Category: Nature

Island Kids Campers in the Gardens in July

7/31/2015

"Roosevelt Island Garden Club In Earth We Trust" Composting - Science or Magic?

RIGC and Island Kids began working together on a plan last spring. RIGC has helped Island Kids Summer Camp to start gardening in their own back yard. We have also hosted the fifty RI Island Kids campers (ages 4-6 and ages 7-10) in smaller groups for several educational workshops in the gardens.

The children and counselors have learned about the Roosevelt Island Garden Club. They have searched for flowers, vegetables, fruits and more. (The scarecrows and statues are some of their favorite parts of the garden.) They have learned about composting, touched earth worms, and played games to sort out browns or greens from what doesn't belong in compost. They have heard about the importance of the asclepsias plants (milkweed, both orange and pink flowerd) for the monarch butterflies and seen the new Monarch Corridor Project beds. The older group has visited the pond and the horsetail rush plants that were around on earth when the dinosaurs lived. RIGC has also donated one of our composter tumblers for lunchtime fruit scraps and dried leaves.

Most of all, we have all stopped together to breathe and look and listen. The Island Kids campers are now planting seeds and seedlings in their own back yard space and learning first hand some of the joys of gardening!

RIGC Outreach through Garden Visits: Join Us!

7/14/2015

April brought our dear friends from PS IS 217 2nd and 3rd grade with their annual inspiration visits for their iDig2Learn classes.

May brought PS IS 217 Kindergarten classes who participated in scavenger hunts to learn about the garden. Thanks to RI resident, Janine Schaefer, we also were able to host the Brownies and Girl Scouts of the Beacon/ RI Youth Program: Troops 3244 & 3245 for an afternoon of drawing and dreaming.

In June we began our Island Kids connection with two visits from their after school group to plant seeds and watch snails. July brings workshops for Island Kids Campers and a new little garden for their summer camp program behind their main site.

If you like creating activities or hosting activities or connecting with Island groups, please send us an email. We already have a committee of about five club members and are always open for more help and more fun as we share gardening learning with our Roosevelt Island neighbors.

For Earth Day: Thoughts from the Compost Committee

4/26/2015

“We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction If we don’t do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable. “ Petra Karin Kelly

Petra Karin Kelly received the The Right Livelihood Award in 1982, for “forging and implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice, and human rights.” It is an international award to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today. “ (Right Livelihood Award) In 2006 Kelly was also listed by the British Government 's Environment Agency, as one of the top 100 people to have done the most to save the planet when the public was not yet ready to hear nor accept the realities of humans' impact on the earth. (Earthshakers, The Guardian)

We can do the possible and the impossible! By improving our composting and our recycling we will make a difference! Take a moment to think about what we are feeding the earth. Wouldn't you rather give Mother Nature the things she needs to help her thrive and to help us survive? She needs us now more than ever.

So please remember to help make a salad for the compost with your kitchen scraps and garden debris. Each time you do so, so much less goes into fossil fuels used to transport trash and so much less organic waste goes to landfills to mummify and give off toxic fumes. Browns and greens will enrich the bounty she returns to us. The minute or two we take to slow down and cut up a few dead brown stalks and or bring a few green trimmings to compost, this is a priceless treasure. Slow down, just a bit, and join us!

For tips or questions on how to make your compost work better please see our Go Green page or contact the Compost Committee or Karen Lee islandgirl807@aol.com

Our next Compost class will be May 2, Saturday 9:30-10:30 A.M. Raindate May 3rd at the same time.
Compost Questions /Troubleshooting 11:30-12:30 same dates. Thanks for checking in.

Remember to recycle and always use a reusable shopping bag.

* If you are using a plastic bag to gather garden debris, empty the contents where appropriate and place the bag into our Blue Plastic Recycle Bin by the north shed.

*Whole Foods gives you 10 cents credit for each bag of your own when shopping.

*Our local Gristedes has a bin as you exit, that accepts shopping bags for recycling.

Pond Safety and Mosquito Prevention

11/30/2014

Significant time was devoted this year to working with RIOC for pond safety in the garden. Thanks to Ron Schuppert and Ali Schwayri's steady efforts and to RIOC's timely response, we are now set up with a strong pump that runs all during the season to move the water in the pond and help protect against potential mosquito larvae.

