Upstate Gardeners' Journal

07/19/2025

This is so simple — Turn off your lights! If you feel that you have to have outdoor lights always on, put them on motion sensors. This way you will have light when you need it but they will not on 100% of the time. You can also have fixtures and bulbs that are Dark Sky Compliant - they cast light down in a tighter circle rather than illuminating everything including the sky.

It’s National Moth Week! Did you know that moths are the largest group of night pollinators? Moths pollinate flowers, aiding seed production and supporting thriving ecosystems.

Let's be mindful of artificial light at night to protect these night workers by following the Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting at Night.

Visit https://bit.ly/4d61AtX for a video by about how artificial light impacts moths.

07/17/2025

TRAILING VINES: New idea this year...start to document the small life, specifically the insects, that I share my space with. I suspect the results may be surprising and that the biodiversity may say a lot about the results of my actions over the last 25 years. They are not always the easiest to capture on digital "film" but it will be a fun project. And I will learn more about the other side of native plant gardening, the insects that they have a relationship with.

These two small visitors were enjoying wild fleabane at my place on July 4th. iNaturalist says the one is a North American Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris) and the other is a Georgia Mason Bee (Osmia georgica). I'm not by any means positive but the nice part about iNaturalist is that the community helps to verify the id -- or not as they may suggest something else.

If a Tarnished Plant Bug, that seems to be a fruit crop pest -- hmmm, who would have thought? It was kind of a cute bug!

And the Georgia Mason Bee, which there are many iNaturalist observations of them on flea bane and it seems like a good visual fit, is a species imperiled in NY State. The NY Natural Heritage program gives them a S2 or S3 rank and says: "Imperiled or Vulnerable in New York - Very vulnerable, or vulnerable, to disappearing from New York, due to rarity or other factors; typically 6 to 80 populations or locations in New York, few individuals, restricted range, few remaining acres (or miles of stream), and/or recent and widespread declines. More information is needed to assign either S2 or S3."

If it is indeed this kind of bee, my little patch of dirt could make the difference to this tiny bee continuing to live in NYS. It made my heart sing to see that! What life does your little patch support? Find out! 💚

Kimberly Burkard, Upstate Gardeners' Journal

07/17/2025

07/16/2025

Interested in public gardens leadership? Check out this great program at Longwood Gardens.

A yearlong residential learning experience designed for those who have a passion to lead in a public horticulture environment.

07/15/2025

With our garden season in full bloom, we want to give a heartfelt thank you to the many sponsors, funders, and supporters who help make all of this beauty possible!

Looking for maps? Stop by one of our garden center sponsors to pick up your Open Gardens WNY, Garden Walk Buffalo, or East Side Garden Walk map—and don’t forget to show them some love while you’re there!

07/10/2025

TRAILING VINES: Years ago, when my husband was healthy and still with me, he sought to put make things easier and neater for me between my very large and raised veg garden beds. He put down landscape fabric, put mulch over the top and was happy with the result. As he w**d whacked between the beds, I didn’t care one way or another but I knew this was an “I love you” gift he was doing and appreciated the gift as intended. A number of years later, he thought that rototilling the beds would be better without the logs that made them. I was tickled to get rid of them/the raised beds! He hired a local guy with machinery to pull out the logs and move them elsewhere on the property.

I couldn’t have been happier! Those raised beds were a pain and I had even more space for veg! Oh…that damn landscape fabric was miserable to remove. He removed what he could but so much of it incorporated itself into the soil and had roots holding it in place that it was next to impossible to get it all. But since he buried it all a topsoil compost mix, we thought it was ok. Every summer while working in the veg garden, I curse that fabric. I’m still, all these years later, pulling it out. And as noted, the soil underneath is absolutely degraded. My advice, skip the fabric. Pull or whack the w**ds as needed, but skip that damn fabric! It and the cockroaches will survive the Apocalypse!

Kimberly Burkard, Upstate Gardeners' Journal

07/10/2025

07/10/2025

Tonight’s full moon is often called the “Buck Moon”, the name hailing from Native American tribes who noticed that July’s full moon coincides with the antlers of male deer at the peak of their growing, after their annual shed.

Pictured is Charley’s “Limpkin”, original gouache on artist board and seen here, one of his hand-pulled vintage silkscreen prints. Link in bio for the entire Ford Times silkscreen series. Waitlists available for all pieces.

“Because he walks with a slight limp, the Limpkin is called the Limpkin. This does not mean that he is crippled, however, as all Limpkins limp. But for some reason he is not satisfied with his lot in life, so he broadcasts his banshee wail of woe to the marsh-world in the still of the night. This has earned him a reputation as the crying bird. He is also a noted gourmet; a pile of empty apple snail shells identifies his favorite dining-out spot.”
-Charley Harper, “Birds and Words”, 1972. Book also available on our website!

Limpkin facts from our friends at Cornell Lab of Ornithology that Charley was cheekily communicating above:

•The Limpkin’s bill is uniquely adapted to foraging on apple snails. The closed bill has a gap just before the tip that makes the bill act like tweezers. The tip itself is often curved slightly to the right so it can be slipped into the right-handed curve of the snail’s shell.

•The outermost flight feather (primary) in Limpkins is sickle-shaped but broad at the tip, and is especially pronounced in males. This feather can be used to make a loud buzzing sound called winnowing when the bird flies, and this sound is apparently used to mark territory, even at night!

07/10/2025

Feeling this! 🤣

Outta control 😩

07/08/2025

🌻 Read the July-August UGJ online today! -