The Botanical Gardens Receives Grant Funds from the John R. Oishei Foundation

The John R. Oishei Foundation has extended a generous core improvements grant to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens Society, Inc. in the amount of $200,000. The Botanical Gardens will use these funds to update its Strategic Plan and support the growth of educational programs and horticultural exhibit offerings.

The grant funds from the John R. Oishei Foundation will also help sustain and enhance the tremendous growth the Botanical Gardens has experienced in admission, membership, shows and events. By attracting new audiences and educating more children, the Botanical Gardens is properly positioned to evolve as the pre-eminent horticulture authority and resource in Western New York.

The John R. Oishei Foundation strives to be a catalyst for change to enhance economic vitality and the quality of life for the Buffalo Niagara region. The Foundation was established in 1940 by John R. Oishei, founder of Trico Products Corporation.

The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens Society, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing appreciation for and knowledge of plant life and its connection to people and cultures through its documented living plant collection, historic conservatory, education, research and exhibits.

Martha Stewart Mojito, Hands-On Plots at N.Y. Botanical Garden

Review by Robin D. Schatz

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- My first vegetable garden sprawled across our front lawn in suburban New Jersey.

My husband and I brazenly tended tomatoes, string beans and eggplants curbside, while our neighbors cut their weed-free grass. It was 1978 and we felt counterculture; they found us amusing.

These days, growing your own food is de rigueur, even patriotic (witness Michelle Obama’s organic garden on the White House lawn). So the timing couldn’t be better for the New York Botanical Garden’s new summerlong festival, “The Edible Garden.”

Vegetable and herb plants don’t have the inherent pizzazz of the botanical garden’s extravagant annual displays of, say, orchids or Dutch tulips. Still, the exhibits prove edible plants are pretty enough to put in plain sight, and the 250-acre spread, with many shady spots, is a fine place to stroll on a sunny day.

The botanical garden also has arranged guest appearances to spice things up. Martha Stewart has already visited, and still to come are cooking demos with Emeril Lagasse (Sept. 12) or Lidia Bastianich (Sept. 13). Bette Midler, champion of public gardens in New York, narrates the audio tour, along with chef Mario Batali.

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Green industry leaders announce 2009 George L. Good gold medal winner

The New York State Nursery and Landscape Association (NYSNLA) will honor Donald J. Leopold, Ph.D., Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, Director, Undergraduate Honors Program, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY‐ESF) this summer at its annual Award Ceremony presentation at the New York State Fair.

Each year, the NYSNLA George L. Good Gold Medal Committee makes its recommendation to the NYSNLA Board of Directors as to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to horticulture in the State of New York. “Dr. Leopold has made significant contributions to New York’s horticulture through his teachings at SUNY‐ESF and through his many years of promoting the use of northeastern US native trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses.” comments A. Martin Petrovic, Ph.D. (Department of Horticulture, Cornell University), NYSNLA Gold Medal Committee Chair. “The industry and gardening public has been afforded many trusted publications authored by Dr. Leopold including his comprehensive, best‐selling book Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation (D.J. Leopold, Timber Press, Portland, OR).” Read more>

Skyfarming

http://nymag.com

A Columbia professor believes that converting skyscrapers into crop farms could help reduce global warming and make New York cleaner. It’s a vision straight out of Futurama—but here’s how it might work.

Urban farming has always been a slightly quixotic endeavor. From the small animal farm that was perched on the roof of the Upper West Side’s Ansonia apartment building in the early 1900s (fresh eggs delivered by bellhop!) to community gardens threatened by real-estate development, the dream of preserving a little of the country in the city is a utopian one. But nobody has ever dreamed as big as Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental sciences and microbiology at Columbia University, who believes that “vertical farm” skyscrapers could help fight global warming.

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Flight of fancy - Vertical Farming

www.worldarchitecturenews.com/

John Edwards, Reporter

Dragonfly concept aims for ecological self-sufficiency in New York

The latest concept design from Vincent Callebaut Architects – the Dragonfly – has been designed with the intention of easing the ever-increasing need for ecological and environmental self-sufficiency in the urban cityscape. The proposed development, designed around the Southern bank of Roosevelt Island in New York, follows a vertical farm design which, it is hoped, would cultivate food, agriculture, farming and renewable energy in an urban setting.

