Welcome to another Retrospective episode, this time about wildflowers. This was originally recorded in 2019 as part of the radio show, Digging in with Master Gardeners on 90.7 WGXC FM. The content is still very relevant today, so we've repurposed it for our podcast format.

In this episode, Tim and Jean sit down with Tracey Testo-Smith, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Program Manager at Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Columbia and Greene Counties. Tracey considers the Agroforestry Resource Center in the Siuslaw Teaching and Model Forest as her “specialty.” She leads frequent forest walks, and Part I of this interview is a chat about the wildflowers she observes. She explains the Siuslaw Forest's evolution from a logging resource to one of four model forests in the New York City/Catskill Watershed area. The forest is an education source and is frequently open to the public.

So, when you want to learn about wildflowers and attend one of Tracey's walks, what should you expect? Tracey says to keep in mind three main features of most : wildflowers are;

• petal number and symmetry (odd or even number);
• leaf arrangement, whether opposite, alternate or whorled;
• the edges of the leaf, whether the margins are entire, toothed or lobed.

With these three basic observations, you can begin to “key out” an iID for the plant you're looking at. Newcombe's Wildflower Guide is Tracey's favorite reference book. On her walks, Tracey likes to point out the more subtle flowers, while still admiring the showier “stars”, of course. There is also a grey area about non-native introduced flowers that have coexisted peacefully with the natives for, in some cases, centuries. These are acknowledged for their beauty and usefulness, too.

In the Spring wildflower walks, the Ephemerals show off. These are plants with a specific lifestyle habit of appearing early in the year, growing to full maturity and producing seeds before disappearing, plant and all, until the next year. Tracey points out that sometimes plants are misnamed as ephemeral but arent because the foliage perseveres into the summer. One example of this is the Hepatica.

A field trip, whether into the Siuslaw Forest or, often, the Hudson CCE campus, consists of the group gathering and reviewing how to use field guides before venturing outside to explore. Phone apps are discussed as well. Tracey admits a partiality to the Springtime. She points out that at that time of year, we're hungry for color and fresh plant life as the forest reawakens. When Tim asked about the rarest plant she'd observed, she described the green fringed orchid, a very subtle beauty that seems to “move around” from year to year. It's listed by the state as not “rare”, but “vulnerable.”Some plants are hunted, specifically ginseng. Once almost eradicated because of its value to herbalists and over-harvesting by landowners and poachers alike, wild stands of the plant are often kept secret by those who find them. Ginseng planbts typcally don't thrive when transplanted, so Tracey warns against thinking you can bring them home to grow them in “safety”. In fact, she advises against digging up any wild plant... it's usually a death sentence because its growing requirements are very specific. Other threats beside loving them to death (moving them) include climate change and invasive plants. Climate change interferes with the interrelations between plants, birds and animals that had evolved over millennia, when outside temperatures are no longer predictable by seasons. With extremes occurring more often, it stresses plant life. Invasive plants outcompete native plants for resources by sprouting earlier and lasting later into the seasons.

The other major threat to wildflowers is deer browse. Tracey describes experimental “exclosures” build within the forest and observed over a number of years for effect on the plant population. There is an opportunity for citizen scientist volunteers to participate in the AVID program (see website link in the resources). Another way to participate is via the iMap invasive app, reporting on discovery and reporting of invasive plants.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas Guest: Tracey Tesot-Smith Photo by: Teresa Golden Production assistance: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers. Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

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This episode, originally aired as a Digging In With Master Gardeners radio show interview on WGXC 90.7FM, is a discussion about the many virtues of growing your own vegetables. Tim Kennelty interviews Teresa Golden and Jean Thomas about the multiple facets of home vegetable gardening. The first and most obvious benefits to gardening for your own pantry are that you have arguably the freshest possible vegetables, a wider assortment of varieties to choose from, and definitely the most

economical access to good food. Teresa advocates “listening to the plant,” explaining that being aware of the plant's silent signals can lead to optimal quality. She says that the color or strawberries 'say' when to pick them, but that tomatoes are more forgiving when picking them early to ripen off the vine.

Jean reminds the listener that there are three main groups of veggie families, the cucurbits, the cole crops, and the tomato/eggplant/pepper clan. The most valuable preparation, once the bed is ready to plant, is this: read the seed package because it conveys a wealth of information. The squash family (cucurbits) includes cucumbers as well as zucchini, yellow squash and the winter squashes. Once the summer squash begin to produce, they are persistent and must be harvested consistently. Winter squash have a much longer season and can be harvested when just about everything else is cleared away. Their hard shells make it possible to store in a cool, dry place well into the winter season. Brassicas are the cabbage family, including cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Cabbage must be picked at just the right time, and requires good soil and plenty of water, Cauliflowers are ready when the heads are heavy with the florets not yet separating. Broccoli is prolific and easy, and Teresa offers tips on harvesting both broccoli and brussels sprouts. All the cabbages go well into the Fall, extending harvest season.

