Tag Archives: CCE Suffolk

The Horticulture Diagnostic Lab Can Help!

Do you have questions about gardening? Need a soil test? Want help identifying plant pests or diseases? Wonder what kind of insect or tick you’ve found? The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Horticulture Diagnostic Lab can help! Our Horticulture Consultants can assist with plant problem diagnosis, pest identification, and general gardening and landscaping information. You can reach them through Call-In Help Lines, or stop by in person. There are two locations in Suffolk County:

Cornell Cooperative Extension
Extension Education Center
423 Griffing Ave, Riverhead, NY 11901
Open year round, Monday-Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm
Call-in help line: 631-727-4126; 9:00am-12:00pm

Bayard Cutting Arboretum
Montauk Highway, Great River, NY 11739
Open from April 27-October, Thursdays and Fridays only, 10:00am to 4:30pm
Call-in help line: 631-581-4223; 8:45am-11:45am and 1:00pm-4:00pm

Click here for more information about the Horticulture Diagnostic Labs.

You can also find many great resources here: http://ccesuffolk.org/gardening.

Also, check out this article from the Northforker on the lab!

Register for Spring Gardening School

Join us for Suffolk County’s annual Spring Gardening School on Saturday, April 22, 2017, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Organized by Master Gardener Volunteers for the last 35 years, this beloved event kicks off the growing season for hundreds of gardeners who gather together for a day of learning and fun.

Spring Gardening School 2017 will be held at Longwood Senior High School in Middle Island, NY. All classes are taught by Master Gardener Volunteers and Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators. The day consists of workshops held during three sessions and offers classes for beginners to advanced gardeners. This year a keynote address on “Long Island Native Plants and Pollinators” will be presented by Polly Weigand, Executive Director of the Long Island Native Plant Initiative. You can sign up for such classes as Gardening with Chickens, Design & Install Drip Irrigation, How to Attract and Enjoy the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Low-Water Gardening, Seed Starting Demystified, and many, many more.

The fee to attend is $65 per person ($60 early bird, before March 1st), which includes free soil pH testing, a Long Island Gardening Calendar, a plant diagnostic clinic, gardening exhibits, and an early plant sale from some of the finest nurseries on Long Island; continental breakfast, delicious boxed lunch, raffles, and door prizes. Preregistration is mandatory; first come is first served. Here is a registration form with a full schedule of classes and their descriptions for you to download and send to us. We look forward to seeing you there!

Creating a Rain Garden

Do you want a garden that’s easy to install, looks good year-round, requires little maintenance, and helps prevent water pollution? Rain gardens are shallow depressions designed to soak up water and support trees, shrubs, and flowers that tolerate both wet and dry conditions. Often located near gutter downspouts or places where water puddles, rain gardens can also be landscaped into gentle slopes or run curbside along streets.

Giant hyssops, switchgrass, and goldenrod are some of the species growing in this rain garden at Cornell Plantations in Ithaca, planted next to its parking lot to absorb and clean polluted storm-water run off. Photo

Giant hyssops, switchgrass, and goldenrod grow in this rain garden at Cornell Plantations in Ithaca, planted next to a parking lot to absorb and clean storm-water runoff. Photo © Robin Simmen.

By absorbing the rain falling on your land, a rain garden can help reduce the storm-water runoff that pollutes our beaches, harbors, and estuaries. People sometimes confuse rain and water gardens. A rain garden is not a pond and won’t breed mosquitoes, which require 10 to 14 days in standing water to develop from eggs into adults.

The next time it rains, observe the direction of water runoff and where it collects on your property. Your roof may be directing most of the rain falling on it into gutters and downspouts feeding into a storm drain; if so, consider diverting this lost rainwater to irrigate a rain garden via underground piping, or construct a surface swale to channel this water to the garden. If your land slopes gently, you can create shallow terraces (one foot deep or less) for your rain garden or dig out a scallop-shaped bed for it in the hill.

The best plants for rain gardens are happy with a “drought and drench” lifestyle. Native plants are highly recommended because they are uniquely adapted to local weather fluctuations. Also, they require little or no fertilizer, are excellent food sources for pollinators, and provide habitat for birds, insects, and butterflies. Once established, their deep roots increase the water-holding capacity of the soil, hold it together, and prevent erosion. Water a rain garden as needed for the first year or so after planting. By the third year, you’ll never need to water it again!

For information on how to evaluate and amend your soil for a rain garden, do a percolation test to see how quickly water is absorbed, decide the dimensions of a rain garden, and prepare and plant the site, read the CCE Suffolk fact sheet on Creating a Rain Garden, and its companion  Native Plants for Long Island Rain Gardens.

