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Monarch Corridor Project: Update 2017!

10/8/2017

 
​Watch for the Monarch butterflies on Roosevelt Island!  Thanks to collaborative efforts in recent years, our Island has added several sites committed to native plantings and pollinator habitats. These are very important for late summer and autumn nectar supplies. The Monarch Butterfly Corridor Project sponsored by iDig2Learn in collaboration with many other Island groups got us all started two years ago in October 2015.  Roosevelt Island Garden Club now has quite a few committed pollinator and native plant gardeners. Our club is also including important native and pollinator plants in landscape beds.  P.S. 217 has pollinator habitat beds. RIOC, RIHS Kiosk garden, Cornell Tech and some of our housing companies have also planted natives and late season pollinator nectar sources like Red Cardinal Flower, Blue Cardinal Flower, New England Asters, and Goldenrods.  Can Roosevelt Island truly become and remain a Monarch Way Station? At the same time we could become an urban Bird Friendly Community. 

It actually looks like all this might be a real possibility. At RIGarden Club dozens and dozens of monarchs and many types of bees are filling up on nectar this week and visiting only the native and heirloom plantings. Enjoy these photos courtesy of Jenna Longo. Imagine the possibilities as we continue to surround our Island with healthy soil, plants, and  pollinator habitat gardening!

Accessible Pathways Project Final Workday!

10/7/2017

 
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On Sat, Oct 7, 2017 at 3:22 PM, Julia Ferguson wrote:

Beverly may still be outside working on clean up as I write this, but we can announce that we have finished! 

RIGC has upgraded our entire garden pathway system.  Today Stephano came to get us started. Then Neal showed up to help for more than two hours. And then, Zamir and his father arrived for two more solid hours of shoveling and wheelbarrow toting. Next came Elena and Iliada and Michael and Karen Laurence and Cynthia and Sally! Vaughn kept the wagon tires filled with air.  Everyone showed up today as so many have also shown up throughout this long project! Kwasi joined us and was still tamping down the paths with Sally, Cynthia, and Beverly when I left.

Hilda brought food, as did Iliada, Elena, Anthony and a wait-listed future gardener, Eugenia. Jenna took pictures. Anthony watched the front sign up area.  Zachary helped his mom give instructions and was quite excited.  He "saw" this project begin at age 2 and is now helping its completion at age 4.

Our many workdays over the past two years have so often been like this: filled with a steady stream of willing volunteers and helpers.

We have leveled and shoveled and raked and tamped and swept and upgraded all of our pathways. We began on March 21, 2015 in a wet spring snow.  We are finishing today, October 7, 2017, on a warm, summery autumn day. Thanks to so, so many who were able to show up for this three year project.  We have had RIGC volunteers from age 3 to age 80 plus. We have had students joining us for community service projects (with a shout out to the Blue Wreath volunteer club from UNIS). A very special thanks to our CCNYC grant in 2016 which allowed us to do double the work in one year. People have given what they could: a little raking, sweeping, cold drinks, email announcements, donations, 1/2 hour to many hours! 

These wonderful, accessible pathways frame our gardens. They give us a beautiful base to celebrate as RIGC reaches our 25th year at this site!  Thank you, Beverly, for your vision, research, faith, persistence, steady guidance, and constant teaching during this infrastructure project.  I have learned so much and made friends and wonderful memories. 


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