Volunteers help break ground for the project made possible by $10K PSEGLI grant
The Living Lands design team at Three Village Historical Society. From left, Mike Dondero, Alex Getches and Logan Kjep. Photo by Kimberly Phyfe/TVHS
Three Village Historical Society broke ground last week on a project to install a series of gardens surrounding its main building on North Country Road, courtesy of a $10,000 outdoor commerce and beautification grant from PSEG Long Island.
The gardens will include a pollinator pathway, colonial kitchen garden, indigenous medical garden and sensory garden, all with native plants, according to Kimberly Phyfe, development coordinator for TVHS. She added that the plan also includes garden paths, educational signage and some additional trees.
“This is going to be a teachable educational space,” she said. “You’re going to be able to walk through a timeline of history.”
A series of gardens will surround Three Village Historical Society’s main building after the society received a $10,000 grant from PSEG Long Island. Photo by Mallie Jane Kim
At a Friday, Nov. 10, “garden party,” an estimated 20 community volunteers, including some members of the Three Village Garden Club and the historical society’s grounds committee, participated in clearing most of the ground cover, invasive species and weeds to prepare for the project, which is headed up by Living Lands, a North-Shore based garden design and installation company that specializes in native habitats and ecological restoration, primarily on a residential level.
Living Lands co-owners Logan Kjep and Alexandra Getches said they feel honored to be part of such a community-facing project to highlight the beauty and usefulness of native plants.
“Getting to find out the history of the plants and the way they were used in the past has been really interesting because we focus more on their role in ecology,” Getches said. “Investigating how the indigenous people used them, how the colonists used them was really fascinating.”
The PSEGLI grant is typically for downtowns or business districts. Phyfe said when the representative originally stopped by last spring on a Monday at 10 a.m., all was quiet on the stretch of North Country Road where the society sits.
She said she urged him to return on a Friday afternoon during the farmers market so he could “see this town taken over by small businesses, locally owned; food trucks, music, education, entertainment — everybody is here on a Friday night. I think that’s what really did it.”
Phyfe added that the market brings business to neighboring establishments and acts as the start of historic Setauket. “Welcome to Culper country — this is the home of historic American Revolution stories right here in Three Village,” she said.
Phyfe called the gardens an “outdoor classroom and teaching garden space” that will be available even when the museum and visitor center is closed, and will expand on the education provided by the Culper Spy and Chicken Hill exhibits, which can host only small groups at a time during student or Scout visits.
She said the sensory garden will be particularly friendly to students with sensory processing disorder. “I want to make learning and field trips accessible to learners of all ages, and particularly learners with disabilities and special needs,” she said.
Phyfe indicated the garden project should be completed by Thanksgiving.
Those are the creatures that have been living throughout some of Port Jefferson village’s pollinator gardens and helping out the local environment.
Earlier this summer, the village began receiving some complaints that certain gardens were overgrown — the most common one was a small garden outside of the Port Jefferson Village Center that is home to a pollinator and butterfly garden, with a large anchor front and center.
Village gardener, Caran Markson, said she was injured and unfortunately was put on a medical leave. That’s when the village parks department decided to step in and help clean up the garden that some residents were saying was “getting out of hand.”
When Markson found out, she was devastated.
“I take it very personal,” she said. “We should be educating anyone who lives in the village or who visits the village about what the gardens can do.”
A pollinator garden is a garden that is planted predominately with flowers that provide nectar or pollen for a range of pollinating insects. A pollinator garden can be any size and the village is home to many different ones.
These gardens are full of plants that naturally attract, feed and provide habitat for different wildlife, and help the local ecosystem — and ultimately the environment.
“I had it on a national list through the Pollinator Partnership,” Markson said. “I leave signs about what they do.”
Pollinator Partnership’s is a national nonprofit with the mission to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education and research.
While Markson was gone, many of the plants were torn out.
“I’m blown away,” she added. “I’m so upset.”
When trustee Rebecca Kassay heard that the garden was cleaned up, she decided to create a task force of volunteers to take care of the pollinator gardens while Markson was away.
An environmentalist herself, Kassay knows the importance of the flowers that line the roads of Port Jefferson.
On Friday, Sept. 10, she and several other volunteers gathered behind the anchor garden at Harborfront Park to clean up the weeds but keep the specific flowers that are home to monarch butterflies and bees.
Photo by Julianne Mosher
“That’s part of the reason why it’s here, but it’s also here because it’s beautiful,” she said. “With our village gardener out on medical leave, she specializes in the maintenance of these types of gardens on our park staff. So, as someone who worked with these types of gardens for a decade in my career, I’m very happy to step up and lead local enthusiasts.”
