March information from GROW

Hello Fellow Gardeners -

Well yesterday was the First Day of Spring and, the snowfall notwithstanding, spring is marching this way.

1. With that in mind, I thought the following might interest you.

Enter to win one of three prize packages chock full of gardening goodies — each package has a retail value of $1,000 and includes an assortment of tools from Ames True Temper, product from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, and a gift certificate to NGA's Garden Shop. Check off what type of gardening you do: home, community, or school, and fill in the rest of the fields. You may enter only one category. Enter by April 30.

I need to see what the requirements are for the community gardening portion - it may be a good fit for our Garden Club. But in the meantime, all of us home gardeners could participate and hopefully one of us will be a lucky winner.

2. Eric and I had the pleasure of attending the Sodus Garden Club's lecture on "All about Bees". Mary Moss-Sprague, a master gardener and an avid bee-keeper, gave an excellent lecture on honeybees, how we can entice them to our gardens and just a little bit about colony collapse. Afterwards we enjoyed refreshments (I think Eric and I ate our weight in delicious cookies) and had a chance to meet the gardeners in Sodus.

Eric is interested in starting up beekeeping again (he was involved when he was younger). If anyone else is interested, please talk to him at eric.herriman[at]xerox.com.

3. Eric and I attended the Learning Fair last Saturday. We showed off the Fiskar video, as some of our members were able to see. Penny brought her table-top photo gallery that drew people in and we got a good response from the parents who attended. All of our brochures were taken and three people signed up to receive further information about the Garden Club.

4. Eric spoke to Mike Orr about the greenspace. Mike plans to move forward with the greenspace and there is some money alloted for it. No meeting has been set up yet. If you are interested in being involved in the discussion, please talk to Eric at the above email/phone number.

5. Last (but definitely not least), a reminder about our March lecture on Tuesday, March 25th on Landscape Design. I had the pleasure to meet one of the speakers at the Learning Fair and this is going to be an amazing event. I will be sending a message to all our past attendees and I'm hopeful that we will have as good of a response as we did to the February event.

Happy Gardening!
Subrata

Upcoming Events - Cornell Cooperative Wayne County

Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m.: Join the Sodus Garden Club for apresentation "All About Bees" from Wayne County Master Gardener Mary Moss.She plans to cover the latest information on CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) and what it means on a local level as well as world-wide, thedifferentiation of bees that visit our gardens, what to do when you findany of them hanging around, how you can attract honeybees and bumblebees while keeping the nasty pests at bay, and the organization of honeybees inthe hive. Her presentation display will include color charts and prints,the major woodenware components of a hive body as well as a bee suit andother beekeeping paraphernalia.
Location: Sodus Parish Center

Thursday, March 20th from 11am to noon: a FREE presentation on growingfruit in home gardens. Lori Bushway from the Cornell University Horticulture Department will discuss growing different types of small fruit with a focus on bramblesand blueberries. There will be time for your questions as well!
Location: Wayne County Cooperative Extension, 1581 Rte 88 North, Newark
Please call (315) 331-8415 to reserve your spot.

Tuesday, March 25th at 7pm: Join the Williamson Garden Club for apresentation from Wayne County Master Gardeners, Bonny Gordon and Jim Oliver. Learn about reclaiming overgrown foundation plantings and blending them with other plants to create a landscape that you’ll be able to enjoy for years to come.
Location: Williamson Public Library

Saturday, May 10th from 8:00 am to noon: Master Gardener Plant Sale (plants provided by local nurseries and from Master Gardener’s private collections)
Location: Wayne County Cooperative Extension, 1581 Rte 88 North, Newark

Cornell Vegetable Variety Citizen Science Project

Wanted: Wayne County Gardeners who will participate in the Cornell Vegetable Variety Citizen Science Project

What varieties will grow best in my garden?

No doubt gardeners have been asking their fellow gardeners this question for centuries. Today's gardeners ask the same question. But now this website provides an avenue for gardeners to share their knowledge with a much wider community.

The concept is simple: Gardeners visit this site and report what varieties perform well - and not so well - in their gardens.

Other gardeners visit to view the variety ratings and read the reviews to decide which might work well for them. The Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners citizen science project also provides an opportunity for researchers to involve knowledgeable and motivated citizens in meaningful scientific research. Research on the performance of vegetable varieties is often limited to commercial production for many reasons. Home gardens may be overlooked, in part, because visiting thousands of home gardens to collect data would be an overwhelming task.

Asking gardeners to partner with researchers by collecting and sharing their own observations via the web could prove to be a winning combination for all. With a multitude of gardener observations at their finger tips, researchers can gain new insight into the performance of vegetable varieties under a wide range of conditions and practices, and ultimately provide more insight into which varieties perform best. At the same time, gardeners can get advice from a larger community of gardeners to help decide which varieties to try in their own garden.

Gardeners - young, old, beginners, experts - join the research team today.

Visit: http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu Or contact the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wayne County Master Gardeners at (315) 331-8415 ext. 107