Herb Garden at John Jay Homestead

A few years ago, I became a member of the New York Unit of the Herb Society of America, the local branch of a national network that is dedicated to furthering the use of and knowledge about herbs. Herbs have many uses, and each use has a labeled section in the local herb garden at John Jay Homestead. The garden, designed in the early 1990s by N.Y. Unit member, Page Dickey, is divided into four main sections of culinary, fragrances, medicinal and pest repellents. In addition, there is a section containing dye plants, another with roses and another border of ground covers and shrubs. Each section is maintained by a "Bed Head" and several other members. The workers meet every Thursday during the growing season at the herb garden to weed or otherwise improve the garden's appearance, planting new items while maintaining the old. Every year, it looks and smells more beautiful.

In addition to maintaining this lovely garden, the Unit also supports several public gardens and environmental projects, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the N.Y. Botanical Garden and the Cloisters. Every Fall, the Unit has an Herb Fair in mid-September, which features fresh herbs and plants from members' gardens, hand-made wreaths and fragrance items, home-made jams, jellies, chutneys and mustards, a large selection of herbal and plant books and cookbooks, baked goods and many other items for sale. It is the highlight of the year for the herbies, since it occurs at the end of the growing season. If you want more information about the New York Unit, perhaps the best way is to drop by the Herb Garden some Thursday when members are there to meet. It's a great discovery--enjoy!

Centerpiece of John Jay Homestead Herb Garden.

Herb Garden views with Potting Sheds in background.

Photos by Nancy Dexter.

Walking Dogs Off-Leash

In my first blog post, I want to address the issue of dogs and their owners being able to walk freely in the local woods. Since it is a natural thing for dog owners to occasionally want to walk their dogs without a leash, many residents of Bedford, NY, are having difficulty with the expanding insistence on enforcing leash laws, or the incidence of dogs being banned altogether. In my childhood, dogs were free to roam the neighborhood, usually in search of food. There was no such thing as an Invisible Fence system, and we rarely needed a leash. Ginger created a well-worn trail from our back door to the neighbor's back door, with a lovely garden in between. No one ever complained about her being off-leash. She was a sweetheart.

But now, people with dogs off-leash are often confronted with extreme hostility--so surprising in local parks that have hiking trails set up specifically for walking the beautiful woods. When you own a dog that needs to run, you're hard pressed to take a hike without including this family member. The conflicts seem to be escalating between those who expect dogs to be leashed and those who believe dogs need to run free, as evidenced by a story that ran on the cover of The New York Times Metropolitan Section on Sunday, February 12, titled "A Yearning for Dogs To Run Free," by Lisa Foderaro. The topic is also a hot one in our local newspaper, with many letters to the editor appearing because another favorite spot for people and their dogs was recently closed off, complete with big, ugly signs and fencing. The Morgenthau Preserve and an adjoining 70-acre property owned by a private individual in Pound Ridge, NY, was a haven for dog-lovers, particularly for dogs who love to swim since there are two lakes in those woods, not to mention a three-hole private golf course. Most of the people we saw there had their dogs along, and everyone seemed to be enjoying the outdoors and the beauty of the scenery.

Does this dog look like he would thrive on a leash?

Suddenly, the Board of Directors of the Morgenthau Preserve decided they would not just enforce the leash law for dogs, but close the preserve to dogs altogether. Ostensibly, this move was to preserve wildlife and flora and fauna. However, the main obstacle to preserving plants in this area is the large deer population. The deer have basically consumed the entire understory of the forest, and new plants cannot take hold. However, the board is blaming loose dogs, not deer, for this development. We feel it's just an excuse, and perhaps property owners adjoining the preserve want to exclude others and have the land to themselves. It's a huge loss for many, and there must be some viable compromise. Both sides of the story need to be heard!