Dig It - 
Locally Grown Nursery Plants are in Season! 
Month:
May		Year:
2014		Issue:
10 
Peonies are in full bloom! Check out our featured event this week and consider visiting our friends at Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston, CT!

Upcoming Events
Featured Event

May 13 to June 22
Peony Festival at Cricket Hill Garden
Thomaston
2014 will mark our 25th year of growing peonies here at Cricket Hill Garden. It started with just a few plants and a few friends and now we see more than 3000 visitors each year. Our expanding display collection of 400+ named cultivars of peonies blooms in May to mid-June. -Read more>>  
 
May 24
Rainbow Fishway Open House
Windsor 
View actively migrating fish, observe how a fish ladder operates and learn  about the life histories of migrating fish in CT. For additional information go to www.ct.gov/deep - Read more>>  
 
May 25
Truelove Farms - Farm Tour
Morris  
Truelove Farms will be hosting the May Tour in a series of Farmer to Farmer tours this summer. The tour will showcase their sustainable, grass-based practices of their beef herds, mobile chicken coops and meat birds. The primary focus though will be on their mainline operation - Read more>>
 

  

 

June 02

A,B,C Meatless Monday with Anne Gallagher  

Silo Cooking School, Litchfield
Join the Silo on Monday evenings with Chef Anne Gallagher and go meatless!
Learn how to prepare vegetable kebobs with tempeh, hand-cranked pasta with kale pesto, spring primavera pasta with eggplant meatballs and marinara sauce and a seasonal spring vegetable pesto!
 June 04

Hunger as a Health Issue at the CT Mental Health Center

New Haven 
Ms. Weiss will discuss her organization's work in conducting "Community Food Needs Assessments" for hospitals and health care systems. She will also highlight collaborative community-based programs that address"food insecurity" needs that have the potential for replication in the Greater New Haven - Read more>> 

 

June 07

Creative Container Gardening - Winterberry Gardens
Southington
Design your own container garden with advice from our annual expert, Ashley F! Learn the basics of how to create and care for a one-of-a-kind patio pot filled with Winterberry Grown annuals of your choice. You don't want to miss out on this fun opportunity! Cost of the class is $60 per person - Read more>>


 

10% Tracking Contest
Track your local purchases for a chance to win a Tree Peony  or Fig Tree from Cricket Hill Nursery! 

Snow Lotus Tree Peony 
We know that growing the movement takes work, so we're providing a little more excitement to help you stay on track with your pledge!  Thanks to a generous donation from the wonderful people at Cricket Hill, now through June each time you track your weekly local purchases you are entered in a chance to win either a Chinese Tree Peony or a Fig Tree!  The more you track the better your chances are to win!  Stay tuned for more fun contests on buyCTgrown throughout the season! 

Plant Descriptions from Cricket Hill 
Chinese Tree Peony Seedling  
Grown from open pollinated seeds collected from various cultivars of Chinese P. rockii tree peonies growing in our display garden. We plant dozens of these seedlings every year, but find ourselves with too many seedlings and too few nursery beds. Mother plants of these seedlings include exceptional Gansu rockii tree peonies varieties such as: Purple Butterfly in the Wind, Boundless Bright Sky, Phoenix Hairpin, Snow Lotus, Daoist Pills in a Jade Stove.

At maturity these plants will grow to between 3-5'. Colors can be white, pink, lavender, red or purple; the gene pool on these seeds is large and the results can be surprising.

'Tony's Black' Fig  
'Tony's Black' is an old Italian fig. Dark skin and with deep red flesh. Excellent flavor. Produces a good early crop, called the "breba crop". Needs a long season for the main crop to ripen well. Successfully grown by a good friend of ours in Waterbury, CT, USDA zone 6 for twenty five years.  
 
Click here for a complete description
 
Featured! 

Natureworks
 
The daffodils and tulips have faded and lilacs and bleeding hearts have taken their place, filling in shades of purple, white and pink! May is a great time to get perennial shrubs and trees into your yard. One of our partners in the 10% Campaign and for our Dig It Crop Cards, Natureworks' Nancy DuBrule-Clemente is our Featured Establishment! Check out our interview:

Nancy DuBrule-Clemente of Natureworks in Northford, CT

 

What makes Natureworks unique?

 

It is rare to find a business that has gardened organically for over three decades. I was also one of the first women landscapers in the area; now women landscapers are common. Being a small, local business run by the same owner for such a long time is also unique. We also are total plant geeks and love unusual plants, so what you will find at Natureworks is really different from the big box stores. During the holiday season we harvest many of our own fresh cut greens to use in our designs. Education is our primary focus. I write a weekly email that keeps people in the loop about what is going on in CT. I wrote a book on Succession of Bloom in Ct that helps people have constant color all season. Our website has tons of informational handouts. We encourage people to share them. We have garden walks and seminars every single week.   

 

 
Nursery Crop Card - Dig It! 
 

 

Syme Family Farm in Broad Brook, CT is a participating farm in our Crop Card Campaign. 

 

We asked Jen Syme famous for 'Jen's Bouquets' why she was excited to participate in this project with us.

 

"I am thrilled to help distribute these great crop cards. These cards give great exposure to the diversity and seasonality of agriculture in Connecticut in a really fun way. Essentially, there are CT grown products all year, so these cards feature a few ways to support the CT 10% Campaign year round."

 

 
 
 
 
The CT 10% Campaign is a collaborative project led by

Thank You to Our New Sponsor!
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