THE TAOIST TAI CHI GROUP OF NORTHVILLE

Terry Frank opened her house to our Tai Chi group in June so that we could all get together and say a huge THANK YOU to Margreet Monster who has been the leader and very patient instructor of our group for many years.



We meet at the BCON building every Monday and Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. Margreet leads us in yoga and Tai chi exercises for a half an hour and them we perform two sets of the 108 moves of Tai Chi. Margreet gives private instruction to beginners and those of us who want and need to perfect our moves at 8:30 a.m. Come see what we are all about.



Since ancient times, Taoists have been renowned for the cultivation of health and harmony in both body and spirit. To make the benefits of this tradition available to people everywhere, Master Moy Lin-shin, a Taoist monk, founded the International Taoist Tai Chi Society in 1970. Since then, members in 27 countries have found the Taoist Tai Chi™ Internal Arts of Health to be profoundly effective for people of all ages and abilities.



Margreet, we are so lucky you are willing to share your time and your knowledge and, from all of us, a very big thank you.

SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

Bonnie Preston was our featured speaker last month and we had a great time listening to all her advice with what to plant and how to design our areas. She showed us photographs of some of the gardens she has designed and they were gorgeous. Thank you Bonnie for a really interesting meeting.

As we are going out and buying annuals for our garden, here are a few tips to keep them in tip top shape for the season:

• Prepare the soil by cleaning out all the weeds and adding organic matter.

• Purchase annuals without flowers so that you can enjoy the blooms longer. Choose shorter bushy plants because the larger ones are more established already and may not transplant as well. If you do buy plants that have flowers already, pinch them off to encourage the plant to develop good roots first. Pinching out the first flowers will also result in bushier plants.

• A dark green color is generally a good indicator of a strong healthy plant. (Make sure that they are not light colored or yellowing. Nor should they have brown patches)

• Plant to the depth they were in the six packs and water them in thoroughly. Go back the next day and water again. Do not rush to plant them outside, wait until the night time temperatures are in the 50Fs. Remember that our last frost date in Fulton County is around the last week in May. Cool weather annuals such as alyssum and pansies can be set out earlier but impatiens will sulk if put out too soon and they may not recover.

• Keep up with watering, plants usually need about one inch of water a week but those in containers may need to be watered daily or even more than once a day.

• In early summer as the plants start forming flower buds begin a fertilizer program using a balanced formula such as 10-10-10. Read the label and apply as the manufacturer suggests throughout the summer and early fall. If you have some annuals that are slow to flower use a formula such as a 15-30-15 to stimulate flower production.

• In midsummer annuals with lots of tiny flowers such as alyssum start to look a little ragged and they will benefit from being cut back by a third to a half. Use this technique for alyssum, coreopsis, bachelor’s button, snapdragons and sweet William. Give them a dose of liquid fertilizer and they will set new buds very quickly. If your petunias are starting to get leggy with blooms just at the ends try cutting them back by half, they will also set out new growth and flowers and you will have a more compact plant full of flowers in no time.

• Deadhead your plants. Although there are annuals that are self-cleaning (begonias and calibrachoas for example) most will bloom better if you take off the dead flowers regularly. Pinch by hand or use sharp scissors or pruners and remove all the stem to keep the plant looking tidy.

• Towards the end of summer let some of your plants go to seed. Cut off the dead zinnia, marigold and gazania flowers and store them in a paper bag to reseed next year. If they are hybrid plants they may not come true to the parent but flowers are welcome in all colors and sizes – and the butterflies love them. Let the seeds of cosmos fall to the ground where they will sprout next year.

Come see our flower show at the Northville Public Library on June 8, 9 and 10. Our theme is ‘Flower Arranging by the Books’ and features arrangements inspired by Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Pinochoccio by C. Collodi, Charlotte’s Webb by E.B. White and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Our members are very talented so come, learn and enjoy. As always, we thank Michael Burnett our Library Director for agreeing to host our flower show.

