One Way to Do More for the Environment: Do Less With Your Yard
The creator of a "meadow" in her front yard, the author points out that this minimalist approach can "encourage biodiversity and mitigate the damage caused by climate change." It also avoids the use of "chemical fertilizers ... insecticides or herbicides." As nature abhors a vacuum, she says she lets "nature fill the void."
From The Guardian, 5.14.2022
The head of Urban&Civic transformed east London for the Olympics. Now he is aiming to create homes in huge numbers beyond the capital
Interview with Nigel Hull
Nigel Hugill of Urban&Civic buys only brownfield sites in key commuter locations
“IT WILL HAPPEN!” THE “100+1” SAINT SEBASTIAN’S CHURCH FESTIVAL IS SCHEDULED FOR MAY 13-15, 2022.
"It will happen," stated Tri-Chairman Dr. Gene Nocera at the opening of the "Century of Devotion" exhibit at the Middlesex County Historical Society last December 9, 2021 regarding the 2022 Saint Sebastian's Church Festival. Nocera stands by his earlier comments he made and believes this year's festival is 100% guaranteed despite the Omicron Subvariant BA.2. Nocera stated ¨We see no indication that the Omicron will affect the feast. I don´t see that it will happen.¨
The 2nd Tri-Chairman Sal Nesci agrees with Nocera’s 100% assessment that the feast will happen. Nesci commented “Ït seems like the pandemic situation is well under control. The numbers are very low and manageable¨ and he is asking residents “to use prudence and good judgment regarding their health.” Nesci pointed out that the church “will have masks available to make people feel comfortable if they want to wear it.” Nocera noted that wearing a mask inside the church will be voluntary. Plus, there will be hand sanitizing stations available during the feast both inside and outside according to Nesci.
Submitted by Krishna Winston
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Dear Friend of Honest Government in Middletown,
Mayor Florsheim is poised to sign an agreement to essentially give away 35 acres of City property on Country Club Road. We must appeal to him by Tuesday 5/17 to prevent this from happening!
Please ask the Mayor to stop this 35-acre Country Club Road property “giveaway,” require Middletown Youth Soccer/Sporting CT to pay for their own field maintenance at this site, and make this Open Space truly accessible to the public as it was supposed to be.
In 2005 the City of Middletown spent $400,000 to purchase from Middletown Youth Soccer (MYS) a parcel of open space ($200,00 for 18 acres and $200,000 for construction of 4 soccer fields). This property, at 395 Country Club Road, was adjacent to a 17-acre parcel that the City already owned. The two parcels appear on the City’s 2018 listing of open space.
MYS is a private 501(c)(3) (non-profit) organization established in 1985 that provides reasonably priced soccer programming for Middletown youth. MYS also operates Sporting CT, an elite soccer club established in 2012 by the retired Middletown tax assessor who serves as its president (he is also vice president of MYS). Sporting CT offers multiple programs for young people and adults— from both Middletown and other towns—who can afford the hefty participation fees.
After the purchase, the City leased the land (originally a gift to MYS) back to the organization, along with the adjacent parcel, while continuing to provide about $78,000 in annual maintenance services and additional funds for upgrades to the property. At least part of that funding was earmarked for Middletown open space. But MYS has fenced off the property, barring the general public from accessing it for passive recreation.
Now the Common Council has voted to “sell” the entire 35 acres back to MYS. I ask you: is it proper for Middletown-owned space, maintained for 17 years by the City, including with open-space funds, to be quietly given away—for $1.00—to the same private entity from which the City purchased it in the first place? Is it right to have property categorized as open space not accessible to the public? And why has the City been pouring money into maintaining these parcels when MYS/Sporting CT has had the exclusive use of them?
If you think all of this is wrong, please communicate your objections to the members of the Common Council, the Mayor, and the City’s General Counsel by Tuesday 5/17!
Sincerely,
Krishna Winston, Middletown resident
Open to new or returning students, this two week special program marks the end of the 2022-23 Oddbridge season at Oddfellows Playhouse. Contact info@oddfellows.org for more info or to register.