Robin Simmen is a former Community Horticulture Specialist for CCE Suffolk. She can be reached at rlsimmen@gmail.com.

Register Now for Spring Gardening School

Join us for Suffolk County’s annual Spring Gardening School on Saturday, April 16, 2016, 8:30 a.m to 4:00 p.m. Organized by Master Gardener Volunteers for the last 34 years, this beloved event kicks off the growing season for hundreds of gardeners who gather together for a day of learning and fun.

2016 poster Spring Gardening School 2016 will be held at Patchogue-Medford High School in Medford, NY. All classes are taught by Master Gardener Volunteers and Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators. The day consists of workshops held during three sessions and offers classes for beginners to advanced gardeners. New this year is a keynote session with an address on Grow More with Less: Sustainable Gardening Methods by Vincent Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum. You can sign up for such classes as Choosing the Right Trees, Gardening with Chickens, Design & Install Drip Irrigation, Pruning Roses & Hydrangeas, Seed Starting Demystified, and many, many more.

The fee to attend is $65 per person, which includes free soil pH testing, a Long Island Gardening Calendar, a plant diagnostic clinic, gardening exhibits, and an early plant sale from some of the finest nurseries on Long Island; continental breakfast, delicious boxed lunch, raffles, and door prizes. Preregistration is mandatory; first come is first served. Here is a registration form with a full schedule of classes and their descriptions for you to download and send to us. We look forward to seeing you there!

Robin Simmen is Community Horticulture Specialist for CCE Suffolk. She can be reached at rls63@cornell.edu or at 631-727-7850 x215.

Sample Soil Now for Healthier Landscapes Next Year

Spring is by far the busiest time for gardeners. Between selecting plants, starting seeds, and preparing beds, we often forget about what’s basic: the soil. Suddenly remembering, in April gardeners furiously submit handfuls of soil to our Horticulture Diagnostic Lab for testing, expecting immediate turnaround, and then realize, “What!? It takes how long for limestone to change the pH of my soil!?”

This is why autumn is the perfect time to start preparing your gardens for the growing season ahead. Submitting soil samples to us now allows you enough time to collect your samples properly, understand the test results, and if you need to make amendments to the soil, time for them to activate before next spring.

Using a soil auger makes collecting samples easy, but a trowel will work just as well.

Using a soil auger, shown above, makes collecting samples easy, but a trowel will work just as well. Photo by Robin Simmen.

Maintaining the proper soil pH is just as important for maximum crop yields as fertilizing, watering, and pest control. The decision to add lime to raise the soil pH and the amount to apply must be based on a soil pH test and the crop species to be grown. Do not guess. Some plants, like rhododendrons, azaleas, and blueberries as well as other members of the Ericaceae family grow best in acid soil (pH 5.0). Most vegetable garden plants grow best in soil with a pH in the 6.2 range. The recommended range for a lawn is between 6.0 and 7.0.

Instructions for taking a soil sample

First determine how many samples to take. Different gardens/beds, lawns, areas with different soil types, places where such amendments as limestone were added, areas with plants having different pH requirements, and good/bad areas should be sampled separately as described below:

  • In gardens or areas planned for new plantings where the soil will be turned under or rototilled, individual samples should be taken from the upper 6 to 8 inches of soil.
  • In established plantings or lawns where the soil won’t be turned under, individual samples should be taken from the upper 3 inches of soil.
  • Each soil sample should be comprised of 5 to 10 individual samples obtained by walking back and forth diagonally across the area to be sampled.
  • Use a trowel to dig a small hole to the desired depth. Remove a slice of soil from the entire side of the hole and place this in a clean plastic container. Repeat this procedure at each of your 5 to 10 random spots, and place the soil from these spots in the same container, discarding any stones, grass, or other debris.
  • Next, remove two 8-ounce cupfuls of the soil in this container and place them in a plastic bag. Secure the bag. This is your soil sample for that area. Mark the outside of the bag with an identification (i.e. #1, #2, or “A”, “B”, or “East”, “West”). Keep the identification simple.
  • Repeat this entire procedure for each additional garden, landscape bed, and/or lawn area you wanted tested.

You can find soil testing submission forms to accompany your samples on our website at http://ccesuffolk.org/agriculture/horticulture-diagnostic-labs. The cost of a soil pH test is $5 per sample; if you submit five or more samples, they cost $3.50 each. Mail or drop off your samples at 423 Griffing Avenue, Riverhead, NY 11901. Our office hours are Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Sandra Vultgaggio is Horticulture Consultant for CCE Suffolk. She can be reached by email at sib7@cornell.edu or by phone at 631-727-7850 x387.

