collected by BigReuse, through NYC Compost project, return to our soil. Jeff, Kenny, and the entire custodial team made beautiful garden border beds and tilled the soil to prepare the beds.

RI Garden club member Anthony Longo and son, Anthony alongside, parent Dee and Ms. Fokine sifted the soil and added the BigReuse compost.  iDig2Learn sourced native plants including phlox paniculata "Jeana", lobelia cardinalis, milkweed, alongside some yarrow, ajuga and mums from the Central Park conservancy.  Today children and their families had their gloves and trowels in hand and incredibly planted over 100 pollinator friendly plants in 35 minutes! Thanks to Joey and Dimis for turning on the water to soak both the plants and us.

RIGC is so glad to be a part of all this! We say thanks again to everyone in this circle and .... "Remember to bring your food scraps on Saturdays to the RI Food Scrap Drop Off Site run by NYC Compost hosted by BigReuse!"  Since late November 2015, Roosevelt Islanders have brought in 10,504 pounds - over 5 tons of food scraps with over 2,242 drop offs and  2,761 interactions. Spread the word and keep bringing us all full circle from food scraps to gardens!

Enjoy this collage of photos of the amazing transformation. 

 It was cloudy and cool, but we left with warm hearts! Thanks to donations and help from many, we successfully launched the RISA Potluck Patio Gardening on May 5th, 2016.

A shout out of thanks goes to the RI Girl Scouts and their leaders, Aiesha and Janine, and iDig2Learn's Christina, who cleaned up the terrace in advance.  Thanks also to those, like Jennifer Schuppert and Ron Schuppert, who hosted the RISA field trip visit to our gardens on April 25th! 

Six to eight RISA Members attended on May 5th for this first Thursday activity for planting and gardening. Some came with plants and others with pots and ideas. Some people just came ready to help.  We had cuttings  and pots with soil at the ready. We also had seeds to plant and share.  We filled some pots with zinnias and got a round herb and flower planter started.

Anthony Longo reworked the composter that we have donated for the center and brought down more soil and tools. AJ shared GRIN stickers with every single participant. We set up a cart to hold extra pots and tools.  Beverly donated a lemon tree and the wooden cart will soon be propped up and loaded with more plantings.  More donations of pots and tools are always welcome as this program gets rooted.

Gardening can bring people together and we certainly felt that today.  The squirrels will be heading down Main Street soon when they figure out there will be a new place with tasty tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers and more.

Grounds for the Garden is a corporate program that Starbucks began in 1995.  We are fortunate that Ryan, manager of our Roosevelt Island Starbucks, and Anthony, RIGC Compost Chair, got together and formed a plan along with Julia, a member, and Aiesha, a new associate.  After donating food grade buckets and covering them with our logos, we began making regular pick ups at Starbucks about one month ago. The coffee grounds go into our RIGC compost piles and provide nitrogen rich ph balanced ingredients that are working like magic!  But it is actually just compost chemistry. When a static compost pile heats up, this is very good news.  Our recent temperature records were up to 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a look at the slide show of images below and watch for the steam!

According to Oregon State University Extension Service, "Coffee grounds are a great addition to the garden and compost pile. It helps to recycle this great organic resource and reduces the amount of organics going to the landfill! Some information about coffee grounds: Coffee grounds are about 2% nitrogen by volume. Grounds are not acidic; the acid in coffee is water-soluble so the acid is mostly in the coffee. Coffee grounds are close to pH neutral (between 6.5 - 6.8 pH). Coffee grounds improve soil tilth or structure." 

We welcome volunteer help of any amount for initiatives like this and the Food Scrap Drop Off Site offered every Saturday by NYC Compost hosted by Big Reuse. Send an email to [email protected] and the RIGC Board Secretary will forward your contact along.