The Buttonwood Tree
605 Main Street, in Middletown
Event descriptions are excerpted from The Buttonwood Tree online calendar. Click on event links in text for more information.
Monday
MAY 9
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Thursday
MAY 12
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Bob Gotta's Acoustic Open Mic (IN-PERSON)
Friday
MAY 13
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
With her capricious curls and city savor-faire, Kaya is a queer coquette with a deep love for the groove.
Saturday
MAY 14
10:30 am - 12:15 pm
Align with Source Workshop
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
The Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs
Sunday
MAY 15
10:00 am - 3:30 pm
For more information on Buttonwood programs, please see our calendar here.
Middletown's Pollinator Pathway Recommends:
Don't Mow! Let your lawn grow
for the whole month of May.
WHAT IS A POLLINATOR PATHWAY?
These include birds, bees, butterflies and other insects, and mammals, rodents, & amphibians.The Pollinator Pathway wants you to take the challenge: let your lawn grow for the whole month of May. That’s right—Do Nothing! Leave your mower in the garage until June. Let your green lawn turn into a riot of color with buttercups, clover, dandelions and daisies that will offer much needed food for our beleaguered bees and butterflies who are starving after a long winter. Every flower counts when it comes to providing a meal for our pollinators, so it makes sense that cutting your lawn in early spring is not the best thing to do.
Understandably, if this is your first time it may be hard to get comfortable with a bit of messiness. Here’s a suggestion: don’t go “all the way”. Start small if changing in one fell swoop is too much. Give your lawn a partial haircut instead of a full buzz cut by leaving islands or streams of lawn untouched by the mower where the wildflowers can bloom.
Try mowing wide paths so you can walk around, watch the activity and enjoy the changing shapes and colors. Have these paths lead to a bench, a bird bath, a statue or a big pot of flowers. If you’re worried about what the neighbors will say, mow a buffer along the edges and along your driveway and walkways.
Then ask your neighbors to stop working so hard and join the fun; after all, No Mow May saves your time and money, provides for quiet relaxation, and eliminates noise and air pollution (the EPA attributes 5% of U.S. air pollution to mowers).
Natural landscapes attract more bird species providing a chance for birdwatching, and they offer opportunities for photography, painting or simply observing our native wildflowers. May will come again in 11 months, so take your time, see what happens, and by all means have fun!
More information at Middletown Pollinator Pathway--Take Action!
Submitted by Middletown Pollinator Pathway
middletown.pollinator.pathway@gmail.com
The celebration date was set for April 10, 1872. Prizes were offered to counties and individuals for the largest number of properly planted trees on that day. It was estimated that more than 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day.
~ With your membership ~
10 free trees to plant in your yard or in a forest in your honor
Your trees will arrive at the best time for planting.
And you are able to determine when your trees will arrive.
Become a member: Arbor Day Foundation Membership
ZOOM Genealogy Club — May 21, 2022 – 1:30 PM (EST)
VIRTUAL EVENT
Mel Smith on Connecticut Divorce Records
We will welcome Mel Smith, of the Genealogy & History Department of the Connecticut State Library. He will be discussing Connecticut Divorce Records.
The Zoom presentation will take place at 1:30 pm (EST) on May 21.
Please register by 4:00 pm Friday, May 20.
GML Premium Godfrey Scholar members can register for free at the following email: zoomregistration@godfrey.org
If you are not a GML Premium Godfrey Scholar member and want to attend the presentation, you can pay $10 via PayPal at the following web address: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/GodfreyMemorial Then register at the email above.
Getting out in the garden is something we look forward to each Spring. This year, you might find something you didn’t expect…worms that jump! Well, perhaps thrash wildly.
