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Week 3

After lots of work, our ladybug poster is finally coming together! After reviewing many images of ladybug species to choose the best that show variation in color and pattern, I and a team from the Lost Ladybug Project picked the best images for the poster. I arranged the images according to species and added graphics to the poster to make it appealing and informational. Now, I’m awaiting feedback from the Lost Ladybug team to help improve the poster.

The current draft of the Ladybugs of NY poster
A 14-spotted ladybug I found on Swiss Chard in my garden.

While working on the poster, I’ve become more familiar with the ladybugs in New York. While weeding and watering in my own vegetable garden, I stumbled upon a couple of fourteen-spotted ladybugs – on some swiss chard and on summer squash! At least I learned something so far!

Next up, I’ve been traveling to the Schuyler County CCE office in Montour Falls to plan a self-guided tour for their teaching garden. Since 2010, CCE Schuyler has had a teaching garden near the county office building. The garden has many features including plantings for pollinators and beneficial insects. There are berry and fruit variety trials and even vegetable trials for Cornell researchers. There’s a garden for children from the local Head Start program, and an outdoor classroom, and wheelchair accessible raised bed gardens for people with disabilities and the elderly.

Normally, the garden is staffed by a volunteer who can give visitors tours of the garden, but because of the Coronavirus, that volunteer isn’t there anymore. So, in their place, Roger and I are working to create a self-guided tour of the garden. We have plans to create different stops in the garden, and I will create handouts that explain the interesting and significant features of the garden.