Part of the volunteer program is to not only clean things up, but to also educate people who are interested in learning about the benefits of these plants.
“This is a great opportunity for them to come down and learn about pollinator gardens, while making their village more beautiful at the same time,” Kassay said.
The trustee added that the next several volunteer meetups will continue to “edit” other gardens.
“The plants sort of grow as they want to, and our goal and responsibility as gardeners of a pollinator garden is to edit and make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing for folks who may or may not know the ecological value of the garden,” she said.
While Markson appreciates the help while she’s absent, she’s still upset that the anchor garden at the center of the roundabout has been changed.
“It was a wonderful garden,” she said. “It’s a little too late.”
Trustee Kathianne Snaden, who spearheads the village’s beautification efforts, said there will be other initiatives to spruce up the village.
“Our end goal is to clean up and plant more colorful flowers, especially uptown,” she said.
Snaden added that Upper Port has been neglected “for too long,” and “a lot can be done in the short term.”
As development begins with the new apartments there, she decided to add stone or cement planters to overfill with flowers. During the holidays, they will add more Christmas decorations as well.
“There’s no better way to help businesses and have developers come in than to make it look more beautiful now with color,” she said.
Photo by Julianne Mosher
Snaden added another initiative is to create a children’s garden soon, filled with flowers that were purchased this week from the elementary school PTA’s flower bulb sale. Both the children’s garden and uptown planters are expected to start up soon.
Interested pollinator gardeners can email Kassay at [email protected] to RSVP for the next cleanup opportunities on Sunday, Sept. 26, at Harborfront Park from 2-5 p.m., and on Oct. 17 at the triangle garden at High Street and Spring Street.
“It’s more than a pretty garden,” said Chris Clapp, a marine scientist for The Nature Conservancy. “It’s a biological process that relies on plants, wood chips and microbes to remove nitrogen in wastewater before it flows back into the environment.”
On June 24, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) joined Clapp with a conglomerate of representatives from both government and the private sector at The Nature Conservancy’s Upland Farms Sanctuary in Cold Spring Harbor to unveil a state-of-the-art method for reducing and eliminating nitrogen from wastewater.
The county expects the new system to be a replacement for cesspools and septic systems, which are blamed for the seeping of nitrogen into Long Island waterways, causing red tides, dead zones and closed beaches.
County Executive Steve Bellone and Nancy Kelley of The Nature Conservancy plant the new garden at Upland Farms.
The issue is a serious concern, Bellone said, as he introduced the county’s Deputy Executive Peter Scully, who is spearheading the county’s Reclaim Our Water Initiative and serves as the Suffolk’s water czar. “Anytime a government appoints a water czar, you know you have problems to address.”
Scully, formerly the director for the Long Island region of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said six other septic alternatives are currently approved.
Long Island is reportedly one of the most densely populated locations in the country without adequate wastewater treatment. Currently, there are 360,000 antiquated cesspools and septic systems. The county expects to set nitrogen reduction targets for watershed areas where replacement holds the most benefit.
The technique, called a vegetated circulating gravel system, is composed of an underground network that essentially connects the drains and toilets of a home or office to plant life and microbial action. It works in two stages to denitrify the wastewater. The first phase discharges wastewater into an underground gravel bed covered with a surprisingly small garden of native plants that takes up nitrogen through its roots. The water is then circulated into an underground box of wood chips that convert the remaining nitrogen into gas, before it’s circulated back to the gravel bed. Once the water is denitrified, it’s dispersed through a buried leaching field.
The county partnered with the Nature Conservancy to develop and implement the system for its Upland Farms Sanctuary. The sanctuary is located a half-mile from Cold Spring Harbor, where water quality has worsened during the last 12 years to the point where the state is officially proposing to designate it an impaired water body.
“The Conservancy is proud to stand alongside the county and our partners to celebrate this exciting new system that taps into the power of nature to combat the nitrogen crisis, putting us on a path to cleaner water,” said Nancy Kelley, Long Island chapter director for The Nature Conservancy.
During the experimental phase the system reduced by half the amount of nitrogen discharged from wastewater. A similar technique has been effective at removing up to 90% in other parts of the country. The system’s designers at Stony Brook University’s Center for Clean Water Technology aim to completely remove nitrogen from discharges.The Upland Farms offices and meeting hall system, which encompasses 156 square feet,serves the equivalent of two to three homes.
Suffolk County Legislator William “Doc” Spencer (D-Centerport) said that denitrification efforts work. The Centerport Yacht Club’s beach was closed for seven years due to water quality issues and reopened in 2015 after the Northport sewer plant upgraded to a denitrification system. Improvements to the harbor storm drain discharges, and a public lawn care campaign about curbing the use of fertilizers, also reportedly helped.