The first time I heard about this, I thought it was a joke. My friend, who lives in Pomfret, posted on Facebook how he was trying to kill all the jumping worms he found on his forested property. I, along with his other friends, thought he was kidding and we tried to tell him how good worms and castings were for his garden - but he wasn’t persuaded. This is what my friend, Dave Bielski, had to say:
“The first sign we saw of jumping worms were massive piles of worm castings in our lawn. We had seen them before, and assumed they were from regular nightcrawlers. A fellow gardener warned us that we could have invasive jumping worms. We then set about trying to determine if we actually had them. Our first confirmed jumping worms were found in the leaf litter adjacent to our lawn. We soon realized we had them everywhere, in our raised beds, in the lawn, and in the woods behind our house. From a gardening perspective, we realized we were having trouble growing certain squashes in recent years due to nutrient depletion in the soil. We now understand that the worms have been a problem for a few years now. We are now using diatomaceous earth in our raised beds, to see if we can control them in our vegetable gardens. Time will tell.”
Amynthas agrestis, (aka “crazy worm”, jumping worm”, “crazy snake worm”) were first found in patches in southern and central Connecticut in 2015, but they are quickly expanding their territory and can now be found throughout Connecticut. They are a species of worm in the family Megascolecidae and trace their origins back to East Asia. They are not only associated with urban and suburban areas but can also be found in forested landscapes. Once established in an area, they grow and mature quickly. There are a few different species, and some are even asexual, which can also contribute to their high densities. The jumping worms only live one season, but they produce very small, 2-millimeter cocoons that survive the winter and hatch in March.
So aren’t worms good for the soil? Yes, but these are invasive worms that can transform soil into what looks like gravel, or “macroaggregates” with their castings. My friend was upset because they are endo-epigeic, meaning they only live at the very surface of the soil and they don’t aerate the soil or provide any nutrients or pockets of water at the plants’ roots.
In addition, this gravelly texture can cause leaching of nutrients, soil erosion, and root desiccation making it inhospitable for other plants. The worms also eat mycelium (the fungi in soil that breaks down and absorbs organic matter to make nutrients for plants and fauna), so any plants that rely on symbiotic mycelium for nutrients will be out-competed and die off. And if all that’s not bad enough, the worms displace earthworms and are not particularly nutritious for birds.
Here’s how you can identify these invasive worms:
Thrashing behavior and high densities
1-½” to 8” long.
Smooth, metallic sheen, often darkly pigmented (grown, grey, purple) and 1.5 to 8 inches long. A key identifier is a smooth cream-colored clitellum that goes all the way around the body located towards one end instead of the middle of the worm. The clitellum is a thick ring found on the skin of the worm, usually with a light-colored pigment. Earthworms have a raised pink clitellum and don’t go around the entire worm, like a saddle.
“Gravelly” soil
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| Courtesy of State of Connecticut Publications |
How do you stop the spread? Here’s some information that might help, courtesy of Cornell University:
There are currently no viable jumping earthworm control methods, although research is continuing and we can do to prevent their spread:
Do not buy or use jumping worms for bait, vermicomposting, or gardening.
When purchasing bulk mulch or compost, use a reputable producer that has heat-treated the material to a temperature of 130°F for at least three days to destroy the cocoons or purchase bagged mulch.
Check your property for jumping earthworms using a mustard pour (it won't harm your plants!). Mix a gallon of water with 1/3 cup of ground yellow mustard seed and pour slowly into the soil. This will drive any worms to the surface where you can easily remove them.
Cocoons are sensitive to heat and can be destroyed with clear plastic solarization; in late spring or summer, cover moistened soil with a sheet of transparent polyethylene for two/three weeks or until the soil temperature exceeds 104°F for at least three days.
Be careful when sharing and moving plants; always check for worms and know where your plantings come from; buy bare root stock when possible.
If you have a small population of jumping worms, handpick and destroy them by bagging them and throwing them in the trash, or place them in a bag and leave out in the sun for at least 10 minutes; then throw the bag away.
Research is currently being conducted on invasive worms at the University of Wisconsin and several practices do show some promise of control. Abrasive materials such as biochar (ground-up charcoal) and diatomaceous earth (fossilized diatoms) may show some promise in killing adult jumping worms. Incorporate one of these products into the infested soil to a depth where the worms are located; worms that come in contact with the materials will be adversely affected.
If you have jumping worms, report them (www.nyimapinvasives.org) and avoid moving plants or soil from your yard.
Judy Konopka
Commissioner, Middletown Commission on Conservation and Agriculture
