Tell us about your green thumb (or lack thereof)

[samhexum]

JC Garcia-Lavin and George Fesser had a barren backyard when they bought their house in 2019.

The garden room, accessed from a stair off the kitchen, is used with a wood-burning stove when the weather gets cooler.

 

It’s got the vibe of a sunken living room,” says real-estate broker George Fesser of the garden that he and his partner, stylist Juan Carlos “JC” Garcia-Lavin, cultivated during the pandemic behind their house in Bedford-Stuyvesant. They had bought the house in September 2019 and planted eight bamboo plants and a river birch that, Fesser recalls, was around seven feet tall; today, it’s more than 30 feet tall.

“I thought that to get a garden like this would take ten years,” Garcia-Lavin says, as we sit under the giant willow tree in the corner. “The willow came by mail. It was a tiny raggedy thing, only three or four feet high, and rail thin. I was insulted,” he remembers. “We get this Charlie Brown one stem with three little arms, and I thought, I am getting rid of this thing.” But he didn’t; he let it grow along with the other trees, flowers, vegetables, herbs, and fruit bushes that he and Fesser planted from scratch, save for a few inherited tea roses.

Because they had time on their hands (it was during the lockdown), they did research, watching how-to YouTube videos to figure what would help the garden grow. “I think it is all in the dirt,” Fesser says of the sauce of ingredients he mixed to make a rich cocktail of soil that includes fish carcasses and bat manure.

Garcia-Lavin adds that “we learned the most from our mistakes.” That included growing squash and zucchini. “They took over, and it was a mess, so we don’t do it anymore.” But not before Fesser made fried zucchini flowers.

“We have scheduled it so that there is always something blooming in the garden,” Fesser says. “When the tulips die, they let me know it’s time to plant the tomatoes.”

There are two fig trees that will soon be ready to harvest. The smaller tree, in the back of the garden, has turned out to be an effective squirrel decoy, as they’re so busy pillaging that one they haven’t noticed the larger one nearer the house.

And one thing about gardens is that you can’t rush them, Garcia-Lavin has learned. “Because I am a stylist and used to getting results right away visually, I would have ordered enormous trees and everything big,” he says. “But literally everything had to come in the mail, so everything we got was so tiny, so it was nerve-racking, but, boy, when it took off, it really took off.”

 

The herb garden is just outside the kitchen for easy access when cooking, plus it gets lots of sun throughout the day. The produce includes mint, sage, oregano, thyme, peppers, chives, strawberries, lettuce, basil. and different varieties of tomatoes.

 

The view toward the house with a cozy couch from Ikea, which their dog, Jenny, loves to sit on. 

 

Fesser, on the top stair, and Garcia-Lavin bringing lunch down to the table. The large fig tree by the stairs hasn’t been discovered by the squirrels, which are distracted from it by the figs on the smaller one at the rear of the garden. 

 

The table set for lunch with most of the edibles picked fresh. There is so much hidden in plain sight including a cherry tree, strawberry plants, and lavender bushes. 

 

How it started. 2019, before they started planting.

 

https://www.curbed.com/article/herb-sitting-garden-backyard-bed-stuy-tour.html

[ICTJOCK]

My beagle, “Gabe” goes tomato hunting in my garden

[samhexum]

[samhexum]

A small island once infested by rats — no, not Manhattan — has been revived into a wildlife refuge for dozens of threatened species.

Redonda, an uninhabited, volcanic island that is part of Antigua and Barbuda, was once mined for its abundance of bird poop and later overcome by feral goats and thousands of black rats.

After years of restoration efforts, the tiny Caribbean island is now a wildlife refuge for thousands of threatened species.

“The island was in such a dreadful state that everyone thought it was going to need an awfully long time to recover,” Jenny Daltry, director for Re:wild and Fauna & Flora International, told the environmental news outlet Mongabay. “But we were seeing changes really fast.”

Conservationists began tackling the restoration of Redonda in 2016, working to round up about 60 ravenous goats and eradicate 6,000 vicious black rats.

Poisonous rat traps were put down. When workers returned to the island to check on them, other rats had already started feasting on the remains, National Geographic reported earlier on in the efforts. And the goats were so smart that they evaded all snares. They had to be put in plastic bags up to their necks and blindfolded with a hood made of old yoga pants to keep calm, their horns protected with foam pool noodles, for the 20-minute flight back to Antigua.

Since then, native vegetation, birds and lizards have made a rapid resurgence, making the once-barren moonscape green again, according to local reports.

