Events

Seed workshop and exchange with Alyssa Wisehart and Gerry Gogel. Bring your local native seeds to exchange and learn how to pot and cold stratify them so that you will have seedlings this summer. There will be plenty of extra seeds available for anyone who would like them. Alyssa Wisehart is the horticulturist at Spring Farm Cares Nature Sanctuary and a WOMV member. Gerry Gogel is a long time gardener, WOMV member and retired Professor of Chemistry at Colgate University. RSVP to [email protected]

Janet Allen will discuss the process and rewards she and her husband experienced creating ponds and streams themselves for their properties. Janet is president and co-founder of the local Wild Ones chapter Habitat Gardening in Central New York (HGCNY). She is a past member of the Wild Ones Board of Directors. John is involved in the annual plant sale and in other HGCNY activities.  Members of the public who wish to attend should email [email protected] by Monday, March 20th to receive a Zoom link. Please indicate your local WO's affiliation.

We will finish planning our summer events and discuss starting a community pollinator pathway. Open to WOMV members 

 Whether you have a problem area in your yard, need suggestions for deer resistant plants, want to know where to buy native plants,  or have your shovel ready to convert your whole yard, bring your questions and share your knowledge and experience at this informal session. New members are especially welcome. Open to all in the Mohawk Valley area. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88176346695

Volunteer Work Party to help a member prepare a bed for a native plant garden

Ernest Williams, Hamilton College Professor of Biology Emeritus, will lead us on a tour of this rare inland pine barren. The blue lupine (Lupinus perennis) should be blooming! The native lupines are essential to the survival of the endangered frosted elfin butterfly. In an effort to encourage the frosted elfins and to perhaps one day become habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly, quite a bit of effort has been spent on managing wild blue lupine which is the larval host plant for both.  Please RSVP for specific parking directions. We rarely do this, but attendance is limited so if there are large numbers of RSVP’s, preference will be given to dues paying WO’s members. [email protected]

Join us for a tour of WOMV officer Steve Orvis’ gardens followed by a discussion of how to design a new native garden for a 50 x 70 ft section of Steve’s yard. WOMV officers  Amy Funkhouser and Maggie Reilly will discuss the design process and finish with an initial site design sketch. Amy has designed native gardens for F.T. Proctor Park and the Utica Zoo. Maggie is a knowledgeable gardener with many years of design experience.  RSVP [email protected]

Volunteers wanted to help the Utica Seed and Weed Club plant a new all native garden at the zoo! Come to the zoo's main entrance and tell them you are there with the Seed and Weed Garden Club to volunteer. Once through the "gate" follow the main path straight towards the back of the zoo, look for the blue pop up near the bathrooms. Call Amy at 434-987-6085 if you need help. Please bring a trowel and gloves if you have them. DATE CHANGED from June 1st(too hot for people and plants.)

Educational Tabling Event at the Dolgeville Violet Festival

WOMV will have an educational booth at the violet festival. If you’d like to volunteer, please email [email protected]

NOTE: The forecast is for a break in the rain today, 6/14, between 2 and 5 pm, so we will hold this event as scheduled. We are so thrilled that we now have a local native nursery that we are doing a group visit on the opening day! The nursery owner is WOMV member Alyssa Wisehart, who is also the horticulturist at Spring Farm Cares Nature Sanctuary. And WOMV members will receive a 10% discount! If you are not able to attend, the regular hours will be  Wednesday 2pm-6pm and Saturday 2pm-6pm. Other arrangements upon request. You may request the list of available plants.  The nursery has a tent outside but no indoor space so is closed in the event of heavy rain or thunderstorms.

Work party to remove multi-flora rose from a homeowner's property.

We have a display promoting native plants and WOMV in the cases at the NH Library. Check it out if you are nearby!

Educational display of native plant books and resources at the New Hartford Public Library for the month of July.

Come help one of our members who has been unable to do her usual weeding this year. As always, you’ll also get an opportunity to see natives growing in a local yard. Bring work gloves and a weeding implement if you have them. RSVP to Jennifer at [email protected] for address.

