© 2015 Queensview Aesthetics & Gardening Committee and Marcmandy Design

Donations Help the Garden Grow

The first stages of Queensview’s garden-improvement program have been funded by donations from members of the Garden Committee (well over $1200 thus far) and from other cooperators who are eager to speed up the beautification of the gardens. Donations of any size can be submitted to the Queensview office, with checks marked specifically to be used for the garden project. All contributors will be acknowledged by name in Greensview (unless they requested anonymity). Gradually, plants will be added to beautify all ten acres of our gardens.

Donations of some plants can also be accepted, but only if those plants can be positioned into appropriate locations in the gardens. In the past some plants were placed in less-than-ideal situations, where they fared very poorly. Please do not add plants to the gardens yourself. Only Queensview’s groundskeepers may do the planting, under the direction of the Aesthetics and Gardening Committee. Questions about selecting appropriate plants to be donated can be directed to committee member Suzanne Cherney at (239) 331-2858 or PeterSuzanne2@hotmail.com.

The Compost Bin is Created

Within the hedge-enclosed area west of the basketball court, Queensview’s hard-working groundskeepers have installed a large bin for developing compost. That’s where all the dead leaves and falling bark raked from the ground are being placed, instead of being carted away. There, nature will decompose the material to create beneficial compost for use in the rest of Quensview’s gardens. The compost will eventually become nutritional organic soil which will enrich the existing soil on the property. We will then be spending less money buying bags of soil and chemical fertilizer, relying instead on nature’s own way of feeding her plants.

Special thanks to John Colligan
for the use of his wonderful image as our background!

Things I have heard while Walking the Grounds

Maureen Rosen

 

“I don’t live here but I love to walk through. Your new garden is just delightful”

“I didn’t like the change at first, but I do now”.

“What an ugly mess. Half the plants are dead And nothing is lined up. It’s all straggly”.

“Where are the pretty pink things?”

“No don’t touch. The pretty flowers are for everyone to enjoy”

“Why didn’t you make it into a rock garden?”

“Why is there so much bare space?”

“How nice that something is being done to improve things”

“Every day as I leave for work, I stop and look at the garden and it makes me smile”

     Well, as you can, tell it is going to be impossible to please everyone.  The visitor is welcome and will perhaps bring friends. She is already pleased.  The Lady who thinks it is an ugly mess, unfortunately will never be pleased.Her vision of a garden is different. She likes tidy rows of neat plantings and we have a different vision. The Lady with the small child is very welcome. Her child is learning a lesson about sharing that will stand her in good stead throughout her life.  For the Lady that wants “the pretty pink things” . Unfortunately those particular plants developed a virus ,so were not a viable choice this year. Beside which, they were expensive. Buy them , plant them, dig them up & throw them away every year, not at all cost effective.

     Why is there so much bare space? Well that’s easy. It isn’t finished, it is a work in progress and there are many more plants on order were added in the fall. Most of the plants are in their infancy. Some will die back in the fall to be replaced by others. Some will regenerate in the spring,bigger, better and brighter.

Autumn Compost Update

We were  lucky enough to be visited by Jeremy Teperman & Marguerite Manela , of the NYC Compost Project in Queens. They are with the NYC Dept. of Sanitation’s Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse & Recycling, which, in turn, is connected with the Queens Botanical Garden. After that long introduction, these two very nice people came to us (free of charge) to advise us about our compost project.

Guess what?   We are doing really well!  They were very impressed with both the size and condition of our Compost pile.  We are advised to split our really big pile into three narrower ones, for ease of reach. And instead of adding to our existing pile, we should start over creating a new one. That way , the first one is almost ready for use as the new one begins to ‘cook’.

Toni Ceaser is responsible for reaching out and obtaining this assistance. She is also responsible for the large buckets of used coffee grounds added to the leave & grass clippings that we are using, Courtesy of STARBUCKS.

Eventually we will have good rich soil all around our buildings!