In early September, the government of Antigua and Barbuda announced it had established the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve, making it one of the Caribbean’s largest protected areas.

The island was discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus. Mining of bird guano for fertilizer began in the 19th century but ceased once World War I broke out, allowing the rat and goat populations to run rampant.

The Redonda Wildlife monitoring team is credited for transforming the once-barren island into a tropical refuge after seven years of conservation efforts.

Redonda is the smallest of the three islands that constitute the nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Redonda, an uninhabited, volcanic island part of Antigua and Barbuda, was once mined for its abundance of bird poop, but that stopped during World War I.

[pubic_assistance]

On 8/15/2023 at 10:22 AM, samhexum said:

So they planted the trees but look at them… it seems not well thought through… Just look at them… It looks like they’re all going to die.”

This is extremely common in NYC. There are multiple "pocket-parks" developed with ribbon cuttings and politicians patting each other on the back that are subsequently abandoned to the elements.  More than half quickly devolve into wastelands of dead trees, weeds and rubbish. There is never any budget for maintenance. Just bloated budgets for development (that are easier to steal from).

[ICTJOCK]

I typically have "green hands" from grass stains and mowing.  Does that count?   LOL

[samhexum]

NICE ARTICLES:

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2023/10/02/changing-of-the-guard-at-the-promenade-gardens/

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2023/08/15/brooklyn-heights-promenade-gardeners-improve-beauty-and-safety-of-historic-walkway/

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2022/12/22/promenade-gardeners-celebrate-another-successful-growing-season/

 

[cany10011]

I get South, East and North exposures from my condo. Love the light. Have a row of succulents which do extremely well and are very low maintenance! My good friend belongs to a Chelsea neighborhood association of greenthumbs that spruce up the local streets (22d, 23rd) and avenues (7th/8th) with seasonal plants.   Their greatest nemeses are the dogs who invariably pee on the plants. A lot of volunteer work but it makes the gritty urban landscape much prettier.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by cany10011

[samhexum]

• Urban farm on roof of Fenway Park is growing 6,000 pounds of produce a year

  Fenway Farms is a roughly 5,000-square-foot rooftop garden area tucked up behind the third baseline at legendary Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox.

  With 2,400 total square feet of growing space, the beds can cultivate anything from A to Z – “asparagus to zucchini,” says Chris Grallert, president of Green City Growers, and a local farmer who grew up going to Red Sox games as a kid.

  “Local is not new. In 1920, this area [in downtown Boston] ranked fifth in the nation for values of crops or fruits and vegetables. And all the communities around Boston had local markets and local gardens,” Grallert says. “Having a rooftop farm at Fenway Park is an amazing way to be a part of reinvigorating a local food production system.”

  

   

  

   

  

   

Edited October 12, 2023 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!

[samhexum]

In the late 19th century, whalers, settlers, and pirates changed the ecology of the Galapagos Islands by poaching some native species—like Galapagos giant tortoises—and introducing others, like goats and rats. The latter species became pests and severely destabilized the island ecosystems. Goats overgrazed the fruits and plants the tortoises ate while rats preyed on their eggs. Over time, the tortoise population plummeted. On Española, an island in the southeast of the archipelago, the tortoise count fell from over 10,000 to just 14. Along the way, with goats eating all the plants they could, Española—once akin to a savanna—turned barren.

A century later, conservationists set out to restore the Galapagos giant tortoise on Española—and the island ecosystem. They began eradicating the introduced species and capturing Española’s remaining tortoises and breeding them in captivity. With the goats wiped out and the tortoises in cages, the ecosystem transformed once again. This time, the overgrazed terrain became overgrown with densely packed trees and woody bushes. Española’s full recovery to its savanna-like state would have to wait for the tortoises’ return.

From the time those 14 tortoises were taken into captivity between 1963 and 1974 until they were finally released in 2020, conservationists with the NGO Galápagos Conservancy and the Galapagos National Park Directorate reintroduced nearly 2,000 captive-bred Galapagos giant tortoises to Española. Since then, the tortoises have continued to breed in the wild, causing the population to blossom to an estimated 3,000. They’ve also seen the ecology of Española transform once more as the tortoises are reducing the extent of woody plants, expanding the grasslands, and spreading the seeds of a key species.

Not only that, but the tortoises’ return has also helped the critically endangered waved albatross—a species that breeds exclusively on Española. During the island’s woody era, Maud Quinzin, a conservation geneticist who has previously worked with Galapagos tortoises, says that people had to repeatedly clear the areas the seabirds use as runways to take off and land. Now, if the landing strips are getting overgrown, they’ll move tortoises into the area to take care of it for them.

