Happenings June 2026

June 2026

Fireflies: Sparks in the Dark

Gardening with Texture Adds Visual Interest When Blooms Fade

Bug of the Month: Spined Soldier Bug

Find Your Favorite Fruits and Veggies at Putnam County Farms and Markets

Striped Cucumber Beetle and Bacterial Wilt: Effective IPM Strategies

National Pollinator Week is June 22-28

Rooted in Learning: Brewster and North Salem Students Give Microgreens a Try

This Summer, Try This Delicious and Refreshing Salsa Recipe

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Fireflies: Sparks in the Dark

by Jill Eisenstein, Master Gardener Volunteer

One warm, humid night in June, the tall grass near the garden twinkles. One little flash…then another… then another… and my summer begins. The fireflies have returned.

As a child, I remember catching these harmless insects in glass jars with my big sister. We would put the lid on, which had been carefully punctured with air holes, and pretend we had a special lantern for a few hours before we let them go.

Despite their name, fireflies, also known as lightning bugs, are neither flies nor bugs. They are beetles in the family Lampyridae, which means “shining fire.” They got the moniker “fireflies” because of their bioluminescence; they carry tiny chemistry labs in their lower abdomen with vials of luciferase and luciferin. Luciferase is an enzyme that triggers the emission of light, and luciferin produces light, but no heat.

They use their special chemistry reactions for courtship. The male sends a flash of light into the air, and a female, waiting near the ground, responds with another flash if she is interested. Each firefly species has its own flash pattern.

Intriguing, mysterious as the twinkling stars, the most common species in the Hudson Valley is even named after a well-known asterism: Photinus pyralis, the common eastern firefly, is called the “Big Dipper” firefly because of the males’ dipper-shaped flight.

Nature often saves its most resplendent for the end (think fall foliage, swan songs), and so the fireflies. The luminaries only live for a few weeks. They mate, lay eggs in the ground, leaf litter or other moist location… and disappear forever. But in their young years, laud them, they were helping us with pest control: they spent two or more years as larvae, dining on worms, snails, slugs and other small critters in the soil.

Sadly, our little sparks in the dark are losing ground. The shimmering light show that has captivated our hearts for many years is being slowly but perceptively extinguished by habitat loss, light pollution, and the use of chemical pesticides.

Here are several ways to increase the probability of seeing fireflies in summer: turn off outside lights at night; leave leaf litter under trees for the larvae to grow up in; leave some edges of taller plants or grass unmown; and avoid using pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Resources:

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/...
https://bugs.uconn.edu/2021/07/30/fireflies/
https://www.fireflyatlas.org/
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlif...
https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2023/06/its-firef...

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Gardening with Texture Adds Visual Interest When Blooms Fade

by Jennifer Lerner, Senior Resource Educator

When the riot of May and early June blooms have faded, and your garden is beginning to look tired, turn to texture. Textures offer a longer season of interest, with bold leaves, fuzzy leaves, and even hardscaping. While there are certainly some summer blooming perennials you can choose from, consider adding plants now that will offer textural interest later. Once you begin working with texture, flowers are just a bonus.

How do you add “textures” to a landscape? Soft, billowy textures provided by finely dissected leaves like those of Japanese maple, threadleaf amsonia, or cut-leaf elderberry varieties. Bold textures like those from hosta, native ginger, magnolia, or cardoon invite the gaze to linger for a bit. Many textural plants also come in bold foliage colors too, so even after they bloom, they’ll provide color to your garden as well as texture. Downy and fuzzy foliage with silvery hues, like lamb’s ear, cardoon, and lavender invite you to reach out and touch. Grasses, iris, lilies, and yucca provide soft or bold linear textures. In winter months texture comes through twigs, buds and bark like the orangey, exfoliating bark of oak leaf hydrangea and paperbark maple, or the big sticky buds of horse chestnut.