On June 2 our club will be taking a trip to tour Tom and Kathy Oughton’s gardens in Ephrata, we will have lunch and install our officers for the coming year before our hiatus in the summer.

As always, questions and comments can be sent to POBox 675, Northville NY.

NORTHVILLE COMMUNITY GARDEN

Planting has begun! During May many people showed up to clean up the garden and start spreading the compost that was left over from last year. Later in the month we had our first planting day when we planted the early season crops such as kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, etc. On June 4 we will have our second planting date to put in the warm season crops such as tomatoes, basil and squash. Come and enjoy the fun.



For all who have volunteered, please check your schedules to see when you have signed up for watering and weeding. These tasks do need to be kept up with so the garden looks good throughout the summer. If any of you bag your grass clippings – and do not use any herbicides – we are happy to use them as mulch in the garden. You can drop them off just inside the gate and we will take care of them.



Starting June 16 we will harvest crops weekly and deliver to the BCON building and the Reed Street food pantry. And in July look for us at the Farmers’ Market in Northville. The money we make from selling our produce provides the seed money for next year.



Our garden is located behind the Bradt Building, 412 South Main Street, Northville. It was started by the Girl Scouts in 2009 and they have created a beautiful and productive garden. We, as volunteers, are happy to reach out and help them.

SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

The Sunday Leader Herald published an interesting article in early April that was written by Dean Fosdick of the Associated Press. I thought this was well worth sharing with you all and it is entitled 10 common gardening mistakes.

Gardening is a forgiving hobby. You can always right any wrongs next growing season. The best way to prevent problems though, is with good planning. “Designing from the top of your head may work, but things most likely will work better if you write it down and do a simple drawing” said Jack McKinnon, a garden coach from San Francisco. “Think before you plant”. Most gardening failures result from simple things, he said. “like people who don’t fertilize, or if they do, put on to much. The same goes for people who don’t understand watering or add too much. Many tend to do their pruning with power tools and then overdo it”. Here are ten common gardening mistakes and ways to avoid them.

One: neglecting soil preparation. Test plant beds before you begin and again every few years to see if soil conditioners are needed. Add sand or peat moss to compacted, poorly drained ground to improve its
structure and encourage root growth.

 Two: Overplanting. Design with the size of mature plants in mind. Try succession planting in which early, cool-weather crops are harvested before later, less hardy plants reach maturity.

Tree: Flawed feeding. “mulch plants and they’ll be so much happier” said Tia Pinney, adult program coordinator at the Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, in Lincoln Ma. “Supplement your soil, don’t just fertilize it”


Four: Improper watering. Too much water can be just as damaging as too little. Do a finger in the ground test to ensure the soil around the roots is most. Vegetables need about an inch and a half of water a week.

Five: Wrong location. Growing conditions change as trees and shrubs mature, creating different shadow patterns. Most plants need six to eight hours of sun a day to develop.

Six: Improper pest control. Don’t kill the good bugs, like pollinators, in an effort to eliminate the bad. “one thing we hear a lot is an attitude of ‘All I have to do is spray and that will cure it” said Mary Ann Ryan, master gardening coordinator with Penn State, Cooperative Extension in Adams County, Pa.

Seven: Faulty maintenance: Don’t set your cultivator (or hoe) too deep, damaging plant roots. Pull some weeds by hand.


Eight: Over pruning. As a rule, don’t remove more than 30 percent of the foliage from shrubs in one cutting. And don’t ‘top’ trees to control their height. ‘That reduces their life span rather than improves their health”, Ryan said.

Nine: Botched planting. Choose the right plant depth. “I know of one property where they put a tree with its root ball on the surface of the ground and then mulched around it up to the level of the trunk”, Ryan said. “People don’t know how to plant”.


Ten: Failing to start over. “Oftentimes, people let diseased things grow that should be pulled out, and it affects the health of the entire crop”, McKinnon said. Start with a small plot so you can correct mistakes more easily, the experts say. And look to your county extension office for support if you run into trouble. Garden coaches also can diagnose problems and suggest remedies, as can master gardeners and landscape designers.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, May 5 when Bonnie Preston will discuss what makes a good design and will talk about how to handle those small and awkward spaces that pop up in our gardens.