The secret to this success is that—much like beavers, brown bears, and elephants—giant tortoises are ecological architects. As they browse, poop, and plod about, they alter the landscape. They trample young trees and bushes before they can grow big enough to block the albatrosses’ way. The giant tortoises likewise have a potent impact on the giant species of prickly pear cactuses that call Española home—one of the tortoises’ favorite foods and an essential resource for the island’s other inhabitants.

When the tortoises graze the cactus’s fallen leaves, they prevent the paddle-shaped pads from taking root and competing with their parents. And, after they eat the cactus’s fruit, they drop the seeds across the island in balls of dung that offer a protective shell of fertilizer.

The extent of these and other ecological effects of the tortoise are documented in a new study by James Gibbs, a conservation scientist and the president of the Galápagos Conservancy, and Washington Tapia Aguilera, the director of the giant tortoise restoration program at the Galápagos Conservancy.

To study these impacts up close, they fenced off some of the island’s cactuses, which gave them a way to assess how the landscapes evolve when they’re either exposed to or free from the tortoises’ influences. They also studied satellite imagery of the island captured between 2006 and 2020 and found that while parts of the island are still seeing an increase in the density of bushes and trees, places where the tortoises have rebounded are more open and savanna-like.  As few as one or two tortoises per hectare, the scientists write, is enough to trigger a shift in the landscape.

Dennis Hansen, a conservation ecologist who has worked with the tortoises native to the Aldabra atoll in the Indian Ocean, says that while the findings line up with what conservationists expected, it was nice to have their suspicions confirmed. The results bode well for other rewilding projects that include giant tortoise restoration as a keystone of their efforts, he says, such as those underway on other islands in the Galapagos archipelago and on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean.

But on Española itself, though the tortoises have been busy stomping shoots and spreading seeds, they have more work to do. In 2020, 78 percent of Española was still dominated by woody vegetation. Gibbs says it may take another couple of centuries for Española’s giant tortoises to reestablish something like the ratio of grasses, trees, and bushes that existed before Europeans landed in the archipelago. But that long transformation is at least underway.

Do tortoises even have thumbs?

 

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem | Popular Science

WWW.POPSCI.COM

---

A decades-long project to reintroduce Galapagos giant tortoises is changing the face of the island of Española.

 

[samhexum]

How plants communicate with each other when in danger

It sounds like fiction from “The Lord of the Rings.” An enemy begins attacking a tree. The tree fends it off and sends out a warning message. Nearby trees set up their own defenses. The forest is saved.

But you don’t need a magical Ent from J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to conjure this scene. Real trees on our Earth can communicate and warn each other of danger — and a new study explains how.

The study found injured plants emit certain chemical compounds, which can infiltrate a healthy plant’s inner tissues and activate defenses from within its cells. A better understanding of this mechanism could allow scientists and farmers to help fortify plants against insect attacks or drought long before they happen.

The study marks the first time researchers have been able to “visualize plant-to-plant communication,” said Masatsugu Toyota, senior author of the study, which was published Tuesday [2023-10-17] in Nature Communications. “We can probably hijack this system to inform the entire plant to activate different stress responses against a future threat or environmental threats, such as drought.”

The idea of “talking” trees started to take root in the 1980s. Two ecologists placed hundreds of caterpillars and webworms on the branches of willow and alder trees to observe how the trees would respond. They found the attacked trees began producing chemicals that made their leaves unappetizing and indigestible to deter insects.

But even more curious, the scientists discovered healthy trees of the same species, located 30 or 40 meters away and with no root connections to the damaged trees, also put up the same chemical defenses to prepare against an insect invasion. Another pair of scientists around that time found similar results when studying damaged sugar maple and poplar trees.

These early research teams had a budding thought: The trees sent chemical signals to one another through the air, known today as plant eavesdropping. Over the past four decades, scientists have observed this cell-to-cell communication in more than 30 plant species, including lima bean, tobacco, tomato, sage brush and flowering plants in the mustard family. But no one knew which compounds were important and how they were being sensed — until now.

“There was this kind of controversy in the field,” said André Kessler, a plant ecologist who was not involved in the research. “First, how those compounds in general are taken up [by the plant], and then how they are able to change the plant’s metabolism in response to perceiving them.”

This study, Kessler said, helped answer some of those long-standing questions.

Plants obviously don’t have ears and eyes, but past research shows they communicate with their surroundings by emitting chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, which we can smell. But just as people can speak so many words, plants can produce an array of these compounds for different purposes. Some are used to attract pollinators or as defense against predators.

