Pollinator Garden Talk:
Planning your Garden Q&A with Experts
Thursday, May 7th
7 - 8pm
Zoom Webinar
Register Here
Need help planning your pollinator garden? Want to incorporate more native plants into your existing landscape? Need help getting rid of those pesky invasives? These questions and so many more will be answered Thursday, May 7th from 7 – 8 pm during Woodstock NY Pollinator Pathway’s Pollinator Garden Talk: Planning Your Garden Q&A with Experts. Join a conversation with ecological gardeners Del Orloske, Angela Sisson, and invasive species expert Dan Snider about how to plan your pollinator-friendly garden. The experts will field questions about getting started with native or ecological planting. Some key points they’ll focus on include: analyzing the current site conditions of one’s landscape; starting small by taking baby steps into a landscape project, and landscaping for pollinators. Register for the free program here.
Del Orloske M.A.L.D., B.E.S. received his graduate degree in sustainability and land planning at the Conway School in Massachusetts. A consultant for landscape architects, wetland scientists, engineers, both in New York State and Connecticut with a focus on mitigation, restoration and stormwater management using native plants.
Angela Sisson has been involved in ecological landscaping using native plants for over fifteen years. After receiving a degree in landscape design from the Conway School, she developed a special passion for wildflower meadows and enjoys helping others who are interested in learning about native meadows and how they support pollinators.
Dan Snider is Field Projects Manager with the Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership a program of the Catskill Center. He assists with local education and outreach projects related to invasive species. Snider attended the University of Maryland at College Park, where he received a degree in Ecology and Evolution. Originally from Bowie, Maryland, Dan interned for four months with the National Park Service in New River Gorge, West Virginia releasing Laricobius nigrinus and controlling invasive species.
Want to make sure we answer your question?
Send it in advance of the event to
woodstocknypollinatorpathway@gmail.com
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What's Next?
Some things you can do in the next week or two:
Now is the perfect time to decide if you have a portion of lawn that can be left unmowed.
Take into consideration:
- Allow the lawn to grow except near your usual pathways or areas of recreation, providing further protection from the ticks.
- Each yard will be different if you let a mowed area not be mowed. One troublesome issue is invasives. Keep an eye out for japanese stiltgrass, mugwort, garlic mustard (already evident in early spring), and ground ivy. More likely, you will see dandelions and local plants flourishing when there is no mowing. It’s fun to make a record of what comes up without mowing. To avoid the larger invasives, it’s a good idea to mow once in the fall after the frost.
If you wish to eradicate a section of lawn.
You can stake down newspapers or cardboard (avoid waxed cardboard) being sure that the paper products overlap. You are preventing sunlight from reaching the grass. The newspaper should be about twelve pages thick. Water the paper or cardboard. Cover the paper materials with mulch. If done in the fall, the grass will be killed by spring. If done in the spring, the time needed to kill the lawn will vary but will take months. You can pull up a corner and take a look.
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Top left: Mugwort. Top right: Janpanese Stiltgrass.
Bottom left: Garlic Mustard. Bottom right: Ground Ivy
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Start Planning:
- Join our May 7th, 7-8pm online garden planning discussion with a panel of expert gardeners and an invasives specialist.
- Call tree companies to ask if they might be able to drop wood chips at your place if you want to eradicate a section of your lawn. There are over eight tree companies working in the Woodstock area.
- Buy either seeds or plugs for plants you want to plant in May. You can consult the website: Bringingnaturehome.net to find out which plants are most beneficial to pollinators and grow in your area. Click here for a list of local nurseries and online suppliers.
- Spring is a good time to make an overall plan for what you might do towards creating a pollinator pathway. Everything from sharing with your neighbors to making a long term plan that can happen at your own pace would be useful. You can plan over time and not make the project overwhelming at one time.
- During this pandemic, sharing pollinator species and goals with your neighbors is a great way to be in touch with social distancing and share a goal for the future.
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Your Questions Answered
Question - Herbicide alternatives to control weeds in a stone garden path?
I want to maintain a clean look to my stone garden path, are their alternatives to using herbicides for the weeds that come up between the stones of my garden path??
Answer:
There are several alternatives to using herbicides to keep weeds out of stone garden paths. The first alternative is to use garden cloth. You can place garden cloth under the pathway to prevent weeds from growing up in between stones. Over time weeds can begin to grow above the garden cloth so our experts recommend using garden cloth in combination with stone dust to backfill the spaces between the stones, with this method even if weeds do pop up between the stones they are very easy to pull.
Another alternative is a vinegar solution spray. The high acidity vinegar is good for spot killing of unwanted "weeds". This method has been used on an aging asphalt driveway to kill off stuff moving into little cracks (and making them bigger cracks). The acidic vinegar is also good for spot killing small amounts of poison ivy (not established big vines). The solution can be mixed in a hand pump sprayer to manually apply to unwanted small patches of weeds. We recommend wearing gloves for application.
This DEC webpage is a great resource for how to landscape sustainably including information about the damaging effects of herbicides.
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What's blooming now?
Enjoy a short video created by Dan Snider of CRISP/Catskill Center about Dutchman's Breeches an early blooming native pollinator-friendly wildflower.
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Why sharing our pathway efforts with your neighbors matters!
The Woodstock Pollinator Pathway's main goal is to build a "pathway" of closely connected pollinator-friendly habitats, neighborhood by neighborhood. Many pollinators cannot fly far without access to food and shelter. And our individual yards are part of a larger ecosystem that pollinators need to move around in. A pathway creates connected pollinator-friendly areas in our own and our neighbors' yards. It is vital to our efforts to ask you to speak to your neighbors and encourage them to join this effort.
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Do you need help from an expert?
Del Orloske, an experienced local gardener with deep knowledge of pollinator preferences, offers an hour-long site analysis of your garden to the first four applicants living within 10 minutes drive of Woodstock.
Del will provide ideas and possibilities for native plants appropriate to your site based on what you want to achieve. He will assess sun, soil, and drainage and take into account any input/ideas you provide (garden’s historical background, etc.). He will identify any invasives you might want to remove and native plants you might not know you have.
Del recommends you take notes and photos during the visit. He asks that you maintain social distance during the visit and he will wear a mask.
To request a visit, email Ellie Reese (ellier.wlc@gmail.com) and provide your contact information. Ellie will arrange the scheduling—appointments will be Saturdays and Sundays.
Del requests a donation to cover his expenses, sliding scale of around $15-20 (his normal fee is $75.
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