Category: Gardeners

New Glider Bench in Front Common Area

8/2/2017

The family of one of our long time, founding members, Peter Blake, who passed away in May 2016, recently honored their husband, father, and grandfather with a gift to RIGC. They continued his longstanding tradition of being a generous friend to Roosevelt Island Garden Club. The Blakes have donated a special teak glider for members and visitors alike to enjoy a moment of quiet rest in the garden.

Neal Weissman, RIGC president, and Sande Elinson, RIGC Secretary, and the Board worked with the Blakes on this idea. Sande and Mitch waited and met the delivery van on a hot July day to receive this beautiful gift.

Claire Blake and her daughter, Rebecca Blake Korhammer, as well as all three grandchildren, Ryan, Maxwell, and Summer came out to the gardens on Monday evening, July 31, to try out the new bench.

We thank them all for this very lovely addition to our garden site.

RIGC Summer Potluck Picnic 2017

6/19/2017

On Saturday June 10, 2017 we held a garden club picnic under the cottonwood tree. David Nisthaus brought his record player and vinyl collection including 45 rpms and hosted us all in style. Sande Elinson created a get to know your neighbor (and your plot number) game with prizes, and we free raffled a food scrap container just for the fun of it (and to encourage composting!)

A generous spread of salad and pizza, pasta and sandwiches, homemade muffins and brownies kept us healthy and relaxed. Arlene Jacoby brought sugar coated chocolate covered rose petals! We also worked to reduce waste by bringing cutlery to wash after instead of adding plastic to landfill and by using our great water cooler instead of bottled water!

After the party David wrote: "I want to thank all that participated in the picnic. It was tremendous success. The food, drinks, music and good company was just amazing. Thank you Sande and Julia for setting up the tables. Everyone walked away with a full belly and new garden friendships." This pretty much says it all! Enjoy the pictures and send more in to [email protected] if you have any!

RIGC Standards: Top Garden Awards 2016

12/4/2016

The RIGC 2016 Standards Committee was composed of 11 members and aimed at encouraging as much gardening as possible to keep our gardens more beautiful than ever.
   2016 Standards announced its first inspection in April and ended with another announced and final year-end inspection in November. They also made three unannounced inspections and followed up with some quick checks. At each inspection, gardens were scored based on their adherence to the published guidelines. Each score was determined by utilizing paper ballots, to ensure that each vote held equal weight and was private.
In addition, the 2016 Board and Committee worked with people who requested help.

At each inspection, any garden that met club guidelines was also eligible to be nominated for a "Best Garden Award", and those nominations were also made via paper ballot. A wide variety of gardens received nominations, and each, in some way, moved or impressed the voters.  At our October General meeting, the winners of the best garden awards were announced.  There were 10 best gardens, with one earning the title of "Garden of the Year".

And the winners were....

2016 Garden of the Year:
Elizabeth Bolden B30

2016 Top Ten Garden Awards (in no particular order):
Judith & Kwasi Long B26
Julie Lipp B27
Jamie Santamour A9
Scott Holleman C12
Michael Biegenek B33
Ed Gardener & Dorothy Skelin D5
Julia Ferguson & Jerome Dutilloy C38
Shelley Yu B25
Georg Kell D2

A generous friend: In memory of Peter Blake

5/24/2016

Peter Blake died on May 12th, 2016 at age 84 from complications after open heart surgery. He loved his garden so much and always gave a donation each year with his dues. Peter and his wife, Claire, go back as members of RIGC to the gardens over the subway, as evidenced in one of our earliest master lists from 1989. He was part of the gardening team who built our current gardens in Octagon Park. Peter loved growing tomatoes and helped us with gravel raking last spring for the pathways project. He brought the most delicious bread to our fall harvest picnic at Rivercross last November. A longtime Post copy editor, Peter Blake's obit is a tribute to this "kind, strict, loving, and funny" grandfather, fisherman, gardener, and more. His steady, quiet presence and wry humor will be sorely missed by those who knew him in our club.

RIGC Fall 2015 Survey Results

3/21/2016

Thank you to all who were able to respond. We had about a 35-36% response rate and organizations often consider a 20% response to be healthy and informative. Always remember that you can email [email protected] with any questions or concerns. The Executive Board are members volunteering to maintain this great space and club. We want to listen and respond to members and keep the club healthy.