However, one class of these compounds are emitted when a plant is injured: green leafy volatiles. These are emitted by, as the name suggests, pretty much every green plant with leaves, and are produced when a plant experiences physical damage. An example of this compound is the smell released from fresh-cut grass.

In the new study, Toyota and his colleagues manually crushed leaves and placed caterpillars on Arabidopsis mustard or tomato plants to trigger the emission of various green leafy volatiles. Then, they spread individual fumes to healthy plants to see if the plants would react.

To track the healthy plants’ responses, the team genetically modified the plants so calcium ions would fluoresce when activated inside individual cells. Calcium signaling is important for cellular functions in most living organisms on Earth, including humans. When an electrical signal is sent to our motor neurons, ion channels open and allow calcium to flood inside. This increase in calcium can trigger a neurotransmitter release, which results in a muscle contraction in a muscle cell.

Calcium signaling, Toyota said, plays a similar role in plants. Depending on the plant, it can trigger messages to close its leaves or digest an insect.

After testing many green leafy volatiles, the team found only two seemed to increase calcium ions inside cells. Additionally, they found calcium signaling first increased in guard cells forming the plant’s leaf pores, or stomata — an important finding, because it shows the compounds are absorbed into the plant’s inner tissues.

“They cannot just seep through the surface of the plant easily,” said Kessler, a professor at Cornell University. “They have to go through the stomata, [which] allow the plant to actually breathe carbon dioxide in and oxygen out for photosynthesis.”

The calcium signaling, Toyota said, is like a switch to turn on the defense responses from the plant. After signaling increased, the team found the plant increased the production of certain gene expressions for protection. For example, Toyota said the plant may start producing certain proteins to inhibit insects from munching on them, giving the insects diarrhea.

“If the plant has lots of these genes, they are now very strong against the insect herbivory,” Toyota said.

With this new understanding, researchers say plants could be immunized against threats and stressors before they even happen — the equivalent of giving a plant a vaccine. For instance, exposing healthy plants to insect-ridden plants or the associated green leafy volatiles could boost their genetic defenses, so farmers use less pesticides, Kessler said. The revelation could also help make plants more resilient during a drought, signaling the plants to retain more water.

“If you have a plant early in its life exposed to drought, it will actually handle drought better than a plant that was not exposed to that,” Kessler said. “This is also a result of the plant’s metabolism totally changed.”

The study has planted many seeds for future research, Toyota said. For instance, researchers “have no idea” why only two specific green leafy volatiles could enter the stomata and trigger the calcium signaling. The next step is to identify the various receptors in the plants, which may be specific to the chemical structure of the two compounds.

In response to insect attacks, plants can also produce specific responses based on the species of the herbivore feeding on it, an impressive behavior that Kessler is further studying.

“If that plant can mount an adaptive response … this is the definition of intelligence,” Kessler said. “If you understand these kinds of things and how plants do it, it gets you onto a level that questions how we understand the world.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/21/plants-talk-warning-danger/

[samhexum]

Daffodil Project brightens faces and places throughout NYC

Narcissus, an Ancient Greek hunter, was so beautiful that when he saw his reflection in a pool of water, he fell in love with it. He spent day and night lying by his reflection until his death. In his place sprouted the Narcissus flower, with petals so brilliantly yellow — today, this flower is commonly referred to as the daffodil.

If you’ve noticed these golden flowers appearing all around New York in the spring, chances are they’ve been planted in the fall by volunteers of the Daffodil Project, established in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11, New York City’s largest annual volunteer program. The project has had more than 400,000 volunteers plant more than 9 million daffodil bulbs as a living memorial to honor New Yorkers lost to 9/11 and more recently, COVID-19. 

These yellow flowers popping up all over the city are becoming harder to miss by the year, as the number of daffodil bulbs planted in parks is expected to increase to 10 million by 2024.

Ivette Vargas, a member of Drew Gardens — a community garden along the West Farms section of the Bronx River — has been volunteering with the Daffodil Project for two years. 

There are multiple ways in which one can volunteer — some volunteers distribute the bulbs free of charge to the public at the beginning of the fall, and others pick up the bulbs to subsequently plant them all around the city before the first frost. 

Vargas chooses the latter. 

This year, the Daffodil Project bulb distribution took place across the five boroughs — the Bronx held its giveaway on Oct. 8 at Mill Pond Park. Vargas and Julio Figueroa, the Drew Gardens manager, picked up four bags of bulbs there, which would amount to 800 bulbs given Vargas’ estimation of each sack having 200 bulbs, she told the Bronx Times.

