| PLAINFIELD: School receives grant for gardening program
PLAINFIELD-- The King's Daughters Day School has received a grant from the New Jersey School Age Care Coalition to continue a student gardening program for children ages 5 to 12 enrolled in the school's after-school and summer camp programs. Last summer, through a partnership among the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County, the Union County Master Gardeners, 4-H and Bartells Garden Center, the Day School children had an agricultural experience raising tomatoes, cilantro and squash right on the grounds of the school on Front Street. The choice of vegetables was in response to the children's desire to grow a "pizza garden."
Jim Nichnadowicz, a 4-H agent with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension program, has agreed to mentor the group again this year and help the children grow a variety of vegetables and herbs.
Gardening show set in Ulster
STONE RIDGE - "Fearless Gardening: We'll Show You How!" is the theme of this year's Garden Day 2007, hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County's master gardeners. The program, featuring 16 hands-on and how-to classes, will be held April 28 at Ulster County Community College. Keynote speaker Tim Steinhoff will present "Bringing It All Together: Ingredients for Creating a Made-To-Measure Garden." Steinhoff, a horticulturist, consultant and garden designer for the past 25 years, creates and maintains public and private landscapes in New York City and the Hudson Valley. He most recently redesigned the landscape at the Wallace Visitor Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park. Other speakers include Sally Spillane, host of WKZE's Gardening Show, and environmental horticulturalist Diane Olsen.
Planter Box, April 13
Periwinkle (Vinca minor): A stalwart of the shade garden, periwinkle creates a dense, ever-expanding carpet of deep green leaves. In spring, this ground-hugging perennial produces pretty, five-lobed lavender flowers. Some varieties sport white or reddish purple blossoms, while another breaks the monotony of deep green with variegated leaves striped with yellow. Periwinkle is invaluable as a carefree ground cover in tough, dry areas in all but the deepest shade. - Rob Proctor BOOK OF THE WEEK Cursed with a black thumb? You need Gardening Basics for Dummies by Steven A. Frowine (Wiley, $21.99). This thick paperback walks you step-by-step through topics like getting ready for gardening, selecting plants, improving your lawn and creating vegetable beds. Color photographs, illustrations and humor encourage you along, while warning symbols help you avoid common problems that caused you frustrations in the first place.
Spiritual argument wins wind farm case
Opponents of a wind farm planned for a ridgeline west of Hawke's Bay are celebrating after winning an Environment Court appeal. Hastings-based lines company Unison was granted permission by Hastings District Council to add 37 turbines to 15 for which it already had consent along the Te Waka Range skyline, around the Titiokura Saddle on the Napier-Taupo Road. But the Environment Court said the cumulative visual effects of the 37 extra turbines and another 75 turbines to be built alongside them by Hawke's Bay Windfarms would be excessive in a sensitive and distinctive landscape. The extra turbines would also go against Maori spiritual values, including the site's history, water and sacred areas. Unison said it was disappointed and would appeal. Environment Court judge Craig Thompson said "it was impossible not to absorb some of the depth of emotion expressed ...
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