The county has reached a critical juncture and beginning July 1, its new sanitary code for septic systems takes effect, which permits only denitrifying technology.
Justin Jobin, who works on environmental projects with the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, said that he expects to gain approval for a pilot program to accelerate the vegetated circulating gravel system’s public introduction, which could be approved as soon as this summer.The design can be modified, its developers said, to serve single homes or large businesses. In addition to removing nitrogen, the system can also naturally filter out pharmaceuticals and personal care products.Its impacts on 1,4-dioxane are being studied.
Visit www.ReclaimOurWater.info for additional information.
Above, a wall garden can be grown indoors with house plants. Wall gardens can also be set up outdoors and replanted annually. Photo by Ellen Barcel
By Ellen Barcel
Whether you live in a condo or apartment with only a patio to grow a garden, a trailer with just a tiny patch of land around your rental space or a house on just a small patch of land (i.e., the trend toward tiny houses), you may find that your need to garden has been thwarted by small space. Sometimes there’s a little pocket of land that’s a challenge. Maybe your property is heavily treed with only a small patch of ground available for gardening. Whatever your “tiny” problem, there are solutions that will allow you to indulge your passion for gardening.
No matter what the tiny problem, you still need, of course, to take into consideration all the things that any other gardener needs to deal with: the amount of rain your plants will receive, the amount of sun in the area, the type of soil you have, the hardiness zone you live in, etc.
Planters If you decide because of space to grow your plants in pots, that makes things easier in one way. You can select potting soil that is geared to your specific plants:general soil for most plants, soil for roses, cacti, etc. Planters have another advantage in that they can be moved as needed. If, for example, when the nearby trees leaf out, there’s too much shade, you can reposition the planters to a sunnier spot. All kinds of ornamentals can be grown in planters including flowers and small evergreen trees. Fruits such as blueberries and figs and even dwarf apple trees can be grown in tubs. Veggies, if selected carefully can also be grown in planters.
A vining ornamental like clematis growing on a trellis takes up very little room in the garden. Photo by Ellen Barcel
Hanging baskets Don’t overlook hanging baskets. They really allow you to grow many more plants than you might otherwise. And, hanging baskets, while wonderful for ornamentals, are great for herbs and even small fruit like strawberries and veggies such as cherry tomato plants (yes, technically a fruit). Hanging baskets can be attached to various overhangs around your house or apartment such as a cover over a porch and can even be freestanding, hanging the pots from appropriate stakes in the garden.
Trellises Trellises allow for vertical gardening. Plants such as cucumbers take up a small amount of ground but need vertical support. Trellises are also ideal for vining ornamentals such as clematis or morning glory. Fences can act like a trellis as well.
Wall garden If you’re only looking for ornamentals, consider a wall garden. The supports and pots for a wall garden are available in all sorts of gardening catalogues and local nurseries. Wall gardens can be grown indoors on a sunny wall with indoor plants or can be set up outdoors, remembering that the plants will probably have to be replaced each spring.
Remember that when you are growing plants in planters, wall gardens, on trellises or in hanging baskets that you must be careful to make sure that they get adequate amounts of water since any of these planters can dry out more quickly than plants in garden soil. Clay pots tend to dry out more quickly than man-made materials. Sometimes plants with large leaves will act like a small umbrella and cover the potting soil during rain, so check. Also, you need to make sure that the plants get sufficient amounts of fertilizer, especially if you’re growing heavy feeders like tomatoes.
Tiny statuary, even fairy garden items, are ideal in a small garden, but don’t overcrowd the garden with too large or too many pieces or, in a rock garden, boulders.
Once you decide what you want to grow and how you will plant it, select the variety of plant most suited. If you want blueberries, get dwarf plants. If you love roses, get a collection of tiny rose bushes with their tiny blooms, etc.
Ellen Barcel is a freelance writer and master gardener. Send your gardening questions and/or comments to [email protected]. To reach Cornell Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener program, call 631-727-7850.
They buzz and flutter and they are disappearing from Long Island’s environment. Pollinators are on the decline on the Island and nationwide.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, native pollinators such as Monarch butterflies have decreased in numbers by more than 80 percent in the past two decades. Native bee populations, among other indigenous pollinator species, are also on the decline, which can put local farms at risk as less pollinators mean less pollination.
But Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) hopes to help Long Island farmers combat the population decline with her new Educational Agriculture Support Initiative, which aims to increase the amount of native plant species on Long Island, starting with the Heritage Park in Mount Sinai.
