Happy Earth Day! Order plants from the Northport Native Garden Initiative by May 10th! Learn more here, including how to forestall the furry folks who might eat them before they establish!
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In a time where buying something new often comes before fixing what we have, The Repair Cafe is a great place to get advice, learn a thing or two, and be inspired! There are no guarantees, but a promise to try. Many find the experience itself worth the effort. Folks involved are excited to announce that the next one will be held:
Are you handy with machines? Electronics? Even a needle & thread?
Would you share this knowledge with the community? Help keep folks from throwing good things into landfills? Maybe just help folks save a few dollars? Come with your kids and teach them, come to teach others, or just come to learn and make new friends?
We imagine The Repair Café would be an EXCELLENT service project for Scouts, and really anyone who wants to promote the fine art of giving things a second chance at life. Help make the world little thriftier and more self-reliant.
The best way to get in touch is through the Repair Cafe Long Island Facebook Page. You may also contact Laurie at starflexp@aol.com to learn more!!!
Get involved in The Repair Café!
You don’t have to be mechanical. Everybody can teach or help with something.
Said Laurie: “The more volunteers, the faster folks can get things repaired. People need to be able to bring their own tools. We get a lot of TVs and lamps and small electronics. We also could use people who are good with furniture, clothing/textiles (with sewing machine), more people for jewelry, anyone for watches and clocks, and other miscellaneous things (last time we had an ironing board, bicycle, a small statue that needed to be glued back together…).
We could also make space for a mental health person who would take time to listen to folks who just have a need to talk, or anyone who can do massage (sure, we can ‘fix’ people, too!).
Anyone who’d like to do some small DIY demos like how to sew on a button, darn a sock, rewire a lamp… Join us!
Check out The Repair Café Long Island on Facebook. Just scroll through the images there and look at these folks helping each other and learning so much together. Oh my goodness!
Photos of Repair Cafe’s across Long Island. Photo Credit: Laurie Farber.
Welcome, Spring! It’s good advice to wait until temps are regularly over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, especially to do a big, sudden cleanup, which we may wish to rethink in general. Still, there are plenty of thoughtful ways to get started…
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It may feel like winter will never end — especially this week. Spring is coming, though! One fine sign is the Re-Wild Long Island native plant sale.
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We were pleased to welcome John Turner from Seatuck, and are excited about more programs to come!
Continue readingThe Northport Native Garden Initiative is ready to take your order for plants that will truly feel at home on your property. Order by 4/24!
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In a time where buying something new often comes before fixing what we have, The Repair Cafe is a great place to get advice, learn a thing or two, and be inspired! There are no guarantees, but a promise to try. Many find the experience itself worth the effort. Folks involved are excited to announce that the next one will be held:
Are you handy with machines? Electronics? Even a needle & thread?
Would you share this knowledge with the community? Help keep folks from throwing good things into landfills? Maybe just help folks save a few dollars? Come with your kids and teach them, come to teach others, or just come to learn and make new friends?
We imagine The Repair Café would be an EXCELLENT service project for Scouts, and really anyone who wants to promote the fine art of giving things a second chance at life, and to help make the world little thriftier and more self-reliant.
The best way to get in touch is through the Repair Cafe Long Island Facebook Page. You may also contact Laurie at starflexp@aol.com to learn more!!!
Get involved in The Repair Café!
You don’t have to be super mechanical. Everybody can teach or help with something.
Said Laurie: “The more volunteers, the faster folks can get things repaired. People need to be able to bring their own tools. We get a lot of TVs and lamps and small electronics. We also could use people who are good with furniture, clothing/textiles (with sewing machine), more people for jewelry, anyone for watches and clocks, and other miscellaneous things (last time we had an ironing board, bicycle, a small statue that needed to be glued back together…).
We could also make space for a mental health person who would take time to listen to folks who just have a need to talk, or anyone who can do massage (sure, we can ‘fix’ people, too!).
Anyone who’d like to do some small DIY demos like how to sew on a button, darn a sock, rewire a lamp… Join us!
Check out The Repair Café Long Island on Facebook. Just scroll through the images there and look at these folks helping each other and learning so much together. Oh my goodness!
Photos of Repair Cafe’s across Long Island. Photo Credit: Laurie Farber.
It’s that time of year again! Please shop local and keep the magic that is our beautiful downtowns alive!
Also, please help me update this list of favorite local shops! There are so many wonderful places run by great people out there. They only exist because people like you spend money there.
The list barely scratches the surface, please help add to it!
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To explain why this is so beneficial, let’s start with another post from deeply knowledegable local expert Anthony Marinello of Dropseed Natives, “Leave the Leaves!”
This is rapidly becoming a very mainstream concept.
Here’s a piece from Homeserve.com, “Rake It or Leave It? Here’s Why You May Just Wanna Leave Your Leaves Where They Fall,” one from the USDA, and even one in Good Housekeeping.
Here’s an article from James Doubek for NPR on the subject.
Environmental groups have been saying this for years. Here’s the National Wildlife Federation on why.
And one from The Xerces Society: “Leave the leaves.”
BTW the Xerces Society is interesting. It’s really focused on saving invertebrates. Their work is deeply fundamental and yet applied at our level in the food chain, so it’s also really helpful! Their Facebook page is a wealth of basic, excellent advice.
…There are tips on winter cleanup, saving seeds, a beautiful sight of Monarch Butterflies migrating….
I learned about them from Long Island Native Plant Group on Facebook, a great community of incredibly knowledgeable and helpful folks who think about our local ecoscapes all year long
…but I digress…
…I was talking about leaving the leaves…
The movement to leave the leaves is really important, but should be taken with a little common sense.
It also remains important to keep the driveway clear, as well as stone patios and pathways, assuming you wish to preserve them. The same goes for grass (though a thin layer of leaves may be mowed quite healthfully), which also likes to be aerated from time to time.
On my property, I’m dealing with invasive Norway Maples that I’m working to eradicate and replace with native trees as quickly as I can afford to do so. With them, I have found raking the leaves is fairly important as they seem particularly smother-y and slow to break down. As I am working to reduce their spread, I also want to be able to get their whirlybirds up in the spring!
As such, my approach isn’t so different from what these folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have to say, or The Spruce, here.
So, I do continue to rake a bit….mindfully….
Of course, while lawn health is among the biggest reasons to still rake, folks such as those from Re-Wild Long Island (an incredible collaboration of Long Island experts) suggest you consider doing away with your lawn instead.
This powerful opinion piece in the New York Times suggests you’d best “Kill your lawn before it kills you.”
On the West Coast, this has become a serious affair. Alternatives such as Xeriscaping, which focuses on minimizing water use, have become very popular. There, many factors including severe ongoing drought are coming together to prove that fighting the ecosystem for the sake of grass isn’t worth the trouble.
Related practices are gaining popularity across the country as communities come to realize that tending their own yard is a great way to nurture a healthier environment.
I’m not quite ready to ditch my lawn myself. However, I am committed to neither watering nor fertilizing nor spraying it with chemicals, and to doing all I can to maximize the ecological value of my property.
Here’s a nice piece from Brooklyn Greenways on why native plants are so important.
I am deeply inspired by projects like these “Rewilding Long Island” examples featured on the Rewild Long Island website.
See these 12 Inspiring ideas for a lawn-free landscape from porch.com, and some more on Houzz.
Check them all out and then go, tread lightly into winter, and dream of the upcoming spring.
(BTW: You can find resources for that here … it’s never too early to start planning!)
We were thrilled to host a program at the Firefly with the Northport Native Garden Initiative (NNGI( focused on how our yards are like canvases, and the plants we are choose like paints.
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