Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Pollinator Plant Sale 2022 Community Center in Jericho
Photos from the conclusion of the 2022 plant sale to benefit the Community Center in Jericho.
Special thanks go out to Jen Greenwood for meticulous administration and communications. Kudos to Jane Sorensen for growing great native plants.
Thank You to all who purchased plants. We wish you a happy growing season!
The sale contributed $279.00 to the Community Center.
The Community Center in Jericho and Bernie Paquette bring you the 2022 Community Plant Sale.
Five plant collections for different sun/soil conditions, utilizing mostly Vermont native plants, each offered in two tray sizes, 9 plants or 21 plants. All grown in Fairfax at River Berry Farm.
See full Details at Community Pollinator Plant Sale. Click the text after "at".
Mail checks to Community Center in Jericho, P.O. Box 1018, Jericho, VT 05465
Includes a new Soft Landings* offering (See definition of Soft Landings below).
This is a benefit sale for the Community Center in Jericho, Vermont. The sale is open to everyone in Vermont.
River Berry Farm is an organic vegetable and small-fruit family farm located on the Lamoille River in Fairfax, Franklin County, VT. We are about 1/2 hour from Burlington, 20 minutes from Saint Albans, and Cambridge, VT. We sell plants for pollinators at the farm in Fairfax, VT, from May 1st to early September. Visit our website at River Berry Farm or read our Guideline for Selecting Plants and Planting a Pollinator Garden at Northeast Pollinator Plants.
The Community Center, located at 329 Browns Trace, Jericho, VT. provides a setting for a variety of activities such as parties, meetings, and classes and hosts fun events that strengthen a sense of belonging to and caring about our community.
Bernie Paquette is an advocate of habitat biodiversity, planting a mixture of perennials, shrubs, and trees that support pollinators and the overall web of life of our community. Biodiversity enhances ecosystem function. Planting native plants help ensure the plants will do well on their own requiring less care such as watering and fertilizing. Native plants are more likely to support our local pollinators than would non-native plants. Habitat restoration is an action we all can take on to help the soil, plants, insects, and other life restores themselves.
*NEW Soft Landings offering (Option #4): Soft landings are diverse native plantings under keystone trees or any other regionally appropriate native tree. These plantings provide critical shelter and habitat for one or more life cycle stages of moths, butterflies, and beneficial insects such as bumble bees, fireflies, lacewings, and beetles. In addition to plants, soft landings also include leaf litter, duff, and plant debris.
Planting tip for any potted plants: Break up the bottom third of the plant plugs to help ensure the roots grow out and do not continue in the shape of the container they were in.
Spacing of plants, guidance from Jane Sorensen.
I recommend 4 s.f. per plant, 2’ apart, so 21 plants would need 84 s.f.
You can certainly plant closer, as close as 1 s.f. per plant, which would give a more meadow effect and then only need 21 s.f. So a big range.
Again, my preference is 2’ apart to allow the plants fully express their form.
BUT, the plants will grow just fine much closer, and the pollinators really won’t mind either spacing or anywhere in between!
Go Botany to determine if a plant is native to Vermont
"Observing Life in Your Backyard - Meet your neighbors, a backyard insect photo tour" Series Listing
Monday, June 13, 2022
Invasive Honeysuckle - Informational and Motivational articles
Things are happening in the Tillotson Homeowners Association ~25-acre site in Jericho, Vermont. After receiving permission from the H.O.A., one of the residents (Barbara) and I started cutting down invasive honeysuckle on the site. After a couple of sessions of cuttings, we had a volunteer from Underhill (Russ) join us. Then recently Amber, a wonderful young woman who lives in Jericho Center, volunteered and we did more cutting, this time freeing up an apple tree. In the past cuttings, we have freed up American Cranberry bushes, nannyberry, and other native shrubs, oak, cherry, and other native trees.
Now Barbara is pursuing a possible purchase of some native shrubs from the Intervale Conservation Nursery in Burlington for planting to help replace the invasive honeysuckle.
