Perhaps I am being zelous, but the weather was beautiful on Saturday and I am feeling motivated.

So todays question... does anyone have an interest in getting together this year? I have to admit that the initial turn out was good, but the attandance quicky faded down to about 6-8 regulars.

If you are interested, would you prefer daytime trips or backyard gatherings hosted by our generous members? What are your places of interest? How about a casual gathering to discuss challanges and triumphs in our own gardens? or even a work session to help our friends out?

I am already planning on going out to the Peconic River Herb farm, Martin Vinette and am considering one of the Cherry Blossom festivals at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. On my work list for this year is to enlarge my front yard beds by 12-24" (This will envolve digging out the bad clay/sand and backfilling with top soil). I will also continue my endeavors to accquire more materials for composting and mulching. (Marci and I have been "stealing" bags of leaves from her neighbors- we got about 15 bags this past fall!)

So this is your opportunity to speak up... we welcome all folks interested in any aspects of gardening.

-Candace

Humes Japanelse Garden
October Trip 2006

I dont know where everyone else is, I saw Marci last week.

Hope the damage from dropping limbs was not bad. If you had a chipper, you could mulch those branches.

Nine peony? what colors did you put in? I have only the dark magenta. I am thinking about puting in Clematis this year. I have a front porch that it would really accent.

Maybe we should meet at a diner as an ice breaker for the year.

When I have a moment, I am going to post over in the New England forum and see if I can scare up any interested parties.

Candace

I am game for anything we can dream up. As most of you know from last year.

I will try and get a note out to my mailing list from last year about this posting over the weekend.

Hoping to see you all again, once we can put our snow shovels away.

Marci

-Lynn-

Glad to hear from you. Can't wait to see everyone again.

Candace

I'm baaacckk!! Under a new pseudonym that is. Had a bit of turmoil in that whole personal-life area. Because of this I've moved to a new little place which I rent. It has a great deck which will have to suffice as my garden for the next year or two. So container gardening it is!! I'm in for all the outings, and sorry for dropping off the planet last summer!! :P

Sylvia

We missed you! We lost contact with folks as the summer continued. Glad to hear you are okay and still around.

Containers... We could work on that. Last year Martin Viette had some great plants for containers. Lots of textures, colors and forms. We should put that on the list.

I was also thinking that we sould try Westbury Gardens this year.

-Candace

Westbury Gardens

Just a "lurker" from that state due West of you. . .and
tonight I stumbled across Candace's post on the
New England forum where I "lurk" (and participate) a lot
since I was born and bred a Yankee. . .and now I'm posting here, since I lived and gardened in Manhattan for MANY
years.

I was wondering if you folks were familiar with The Garden
Conservancy (based up the Hudson in Cold Spring)? Several
friends and I use their Open Days program as the ideal way
to make group trips to various private gardens up and down the East Coast. If this is something you don't know about, let me know here and I'll be happy to supply all the details. . .

And while we're talking garden touring, is anybody interested in some of the great gardens and/or nurseries we
are hiding here in the "Garden" State?

How far does the "metro" in NY Metro extend? Are most of
your posters just the City and LI? Curiouser and curiouser. . .

Carl

Most of the folks who have responded are from LI, quite a few from Suffolk County, some from NYC. We have not ventured into NJ yet, but always keeping our ears open for new opportunities. All it take is a few motivated souls to make a trip. We try to balance our trips to go in the direction of various members that way not one person has to travel more than others. We often will car pool or meet at train stations.

I am not familiar with the Garden Conservancy program. However if you would fill us in, it would be great.

Are you in NJ? I also have Yankee roots, but have been on LI all my life. (despite my occasional Boston twang) I have to admit that the New England Forum is more active lately.

If you are interested in contributing to our little group, perhaps we could set a trip to travel your way.

Candace

You'll find a link below, but very briefly, here's how it
works. One of The Garden Conservancy's missions is to preserve exceptional gardens across America and make them
available to the general public - everything from the
remarkable gardens of Alcatraz (yes, "The Rock") in San
Francisco bay, to Stonecrop Gardens up the Hudson (the home
of TGC) and Steepletop, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's
garden in Columbia County, NY (there are simply dozens of others all over the country). Another important mission
of the Conservancy is to encourage the idea of gardening by
exposing people to actual gardener's gardens - hence, the Open Days program. Early each Spring, a series of regional
directories is published ($6.95); in it are listed the
days that selected gardens (mostly private and therefore
generally never available to the public) will be open - the
admission fee is $5 per garden, but members can knock that
down to $2.50, by buying books of tickets in advance. Most,
but not all, Open Days, take place on week-ends, with
several gardens in one town or county being open similtaneously so you can really "make a day of it". . .
In reading their newsletters over the winter, I'm getting
the impression that they may be cutting back on the sheer
number of gardens they offer (the logistics must be staggering!). . .that being said, last year there were 26
Open Days in New Jersey, 106 Open Days in New York ( of
which, 24 were on Long Island and another 31 in Westchester
County), plus still another 55 all over Connecticut. Do
you begin to understand why I get so psyched up about this organization? Glutton that I am, last year I managed to
drop in on over 30 gardens through this program, in seven
states. . .and it practically begs to be a "group" activity!

Just out of curiosity, have you done any garden trips in
New York City itself? Being a gardener, and having lived
there for so long, I made it a point to discover some of
the truly extraordinary gardens available in all five boroughs. How about daytrips to extraordinary nursery
destinations, like White Flower Farm in Litchfield, CT or
Well Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, NJ or Matterhorn
Nursery in Spring Valley, NY?

Cheers, Carl

P.S. Candace, betcha my Boston twang is broader than yours!

Judy

Carl- maybe it is just my NY upbringing, but you do type a mile a minute!

I did check out the conservancy site, there are 3 sites open out in the hamptons April 28th weekend. Unfortunately that is also the weekend of the Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival)at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.
http://www.bbg.org/exp/cherries/sakura.html

We will have to keep an eye out for these Conservancy opens... We have been to several arboretums on LI and the Peconic River Herb farm. We will have to consider some of the places you mentioned and appreciate the input.

We will continue to post our plans here on the web, so feel free to jump on in!

Candace

Here I sit in the heart of Monmouth County, just
12 miles from the Shore - now, Budd Lake, there's some more
interesting terrain, rather like my New England home turf!
And Well-Sweep Herb Farm, which I mentioned above, is just
15 miles west of Budd Lake. . .

Carl