Jan 26, 2024
In this workshop for home gardeners—to be held at the Quarry Gardens on Saturday, February 3, from 1:30 to 3:30—Master Gardener Ron Fandetti will explain and demonstrate correct pruning techniques to promote the health and beauty of your landscape’s shrubs and small trees.
We’ll begin with an illustrated talk in the Visitor Center classroom and follow it outdoors with a hands-on demonstration of correct pruning techniques outdoors. This is a collaborative public training offered by the Nelson County Extension Master Gardeners and the Quarry Gardens.
The number of spaces is limited. Participants should dress for the weather and bring their own hand pruners—although some will be available.
Sign up at quarrygardensatschuyler.com/visit. The Visitor Center will open at 12:30 for those who would like to bring a bag lunch before the program begins.
Jan 15, 2024
The first event of the Quarry Gardens’ 2014 season was a special meeting of the Blue Ridge Mycological Society—for which we are most grateful. Twenty-plus volunteers gathered to help us remove fallen trees and embedded trash from the quarry edges. They filled the van in the featured photo with junk and brush. They also piled our dump truck to overflowing with wood debris and invasive plants. And then…they repaired to the Visitor Center for hot soup.
Volunteers are welcome throughout the year. Our property manager Forrest Maguire always has a to-do list to share.
In the plant galleries, we left last year’s growth for the insects and birds. The first official spring clean-up day will be February 24, when project manager Emma Stephens of the Center for Urban Habitats will be here to guide volunteers.
To learning more about volunteering: quarrygardensatschuyler.org/contact
The QGs is home to the mushroom club, which meets here monthly. To learn more about events and membership: brmsclub.org
Oct 31, 2023
Although Saturday afternoon, November 4, will be our last regular tour of the season, The Quarry Gardens will not be inactive until spring. As views open, the winter landscape has its own appeal. Crunching through fallen leaves, we notice the geometry of seed heads, the winter colors of orchid leaves, the great variety of fungi, the architecture of trees, the many textures of bark, and the cold-weather homes of insects. Taking advantage of the season’s opportunities, we’ll offer occasional programs and trail walks of an educational nature. And, of course, we’ll be available for private tours.
This week, the pictured Shaggy ink cap, Coprinus comatus, popped up in a group near the Giant’s Stairs. Said to be edible when young and entirely white, these turned black and liquified overnight.
Oct 12, 2023
On Sunday October 29 at 2 p.m., Emily Ferguson will lead a walk through the 49 species of native trees (plus a few non-natives) to be found at The Quarry Gardens at Schuyler.
This will be a stunning walk with autumn colors reflecting in the two quarry pools. Emily will describe the conditions needed for fantastic fall foliage and show how to identify tree species by their color display, shape of leaves, silhouette, and location. As we approach different species, Emily will share tips to help you remember their identification.
A Tree Steward and Master Naturalist, Emily developed her love for Virginia’s flora and fauna while living in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville. She currently serves as president of the Wintergreen Nature Foundation Board of Directors.
Sign up for this event at quarrygardensatschuyler.org/visit.
Sep 19, 2023
Last Friday, PVCC Prof. Joanna Vondrasek brought three UVA students to The Quarry Gardens at Schuyler to sample water in the quarry pools, wetlands, and the adjoining pond as part of a survey of local populations of Daphnia.
Daphnia are miniscule crustaceans commonly called water fleas (because of their swimming style) that live is various freshwater environments. The sampling protocol is to throw a drag net with an attached collecting tube, and then package and label promising samples for later investigation under a microscope. The featured photo shows Vondracek (left) with undergraduates Owen Shaffer and Lauren Bradshaw (right), and Ph.D. candidate Robert Porter (center) evaluating a catch.
Joanna is using her semester-long sabbatical to work in a UVA biology lab, a goal being to establish a laboratory culture of Daphnia in aquaria at PVCC that students there may use for independent studies. You may learn more about the UVA biology lab using Daphnia for genomics investigations here: https://www.bergland-lab.org/
A goal of the Quarry Gardens is to support research in the natural sciences by educators and citizen scientists by making our land and facilities available for such studies.