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The Edible Garden, Summer-Long Exhibitions at The New York Botanical Garden June 27 through September 13, 2009

NEW YORK, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Set throughout The New York Botanical Garden's 250-acre landscape, The Edible Garden is a summer-long celebration of growing great food. Multiple exhibitions inspire visitors to grow, prepare, and eat garden-fresh produce and offer opportunities for children and adults to better understand how plants provide the food and drink essential to maintaining life, enhancing wellness, and sustaining the planet. Details can be found online at http://www.nybg.org/edible_garden/.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090624/NY37785)

Visitors to the Botanical Garden can enjoy two Festival Weekends--June 27 & 28 and September 12 & 13--that celebrate local, sustainable food choices and global cuisine, respectively; seven Thursday evenings, July 9-August 20, including wine and beer tastings, and food-related programming; and exhibitions such as Martha Stewart's Culinary Herb Garden, Beginner's Vegetable Garden, Seed Savers Heirloom Vegetable Garden, Tropical Fruits, Roots, and Shoots, among others.

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New Organic Vegetable Production Guides Now Available

Guides Assist Farmers Who Are Transitioning to Organic; Selling to Processors

ALBANY, NY (06/22/2009)(readMedia)-- New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker today announced the availability of organic production guides for growers of certain vegetable crops. The new guides provide information for farmers on how to grow organic carrots, peas, snap beans, and cucurbits, which includes winter squash and cucumbers, for the processing sector.

"There is a growing interest from food processors here in New York State to procure local and organically grown vegetables," the Commissioner said. "We also have farmers who are seeking to transition to organic production and are in need of specific information on how to grow certain crops. These production guides were developed in response to both of those desires and are the first in what we hope will be a series of useful and practical production guides for those seeking to transition into organic."

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New York Botany | Highline Planting

By Shonni Enelow
Photo by Iwan Baan

The Highline, New York City’s newest park.

In contrast to the typical city park, the Highline was built more to complement the city’s dynamism than to capture it. Not that there aren’t plenty of places to sit and admire the view, but the overall effect is absorbing, active and kinetic: a long-range view of the Highline’s flower beds may have the delicate detail of an impressionist painting, while the repetition of motif propels the visitor forward. And the horticulture was designed to bloom cyclically, so you can walk the promenade every week and see something different.

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New York City Flower Market Video

FineLivingNetwork

Commissioner Announces $900,000 for New York Specialty Crops

Grants for Fruit, Vegetable, Maple, Honey & Horticulture Producers

ALBANY, NY (06/18/2009)(readMedia)-- New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker today announced the availability of $900,000 in grants to enhance the competitiveness of New York's specialty crops. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program is funded through the 2008 federal Farm Bill to assist New York's specialty crops, which includes fruits, vegetables, maple, honey and horticulture crops.

"Specialty crops are incredibly valuable to the State's economy, environment and quality of life. The fruit and vegetable sector is especially important to maintain good health and other sectors help keep New York green," the Commissioner said. "We need to ensure that this industry remains viable and competitive, and these grants will provide an exceptional funding resource to explore new programs, technologies or other innovative approaches to advance this important sector of the State's agricultural industry."

This special allotment of funding in the Farm Bill will provide a minimum of $30,000 and a maximum of $200,000 for projects that enhance the competitiveness of New York's specialty crops. Eligible projects should address at least one of the following funding categories that were identified by the industry. They are: "buy local" packaging and labeling; distribution; education and outreach; environmental quality and conservation; food safety; food security; marketing and promotion; nutrition; plant health, pest and productivity challenges; product development; and international trade enhancement.

The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program will be awarded on a competitive basis and does not require matching funds. The program is open to all non-profits, for-profits, government entities, educational institutions and individuals. Applications can be downloaded at http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/AP/slide/SpecialtyCrop.html and must be received at the Department no later than July 17, 2009.

Specialty crops are generally defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture), herbs and spices. A detailed list of commonly recognized specialty crops is provided at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/scbgp.

New York State produces a wide range of specialty crops that include fruits and vegetables, wine, maple syrup, horticulture and nursery crops. Specialty crops generate $1.34 billion annually in New York and make up one-third of the State's total agricultural receipts. They also rank high nationally in both production and economic value. For example, New York is the second largest state in the nation for apples, cabbage and maple syrup; third for grapes and cauliflower; and fourth for tart cherries, pear, snap beans and sweet corn.

News from New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets
For more information contact: Jessica Chittenden, 518-457-3136