Category: Infrastructure Upkeep

RIGC Bench Project: Update Our Garden Furniture 2017

9/6/2017

Examples of high quality teak benches in "Les Jardins Suspendus, Le Havre, France"

The RIGC Board works with members to upgrade and improve our gardens. One way to do this is to repair and replace aging garden furniture in common areas as well as place additional benches around our perimeter landscape beds. During this 2017 season, we have been the fortunate recipients of some professional grade teak benches. We are working with ADA requirements per Human Rights Commission recommendations as we want our pathways and our garden site to be accessible to all.

The plan is to provide a high quality bench at the end of each pathway for visitors and members to relax and enjoy the gardens, without any temptation or need to enter member plots. These are the same benches found in botanical gardens and they are practical, long lasting and enhance the beauty of our gardens. Teak is superior for outdoor purposes and can last for many, many years with no special treatment other than washing it down once or twice a year. This wood will age to a beautiful, silvery gray color.

Board members have spent considerable time working with online and community resources that provide very low cost or sometimes even "free for pick up" opportunities for new and used professional grade garden benches and common area tables. The process takes time, and can bring surprises and also disappointments. For example, you may find a new, barely used pair of benches or you may drive out of the city to an estate sale, only to discover that the benches are not in good shape. However, we have acquired six beautiful benches already and are working to find several more. The Landscape Committee is guiding this project and chair, Johan Marfey, prepared the image below that shows the plan and progress as of September 1st.

RIGC is a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization that can accept donations. If you are interested in donating any amount towards this project, please contact the secretary at [email protected].

Mild February Brings Heartwarming Donation to RIGC

3/14/2017

RIGC receives a large donation of wood from
United Hoisting and Scaffolding Corp. in L.I.C.!

RIGC has been sprucing up for several years now with hours of volunteer work on landscape beds and accessible pathways renovations. Kwasi Long and Vaughn Anglesey worked on some of our wood border replacements two years ago. Up[grades are always ongoing.

This year we will begin a more complete project to upgrade external plot borders along pathways and internal borders between garden plots. The work will take more than one season, but we have received an incredible boost for this project. Thanks to United Hoisting and Scaffolding Corp. in L.I.C. we have a large donation of wood ready and waiting to be used.

Garden members Beverly Shutes, Zachary Shutes, Neal Weissman, David Nisthaus, Anthony Longo, Chris Enock, Anne Mascia, and Johan Marfey were all able to help unload and stack this gift early on Monday, February 27, 2017.

We thank United Hoisting and Scaffolding Corp. in LIC for this generous donation and a wonderful 2017 February surprise!

CCNY Grant - Accessible Pathways 2016

12/2/2016

Another amazing work day with high school students at the Roosevelt Island Garden Club on Saturday, November 5, 2016. 9th and 10th grade students as well as one college age neighbor joined current garden members to finish off our Accessible Pathways Project for this 2016 season. Three of our newest volunteers are Roosevelt Island residents.

This year we received a grant from CCNYC and are continuing to re-work all pathways in the garden in order to try to make the space completely accessible for manual wheelchairs and all others who benefit from walking support.

This is 3-4 year project involves hard work of removing old gravel, laying landscape cloth, and transporting and laying in new trail mix gravel. UNIS students who have now graduated were instrumental in helping with the very beginning year of this project and we are so happy to see new interest with a new group.

We have now renovated over 500 feet of pathways of about 4 feet in width equaling more than 2000 square feet. We have finished approximately two thirds of the total garden path area.

New Hose Stands - Thanks to CCNYC Grant 2016

10/30/2016

You may be one of the lucky gardeners who opted in to receive a new hose stand. These stands were purchased as part of our Accessible Pathways Project with funds from our 2016 Grant from CCNYC and installed by teams of gardeners in late summer and early fall.

We hope to continue as they help us make our pathways completely accessible and keep our garden beautiful and orderly as well! If you are interested, please email [email protected]. Plans include continuation of this project next season as funds allow.

Garden Renewal: Up and Down and Inside and Out

7/14/2016

After more than 20 years in our beautiful space near Octagon field, the volunteer members of Roosevelt Island Garden Club have been very busy rejuvenating and reviving.

Our by-laws were re-written and approved in 2013. We have a website! We have re-instated composting. We are updating our pathways. We have worked on many of the wooden garden borders between and around the gardens.

And now in 2016 we have a clean and beautiful shed for our tools and lockers!
Neal Weissman has headed up this multi stage project and he writes:

Regarding the Shed. It was a multi-stage project.

Step 1 Replace the overhead lights that were seriously in need of change.
Step 2 Complete a massive clean out on our first community service day and remove all things on top of the lockers.
Step 3 Use Rust-oleum to paint the lockers in the patriotic red, white, and blue, plus green for all of us our gardeners.
Step 4 Stencil flowers and birds on alternating upper lockers in a variety of colors.
Step 5 Labeled upper left corners with members' names.
Step 6 Post plant comparability chart, plot map, and a notice to clean tools outside the shed.
Step 7 Add carpeting and some armchairs -----just kidding!

Gardeners involved along with Neal this year were Jose, Philippe, Ron S, Kaz, and Florence Masoud's son. Last year, Karen labeled all the tool bins and we had a team who helped us get a refrigerator replacement. This year we have also had Arline who created our little library shelf! Thanks to all.

And don't forget to clean those tools before you put them back in our lovely shed space.

2016 Neighborhood Grant Winners from CCNYC

6/11/2016

Thanks to so much support and so many hard hours of work from RIGC gardeners last year, we have a grant! We applied for a Citizens Committee Neighborhood Grant to help us along on our multi-year Accessible Garden Pathways Project. RIGC has just received a 2016 Neighborhood Grant for $2700. This grant will allow us to move ahead and make at least two years worth of progress in one year. Thanks to all who brought snacks, lifted wheelbarrows, shoveled gravel, weeded new paths, raked, watered, and cheered the workers along! We wrote about all your participation in so many ways and they listened. We also appreciate RIOC's cooperation and help as we have had to work with gravel in and gravel out to get this project under way.

We are working to make all of our pathways accessible for EVERYONE. Please come help or bring snacks. We will now be working again on Sunday, June 12th in a section B pathway. Check the website calendar for updates. If you see any of our teen helpers, be sure to thank them again for their willing heavy lifting!

When you are out at the gardens, look for our new grant sign from CCNYC alongside our old sign from 1988!

Saturday June 4th we laid one of the longest paths in the garden and then tried to tackle the prep of another path in the heat: Board Members, Associates, and Teen helpers at the end of a four hour work session.