“It’s very peaceful for me to look at flowers, especially daffodils,” said Vargas, adding that she believed that visitors of the garden shared her sentiment.

Along with planting daffodils, she has been particularly passionate about providing affordable, good-quality food for the public. “And it got me thinking … I really want to learn to grow my own food and be able to share that with the people who I know,” she said, explaining the origin of turning her passion into a reality.

So she took time off of work and traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2016. She would work on a rural farm (“And when I say rural, I mean rural,” she added) for three months and learn about the ins and outs of gardening — permaculture, agriculture, hydroponics and so on. She ended up staying for twice as long as she had intended. 

Vargas eventually returned to the U.S. — but she had a problem: “I came back with that knowledge, but I didn’t have any place to practice the skills that I had learned,” she reflected.

She spent the next few years hunting for a garden that she thought would be a good fit, until she ended up at Drew Gardens in March of 2020.

Vargas’ conversation with the Bronx Times took an emotional turn when she revealed how her mother had been diagnosed with leukemia six or seven years ago — another reason behind why she would eventually dedicate herself to growing natural food products. 

“My mom was a hairstylist for, I don’t know, maybe two or three decades, and a lot of those chemicals, once you make contact with them, you know, most of it, I don’t know — eighty to ninety percent — goes straight into your bloodstream at a time,” she said. Her frustrations over such information being inaccessible to the public thus fueled her passion for educating people on food, and what’s safe and healthy. 

 

Beautifying the city

If there’s one Bronxite to credit for lifting her neighbors’ spirits by improving natural spaces, it’s Jaleesa Franco, the Castle Hill resident who was affectionately dubbed the “flower girl” after planting 5,000 flowers through the Daffodil Project since 2021.

“I want everyone in Castle Hill to be able to see something beautiful in their neighborhood,” Franco told the Bronx Times last year when her story went viral. “We have a lot of beautiful things that are easy to miss, but it’s hard to miss beautiful flowers everywhere.”

And Franco is not alone in her vision to beautify her neighborhood. Another participant in the Daffodil Project is Rachel Daykin, a resident of Central Harlem. In 2017, Daykin was the beautification coordinator for her neighborhood block association. That year, upon hearing about the Daffodil Project from a friend, she put in an order for bulbs with the idea of “beautifying [her] block.” 

“I grew up in the country, so I’m always trying to bring bits of green into the city,” said Daykin, who grew up in Scotland where daffodils were a big part of her springtime. “So I guess there’s a nostalgia piece for me, but I love being able to get with my kids, with other people who might not have grown up with that.”

According to Daykin, since 2017, the number of her fellow community members participating in the Daffodil Project since 2017 has increased from five to 35.

“And everyone looks forward to it. You know, we make a big sort of community there,” she added. 

Daykin and her fellow volunteers will be planting hundreds of bulbs in the second weekend of November, and Vargas with the Drew Gardens this weekend, weather permitting — New Yorkers have not had the best of luck this fall, having to deal with persistently rainy weekends.

According to Daykin “everyone feels better” once the daffodils are planted.

“It always makes me happy to see the daffodils,” she said.

Mayra Kalaora      

is an editorial intern at the Bronx Times.

 

[samhexum]

How Deep Should You Plant Your Spring-Flowering Bulbs?
The proper planting depth for spring-flowering bulbs is important for overall plant health as well as ensuring the bulbs will bloom. Different types of flowering bulbs need to be planted at different depths, but a good general rule of thumb is to plant the bulb at three times the height of the bulb. So, for example, if a bulb is two inches from tip to base, you'd plant it six inches deep.

Read in The Spruce: https://apple.news/Az6ooalmxSsuZ6DlX4XxQzQ

[samhexum]

The official opening celebration of the brand-new Sunset Community Garden in Ridgewood welcomed Mayor Eric Adams’ Office of Urban Agriculture, city and state agencies and environmental-focused programs on Friday. Oct. 27.

The formerly unused Grover Cleveland High School lot, located at the intersection of Willoughby Avenue and Oderdonk Avenue, was officially transformed into a modern city green space for the community.

“This beautiful new community garden shows the power of deep, sustained collaboration,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “By working with so many partners, from city and state agencies to grassroots gardening groups, we were able to bring this fantastic resource to a neighborhood that for too long lacked access to urban gardening opportunities. Now, Ridgewood residents can enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, vibrant native flora and annual flowers and so much more.”

