MANY HANDS:
DIGGING IN FOR POLLINATORS
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By Mai Mai Margules

The newly-planted pollinator garden at Warner Library, on Broadway and Wildey Street. 
 

June is national pollinator month and TEAC is celebrating with the creation of several new public pollinator gardens in the heart of our Village.

Last fall, in a time of great uncertainty with the specter of a pandemic winter looming , the TEAC Landscaping Committee focused on a goal for spring: we would install pollinator gardens in the heart of the Village. These gardens would aid our fragile pollinators and help to introduce our community to native plants and the crucial role they play in supporting butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects.

These new gardens will add to the existing pollinator pathway anchored by the Native Plant Gardens at Neperan Park which Little Gardens of Tarrytown has installed and maintained and Riverwalk..

Given that we started with zero budget and limited experience, our dream could never have materialized without the tremendous outpouring of support from our community. We asked for help and the response was overwhelming. The Warner Library Pollinator Garden GoFundMe which Friends of Warner Library set up garnered 86 donors and a sponsor, Laura Rey of Rey Insurance, that raised the funds needed for the creation and maintenance of the gardens.

Local residents donated their time and shared their knowledge and skills to physically construct the spaces. Emily Rausch of Hilltop Hanover Farms in Ossining donated three carloads of local ecotype native plants which we incorporated into our plantings and shared with others. Laura Perkins, chief horticulturist at Stone Barns, provided native plants and advised the planting team for Warner Library.

Susanne Jone of the Philipse Manor Garden Club shared her knowledge of native plant design for the Warner Garden and Tarrytown resident Jose Mendoza directed the site’s construction.

Patriots Park now welcomes visitors with a beautiful pollinator garden  designed by  local landscape artists Lee Eiferman and Tim Duch who also headed up the installation team and sourced the plants. 

Throughout the process the Village of Tarrytown has been a supportive partner in expanding the pollinator pathway. The DPW and Parks Department assisted us throughout the process with hands-on help in preparing the ground at Patriots Park and in procuring project materials. The Village funded the new pollinator planters and tree well spaces along Broadway between Mc keel and Main St. that will provide additional pollinator habitat and form another link in the Pathway. 

Below is a brief outline of the new gardens. We hope that you take a tour and enjoy them. These gardens are the beginning, far from a fait accompli. They will evolve and change and we will learn in the process. (We have already learned that the local deer that frequent Warner Library do not read the “deer resistant “ tags on the oxeye sunflowers. Liquid Fence has become the fragrance of the summer.)

We hope that these demo gardens will inspire others to create native plant gardens at home and in other open spaces; this is the true mission. To help make this connection, we will be installing interpretive signs with photos and the names of our plants along with web links for more info. We will also be placing plant stakes throughout the gardens identifying native plants. 

Our wish is that in sharing our story, those of you who have a dream of creating positive change for the environment will see that it is possible. It’s possible by reaching out to partner with others and by choosing projects that are feasible to maintain. So, please: plow ahead with your goals, get more gardens growing, and don't be deterred by doubts or deer!

If you would like to volunteer to help with any of the plantings please contact us at tarrytownenviro@gmail.com     

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Ditch the Straws:
PLASTIC-FREE JULY
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By Annie Kravet
 

Microplastics washed up on the stony shore of Losee Park in Tarrytown. Plastics in the ocean break up into small pieces. Microplastic pollution has contaminated the whole planet, from Arctic snow and mountain soils to many rivers and the deepest oceans. Reducing plastic use will help reduce plastic pollution.

Have you heard of the global movement to reduce plastic waste, “Plastic Free July”? The movement is helping people reduce their reliance on single use plastics all over the world. I took the challenge last summer and not only did it help me eliminate certain single use plastics from my daily routine, it was fun and fulfilling to get creative about sustainable alternatives to common throw-away items and to inspire my family and friends to do the same. 
 
There are different levels of the Plastic Free July challenge you can sign up for, ranging from eliminating the four most common single use plastic items (plastic bags, plastic water bottles, plastic straws, and take-away coffee cups), to saying no to all single use plastics for the entire month of July.

I signed up again for the challenge this summer, and this time I’m planning to try to go single-use plastics free. Will you join me?
 
You can sign up to take the challenge here and learn more about Plastic Free July here: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org  

Their website also includes tons of helpful resources and inspiring stories of others working to reduce plastic waste.

TARRYTOWN IMPROVEMENTS:
PLACEMAKING COMMITTEE
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