Spring is in the air and our 2016 season has arrived!

3/16/2016

January 17th, February 7th, March 13th...The 2016 Roosevelt Island Garden Club Executive Board has been meeting to keep everything running smoothly and growing beautifully. Your Executive Board has been busy with face to face meetings, numerous phone calls, regular email exchanges, and trips to the garden on chilly days. Sande Elinson, Secretary 2016 has been working assiduously on records and registration. Neal Weissman, Vice President 2016, has been checking and contacting waitlist members. Geof Kerr, Treasurer 2016, has been double-checking all income reports and expenditures down to the smallest receipt items and more. Neal Weissman, Vice President 2016, has been checking and contacting waitlist members. Ali Schwayri, President 2016, stays in touch with Public Safety, and has finalized and signed our approved agreements with RIOC. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Don't miss the Spring General Meeting on March 20th for all the news.
Rivercross Community Room - sign in at 6:30 p.m. and meeting at 7:00 p.m.
RIGC T-shirts 15.00 and Sweatshirts 22.00 will be on sale at the door.

A dear friend: In Memory of Henry Tomao

7/2/2015

Henry and Erika have gardened with us since the beginnings of our club when the gardens were at the site of Manhattan Park. We miss Henry very much and our hearts are with Erika in this season of change. This image of Henry's obituary is linked to the johnjfoxandsons.com memory site. Just click to connect.

Also, please check our photos pages for more memories of their garden when we first moved to Octagon park. Below you find a lovely photo of Erika in the RIGC gardens when we were near the current subway. Henry brought this photo to us last summer to scan as a keepsake for our RIGC memories.

Thank you from the Jennifer Schuppert

5/21/2015

Garden Snapshots: History

3/24/2015

We all know the memorial rock under the cottonwood! How many have noticed the plaque on the front, rectangular picnic table? They commemorate fellow gardeners who worked very hard on our garden's infrastructure.

Last summer Henry Tamao shared these pictures of former gardeners who were known and loved by many. They worked very hard for the club and the for the beautiful site that we enjoy today! John Richards was one of our garden presidents and Edgar"Sammy" Rodriguez was an active member. These snapshots were taken at a picnic celebrating the Dress up Your Neighborhood garden award in 1988 at the current site of the Octagon apartment building at 888 Main Stree. Check out our Photos Page for other treasured memories.(Scroll down to find them!)

John Dougherty and Ron Musto are now heading up planning and initiation of RIGC archives and history. Let us know if we can listen to you reminisce and record your thoughts and knowledge for the project or send in a picture from your files or your own garden "bio" to join us. Contact: [email protected]

2014 Garden Updates Begun and Projects Planned for 2015

2/28/2015

The 2014 Executive Board voted to spend significant time and money for updates to the external wooden infrastructure of many of our 132 garden plots. Kwasi Long, our Vice President, worked alone and alongside other gardeners all last season, spring through fall, to replace many wooden borders that were wearing out after 22 years of use.

Kwasi replaced wood for plots C11,C12,C45,C46,C47,C17,C18,C13,C25,B15, B16, B33, B30, B31,A4, and A5. He helped redesign gardens B6, B18, and C34. He repaired the cables located by the A and B section. He paved the Rose Garden paths and C25. He also improved the front common area significantly by paving, creating the grass to welcome small groups, and by removing the broken fence. He replaced border edgings along the southern landscape beds and more edgings are awaiting Vaughn's help for northern beds this spring.

Volunteer hours have always provided the "rich soil" for many years of RIGC initiatives! Other gardens may need external border replacement this year and this work will continue steadily under the wise oversight of Geof Kerr, our Treasurer.

The 2015 Executive Board has just voted to begin updating and improving our garden paths to make them much more navigable for wheelchairs, strollers, pushcarts and walking. Under the leadership of one of our new directors, Beverly Shutes, we will begin phase one of a path renovation project this spring. Beverly tried some updates last season in the A section, and has even been trying out gravel mixes on cookie sheets in her own kitchen.

Stay tuned for more news and ideas about exciting updates for our beautiful Roosevelt Island Garden Club. Below are some photos of the Executive Board at the 2-22-15 meeting.