By Laura Perkins

 Did you know that pollinators are responsible for roughly 1 out of 3 bites we eat?   They play an essential role in transforming flowers to food, from the alfalfa that nourish the cattle to the pear that provides that refreshing boost.  Without them, 97 percent of all flowering plants would be in peril.  This Sunday, June 13, residents and the City of Peekskill would like to encourage us to nurture them by using a little piece of our yards, or engaging in a community garden, to plant the flowers and help create the habitats that support them.

 There are four gardens to visit.   

1) Regeneration Farm.  Lepore Park, located on Main and Hadden streets, adjacent to Woodside School.   We will be there to welcome you from 7:30 am until 2 pm, and possibly longer depending on how long tying and trimming tomatoes and weeding and planting peppers takes us.

Regeneration farm is a community farm dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to healthy, delicious food and an opportunity to engage with the earth. We will be giving out cover crop seed too that pollinators love.  Phacelia and buckwheat are fast growing flowers that will quickly shade out weeds in those bare areas in your garden and bloom within 60 days.

 2)  Riverfront Green Park.  On the waterfront, this Park features many plants for pollinators to feed on, including native species of trees such as Amelanchier canadensis, June Berry, that is just now ripening.  Delicious berries that are beloved by humans and birds alike, they provide early season fodder as they bloom first thing in the spring. This Park is open from dawn til dusk.   Enjoy! 

3) The Petals Garden, on Central Avenue, near the police station, this is a lovely garden maintained by the Garden Club of Peekskill.  Feel free to stop by on your way to the Riverfront!  Volunteers will be on hand from 10 am to 1 pm to answer questions and show you around!

 4) Backyard Tiny Farm, 622 Union Avenue.   Learn what can provide beauty for you and nourishment for pollinators when you are visited nightly by herds of deer!   In the backyard they have created a farm!  Definitely worth a stop!  Very inspiring. Open 11 am – 4 pm

 5) Woodside Elementary School  612 Depew Street,  walk around to the back of the school, in the courtyard.   School Garden featuring vegetables and flowering plants and shrubs.  Open 9-11 AM.  (Then you can walk up the street to Backyard Tiny Farm)

If you want to do a walking tour start at Woodside around 9 or 10, (garden closes at 11) then take a little walk in Depew Park, depending on how much exercise you are looking for,  then go to Backyard Tiny Farm,  (open at 11) then Regeneration Farm,  then stop by the Petals Garden (volunteers there until 1) as you make your way to the Waterfront!