As always if you have questions drop us a line at POBox 675, Northville, NY 12134.

SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

We had a really interesting meeting in March thanks to Jim Hoffman of Sand Flats Orchard. He talked about how to prevent many of the diseases we have in our gardens right from the start. Choosing the seed is important because many companies are providing seeds that have built in seed resistance. He discussed many aspects of vegetable growing and of course, since Sand Flats is a big orchard, he was able to help us with many questions about fruit trees. We were delighted to have him visit and share his expertise. We are also looking forward to visiting his operation both in spring when the greenhouses open in late April and again in the Fall during apple and pumpkin season. Do check out his website at http://www.sandflatsorchard.com for all their offerings.

We still need patience in the garden at this time of year, most of our area has had at least four feet of snow over our gardens and the soil will take time to warm up. Still you can take advantage of the cool weather to finish up any tree pruning that needs to be done and for using a dormant oil spray on your fruit trees to control insect infestation if you need to. Try to wait for a day above 40 degrees F and spray on a day without wind. Both these chores should be done before the buds start to swell. When the snow has gone – it will won’t it? move the winter mulch back from the crown of the plants and you can also fluff up the mulch which makes it look better and may mean you won’t have to spend money to lay down more mulch this season. As the buds begin to swell on your roses get out your clippers and prune the hybrid teas. Cut just above an outward facing bud so that new canes grow out from the center of the plant. Cut off any dead tissue, any stems less than a pencil width and any branches that cross each other.

Feed your roses with a shovel full of compost or if you prefer a granular feeding of a balanced fertilizer such as a 10-10-10. Check for any perennials that have heaved out over winter and gently push them back into the soil. Start your spring clean up and when you are cutting back your perennials take the material to your compost pile to make black gold for next year. I do compost over winter and I have a bucket that I keep outside my back door.

Unfortunately my neighbor, Chloe, a gorgeous short haired pointer also loves my compost bin and she has a fantastic sense of smell. She and I have words about whose compost it is and why she should not toss it all out of the bucket and she listens to me with her tail wagging a mile a minute and next day comes back and does it all again! So far, she is winning but then again maybe I shouldn’t encourage her with dog biscuits!

If you didn’t add any organic matter to your veggie garden in the Fall then by all means do it now. Depending on the weather and soil temperature you should be able to plant peas from seed around mid month and maybe you will be able to put in some of your cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings late in the month. Even if you buy your transplants do take the time to make sure they are hardened off before setting them in your garden. Many of the transplants are grown in greenhouses and may not be ready for our harsh climate without being introduced to the cool air a little bit at a time. Take them outside during the day and set them in a sheltered spot for about three hours. Do this for three days and then increase the time they spend outside by a couple of hours a day. Gradually move them into brighter sun until after about 10 days they can spend the whole day outside.

I’ve been hearing more birdsong in the last few weeks; I think some of the birds have started to migrate back to us. Food will be slim for them with all the snow around so keep your feeders filled. They will have nesting in mind so clean out your bird boxes; most birds prefer an empty bird box rather than using some other bird’s nest. Also take your suet feeder, clean it up and fill it full of dryer lint, pet hair, scraps of cloth and any other nest building material you can think of.



As you know Cornell Cooperative Extension moved recently and their new address is 50 East Main Street, Canajoharie, NY 13317. The phone number is 518-673-5525 and the Master Gardeners can be reached at that number.



Our next meeting is on April 7 when we are having a teaching session on flower arranging.



As always if you have questions drop us a line at POBox 675, Northville, NY 12134.

NORTHVILLE GIRL SCOUTS COMMUNITY GARDEN

As you may know a couple of years ago the Girls Scouts started a community garden behind the Bradt Building in Northville. This project came about because the Girl Scouts discovered that the local food pantries were experiencing a significant increase in families needing assistance due to the overall poor economic conditions. After talking with various local groups the girls also discovered that there was a lack of fresh vegetables available and thus the idea of a community garden was born.