Bring a friend and visit five yards in the New Hartford/Clinton area that are transitioning to predominantly native plants! The tour showcases the many different ways to transition a yard and gardens to native plants. Some of the homeowners are long time gardeners with extensive traditional gardens which they’ve revised to incorporate many, many natives. Other homeowners have focused on converting lawn to pollinator gardens and will show how they achieved the conversion and the certifications that you can achieve. The garden tour is open to all; it will be followed by a potluck in Rome from 4-7pm for members.  Please RSVP to [email protected] for exact addresses for tour and for potluck. 

Come help one of our members with her second year pulling swallow wort on her property. The patch is in a wooded area, so it will be nice and shady.  Swallow-wort is an invasive species that crowds out native plants of much higher value to wildlife and insects. A square meter stand of swallowwort is capable of producing 1000-2000 seeds per year, which are then dispersed by wind. Bring work gloves and a weed digger if you have them. RSVP to Jennifer at [email protected] for address

We will be transplanting our small seedlings to larger pots to ready them for the WOMV plant sale which we will again hold in August at the Clinton Art and Music Festival. Many thanks to Alyssa of Wild Ginger Farms for growing our plants from seed to this point. If you can help with the transplanting, please rsvp to [email protected] 

Tim McCay, a biologist with Colgate University, and his students are looking for property owners interested to better understand the earthworms in their gardens. Tim studies invasive "jumping worms" and how they are colonizing gardens and moving out into natural areas. Garden visits in the Utica/Clinton area can be scheduled for July 20. Visits usually take 20 minutes and involve a brief interview and hand sampling of earthworms. Participants are given a report of their earthworm inhabitants and advice on management, if appropriate. The visit takes about 20 minutes per property. We ask that landowners be present when we do the survey. We also need access to a hose for washing boots (to avoid moving critters in between gardens).

 If you are interested in having your yard surveyed, please RSVP to [email protected] and include your address and text number. If you already know that jumping worms are present in your yard, please include that information as well. 

Show Me/Help Me tours are a great way to see natives in a homeowner’s yard and to meet and learn from other WOMV members. This homeowner would like suggestions about spacing, maintenance, and groundcovers. 

Description from the homeowner:

 A little over a year ago my neighbor and I started digging and planting native garden beds in my backyard.  Since then we’ve planted about 100 individual natives in 9 beds. My primary goal is to nurture Mother Earth’s environment, the birds, butterflies and bees.  Some valuable side benefits : it enhances the view from my windows, it’s educational, it’s exercise with a purpose, it’s creative and it sure feels good!  Come and see!

RSVP to Jennifer at [email protected] for address.

Incoming Hamilton College students will work with WOMV members to weed the North Circle at FT Proctor Park while learning about how native plants contribute to biodiversity and sustainability. Weeding will be followed by a tour of a member's yard.  Contact [email protected] for more information.

Over the last 25 years, Janet and John Allen have transformed an ordinary suburban lot, replacing all of the lawn with native plants, trees, groundcovers and food crops. They also have two ponds and a hedgerow. Janet is a co-founder of Habitat Gardening in CNY and a former board member of the national WO’s organization.

Description from Janet:

Our yard is more than just a place to sit and relax, more than just a garden.

It’s a living landscape: a habitat where birds, butterflies, bees, toads, and other little creatures can find food, water, cover, and a place to raise their young. A place where there are no pesticides or herbicides that would harm these creatures or people.

It’s a place that’s full of life — a very exciting place to be!

It’s the kind of place you, too, can have in your own yard, whether you have a small urban space, a medium-size suburban lot (such as ours), or acreage in the country. Featured at ourhabitatgarden.org

RSVP to Jennifer at [email protected] if you’d like to visit on the 23rd or another day.

Native plant sale at the Clinton Art and Music Festival

Volunteer to help or invite a friend and visit our second annual plant sale. We’ll once again be selling six packs of pollinator plants for a spring, summer and fall bloom. The plants will come with a design for a small stand alone garden or can be incorporated into an existing bed. Thanks to Wild Ginger Farms for once again growing our natives! (If you want more than a 6 pack of plants, make a stop at the farm. Check hours.) RSVP to Jennifer at [email protected] to volunteer.

Wild Ones Mohawk Valley will have an educational table at this event. Contact [email protected] with any questions or to volunteer.

Friday, September 15th, 10:30 am , Show Me / Help Me Tour in  Barneveld

Show Me/Help Me tours are a wonderful opportunity to see native plants growing in a home landscape  and to talk to others interested in native plants. RSVP to [email protected] for address. 