This effort by a band of a few people joining together in solidarity of land stewardship through a small bit of sweat, no chemicals, and a willingness to do continued management is encouraging. And the work is rewarding in meeting up with like-minded folks and getting instant gratification from seeing the native plants we give freedom to.
The management of the re-growth will be much easier as hand pulling or light cutting is all that is necessary. At some point, we might have the time and energy to uproot the stumps and roots.
My partner Maeve has initiated a similar project (with Amy the F&W representative) on Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area land with a July volunteer date set.
Help me to convince the legislature to declare the third Saturday in May as VT Invasives Management Day. *Currently seeking support letters from any organization. Contact me (Bernie) for more details.
I think land stewardship starts with knowledge, and awareness followed by persistence and patience. In addition, caring plus contribution equals community. It makes me happy to be part of that mix.
Jericho Invasive Honeysuckle
Volunteers' Action Hours
2022 running total: 36 hours (Tillotson H.O.A.)
2021 total: 6 hours (Town right of way)
A demonstration of commitment,
land stewardship, and community caring.
Bernie
Connecting community with nature
More articles on Invasive Honeysuckle
Jericho's Kudzu: Combatting Invasive Honeysuckle
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/05/jerichos-kudzu-combatting-invasive.html
Invasive Honeysuckle for VT State Flower
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/05/invasive-honeysuckle-for-vt-state-flower.html
Join the Jericho Invasive Plant Posse
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/04/join-jericho-invasive-plant-posse.html
Invasive Honeysuckle Removal Jericho Vt
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/04/invasive-honeysuckle-removal-jericho-vt.html
Slow the Spread Invasive Honeysuckle, Jericho VT
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/06/stop-jericho-invasive-spread.html
Paul Revere rides again, this time in Jericho, VT.
Seeking volunteers for invasive Honeysuckle cutting along Jericho roadside.
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/06/seeking-volunteers-for-invasive.html
Friday, May 20, 2022
Jericho, Vermont Mailbox Art II
Mailbox Improvement Week, May 21-27 USPS
Rural mailboxes must meet USPS regulations, including design, size, placement, and addressing. However, some amount of customization, personification, artwork, and quirky statements apparently are in the realm of acceptability if measured by the rural mailboxes seen in Jericho, Vermont.
Jericho, Vermont Mailbox Art II
Duplex (Special zoning permit)
Shadow Box Design
Patent pending
Plain Jane
Who knows
what strange and ominous
mail lurks in the shadows.
Built like a rock
Linkedon Mail
Just Over the Line Scenic Mail
First-floor mailbox,
second-floor chicken coop.
Color of the Month Club
Unfinished paint job.
but only Sixty-three years old.
Lichen we are missing one, ma!
32 Stallion Road
Steep four-degree incline;
Heavy mail - please use the alternate lane.
under penalty of law
The bigger the sign
the bigger the number
Faded Glory
Tree Mail - Watch for falling limbs
Ninety-eight litter of leaves on the tree; ninety-eight litter of leaves, one falls down, watch it fly around; ninety-seven litter of leaves on the tree, one falls down, watch it fly around… Come on sing along, you know you want to.
Norman Rockwell and Robert Frost bring home the family Christmas Tree.
She dared him to cross the red line.
Butterflies and other insects deliver pollen
Planted, potted,
awaiting Post Card from Sunny California.
Hot Mail
Eighteen Twenty was a very good year.
Copy Cat
Starry-eyed mail
Two thirds correct
Big Brother, Little Brother
These folks do not have to worry about mice in their mailbox ever again.
I just wanna feel Purple, Red, Yellow, and VT Green.
A bit worn, a bit tattered,
will she recover?
In the darkest of hours
there is always light.
Moooorever, though the milkman no longer delivers,
you can still count on the mailwoman or mailman!
Presumably Queen Victoria of Osborne House
After I have tea with the Queen, I will be out and about Jericho, and perhaps Underhill seeking more unique, unusual, artsy, and divine mailboxes.
Which is your favorite?
Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good
-Bernie