The goal is to provide the opportunity for many Girl Scouts and other members of our community, to learn the essential skills of growing food, to provide for people in need, to convert the garden into a ‘sustainable garden’ and to make our community as well as the world a better place.



There are 12 beds with at least two dozen varieties of vegetables which are harvested weekly and delivered to the food pantries. To help make the garden sustainable, the girls also sell the produce at the food markets in Northville.



This year the Girl Scouts are reaching out to the community as a whole and asking for our help. The need is great and during the summer months there is a lot of produce to care for, harvest, wash and deliver every week. If we can get many volunteers to give just two hours a month then our big garden becomes easily manageable. Please come to our open meeting on April 15 at the Methodist Church in Northville at 5:30 p.m. Meet some new friends and even if you don’t know a shoot from a root you will find there are plenty of ways you can help.

SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

Oh March when winter is slowly relinquishing its grasp suggesting warm days and sunny skies ahead. I have started quite a few perennial seeds for my garden. Those that take months before they can be put in the garden but now is the time to think about starting vegetable seedlings. I am sure you have had your seeds in a cool dry place over winter, sorted and catalogued so that you know which seeds performed well for you. If so you are better organized than I am! Seeds can be saved from year to year and you can germinate most seeds even if they are some years old.

Corn, onions and leeks, parsley, parsnips and peppers have a good life span of about two years. Beans and peas, the cabbage family, carrots, eggplant, the squash family and tomatoes will hold for about four years and cucumbers, lettuce, melons and spinach can last up to five to six years. If you are in any doubt test the germination percentage before you plant. Take ten seeds from your packet and spread them on a wet paper towel. Put them in a paper bag and leave it at room temperature for up to two weeks. If only one or two seeds germinate then you need to buy more seed but if six or seven germinate then you’re good to go. If you have seeds that didn’t germinate well then sow them more thickly then you would normally to make up the difference.

Our frost free date is around the end of May so if you are thinking about starting seedlings now you need to count back from the frost free date to see when to start your plants. Most seed packets give you good growing information including when to start the seeds in relation to the time to transplant. Tomatoes, for example, need about six to eight weeks of growing before transplanting outside so there is no point in starting them early unless you have very good growing conditions indoors. A small transplant will catch up very quickly to one held inside for 12 weeks so you won’t lose out on your early crop by delaying your seed starting.

Seeds from the cabbage family can be started now because they can be planted out before the frost free date. If they are sufficiently hardened of, they can withstand a light freeze and the plants grow better in the cool, bright days of spring. Parsley, onions and leeks are also good seeds to start now. Remember too, that you don’t need to start a lot of seeds at a time. Think ahead, what are you going to do when you have twenty heads of lettuce ready to pick? Can you really eat 12 heads of cabbage in a week? So plant a few seeds now, and in a couple of weeks start some more. That way you will have plants maturing over the season and your neighbors will thank you for not dumping pounds of said cabbage on their door step in the middle of the night.

As the snow finally melts away and your soil begins to dry out run a hoe over the garden to cut off the early weeds. If you do this every couple of weeks and then use a mulch over your garden during the growing season you will have far fewer weed problems than usual. You will know when the soil is ready to be worked if you pick up a clump of soil and try to crumble it in your hand. If it stays a sold wet mass then leave well alone. You want a clump of soil that separates easily. It’s a good time to get your soil tested too to see if you PH levels are within range.

As we and our pets start to spend more time outdoors remember that ticks are active on warm winter days even when we have snow on the ground. So be sure to check them and yourself when coming inside. Warm water doesn’t kill ticks effectively on your clothes but an hour in a hot clothes dryer will kill them.






Our Garden Club meets on Thursday, March 3 when Jim Hoffman of Sand Flats Orchard will talk to us about understanding the insects and diseases we get in our vegetable garden.


As always if you are interesting in joining us or have a question just drop us a line at POB 675, Northville NY 12134.