Jean, Teresa and Tim discuss the battle with cabbage worms. Tim wonders what about beans, and reminds Jean and Teresa about another large family full of great nutritious food. They divide into two general types. The ones harvested in the “green” stage can be selected for “all at once” harvest of a plant or continuous daily harvest over several weeks. Planting new crops every two weeks insures a constant harvest season. Others, like limas, kidney and fava beans, are harvested when the seeds become mature on the vine. These are famously good for storage, whether dry or canned.Cucumbers get a separate discussion, They are a native of India, and love warm weather, You can grow bush or vine types. Frequent picking is best. If a cuke gets too big or starts to turn yellow, it's too late. Everybody has a favorite. Teresa likes Kirby, Jean likes Straight Eight, and Tim is a fan of Japanese long cucumbers.

Melons are the next logical crop that comes to mind. They can be tricky, with a need for adequate water at the right times, and soil temperature is critical. Smaller melons might be best as the region has a fairly short growing season. There are clues to ripeness, like skin color and texture and stem slippage. Storing them at 70 degrees F and chilling them prior to serving is best. Watermelons require 20 square foot per plant, and there are many tricks and challenges to growing them. Teresa says “heft” is important and Jean and Tim discuss checking the “bellybutton” for ripeness.

Root crops are discussed, as are the onion family, which includes garlic. The conversation circles back to tomatoes and their relatives, with tips galore about growing, harvesting and storing. This episode is a cornucopia of information!

Host: Tim Kennelty Guests: Teresa Golden and Jean Thomas Photo by: Teresa Golden Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

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This episode ofNature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley is a retrospective look at one of the early radio interviews from our precursor show, “Digging in With Master Gardeners”, aired on WGXC, 90.7 FM. Teresa and Jean interviewed Master Beekeeper and Emeritus Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Aydlett. The original was aired as episode 14.

Linda Aydlett has been a beekeeper for over a decade, tending from two to thirty hives in various years. She got started at a workshop by the Catskill Mountain Beekeeping Club, studied via books, internet and Youtube videos, and then became a Master Beekeeper through Cornell University. Linda tells us there is a special relationship between bees and their keeper, quoting author Mark Winston : “The world slows down to focus on bees and their world.”

There are 20,000 bee species worldwide. Honeybees are the only insect providing food eaten by people. They are most commonly managed by people. There are twenty sub-species and they are now found in all habitable parts of the world, but are not native to North America. Some key details about honey bees include:

• they forage over an area of several miles
• they rarely sting because they will die if they do
• they use their knees to carry the pollen from flower to flower
• their role in the ecosystem is enormous.

One third of our food supply relies on the presence of pollinators. Honeybees can be directly connected to 75% of fruit crops and 53% of seed production. Direct production from honey bees includes honey. It is nectar brought back to the hive and stored at an 18% moisture content. It takes millions of miles of flight and visits to two million flowers to produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey. Propolis is a glue produced from the sap of evergreens for maintenance of the hive. It is also valuable to humans for certain antimicrobial properties, and is also used as a wood varnish. Beeswax is excess nectar, and is the infrastructure of a hive. Humans have multiple uses for the wax, including the popular beeswax candles. Even the venom has a use. Although its removal kills the bee, the venom is used to inject “heat” into arthritic joints.

Bees are often considered livestock and overseen by departments of agriculture in many states. Nectar is the reward to the bee for transporting pollen from flower to flower. Linda goes on to describe the fascinating details of a forager bee's life. They find the flowers (and are flower “constant” while a particular flower is in season), and collect the nectar. They return to the hive and transfer it to another bee. They also perform a “waggle dance” to transmit information about direction of the nectar source. Linda describes both the dance and how researchers decoded it in 1927.

There are three castes of bees, and Linda describes the duties of each in detail, from the queen to the drone to the worker. There is considerable drama to the choice and emergence of new queens. Learn about a substance called royal jelly which is exuded from the foreheads of nurse bees to feed the queen larvae. The larva of worker bees emerge to assume one or more of the duties of a worker bee. There are, in addition to nurse bees, mortuary bees, ventilator bees, guard bees and others. Eventually each of these can be promoted to a forager bee, usually for the last half of their life (eight weeks on average). There are even some bees known as winter bees. They are born in September or October and can survive the winter. They are of necessity less active and their main duty is to keep the hive warm... around 90 degrees F. They can unhinge their wings and then shiver to produce heat, all the while rotating from the inside to the outside of the bee cluster. New egg laying starts in February and March when activities revert to traditional good weather behavior. Ideally, there was enough honey stored in the hive for the population to survive the winter.

