Conservation Notes:

(1) The Conservation Committee invites you and your friends to a special meeting:
"Grow Local, Buy Local, Eat Local -- Start with Your Soil,"
DATE: Monday, April 27, 2009
TIME: 11:45 am, speech to begin promptly at 12 noon
PLACE: CT Agricultural Experiment Station auditorium, 123 Huntington St, New Haven
COST: $10 per person
SPEAKERS: Featured speaker Bill Duesing, Executive Director of CTNOFA, will entertain us with a talk about soil. Melina Shannon-DiPietro, director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, will briefly describe the project.
LUNCH after the talks: A generous portion of minestrone soup prepared by Zinc chef, Denise Appel, made with locally produced ingredients, and a variety of desserts prepared by the Conservation Committee. Bring anything more for yourself that you'd like to eat.
MORE: We'll also have lists of sources of locally grown seeds, seedlings, plants and trees, of places to buy local farm produce, and of restaurants, like Zinc, that use as many locally produced products as possible. Students from Common Ground High School will be selling seedlings and other items, such as maple syrup.
RESERVE YOUR PLACE: For each person bring $10 in cash or your check made out to the Garden Club of New Haven to Mikey at the next regular meeting, Monday, April 6. If you can't make the meeting, e -mail Mikey Hirschoff (mhirschoff@comcast.net) or call her and leave a message (203.393.2214) by April 8 to reserve a place, then send a check, made out to GCNH, in the appropriate amount, to Mikey Hirschoff, 392 Sperry Road, Bethany, CT 06524 as soon as possible. If payment is not received by April 21, the reservation cannot be guaranteed.

(2) The GCA online horticulture publication, Real Dirt , is available at http://www.gcamerica.org/membersonly/docs/hort-newsletter2/default.htm . There's an interesting article about growing delphiniums in Connecticut and much more.

(3) Don't forget to check out Martha Phillips' Legislative Update at http://www.gcamerica.org/membersonly/legislative_updates_current/nal111_001.pdf and her Legislative Status Chart at http://www.gcamerica.org/membersonly/legislative_updates_current/cons_current_chart.pdf. These are from February, but give good background for future updates and status reports. There's lots more on the GCA website under National Affairs and Legislation and Conservation -- GCA position papers and conservation reports
-- that's well worth reading.

(4) In case you missed it, here's an article about cowpots, nifty fertilizing pots for your seedlings: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/connecticut/0301colct.html?scp=1&sq=cowpots&st=cse