The completion of the multi-year project to bring a community garden to Ridgewood features over 30 garden beds, pollinator plants, native grasses, shrubs, annual flowers and fruit trees like fig or elderberry, according to NYC Parks. The garden also possesses a rainwater harvesting share structure with a 750-gallon tank, capable of harvesting 3,000 gallons of water a year.

Gaining an extra greenspace in the city, especially in Ridgewood, benefits residents as a whole.

 

In 2021, NYC Parks and the Department of Education formalized the agreement to transform the unused portion of Grover Cleveland High School athletic fields into a community garden. Construction on the garden began last year, with site preparation done by two environmental-focused city organizations.

The NYC Parks GreenThumb, the nation’s largest urban gardening program, and GrowNYC, an environmental nonprofit in the city, conducted surveys with over 300 community members to develop the layout for the garden and followed through on the project until completion.

A three-bin compost system with tumblers was also installed at the garden to process compost from the neighborhood, according to NYC Parks. On top of the array of greenery, pathways, benches, tables and a garden shed represent a major part of the new community space.

The accomplishment from the involved parties was further emphasized through Geraldine Simonis, a community gardener who spoke on what the garden brings to the community moving forward.

“We’re proud of all we’ve been able to achieve in a relatively short amount of time, transforming a vacant lot sprinkled with trash, tall grasses, some milkweed and the occasional monarch butterfly, into the vibrant community hub that it is today,” said Simonis. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to the realization of the garden. As we look ahead, we promise to be good stewards of this space, to be inclusive and have diverse membership. Our plans include ramping up harvests, planting trees, hosting enriching and fun programming, and even picnicking on the hill!”

The new community garden features over 30 raised garden beds with a variety of plants and flowers. 

[samhexum]

Queens Council Member James Gennaro and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams joined students and faculty at John Bowne High School in Flushing on Nov. 20 to announce a $5 million donation to the school’s agricultural program.

This new allocation will help fund a new exotic animal lab, farming equipment, a storage shed, farming tools and other enhancements at the school.

Adams allocated the funding after Gennaro had advocated on behalf the high school, which is located in his district at 63-25 Main St. in Flushing.

Gennaro said that although he grew up in an urban setting, he always enjoyed visiting farms in his youth and that this introduction to nature and agriculture propelled him forward to pursue a career in making environmental public policy. 

“Many people would be surprised to learn just how many agricultural jobs are available in New York,” Gennaro said Monday. “This investment will cultivate a fertile ground for hands-on learning, innovation and community growth. Together, we’re sowing the seeds of a brighter future for our students and our city,” he said. 

The John Bowne Agricultural Program, also known as the Agri-Science program, is recognized nationally as an exceptional urban agricultural education for its students. It has been running since 1964 and currently consists of more than 500 students and eight teachers. 

Speaker Adams said that this program helps students to excel in a number of different career paths, as well as learn practical skills and knowledge which will help them later in life as adults.

“The Council is proud to allocate $5 million to John Bowne High School’s Agri-Science program,” Adams said. “This program provides students with the unique opportunity for them to participate in supervised agricultural activities. With this funding allocation, we hope to inspire our young scholars to engage in a holistic educational experience that is personally enriching and rewarding.”

School Principal Dr. Iannelli thanked Adams and Gennaro for providing the resources needed to support the growth and development of the school’s farm. 

Students of the program spoke about the importance of this funding for the future of the program and their agricultural education. 

“As well as having our farm and being able to have this hands-on experience, our program provides us with education on how to write job resumes and cover letters, have good interview skills and more in order to prepare us for high school and beyond,” said senior student Melissa Pratt. “We have also learned a lot about urban agriculture and are grateful that this funding will contribute to our hands-on learning on our farm.”

The farm at the school currently sits on a four acre land consisting of a poultry house, large animal barn, exotic animal laboratory, greenhouse and orchard and field corps. The program is ran in conjunction with the FFA organization (Future Farmers of America). 
 

 

[+ nycman]

They’re spending $5 Million….funding a farming program….in Queens?

The very definition of a pork barrel project.

The best part is they’re calling it a "donation".

Asswipes…when you spend tax payer’s money…it’s not a"‘donation".

[samhexum]

3 hours ago, samhexum said:

The John Bowne Agricultural Program, also known as the Agri-Science program, is recognized nationally as an exceptional urban agricultural education for its students. It has been running since 1964 and currently consists of more than 500 students and eight teachers. 

The program is ran in conjunction with the FFA organization (Future Farmers of America).   But obviously not in conjunction with typing teachers.

I had a couple of friends in the program and they said they learned a lot from it.

