Garden Club of Nyack Centennial Flower Show

You'll have to put up with lots of photos from me for the next couple of posts.  I just attended two awesome, but very different flower shows.  The first one is the Garden Club of Nyack Annual Flower Show.   This year's show was special because the club is celebrating their 100th year!  I've been a member of the club for just three of those years.  



Artctic penguin made from eggplant and cauliflower



Many of the photos shown here were taken by some fantastic teen volunteers who came to judge the children's photography division.  Many thanks to Nina Skoko, Sarah Demarest and Valerie Newell for their great photography skills!

The "schedule" for the flower show, which is the list of categories and rules for submission, changes every year.  This year new categories were added in celebration of the Centennial.  The categories were very unique and creative  to commemorate events that took place 100 years ago.  (I apologize for not having the space to include all entries.  If I didn't include an entry, it's probably because we didn't get a photo of it.  If you have one that you'd like included, please email it to me at nyackbackyard@gmail.com)

Discovery of the South Pole: An arrangement in white to suggest the antarctic.

To commemorate the found of  the Girl Scouts in March 1912, an arrangement using cut evergreens and/or green vegetables and/or green fruit.



I used kale, andromeda, broccoli, asparagus and euphorbia for this.





An arrangement reminiscent of the 1912 song, "Red Pepper-- A Spicy Rag" by Henry Lodge. 



I used bottlebrush, mint, parsley, oregano and thyme in this arrangement



Invitational:  Mrs. M.W. Swift, an early member of the Garden Club of Nyack, is invited to Tea on the Titanic.

Miniatures are always a popular category.

Horticulture Entries:



a coleus cutting contest



Here are some of my favorite entries in the Children's division: 

Centennial Hat Special: 100 years ago everyone wore hats.  Make a floral design using a hat:

Other great kid's entries:

 

 


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Suzana Wagt won "Best in Show" in the children's division
with a collage and lentils started from seed!
Congratulations, Suzana!



If you live nearby, I encourage you to get the schedule from the Garden Club of Nyack website/blog and join us next year!  You don't have to be a Garden Club member to enter.

Healing Through Horticulture

Plants have so many roles in our lives, especially for those of us who garden. This week in particular, as we remember 9/11, I'm thinking about how plants have the power to heal as well as symbolize growth and survival. There's something about planting a seed that makes everything just a tiny bit better.  The Brooklyn Botanical Garden will even be waiving their admission charge tomorrow, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, acknowledging this fact.

The Survivor Tree
I heard the story of The Survivor Tree for the first time this week. This was the only living tree found, stripped of it’s branches but still alive, on Ground Zero. It’s a Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana), a hardy but sometimes fragile variety often used in city gardens because of its compact, upright growth. The tree was removed, and nurtured in Van Cortlant Park in the Bronx, where it also pulled through several damaging storms.

Below is a photo of the memorial garden at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Volunteers planted 25,000 daffodil bulbs in plots that were shaped like the Twin Towers.  Although the garden is no longer there, this is such a perfect example of ways that a community can come together and heal through gardening.

Stacey's Garden

Stacey McGowan died on 9/11 and was a student at Valley Cottage Elementary when she was a little girl.  "Stacey's Garden" was planted in our school courtyard as a memorial to her. I didn't know Stacey, but I thought of her whenever I watered it. Her garden is the first thing that people see when they come into the school courtyard. It's lovingly tended by her mother and always has something in bloom.

A Hero from Nyack

Another member of our community who died on 9/11 is Welles Crowther.  He was known as the "Man in the Red Bandana." He was an equities trader and volunteer firefighter, only 24 years old, who helped a dozen people get out of the towers safely. Here is a link to an ESPN video about him. 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6929979&categoryid=5595394

A couple of years ago, my daughter was asked to bring in an article about a 9/11 hero. She said half the class brought in articles about Welles. I will be wearing a red bandana tomorrow in his memory.

Help for Our Little Apple Tree

Back in 2007, we decided to plant an apple tree in our school courtyard.  It wasn't easy to get this idea approved.  There were lots of valid concerns.  Apples can be hard to grow organically, even for professionals (which we're not!)   With a little research though, I discovered that just about any pest or disease that affects an apple tree can be treated organically. 

There were also concerns that the abundance of fruit (we should be so lucky) rotting on the ground would attract rodents, and that the flowers would attract bees.  This may seem like a huge benefit considering the current crisis affecting honeybee populations, but for the school, and for the few children allergic to bee stings, it's a liability.

Since we have limited space, we ordered a "Three-in-one" grafted tree from a mail order nursery.  Since apple trees need to be planted near other apple trees in order to pollinate, grafting three trees together would allow three different varieties to pollinate each other within the same tree.  That's how we got away with only planting one. 

It took four years, but the tree finally developed fruit this year.   We were so excited!

However, now the apples have little worm (?) holes all over them. 

A sticky substance is coming out of the holes and rust-like fungus(?) is plaguing the leaves on one of the branches.  Most of the apples are falling off. 

I can't say that this tree has received too much attention in recent years -- it's definitely under-watered.  We've taken a wait-and-see approach, even with preventative treatments, because we want to be sure of what we're dealing with before we apply anything.

But now it's time to do something if we want to save it.  Some visiting experts from our local extension recommended that we submit an infected branch to their lab.  So that's the plan!  But I would also love suggestions from anyone who might have experience treating these kind of apple tree symptoms - preferably organically.  

Have you ever grown apples?

Cropsey Community Farm

Valley Cottage School is so grateful to Cropsey Community Farm.  When they found themselves with some extra seedlings a few weeks ago during their planting season, they donated them to our school garden!  What perfect timing, too  -- our classes were in the middle of their spring planting activities.   

When I went to pick them up, their Community Coordinator, Tamika Adjemian, was able to take a break from the digging to give me tour of the property.

The land was originally owned by Jim and Pat Cropsey, whose family farmed the land for over 100 years. 

When they retired, they sold it to Rockland County and the Town of Clarkstown through their open space programs.  The town signed an agreement with Rockland Farm Alliance for a no-cost lease of 5 acres to be used for community farming and agricultural education.

Through the efforts of the Alliance and many dedicated volunteers, the farm is now up and running!

This year, they started a CSA, and only had a few shares left to sell at the time of my visit. (CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a way of bringing fresh local produce to residents through sales of “shares,” usually consisting of weekly boxes of produce.)

Renovations of the big red barn are underway.

The Farm Alliance hopes to someday have a community farm in every town in Rockland County. 

Thanks again, to Jessica Kesselman, Tamika Adjemian and everyone at the Farm Alliance and Cropsey Farm, for your committment to our community, healthy food, sustainability and the future of agriculture.  You'll probably be seeing your seedlings in action in upcoming posts about the “Seed to Salad” and “Three Sisters” plots in the school garden.  

Cropsey Community Farm

230 South Little Tor Rd.
New City, NY 10956
845-634-3167

info@rocklandfarm.org