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RIGC Spring General Meeting 2023 Slides

3/20/2023

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Poem: Autumn Wrapped in Red, Orange, and Gold

10/29/2022

The third of our four seasons of poems by Vera's Pen for 2022. Thank you and "Á la prochaine!"

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Fall General Meeting Sunday Oct. 23, 2022 Slide Show

10/23/2022

Town Hall Meetings 2022: a lovely Zero Waste Potluck returns after three years. Beautiful evening in the garden!

9/10/2022

Karen and Jack deserve much acknowledgment for their generous gift of time, organization skills, and work in making the potluck a success!

Harvest dishes abounded as we all included tomatoes, peppers, or herbs from our gardens. One special highlight was the fig tart by Sara and Stamos. The teaching garden students along with Laura L. harvested a cantaloupe to serve and created a bean, basil, kale salad.

We enjoyed real cutlery and dishes and cloth napkins! Thank you to all for bringing your own dishes and utensils, cups and napkins. At the "Sanit" station we composted all food scraps returning directly into the compost pile so that what comes from the earth, to the earth. As for zero waste we were so close! Because of all these efforts, we produced less than one pound (only a half of one container) of waste that had to go to landfill.

For after the meal, Janet brought the game 'Name that Plant' for folks to learn how to identify NYS invasive plants and some beneficial look alike alternatives. For example:

Purple Loosestrife can be replaced by the long blooming Anise Hyssop
invasive Sweet Autumn Clematis can be replaced by the similarly beautiful and also fast growing American native Virgin's Bower or Clematis virginiana

Special thanks to so many. We had 25-30 people who were able to attend. There were food contributors who brought a dish even though they couldn't stay. We had teams of folks who cleaned up before, David and Kaz; and those who set up on the day of the event; Karen, Linda, Madeleine, Mary, Mako, Alida, Stamos, Sara, Farouk, Yema, Luba, and Deb D. who also bought ice; then those stayed to clean up after Monica and Jack. We have certainly missed naming some people here, so once again, gratitude for all.

August: Standards Votes!

8/27/2022

For the "Most Consistently Enjoyable" category
B27 Julie and B30 Elizabeth win in a tie!

B 27

B30

For Best Veggie
the winner is A01 Beverly
with honorable mention to B31 Cynthia

Congratulations to all!

A01

B31

Spotted Lantern Flies: What to do? Go ahead and kill them, but do no harm to other beneficial wildlife.

8/13/2022

In August, the Spotted Lanternfly team tried some traps recommended by various sources. We were encouraged and thought they might be working fairly well.

(Note: added to post later) In early September, we discovered that the sticky tape version of the traps was killing many beneficial insects and also harming/trapping our beautiful local and migrating birds. So, Dave Nisthaus took the traps down for this season.

Be on the watch for the adult insects and now for the egg masses. We can keep reducing the numbers of this overpopulated new insect that has no predators on our continent.

July 2022: Standards Votes!

7/15/2022

Summertime Congratulations! During their July inspection, Standards voted on the following plots in the following categories:

"Best July Garden"
B30 - Elizabeth

"Most Improved"
A14 - John's Pond

"Most Serene on a Hot Day"
A14 - John's Pond
C62 - Sande & Mitch

B-30 Elizabeth's Garden

A 14. John's Pond

C 62 - Sande & Mitch's Garden

'The Dog Days of Summer To Be' by Vera's Pen

7/14/2022

Thank you so much, Vera, for sending in your writing and thoughts.

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Some follow up resources on Climate Change from Julia Ferguson, 2022 Secretary:

The following site Drawdown.org contains learning about solutions that reverse global warming. Check out their videos.
Climate change is complexly linked to other injustices. Some may be interested by this project/book of essays: All We Can Save.
Others may enjoy articles/stories of regeneration by our neighbor, Climate Journalist: Audrey Gray.

Back Again at RIGC : Spring into Summer Free Garden Classes for Youth & Children

7/9/2022

For the past six or seven years, the Roosevelt Island Community Garden has hosted free small group gardening classes for youth ages approximately 8 - 13. Students help maintain a garden plot, including planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. They learn about ecology, composting, and the Roosevelt Island Community Garden structure. All parents must sign a liability waiver / permission slip.

An Interest Form was sent to all persons on the RIGC Waitlist as well as Members and Associates: "Classes are held on weekend afternoons and are taught by RIGC m\Members and Associates. Students enroll in 3-5 week sessions. Covid-19 safety protocols are followed.

Are your older children interested in attending a garden class in 2022?
Would you like us to expand some offerings if we find it is possible?
Are your younger children interested in attending a garden class?
Would you like to learn more about gardening with kids? "

With a set of interested families, Laura and Julia were able to begin gardening with youth again this year. The spring brought rain and a few cancellations, but by late May they were running a class regularly on Saturday or Sunday at 4:00 and extending into mid-July. They were able to host one Saturday morning class for 3-5 year olds in June.

At the early spring reunion class, students harvested arugula that grew all winter. Then, in May, they began sowing more vegetables than ever in containers as well as in the beds: peas, garlic, radishes, broccoli, beans, tomatoes, kale, bok choy, carrots, parsley, basil, zinnias and sunflowers. Currently the berries in D-12 don't have enough sun for blooms, but are doing great alongside some asters and hydrangeas. Thanks to Debbie & Donna in C-37, students also have a small sunny spot for cantaloupes and cucumbers.

All are looking forward to some Fall class offerings and explorations. RIGC Associate and Urban Forester, Schuyler Borden (along with his bearded dragon, Phoebe,) has expressed an interest in joining us one day.

Earth Justice Team for Sustainable Food and Farming Retreat on Roosevelt Island Ends with a Tour of our Community Garden followed by Lunch & Cornell Tech visit

6/25/2022

On Friday, June 24th from 12- 1 pm, Julia, Jack, and Graciela were honored to host a visit of 15 adults from the EarthJustice NE office. During their tour of the gardens they had a great introduction to our compost system and after, a few had time to try making a sunprint. We were also honored to meet Raymond Figueroa Jr, President of the New York City Community Garden Coalition who worked closely with EarthJustice on this petition to protect New York City community gardens.

The Sustainable Food & Farming program at Earthjustice was hosting their team retreat this week on Roosevelt Island at the Graduate Hotel. and they are active with supporting NYC community gardens.

Support their work by signing the petition and join us in thanking them for this time visiting our gardens.

All Photos By Karen Lee

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"Best July Garden"B30 - Elizabeth"Most Improved"A14 - John's Pond"Most Serene on a Hot Day" A14 - John's Pond C62 - Sande & Mitch

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"Best July Garden"
B30 - Elizabeth

"Most Improved"
A14 - John's Pond

"Most Serene on a Hot Day"
A14 - John's Pond
C62 - Sande & Mitch