I wonder how many people have joined over the years thinking FFA stood for something entirely different.

37 minutes ago, nycman said:

They’re spending $5 Million….funding a farming program….in Queens?

The very definition of a pork barrel project.

Until about 15-20 years ago there was an active working farm about 2 miles away, and the Queens Farm Museum on the Queens/Nassau border is still a working farm.  There are botanical gardens in the area and a fair amount of wineries and the occasional small farm, so it's not like there aren't any local agricultural jobs.  And not every student wants to live and work in an urban setting; some may have different goals.

Edited November 21, 2023 by samhexum
just for the hell of it

[samhexum]

As California’s redwoods recover from fire, an astonishing fact emerges

By Julie Johnson

 

Sprouting redwoods in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, shown in April 2021, six months after the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires burned through the park.  

Raging wildfires in 2020 transformed Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County from a towering forested cathedral into a standing boneyard with some of the oldest trees on the planet seemingly burned beyond survival. 

But soon after the flames were gone, California’s coast redwoods began calling upon a remarkable energy storage system helping these trees survive even after fires burned away every life-sustaining green needle.

Scientists now have an idea about just how far back these reserves go. Researchers studying a stand of severely burned old growth Big Basin redwoods found the trees fed ancient buds that had been hiding underneath thick bark for more than 1,000 years using carbon transformed into sugars with sunlight that shone more than a half-century ago. 

“The longevity of these bud tissues is the shocker here,” said Drew Peltier, an assistant professor at Northern Arizona University.

Coast redwoods, or Sequoia sempervirens, are the tallest tree species on the planet. They can live more than 2,500 years, protected by thick bark and the ability to resprout, features that make these trees especially resilient to fire.  

But in 2020 nearly 77% of the wildfire in the park was extremely severe, leaping off the forest floor and burning up into the green-needled crowns of these towering trees, some soaring 300 feet high. Even though most of the redwoods survived, many were badly burned. When Peltier first visited the park six months after the fire, he thought “this place is completely destroyed.” 

“Frankly, it was shocking,” Peltier said, to see so many trees that “had no branches and were totally black.”

The first clues of resilience were out of sight. Peltier’s colleague and longtime redwood researcher George Koch recalled finding a charred tree that looked sturdy enough to climb. Only when he’d climbed far above the forest floor could he see green buds poking out of charred bark on the tops of branches. 

“That was a little glimmer of good news,” said Koch, a professor with Northern Arizona University’s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society.

Peltier, Koch and a group of colleagues wanted to know just how deep these redwoods had to go into their reserves after a destructive wildfire without parallel in Big Basin’s park history. 

Most nonstructural carbon — the kind stored as sugars and starches versus woody material — is relatively young and transient, part of the day-to-day photosynthesis breathing life into plants. 

They suspected redwoods were able to store sugars far longer, maybe even for decades. 

They used a new carbon dating technique to determine the carbon stored as sugars and starches that used the proliferation of nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s as a sort of historical bookmark. 

Commonly referred to as the “nuclear bomb spike,” the United States and former Soviet Union were detonating hundreds of nuclear weapons in tests until a treaty in 1963 ended the deluge. These bombings infused organisms across the planet with trace elevated levels of radiocarbons, Peltier said.   

“Folks born in the 1950s have more radiocarbon in their tooth enamel than I do,” said Peltier, who was born in the 1980s.

The redwood researchers determined that nearly half of the carbon used in new sprouts (which they covered to isolate from new photosynthesis) was acquired more than 57 years ago, before the bomb spike peaked. Koch said their findings illuminated just how a long-lived organism like a redwood tree can sustain its towering mass over millennia. 

“We found these trees do seem to invest in a type of fire insurance, if you will — reserves that can help them recover,” Koch said.  

Today, most of Big Basin’s redwoods look nothing like they did before the fire. Many trees lost branches the size of entire trees and are instead covered with little buds, “like fuzzy telephone poles,” Peltier said. 

The 2020 wildfires forced these ancient trees to tap into long-held reserves, and potentially depleted them, meaning these stalwarts may be more vulnerable than ever to future stressors like drought and wildfire, Koch said. 

“This amazing species seems to be able to tolerate so much,” Koch said. “But they’re not indestructible.”  

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/redwood-trees-18538393.php

Edited December 8, 2023 by samhexum
because he's bored as hell

[samhexum]

Scientists make stunning discovery in remote forest: ‘There are no others that have had the opportunity to live so long’

APPLE.NEWS

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“It’s a survivor.” Though trees across the globe are under threat from the logging and agriculture industries and...