Roosevelt Island Garden Club purchased all the materials. RIOC provided the work and expertise to run an electric cable to this spot. John Dodge designed and cares for this section of the garden and we want to thank Dr. Grimm who supported the initiative, speaking up for RI Garden Club and our important mosquito prevention campaigns. This kind of work is constantly essential, and yet, can easily go un-noticed as we move ahead with ongoing safety monitoring and continued garden improvements.

Thank you to RIOC Maintenance and Administration. Photo credits to Olya Turcihin and her post this summer on Show Me Your NYC!!!.

Catching the Light: Sun Print Workshop

10/6/2014

Community is one of the very best parts of RIGC.

On Sunday, October 5th, our fall clean up service day,Peggy Roalf, member and compost committee teacher, brought us a wonderful workshop for all ages and all artistic levels.

Peggy, thank you so much for teaching us how to make cyanotypes! It was a really nice gift to us all.

Join RIGC as we help iDig2Learn with Daffodil Planting

10/4/2014

Emily Walker NY4P, RIGC Ron and Jennifer Schuppert, and Christine Delfico iDig2Learn

Join us for this fun event next Saturday! Daffodils!

RIGC is out and about helping other Island organizations with the Daffodil Project. In September, we helped to prepare the space in front of Gristedes. Sande and Mitch Ellison, Neal Weissman, Julia Ferguson, Curtis,(one of our associates) plus Paula and her children, all spent a morning digging and prepping with iDig2Learn.
Last weekend it was time to go down to pick up the bulbs.

RIGC members, Ron and Jennifer Schuppert gaveThe Daffodil Project a lift. Literally, donating their time, car and muscle to pick up hundreds of bulbs from Emily Walker of New Yorkers For Parks.

The Daffodil service activity will be Saturday, October 11th from 11AM until Noon with a massive bulb planting at the Motorgate Bus Turnaround. RIGC is partnering with the iDig2Learn hosted Daffodil Project to kick off RIOC's Fall For Arts Festival.

Volunteer opportunity at 10:15 AM that morning, contact Christina Delfico atiDig2Learn@gmail.com if interested.   Join us for this fun event next Saturday morning! http://www.rigarden.org/bulletin-board.html

Island Kids: Learning Workshop in the Garden

9/20/2014

Late August brought more outreach opportunities to RIGC.

Thanks to Sande Elinson, Nikki Leopold, and Kwasi Long, we were finally able to connect, schedule, and host the Island Kids campers in the garden for a learning workshop.

On Friday, August 22, thirty children, ages 4-6, and their 6 counselors spent an hour in the garden. By dividing them into smaller groups we offered them three 20 minute participatory activities.

Touching and smelling herb cuttings, learning about worms and snails, then planting seeds with Julia Ferguson in the front picnic area .
A scavenger hunt/exploration walk through varied sections of the garden.
Sorting new materials and observing the cycle that brings compost to enrich soil with Anthony Longo in our back working center.
The visit ended with some cool water and the Inch by Inch song on the ukelele.

If you see our visitors bring their parents back to the gardens, you may hear them explain how the garden works on weekends. "Look and enjoy, but don't touch!" One of the college age counselors grew up on Roosevelt Island, but this was her first visit to the garden! We are so glad they all made it before the summer ended.

RIDN Campers visit our Garden

8/12/2014

Julia invited them in to her garden to touch the squash and get closer to some flowers and herbs.

The campers sent us a letter after their visit.

RIGC continues to reach out to Roosevelt Island In addition to our regular open weekend hours every Saturday and Sunday from May 1 to Sept. 30, we recently invited the Roosevelt Island Day Nursery Campers, ages 3 to 5 ,for an organized visit in July. They will return in August.

Campers learned about how each garden is private and individual like their cubbies and work trays. They learned how we share the whole garden like they share spaces at school. We toured some of the main paths, the front common area, and our composting system. The children predicted, observed, helped throw new materials and kitchen scraps into the compost, and enjoyed the sights and smells! They took some seeds back to school to examine and plant. Take a look at the work and learning they generously shared with us. As one little camper said, "Awesome!"

These were the campers thoughts before the visit. Will this place be like a farm? Is it near the fire station?

Anthony shared a tomato plant and green beans off the vine from his plot. He introduced campers to composting friends like earthworms. They loved the front common area and a ladybug came to visit them there.

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