Work party at member's yard to plant a new native plant garden.

Join Wild Ones Honorary Director Heather Holm as she explores the nesting habitats, life cycles, pollen collection, brood rearing, and general characteristics of some of the most common native bees in eastern North America, while highlighting the pollination of native plants and the mutualism between native plants and native bees.

When creating and managing thriving habitats for native bees, many factors such as seasonal phenology, nesting strategies, and flower preferences must be considered—and with approximately 3,600 species in North America (north of Mexico), there are many unique aspects to keep in mind when managing successful landscapes for bees. 

This audio/video presentation by Matt Perry features close up views of dozens of seldom encountered bird species that inhabit some of the at-risk mature forest ecosystems of Central New York. Elusive resident songbirds like the Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, and Hooded Warbler will be shown. Please join us to learn about these amazing species, hear their unique and beautiful songs, and find out why preserving their habitat is so crucial. 

Matt Perry is the Conservation Director and Resident Naturalist for Spring Farm CARES in Clinton, NY. There he oversees habitat restoration projects at a 260 acre nature preserve. He is President and Cofounder of the Utica Peregrine Falcon Project and the former Region 5 Editor of “The Kingbird” which is a quarterly journal published by the New York State Ornithological Association. Matt also writes nature-themed articles for Mohawk Valley Living Magazine.

In person at the Kirkland Town Library (upstairs) Feel free to bring a friend.

Come and help lay down cardboard and wood chips for the planting bed for the first Microforest in New York State. The New Hartford Rotary club’s environmental group has a grant to plant a micro-forest of native trees. Veteran’s Memorial at Routes 5&12, New Hartford. Bring gloves, rake or a shovel if you have them. Work will go on until finished.

Traditional turfgrass lawns provide little benefit to native biodiversity, are significant sources of air and water pollution, and require huge investments of time to maintain. In a world grappling with the climate crisis, every action counts, and adopting a new lawn paradigm that champions native biodiversity in your own backyard is a powerful way to take control of your environmental impact. In this enlightening webinar, we will discuss a visionary lawn paradigm shift - one where lush, low-growing native grasses and forbs take center stage. As featured in the recent New York Times article by Margaret Roach, this webinar will explore the journey behind Cornell Botanic Gardens’ native lawn, from its inception to the multitude of benefits it brings, and the invaluable lessons it has taught us. Host Kevin Moss will be joined by Todd Bittner, Director of Natural Areas, and Krissy Boys, Horticulturist and Educator. https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M63JyY_BTci6ihNlrjclZw#/registration

Join us for an enlightening webinar featuring authors, Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, as they present their latest book, "The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants." This comprehensive compendium is a treasure trove of knowledge for gardeners looking to incorporate native prairie plants into their landscapes. Neil and Hilary will delve into the making and application of this essential guide, sharing rich historical and ecological insights about prairie ecosystems, all while showcasing stunning images of prairie flora. 

A presentation by the Wild Ones national organization: Join an enlightening webinar featuring authors, Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, as they present their latest book, “The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants.” This comprehensive compendium is a treasure trove of knowledge for gardeners looking to incorporate native prairie plants into their landscapes. Neil and Hilary will delve into the making and application of this essential guide, sharing rich historical and ecological insights about prairie ecosystems, all while showcasing stunning images of prairie flora.  Submit your questions! Because webinar host Doug Tallamy will be leading a Q&A at the end.

WOMV Annual Chapter Meeting 

Only official dues-paying Wild Ones members may attend chapter meetings and vote in elections. Our email newsletters and other presentations and events are open to everyone. The annual meeting will be followed at 2pm by "The Little Things That Run the World" presentation which will be open to all.

 “The Little Things that Run the World” presented by Janet Allen.

 People know pollinators are important, especially since we depend on them for much of our food, but pollinators have a larger role in the world beyond our farms. And we’re now finding alarming declines in the kinds and sheer numbers of all insects, the foundation of the food web. Learn how you can support these “little things that run the world” in your own yard — and why it matters. Janet Allen is president and co-founder of the Syracuse Wild Ones chapter Habitat Gardening in Central New York (HGCNY). She is a past member of the Wild Ones Board of Directors. Open to all. RSVP to [email protected] for Zoom link.