‘THERE ARE NO OTHERS THAT HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE SO LONG’

“It’s a survivor.”

 

[CuriousByNature]

2 hours ago, samhexum said:

Scientists make stunning discovery in remote forest: ‘There are no others that have had the opportunity to live so long’

APPLE.NEWS

---

“It’s a survivor.” Though trees across the globe are under threat from the logging and agriculture industries and...

‘THERE ARE NO OTHERS THAT HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE SO LONG’

“It’s a survivor.”

 

It was apparently planted by Keith Richards

[samhexum]

A tree grows in Queens — in the middle of the sidewalk.

Astoria residents are baffled over four trees that were planted smack in the center of the sidewalk on 29th Street, off of Broadway, on Dec. 26.

One of them was placed right in front of 31-38 29th St. and Erick Elias, the superintendent of the building, said he first got word of it when a tenant sent him a photo.

“The day after Christmas, he sent us a picture of it that said, ‘Did the landlord order a tree?'” he told The Post.

“So I went outside and was like, ‘Holy crap, it’s real. There’s a tree in the middle of the sidewalk.'”

Elias, 39, said three others were also planted on his block that day, also in the middle of the sidewalk, on the other side of the street.

“And apparently I’m hearing that it’s happening in a couple of other places in Astoria and also in Sunnyside,” he said.

About a week and a half prior, he heard what he thought was construction in front of his home one morning.

“At 7 a.m. on the dot, we started hearing jackhammering. When we leave to go to work, we see this dirt patch right in the middle of the sidewalk and we’re like, ‘What the hell is this?'” he recalled.

“We’re all thinking pipework or something. None of us are thinking ‘tree’ because it’s in the middle of the sidewalk.”

Neighbors have taken to social media to express their concerns with the out-of-place plantings.

“Anyone know why they’re putting trees in the *middle* of the sidewalk on 29th St in Astoria?,” @vidiot_ posted on X on Dec. 29 along with a photo of one, which is across from Elias’ building.

The conversation on X included a link to the Reddit discussion over the tree planted in front of Elias’ building, which started with a photo and the caption, “All about planting trees, but this seems a little odd.”

A Reddit user even found the permit for the tree pit, issued in November.

“Who approved this brilliant idea ?!?!!! Trees in the middle of the sidewalk??? WTF” Debra Roy Vecchio wrote on the Facebook group Astoria Centric, along with a photo of one of the trees.

“Absolutely ridiculous. This requires a lawsuit,” added Maria Dourmas Hriso Mallis.

“Public endangerment and the blocking of pedestrian sidewalk to start. Wheelchair and disabled endangerment. I’m sure there are tons of codes of infractions the city puts on owners that can be turned on the city.”

Others welcomed the natural additions.

“Trees are good. Calm down,” wrote John Mcgarry.

“It does not block the sidewalk. There is plenty of space on both sides for a person in a wheelchair to maneuver around,” added Alex Tinder.

“I think it’s a great idea. To discourage motor scooters and bikes on the sidewalk. Plus trees are good. And I can take my dog out without being too close to the road. I think it’s a win win all around,” said Samae Allred.

Elias said he and other Astorians have also been embracing the tree.

“I put a picture of Larry David on it because they didn’t put it on the curb, so [a reference to] Larry David’s show, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,'” he explained.

“And then some guy last night came over and put Fran Lebowitz on it.”

The trees were put in the middle of the sidewalk, instead of right at the curb, because of underground utility lines, the city Parks Department said.

While similar tree placements in other locations have been successful, we’ve heard from the community that we missed the mark with these four trees, and we will be relocating the trees to more appropriate locations,” said Parks spokesman Gregg McQueen.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/30/metro/residents-baffled-after-trees-put-in-middle-of-nyc-sidewalk/

[Guest]

If it falls on a passerby while no one is looking, does it make a sound?

[samhexum]

Here you can request our Gardener's Idea Book — it is a great way to get ready to garden this spring. While you are here you can also sign-up to receive our monthly gardening tips newsletter, Winners Circle® — it's filled with wonderful in-depth information that is timed for each season in the garden, and includes a new plant profile and plant combination recipe each month.

https://www.provenwinners.com/winners-circle

[+ nycman]

On 12/31/2023 at 2:18 PM, Km411 said:

If it falls on a passerby while no one is looking, does it make a sound?

If it happens in Queens….. no one cares.

grin

[samhexum]

57 minutes ago, nycman said:

If it happens in Queens….. no one cares.

grin

#*@< YOU, $&^*!

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By samhexum

Edited January 13 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!