CCESO Garden Project

Pretty with a Purpose

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
COOPERSTOWN

Members of the public gathered under cloudy skies and scattered showers on Thursday, July 27 to celebrate the completion of phase one of the “Grow with Cornell Cooperative Extension Garden Project.”

Master Gardener volunteers guided between 20-30 visitors through garden beds constructed earlier this year dedicated to pollinator plants, native plants, deer resistance plants, potpourri flowers, and vegetables grown in raised beds to launch the new garden learning and activity center at CCESO’s Education Center at 123 Lake Street. Featured All-American Selection beds showcased new plant varieties chosen for outstanding garden performance in the region by professional horticulturalists, as well as vegetables and flowers from Cornell’s Vegetable Variety Garden Trials.

According to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schoharie and Otsego Counties Executive Director Liz Callahan, the new Garden Activity Center offers tangible opportunities to engage the public in the layers of work that the organization’s Master Gardener volunteers, 4-H youth development staff, nutrition educators, and agriculture and food systems teams are doing through a nurturing and contemplative garden that all are welcome to visit and enjoy.

“We began planning for a reconfiguration of the parking lot into a place of learning through gardening in the fall of 2013,” Callahan explained. “The first step was to conduct a design charrette which allowed us to assess needs and order priorities for the space.”

According to Master Gardener volunteer and former CCESO board member Pati Drumm, the Board of Directors kicked off a public campaign in 2020 to raise money to start the garden project, when promised funds from New York State got tangled in red tape.

“The strong, positive response gave us the wherewithal to engage a contractor and move forward,” Drumm said.

The push to complete the project continued in 2020, when Master Gardener volunteers were offered an opportunity to obtain rough cut larch timber from a local woodlot.

“It was purchased, stored, and dried at Mohican Farm, and ultimately used to construct the raised beds on the garden today,” added Peter Coleman, current chair of the Master Gardener volunteers Grounds Committee.

Both Drumm and Coleman played major roles in the Garden Activity Center, Callahan said.

“As Master Gardener volunteers, both Pati and Peter have completed extensive training and have logged the required volunteer hours,” Callahan continued. “Pati was instrumental in visioning, planning, and fundraising, while Peter had an important role in oversight, problem solving, and in the building and implementation process.”

CCESO’s Garden Activity Center incorporates smart design for sustainability and universal accessibility measures, and 1) provides a place for hands-on educational experiences that introduce and expand knowledge and skills (including growing plants by utilizing low-input and sustainable production resources, selecting appropriate varieties to support pollinators and native plant gardening, and composting); 2) incorporates a rain garden to demonstrate water and land stewardship (using the example of runoff that can impact Otsego Lake); 3) engages all ages in hands-on environmental and horticultural education; and 4) introduces visitors to the nurturing and therapeutic benefits of gardening and horticulture.

Future phases of the Grow with Cornell Cooperative Extension Garden Project will include the installation of a demonstration rain garden and a garden structure that will serve as both a workspace for the MGVs and an educational activity and programming space.

“As soon as we raise sufficient funds, we will construct the garden house,” Callahan said. “Once that’s erected, we can install the rain garden.”

All-America Selections

According to CCESO Operations Coordinator Madelyn Sanchez Taylor, All-America Selections is an independent non-profit organization that tests new, never-before-sold plant varieties for the home gardener. After a full season of anonymous trialing by volunteer horticulture professionals, only the top flowers and vegetables are given the AAS Winner award designation for their superior performance. It is the only national, non-profit plant trialing organization in North America, she said in an e-mail.

“In 2014, Cooperstown Cornell Cooperative Extension was chosen as one of the select group of prestigious public gardens to be an All-America Selections Display Garden,” wrote Sanchez Taylor. “Folks can tour our garden and see new plant varieties that had the distinction of being designated as All-America Selections.”

AAS identifies plant varieties that survive and flourish in each region of North America, providing a useful tool for picking successful plant varieties. Gardeners can visit https://all-americanselections.org/complete-aas-winner-list to identify the best plant varieties for their locale.

Vegetable Variety Garden Trials

According to Francie Stayter—a Master Gardener volunteer since 2010 who attributes elderly neighbors and “Mother Earth News” in addition to Cornell Cooperative Extension for much of her gardening know-how—the Cornell Vegetable Variety Trial Gardens are part of a citizen science project.

“CCEs across the state create demonstration gardens where particular plants are grown as a way to observe and record how well these plants do in field trials in various counties across the state. Cornell provides seeds, plants and information for growing,” Stayter explained.

“Otsego Master Gardener Mary Ellen Calta organizes the project for the CCE garden in Cooperstown,” Stayter continued. “That preparation begins in the winter. Some of the plants are started from seed indoors by Master Gardeners and later transplanted into the garden, some seed is directly sown in the garden in May, and Master Gardeners also went to Cornell in May to pick up plant starts.

“Throughout the growing season, plants are observed, photographed and evaluated. Using a 1-5 star rating, the plants are assessed for overall performance, taste, yield and ease. The demonstration gardens also model features of an ecological garden—cover crops, companion planting, mulching, attracting beneficials, and more,” Stayter said.

Recently, the trial gardens have featured prominent crops from highlighted geographical areas.
“In 2022, the focus was on plants from Latin America, the Caribbean and East Asia. The plants this year provide an opportunity to learn about crops from China, Japan and Korea,” Stayter added.

In early winter, information from all the demonstration gardens is analyzed and collected, and added to a list of vegetable varieties for gardeners to help New York State gardeners select plants that have been field tested specifically for New York’s growing season, climate, soil conditions, etc. That information can be found at HTTP://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu.

The produce from the demonstration garden is donated to local food pantries.

“Some of the favorite plants at our recent open house included Chinese pink celery (pictured above), Chinese sweet basil, and borage, a plant for attracting beneficial birds, bees, and butterflies. The demonstration garden is place for teaching and learning for all of us,” Stayter added.

“We are so proud of the garden but we want people to know that, yes, it’s pretty, but it’s more than just pretty. It’s pretty with a purpose,” Stayter said.

For more about CCESO’s community programs and events, go to http://cceschoharie-otsego.org. Stay connected to Master Gardeners postings at https://www.facebook.com/cceotsegoMG/