Managing Landscapes Sustainably

Remember when autumn meant making a pot of soup, pulling out the leaf rake, and spending an afternoon raking leaves into backyard piles for kids and dogs to enjoy? Life in the fast lane has changed all that, degrading the quality of life on many fronts. According to Quiet Communities –a national non-profit organization dedicated to protecting our health, environment, and quality of life from the excessive use of industrial outdoor maintenance equipment—tasks once done manually are now often done with gas-powered machinery. A manicured aesthetic has become the new norm in many communities that barely tolerate even small amounts of leaves or debris. As a result suburban landscapes have lost critical “messy” habitat that insects and other vital species need to live, leading to a loss of biodiversity.

No one wants to breathe in the polluted air created by gas-powered leaf blowers. Photo c Quiet Communities.

No one wants to breathe in the polluted air created by gas-powered leaf blowers. Photo © Quiet Communities.

The deafening roar of gas-powered leaf blowers (GLBs) has replaced the “woosh, woosh” of the rake, and painful noise is just a small, if most noticeable, part of the trouble GLBs cause. Their motors send particulate matter into the air at 200 m.p.h., spewing forth dust, mold, pollen, pesticides, rodent feces, lead, arsenic, other heavy metals, fertilizers, fungicides, and herbicides right into our lungs. These particles aggravate asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and allergies; in fact, particulates have recently overtaken second-hand smoke as the second greatest cause of lung cancer after smoking.

One GLB produces as much smog as 17 cars and blows 5 pounds of particulate matter into the air per hour, affecting the air of 8-14 neighboring properties. “Every time the leaf blowers are in our neighborhood, my son starts wheezing and has to use his inhaler,” said one father in Huntington, New York. Those are just a few of the reasons a group called Huntington C.A.L.M. (Citizens Appeal for Leafblower Moderation) has formed to educate local citizens about the harm caused by unregulated two-stroke Gas Leaf Blowers. The group’s goal is to limit the use of GLBs by commercial landscapers during summertime when more people are outdoors. Suffolk County received a grade of “F” for air quality for the last 14 years, and this group hopes to improve our air by placing a summertime restriction on GLBs in Huntington.

To learn more about how you can make healthier landscape decisions, come to CCE Suffolk’s Managing Landscapes Sustainably conference in Ronkonkoma on November 12. One of the speakers includes Jamie Banks, PhD, MS, Executive Director of Quiet Communities, an environmentalist and health-care scientist dedicated to promoting clean, healthy, quiet, and sustainable landscaping and agricultural practices.

Robin Simmen is Community Horticulture Specialist for CCE Suffolk. She can be reached at rls63@cornell.edu or at 631-727-7850 x215.

Welcome to Long Island Gardening

CCE Suffolk Community Horticulture is happy to launch this blog dedicated to the delights and concerns of gardeners on Long Island, New York. Our long growing season, sunny skies, temperate climate, and generally well-drained soils make this a wonderful place to grow plants. No wonder Suffolk County is New York’s top producer in terms of agriculture and horticulture sales. Some of the country’s bestselling nurseries and vineyards are located here, too.

Long Island also abounds with gardens of every sort—public, backyard, community, school, edible, ornamental, and wildlife habitats in many shapes and sizes—and this blog is designed for the gardeners who care for these spaces. Our goal is to serve your needs and interests by bringing you research-based information to improve your gardening experience on Long Island. CCE Suffolk Long Island Gardening is a forum where CCE Extension Educators, Horticulture Consultants, and Master Gardener Volunteers share their recent field experiences with you to help make Long Island a greener, healthier place to live.

Master Gardener Volunteers use drought-tolerant plants to beautify Medford Train Station.

Master Gardener Volunteers use drought-tolerant plants to beautify the Medford Train Station.

Here you’ll rediscover some of the most beloved features of the old Long Island Gardening Quarterly (formerly published by CCE Suffolk), including the question and answer format of its “Horticulture Inquiries” column. So please keep your questions coming! Email them to Robin Simmen, Community Horticulture Specialist, at rls63@cornell.edu or to anyone who posts on this blog about horticultural subjects of interest to you.

To receive the latest information as posts are added, subscribe to the blog by adding your email address above on the right side. A link to the blog is also nestled on the CCE Suffolk Gardening webpage for easy connection: http://ccesuffolk.org/gardening.

Happy gardening!

Robin Simmen is Community Horticulture Specialist for CCE Suffolk. She can be reached at rls63@cornell.edu or at 631-727-7850 x215.