Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

It’s widely known that regular exercise contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases associated with aging and helps maintain an independent lifestyle. While many seniors find regular exercise boring and inconvenient, gardening is a popular leisure activity of this population. Researchers at Kansas State University wanted to see if gardening alone can supply the recommended amount and intensity of exercise needed for seniors to stay healthy.

Researchers randomly recruited seniors from Manhattan, Kansas, and investigated the exercise intensity of nine different garden tasks: gripping, stooping, lifting, stretching, walking, standing, kneeling, sitting, and squatting. They regularly measured heart rate, oxygen usage, energy expenditure, bone density, and hand strength.

Results indicated that the nine gardening tasks gave seniors low to moderate physical activity and met the recommended 30 minutes of daily moderate physical activity. Participation in gardening was found to be a predictor for leading a physically active lifestyle and for high life satisfaction in older adults.

For more information on this study, go to: Kansas State University.

If your county program goals include reaching the older adult audience or you’d like to do more in this area and get funding to do so contact Lori so we can talk more about possibilities.

Are you thinking of engaging youth in a gardening project? Check out the fun they had with this one out of VT….

When did kale become so cool? At Burlington’s Intervale Center, the Healthy City kids are growing vegetables, becoming farmers, volunteering in their community, working a summer job and changing the world, weed by weed.

check out this video documenting their experience:

http://www.7dvt.com/2008intervale-centers-healthy-city.

How this for getting the message out about gardening?

Roger Doiron Founding Director, Kitchen Gardeners International created this YouTube video about the “Eat the View” campaign to turn part of the White House lawn back into a productive landscape.

What clever campaigns might we think up for our local goverment?

What’s green, very cool, easy to make, and can transform your world? Living sculpture, of course! We’re launching a new website that introduces young people and their leaders to the leading edge in gardening and the environment.

What is living sculpture?
It’s sculpture created with living, growing, or recently harvested plants. It can be functional and/or ornamental.

What comes to mind when you think of sculpture?
Chances are, you may think of something made from clay, plaster, glass, bronze, or even, plastic. Sculptors through the ages have traditionally worked with media such as these. Although sculpting plants isn’t a new idea (think bonsai or topiary), its recent rediscovery by artists, horticulturalists, gardeners, and young people has given living sculpture an innovative popularity.

Living sculpture offers a highly appealing blend of art and science. On one hand, you’re creating a piece of art. It’s creative, it may be whimsical, and will surely stand out in your backyard, park, school, or community center. Creating a living sculpture gives you the chance to bring your own unique vision or idea to life (literally!) On the other hand, this piece of art is alive! The plants you use are a vital part of your sculpture. Those plants have needs that must be met to keep your sculpture alive, and may require special horticultural skills, such as grafting, to create the art.

How is the project set up?

Our web-based project guide introduces easy activities that you can do in an afternoon, and more challenging community projects to create over time. Videos and images provide inspiration. You’ll find guides to making many projects, from sod furniture to topiary and mowing patterns. Visit us! http://www.hort.cornell.edu/livingsculpture

What leaders are saying about Living Sculpture:

“It’s exciting to see that the gardening community has produced something revolutionary for a change.”

“The kids got so creative and wanted to keep going and going. We will be doing more projects along this line!”

“I’m always pleased to see the sod sofa in use. Yesterday morning when I came out of Gimme Coffee I saw a woman reclining on it reading a book. It’s certainly not just for kids.”

Visit our site!

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/livingsculpture

Questions? Contact: Marcia Eames-Sheavly, ME14@cornell.edu

Here’s a Cornell site you might refer those garden enthusiast who are thinking they like to turn their hobby into an enterprise.

New Website Caters to Beginning Farmers

“What are my marketing options?” “How can I finance my farm start-up?” “What should I grow on my land?” If you have questions about starting a farm or are considering diversifying your farm enterprises, the new NY Beginning Farmers Resource Center at http://beginningfarmers.cce.cornell.edu can offer you information and inspiration to help you begin.

This interactive website offers a forum where new farmers can swap ideas and stories and ask specific questions.

It also contains lessons that walk new farmers through the steps of starting a farm business, including setting goals, evaluating land, and learning about markets and regulations. Online worksheets embedded in the farm planning lessons allow new farmers to respond to questions and apply what they learn to their own situation, then download their completed worksheets for later use in a business plan if desired.

The Frequently Asked Questions section is a treasure trove of information on the farm-start-up process, with responses to the most commonly-asked questions like “Where can I find a grant to start my farm?” and “What regulations apply to me?”

Visitors can also peruse the events calendar, get connected with agencies that can provide personalized assistance, download the Guide to Farming in NY, and find production information on our sister site at the Cornell Small Farms Program. Visitors seeking advice and inspiration will find it in the Voice of Experience section, which contains articles by and about successful farmers in NY.

The site was developed by the NY Beginning Farmer Project, which is working to build the Grow Local movement to support the Buy Local movement. The NY BFP is funded by the NY Farm Viability Institute and Cornell Cooperative Extension and is a project of the Cornell Small Farms Program. Please visit the NY Beginning Farmer Resource Center online at http://beginningfarmers.cce.cornell.edu.

Thanks!
Erica
–
Erica Frenay
Cornell Small Farms Program
NY Beginning Farmer Project Coordinator
162 Plant Science
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-9911
http://beginningfarmers.cce.cornell.edu
http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu

Check out this Growing Green Lawns factsheet(pdf).

It was produced by the Northeast IPM community horticulture work group.

Tell us what you think of it by sharing a comment below.

Useful piece for your lawn care audience?

Mark Whitmore, Department of Natural Resources, has prepared a ppt on EAB which he uses with community groups to discuss some of the issues and he hopes cooperative extension personnel might find useful. Mark does not take specimens for identification - these go the regular route, in this case, through the Department of Agriculture and Markets who may forward them on to the Insect Diagnostic Lab at Cornell if they are suspects.

Please note, the most current map of EAB infestation can be found at:
http://www.emeraldashborer.info/map.cfm

EAB presentation (pdf)
Contact Max Welcome (mw45) for the powerpoint version available from our CCE Community Horticulture Resource Library.

On line registration will begin on or about August 20, 2008.

http://www.unce.unr.edu/imgc/

If you or your volunteers are planning to attend FYI Lori. It would be great to hear how they thought it went and we might be able to offer a tiny “scholarship” if anyone was willing to give back something concrete to our NYS program based on what was learned at this conference.

CCE educators ….Here’s you opportunity to have your spectatcular volunteer nominated for outstanding contribution to your program and the community.

It’s time to begin work on applications for the International Search for Excellence awards. Search for Excellence is the recognition program of Master Gardener volunteer work throughout the United States and Canada. Master Gardener Volunteers will need to write the application but these must be approved by an Extension staff member.

Application deadline is October 1, 2008.

Awards will be presented at the International MG conference in Las Vegas, March 22-26, 2009.

For an application and information about the awards- visit our national Master Gardener site on eXtension at:

http://www.extension.org/pages/IMG_Search_for_Excellence

Join us for a special celebration!

Bob Beyfuss is retiring at the end of the year after more than 30 years with Cornell Cooperative Extension! We hope you can join us to celebrate a career that has left an indelible footprint on Greene County, the Catskill region and beyond.

Friday, September 19
4:00 –7:00 p.m.
Siuslaw Model Forest
(Across from the Agroforestry Resource Center)

Please RSVP by September 10 returning this form (pdf)

Angela Tallarico
Senior Extension Administrator
Cornell Cooperative Extension Greene County
Agroforestry Resource Center
6055 Route 23, Acra, NY 12405
Phone: 518-622-9820 X21