A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
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by Melinda Myers Give your perennials a boost this spring with a topdressing of compost, aged manure, or other organic matter. It's a great way to revive tired gardens, improve a garden's overall health, and keep vibrant perennials healthy and blooming. Research found topdressing your garden with compost every year or two provides most, if not all the nutrients that most perennials need. It feeds the soil, which in turn feeds your plants. Let a soil test report and your plant's performance...
by Melinda Myers Keep garden-fresh tomatoes close at hand this season. Grow one or more in containers on your patio, balcony, or front steps. Any tomato can be grown in a pot, but determinate varieties are smaller and more compact, so they are a bit easier to manage in a container. They produce fruit in a relatively short period of time, making them great choices for preserving as well as using fresh. Look for a D or determinate on the plant tag, seed packet or in the catalog description....
Karla Kozach, artist who won Artwork Contest to design new Kateri artwork for the National Shrine of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha at Fonda, New York Submitted by Victor Martin BACKGROUND FEAST OF ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA (APRIL 17) The first North American Indigenous woman to be canonized, Kateri is often called the Lily of the Mohawks. Kateri was born in 1656 on the southern bank of the Mohawk River at Osserneon (Auriesville, NY). Her mother was a Christian Algonquin from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and...
by Melinda Myers Put away the harsh chemicals and work in concert with nature to manage pests in the garden. Create an inviting habitat for nature's pest controllers to enlist their help with your gardening efforts. Lady beetles, praying mantis and other beneficial insects feed on damaging pests like aphids. Just tolerate a bit of damage and wait for the good guys to move in and clean up the problem. Grow a few plants to attract these and other beneficial insects to your landscape. Dill and its...
Submitted by Victor Martin A first class relic of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is to be presented to the Saint Regis Mission at the 4pm mass on April 23". A first class relic is a body part of a Saint, such as bone, blood, or flesh. Second class relics are possessions that a saint owned, and third class relics are objects that have been touched to a first class relic or those the saint has personally touched. A relic of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was used by Sister Kateri Mitchell to cure a young boy...
By Norman Gray Jr. Iohahi:io Communication Class. Have you heard thunder, but see no clouds or lightning? The thunder is from the roads we drive on. Yes, the thunder is from the potholes that you hit on the way to work or school. Potholes are seen everywhere in Akwesasne, doesn't matter if you are on the Canadian or in the States, you can spot them. What makes a pothole? Potholes are made when the water going in between the cracks in the roads and winter comes around the water freezes and turns...
by Melinda Myers Celebrate National Arbor Day, the last Friday in April, by planting new trees and caring for established ones in your landscape and community. This special holiday was first celebrated in 1872. Arbor Day celebrations continue to recognize the important role trees play in our environment and more recently their impact on our mental and emotional well-being. These long-lived members of our landscapes and communities help combat flooding, shade our homes, reduce energy use, remove...
By Doug George-Kanentiio. Akwesasne Mohawk There is a reason why the Six Nations-Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) were not invited to Rome to meet the pope and secure an apology for the victims of the residential schools - we don’t want an apology we want justice. Tens of thousands of Native children suffered abuse by the residential schools administered by the Roman Catholic Church with the compliance of the provincial and federal governments and it may well be proven thousands died either by murder or neglect by the priests, nuns and staff at the s...
By Ionatarí:shon Kirby. Iohahi:io Communications Class. The western dietary pyramid consists of dairy and grain, two things we did not eat for centuries up until recently. Because of this Onkwehonwe communities show a high rate of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Since these health problems are new, we should be able to find answers in our strong agricultural history. Eating in season helps our heart rate change with the weather and keeps us in tune with Mother Earth. Our ancestors were born and raised on a land they ate from,...
by Melinda Myers Spring flowering bulbs and perennials are filling our landscapes with color. As your gardens come alive this spring, start making notes on needed improvements and provide some early season color and nectar for the pollinators. This will keep your landscape looking its best all season long and for years to come. Start a garden journal or photographic record of your garden. Make notes or take pictures of what is working in your landscape, plants that need to be removed or areas...
By Doug George-Kanentiio. On March 22 a group of Akwesasronon decided to assert our ownership of Niioneniasekon:wane (Barnhart Island) by tapping a small grove of maple trees to be prepared into syrup at the sugar shack in downtown Tekasonkarorens. They did not wait for lawyers to say it was okay-they did not seek the permission any of the three councils to give them permission, they did not ask the New York Power Authority for its approval-they did what I have always advocated-direct action lea...