“The history of Heritage Park is [that] we wanted to take care of the rural character and the heritage of the area,” Lori Baldassare, president of Heritage Trust, said about how the park got involved with Anker’s initiative. According to Baldassare, Anker has a long history with the park so “it just seemed like a natural place to do [a] … demonstration garden.”
Honeybees, above, which are native to Europe are efficient pollen collectors and honey producers but they are not effective pollinators because pollen sticks onto their legs so well. They are one of the few bee species that live in a hive. Photo by Giselle Barkley
Although Anker has teamed up with Heritage Trust, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, Long Island Native Plant Initiative, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District to help create a pilot native plant species garden at Heritage Park, she said that it will take more than the individuals from these organizations to bring back local pollinator species.
“I need people to participate,” she said. “I need people to understand that this is really important. If we don’t preserve [the environment] nobody else will.”
According to Polly Weigand, executive director of the plant initiative and senior soil district technician for the conservation district, the team is trying to provide the pilot garden with various native plant species, including native grasses, which will attract and sustain pollinators throughout the year. While these plants are neither flowering nor the most visually appealing, Weigand said the grasses provide a place for insects to lay their eggs and shelter during the winter months.
While some invasive or nonnative plants, like butterfly bush, can provide food for native butterflies, it isn’t sufficient for these insects to lay their eggs or seek shelter. Native insects evolve with the native plants in the area. The evolution allows these creatures to use a plant for shelter and sustenance. Although some invasive or nonnative plants can provide food and habitat for these small creatures, this is not always the case.
“Plants have a little chemical warfare that they play with the species that are going to [prey] on them,” Weigand said. “They put out toxins to try to keep the animal from eating the leaves.”
It takes several generations before an insect can successfully utilize the foreign plants for their life cycle.
But according to Robin Simmen, community horticulture specialist for the cooperative extension, and Laura Klahre, beekeeper and owner of Blossom Meadow in Cutchogue, in addition to the lack of suitable plants, the use of pesticides and lack of suitable habitat for Long Island pollinators are some of the many factors contributing to the decline in the native species.
Polly Weigand, left, of the Long Island Native Plant Initiative, and county Legislator Sarah Anker, right, discuss native plant species for Anker’s Educational Agriculture Support Initiative pilot garden at Heritage Park in Mount Sinai. Photo by Giselle Barkley
“We used to just think that we would get these free pollination services from nature,” Klahre said. “But in the future that may not be the case because there aren’t enough flowers around [and] we have so many pesticides.”
Pesticides that target unwanted pests, like ticks, are also detrimental to native bees, which live underground.
When the toxins seep into an area in close proximity to native insects, some eventually develop dementia.
Klahre also mentioned the lack of open space as an issue as it jeopardizes the livelihood of the bugs.
While Klahre does not know by how much the native bee population has declined, she said they are struggling to maintain their populations just like their European counterpart, the honeybee. According to Klahre there are about 4,000 different bee species nationwide and 450 different species in New York state alone.
Unlike docile native bees like mining, mason or sweat bees, honeybees are not efficient pollen collectors.
Native bees are among the best pollinators for a variety of plant species. The native bees also yield higher quality and longer lasting fruits like apples or cherries, which can have a thicker outer skin; a thicker skin means that the fruits have a longer shelf life than those pollinated by honeybees.
Although Anker said farms across Long Island are affected by the decline in pollinator species as they are forced to import pollinating bees to the locations, Klahre said she only saw a disruption in growing produce with home gardeners.
Monarch butterflies, above, fly from their wintering grounds in Mexico to Long Island, which serves as their breeding range during the summer. Monarchs born during the summer only live three to five weeks in comparison to overwintering adult Monarchs that can live up to nine months. Photo by Giselle Barkley
Pollinators like bees usually have a route that they go on to collect pollen and nectar before returning to their habitat. If these insects are not accustomed or attracted to a homeowner’s property, it is unlikely that the pollinator will visit the area. This is especially the case for homeowners who have a simple grass lawn.
While some grasses help native insects, a bare lawn does not provide a pollinator with the necessary sources of food in order to survive.
But Anker’s goal is to educate the community about the best way to attract and support these insects using appropriate native plant species like milkweed, among others.
“I’m actually looking to have [pilot gardens] throughout Suffolk County,” Anker said in regards to her initiative.
The plant initiative has selected the types of native plants that will go into Anker’s pilot garden, which could be designed and constructed toward the end of August.
Individuals like Klahre believe there is enough time to heal the environment and help increase native pollinators like bees, but she does acknowledge the reality of having little to no pollinators.
“In China there are some areas that are so polluted that they actually have people that are going from flower to flower in orchards with feathers moving the pollen,” Klahre said. “I just never want us to get to that point.”