Bees are fascinating species. Learn more about them in the upcoming Part 2 of this conversation.

Hosts: Teresa Golden and Jean Thomas Guest: Linda Aydlett Photo: Linda Aydlett Production Assistance: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski and Jean Thomas

This episode continues our conversation with Kristopher Williams of PRISM and a frequent guest on Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley. Kris is our go-to expert about all things invasive. We have talked to him about invasive plants, insects and diseases. Today we asked Kris to tell us some of the success stories about his long career as an environmental advocate. We have spoken to Kris in previously aired episodes 23, 24, 31,and 189, in case you want to look a little deeper into his work. First a reminder of the definition: PRISM stands for Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management. It is one of eight regional districts in the state devised by NYS DEC and funded by the EPA to try to control the onslaught of invasive species of all kinds into the state.

Part 2 features another success story. The Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, NY is on the Washington/Saratoga County line. It's an island in the Battenkill near Lock 5 of the Champlain Canal. Over a period of several years, a volunteer group sought advice from the PRISM organization. It began with a speaking engagement on the actual site, combined with a “park walk” to assess the trail network, pavilion and gardens already in place. This is what Kris calls the outreach component, educating interested people. A year later, the group asked for advice on how to manage the woodland in the park. The next year they asked for maps to divide the area into plots. Another year later, the woman leading the efforts attended a regional partnership meeting and reported a successful grant application and heavy equipment acquisition. The progress continued. They designed a “tree promenade” of native trees and underplanted it with native shrubs. The funding magic continued as more local businesses participated.They ended up with fifty trees and thirty shrubs, planted by an army of volunteers and local businesses along with members of the PRISM team. This can be replicated, usually with a “driver”, a motivated volunteer. There is a link here to the park's website.

Tim then changed the subject to an invasive he's particularly irked by... Japanese stilt grass. Possible solutions were discussed, including some failures. It all ended with a positive note, though. Kris had cleared stiltgrass from an area and replanted with natives. The following season checkup revealed NO stiltgrass. The natives had prevailed. As an added note, there is some study going on regarding the effects of tannins from Hemlocks being a deterrent to stilt grass. So hope remains in the control of invasive species. Stay tuned! Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas Guest: Kristopher Williams Photo: Teresa Golden Production Assistance: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadows, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas Recording:

This episode brings back our frequent guest, Kristopher Williams, of PRISM (Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management). Eight PRISMs exist across New York State and work to prevent or minimize the harm caused by invasive species on our environment, economy, and health and welfare of residents. PRISMs are intended to coordinate invasive species management functions including coordinating partner efforts, recruiting and training citizen volunteers, identifying and delivering education and outreach, establishing early detection monitoring networks and implementing direct eradication and control efforts. Regional partnerships with nonprofits, municipalities, conservation groups and volunteers are devised to cast the widest net for control over an enemy that recognizes no artificial borders. The Capital Region Prism ranges from the Catskills to the Adirondacks, encompassing eleven Counties and three million acres.

Kris is our go-to expert about all things invasive. We previously have talked to him about invasive plants, insects and diseases. Today we asked Kris to tell us some of the success stories about his long career as an environmental advocate. Our earlier conversations with Kris have aired in episodes 23, 24 and 31, in case you want to look a little deeper into his work.

The team has five core members and sixteen seasonal members on staff. Their mission is to coordinate all available resources, public and private, along with volunteers, to combat the multitude of invasive problems and organize alternatives. Their mission includes massive public lands and advisory status for privately owned properties. They act as the glue, Kris says, to hold all entities together. PRISM delivers science and educational programs for maximum impact, and always keeps in mind the different objectives of local and statewide groups. Tim asked Kris for some success stories, since we have discussed so many problems in the past. Kris listed some of the lasting beneficial effects:

• people achieve self-actuation by becoming aware of and seeking resolutions to invasive incursions;
• celebrating local impacts to inspire further efforts;
• there is now an exposition on invasives every two years;
• college-level programs are now available educating about invasives and remedies.

The conversation drifted to the emotional part of treatment of invasives. Most of them got here because they were introduced for a particular feature, and then “escaped” because they were prolific and had no natural enemies. There are also “sleeper” invasives, a new designation. These are known invasives that are still being sold to the public. Unfortunately sixty-one per cent of all invasives are still being sold. There is a patchwork of states regulating and actively banning sale of certain plants.