By Paul Hetzler Typically, “tree aging” is done by counting annual growth rings, either on a stump or on a sample core taken by a special tool. But the phrase can also refer to veteranization, a process whereby trees are prematurely aged through targeted injury and stress in order to create specialized habitats. It’s much like the aging of parents, a treatment administered by one’s children to produce worry lines, grey hairs, and character. We humans whistle past the cemetery, as it were, with refrains like “50 is the new 40,” apparently...
by Melinda Myers Many gardeners are busy pruning shrubs to remove winter damage, control the size, or provide a bit of shaping before the season is well under way. Save some of the branches or cut a few from spring flowering shrubs to brighten your indoors. You'll enjoy the added spring color provided by branches of forsythia, quince, pussy willows, and other spring flowering shrubs for bouquets and arrangements. Use a pair of sharp bypass pruners with two sharp blades that cut like scissors....
by Paul Hetzler Now that the V-word has joined the list of things we mustn’t say in polite company, I hesitate to bring up the topic. No, I mean the other V-word – vaccine. Even if vaccines give you a headache, there’s a new one on the horizon which you may well like. I realize this claim smacks of a Green Eggs and Ham-style discourse. Not to worry; I won’t stalk you with promises that you’ll like getting jabbed with a mouse, in a house, in a box, with a fox, here or there, in car, or anywhere. Now that I think on it, Green Eggs and Ham was a...
by Melinda Myers You don't need a lot of space or a big budget to grow and enjoy garden-fresh bouquets. Just fill a few vacant spaces, add an extra row in garden beds or fill a container with easy care flowers started from seeds. You'll jump-start the season and enjoy earlier blooms by starting some of the seeds indoors to transfer into the garden after the danger of frost has passed. If you're not in a hurry, want to stretch your budget and extend your garden's bloom time, sow some seeds direct...
by Melinda Myers Growing dahlias is a must for anyone who loves cutting and arranging flowers. But there are hundreds of beautiful dahlia varieties to choose from and that can be overwhelming. To make the selection process easier, choose compatible colors that will look good together in the garden and in arrangements. The combination of peach and burgundy is both striking and sophisticated. Peach-colored flowers add a fresh and soothing feel to the garden. Dahlia American Dawn is a blend of...
POTSDAM, NY – Break out your blue for March 4 to show your support for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and to make people more aware of the importance of being screened. According to the American Cancer Society, if diagnosed early, the survival rate for patients with colorectal cancer is 90 percent. Because this form of cancer has little to no symptoms in the early stages, it is important for people to get screened. St. Lawrence Health's (SLH) Gastroenterology Department is comprised of a t...
Paul Hetzler Scientist-like persons hired by the fossil fuel industry have long maintained we should celebrate an ever-increasing level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This gas, a key building block in the photosynthetic process, can enable plants to grow faster and get larger. It’s been called the “CO2 fertilization effect.” Many crop yields are projected to increase. And bigger woody plants, the reasoning goes, can amass more carbon, thus helping to slow the rate of CO2 increase in a handy negative-feedback loop. In other words, they...
by Melinda Myers Boost your success, save money, and reduce plastic waste when starting plants from seeds this year. The options are many, so you are sure to find one that works for you. Reuse plastic containers for starting plants from seeds. Disinfect the pots, flats, and cell packs before planting to avoid problems with damping off and other diseases. Soak the containers in a solution of one-part bleach to nine parts water for ten minutes. Rinse with clear water. The pots are now clean and...
By Melinda Myers Raise your garden to new heights for easier access and greater productivity. Raised beds allow you to overcome poor soil by creating the ideal growing mix. They also make gardening more comfortable thanks to less bending and kneeling. Whether you purchase a kit or build your own, there are a few things to consider when creating a raised bed garden. Locate the garden in a sunny area if possible. Most plants require at least six hours of sun, and vegetables like tomatoes, peppers...
by Melinda Myers As you plan this year's garden, be sure to include some strawberries. They are low in calories, high in vitamin C and antioxidants, and provide seasonal interest in gardens and containers. Best of all, you don't need much space to grow this delicious fruit. There are three types of strawberries: June or spring bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Select the best type of strawberry for your space and harvest needs. June-bearing strawberries produce one crop of berries in late s...
Paul Hetzler While my musings about nature generally focus on southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States, there are times when a subject is far too juicy to ignore even if it's out of this world, like Japanese satellites made from trees. Back home on our little planet, we have a blind, rainbow-hued marine worm which slices fish in half for the joy of it. This "Bobbitt" worm grows to ten feet long and can paralyze a human with its venom. Also, cool but way less terrifying, a...
by Melinda Myers Go vertical to expand your outdoor gardening space, create privacy and add beauty to bare walls and fences. This centuries-old technique has been used to grow food and flowers, adding beauty and productivity from the ground up. Even those gardening on small city lots, balconies and decks can go vertical to expand their gardening opportunities. Grow pole beans, peas, squash, melons, tomatoes, and other vining edible plants onto supports. This saves space, reduces the risk of...
By Paul Hetzler The American beech (Fagus grandifolia) has been slowly dying out for the last 140 years. As a result, beech saplings have overrun many woodlots, making them less diverse, less vigorous, and less valuable. That’s right – beech decline has led to a beech proliferation so extreme that in some places they are a barrier to forest regeneration. I’d call this an oxymoron, but don’t want to insult the bovine community. Strategies do exist to address this problem, though. Long-lived and stately, beech grow throughout eastern North A...
By Paul Hetzler The media trope of an aged character with their nightstand chock-full of pill bottles may be an unfair cliché but observing family and friends in their 70s and 80s, I’d say it has at least some validity. I’m sure anyone who takes numerous meds would like a single fix-all product, a universal remedy. For over a thousand years, an assortment of aches and ailments have been treated by such a panacea, the root of a medicinal plant we know as ginseng. This term is derived from Chinese words for man-root, a reference to its typi...