One success story Kris talks about is the Grassland Bird Trust. Washington County had a 20,000 acre trust facing the issue of dealing with invasives. A management plan was devised and a board established. Kris detailed the progress over several years as a management system was put into place and assessed for success year by year. Tim asked about what happens with much smaller efforts, and Kris described available training in IPM (integrated pest management) and land management as well as other volunteer-led controls, with consultation with PRISM staff. Basic measurements to assess success include removal, restoration, and adapting responses to predetermined thresholds.

There's a lot of issues associated with invasive species management. Stay tuned for more in the next episode (Part 2).

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas Guest: Kristopher Williams Photo: Grassland Bird Trust Production Assistance: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadows, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

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In this episode, Tim and Jean sit down with Rosemary Mix, president of the Capital District chapter of Wild Ones. That's a national organization that was an outgrowth of Douglas Tallamy''s idea for a “Homegrown National Park” whereby individuals planted their gardens with native plants to make a network of pollinators and a healthier ecology nationwide. The idea became the “Wild Ones” organization in 1977 at a native landscape conference. There are now over 100 chapters in 36 states, with nineteen thousand members. The pandemic resulted in a huge boost in membership, and a lively website encouraged more growth.

The local group holds an annual plant sale at Thacher Park, a seed swap in November, and a series of educational programming via zoom all winter. Membership in the local group also offers “cozy chats”, informal gatherings to talk 'natives' during the winter, a speakers bureau, and meet and hike sessions. They are working on creating a demonstration garden at Guilderland Unity Lutheran Church. The planned design is posted on-line at the national website. There are many designs available on the website with guidance available, from lists of plant sources, designers, criteria for good design, and ideas beyond gardens. Planters, pots and other containers can serve to grow natives, and natives are not just annuals and perennials. There is advice on native trees and shrubs.

The website even discusses the differences of opinion between mere enthusiasts and “purists” who shun nativars, cultivars or even combining native and introduced plants. To visit an established native garden, Rosemary suggests contacting the Sobro Conservancy in Saratoga, which has rescued a vacant lot and made it a pleasant entry to the city. Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas Guest: Rosemary Mix Photo by: Wild Ones Production Assistance: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connolly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

In this episode, Tim and Jean host Kyle Bradford from the Hawthorne Valley's Farmscape Ecology Program. Kyle gave a presentation to the Master Gardener Volunteers of Columbia and Greene Counties on the subject of ants. It was so well received that several MGVs urged the podcast team to invite Kyle to be a guest on the podcast. Kyle holds a MS in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont. His career led him to an internship at Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program in Columbia County. From there he spent time on the west coast, and eventually returned to become a part of the staff at Hawthorne Valley. Along the way he developed an interest and expertise in ants, and is a contributor to the field guide to the Columbia County ecology and habitats on the subject of ants.

Kyle tells us that the field of ants is enormous, regardless of the small size of the individual members. Ants are on every continent except Antarctica, and thrive in every environment from desert to swamp.The biomass of all the ants on the planet exceeds the sum of the biomass of all the wild animals and birds. Some species are known to be endangered, even though we still don't know all the species of ants that exist. Kyle describes the endangered ants as specialized parasites, dependent on another species that may be at risk. They have an important place in biodiversity, being food for various woodpeckers and flickers, and bears. They serve as seed dispersal agents for many wildflowers, which have a special method of rewarding the ants for carrying the seeds away called elaiosomes. They forage and recycle nutrients from dead plants and animals, as well. They use many other tools for survival, including kidnapping other species of ants and enslaving them. Some species herd aphids and feed on the honeydew they produce. There are some populations appearing in Columbia County that were previously known only in Wisconsin and Michigan, with the means of traveling this far east still unknown. They appear in similar environmental habitats, but how they traveled is a mystery.

Kyle suggests that Columbia County has a large variety of climate, soil and terrain diversity, which makes it possible for an unusual diversity of flora and fauna to exist in good health. Kyle has considerable experience in New England studying ants, and recommends the Field Guide to the Ants of New England. He adds that since the guide was published, many “new” species have been discovered. Many may have been relocated by virtue of human activities, but many may have been by “hitchhiking” with other species, becoming “temporary parasites,” using “social perfumes.” The methods are many and varied. Apparently because ants are “eusocial,” it's easier for them to take advantage of one another. Kyle discussed the “Manhatt-ant” and the pavement ant, both imports and very adaptable. The Manhattants are getting lots of attention in New York and have interesting adaptive skills. And these are only some of the types of ants living among us. Kyle has several favorites and tells wonderful stories about them and their lifestyles. Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Guest: Kyle Bradford

Photo by: Kyle Bradford

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

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