But think beyond foliage for textures that include stones, brick, or wood in repeated patterns. This is texture that will work for you year-round, with little maintenance. Repeated patterns, low stone walls, or stacked logs create patterns and textures that catch the eye and draw you through the garden. If you aren’t interested in building projects, you can purchase small woven-willow fencing panels for that textural flourish. Another easy way to add texture: Collect pinecones and fill a basket or use them as a mulch, their pleasing shapes and patterns add beautiful texture to the garden.

Repetition and contrast are your friends. Put some finely textured plants close to bold textures for contrast. Create visual impact by repeating textures, either by planting in groups of 3 or 5, or by reusing the same bold plant in several places in the garden to draw your gaze through the garden. By adding textural plants now, you’ll get ahead of the July and August garden blahs.

As always match your plant’s requirements to what your site has to offer to get the benefits of Right-Plant/Right-Place. For more ideas about plants that will do well in your garden, check out Cornell’s Woody Plant Database for trees and shrubs (https://woodyplants.cals.cornell.edu/home), and The NC Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox (https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/find_a_plant/).

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Bug of the Month: Spined Soldier Bug

by Janis Butler, Master Gardener Volunteer

If ever there was a candidate for mistaken identity, it’s the Spined Soldier Bug (Podisus maculiventris). She’s a valuable beneficial insect but, alas, looks disconcertingly like the Squash Bug and the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug, both of which are serious pests of agriculture as well as home gardens. The Spined Soldier Bug is herself a stink bug so she is often squished or sprayed like her less-welcome relatives.

What’s a gardener to do? As with all insects, ID before you squish. Sometimes identification is easy (Japanese beetles, for example, are easy to spot). But in the case of the Spined Soldier Bug, accurate ID is challenging. A smartphone app such as iNaturalist can offer a quick ID. Insect guidebooks can also help, or you can bring the insect to the Cornell Cooperative Extension (in a tightly covered jar) for ID. (Hint: the Spined Soldier Bug has very pointed shoulders. The look-alikes have rounded shoulders. The Spined Soldier Bug also has dark markings on the transparent ends of her wings that look like a tail when the wings are folded.)

What’s so great about the Spined Soldier Bug? Her diet! She devours the pest insects who torment vegetable gardeners: Colorado potato beetles, Mexican bean beetles, fall webworms, corn earworms, cabbage loopers, sawflies, etc. — over 100 pests known only too well to vegetable growers. And she eats both hard-bodied adults and and soft-bodied larvae. Individual Spined Soldier Bugs have been recorded as consuming more than 100 late instar fall armyworm larvae in a season, according to Biological Control, a publication of Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. So, though you’ll find her sitting on your apples and eggplants, beans and tomatoes, asparagus and onions, she’s not eating them. Rather, she’s hunting the pests that do eat them.

Both as an adult and as a nymph, the Spined Soldier Bug often eats critters considerably larger than herself — she’s only 2/5” long. How? She has a sharp tube-shaped mouthpart (rostrum) which she can extend forward in front of her body to pierce her prey’s skin. She uses this tool to inject digestive enzymes into the prey, liquifying its insides, which she then sucks up like a straw. She folds the “beak” under her body when not feeding. The Spined Soldier Bug is such a valued predator in the biological control of greenhouse crops that she’s available commercially.

Life Cycle
The Spined Soldier Bug undergoes three-part metamorphosis — egg, nymph, adult — in about a month, depending on the weather and food availability, so she has time for two or three generations before cold weather sets in. She lays her eggs on leaves, in a loose mass of several dozen, totaling hundreds each year.

The eggs of many insects look similar to one another, and this is particularly true of the eggs of stink bugs like the Spined Soldier Bug. But the Spined Soldier Bug’s eggs have a distinctive identifying feature: a crown of tiny white spikes circling one end of each barrel-shaped egg. If you find clusters of eggs, a smartphone ID app can identify them as well as the adults and nymphs. It’s certainly a good idea to destroy the eggs of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs or Squash Bugs but important to make sure you destroy the right ones!

More about those SBB eggs: According to research published in Current Biology, female stink bugs can change the color of their eggs depending on the amount of light reflecting off the surface of their surroundings. The mother lays darker eggs (dark bronze to almost black) on upper leaf surfaces in order to block harmful UV radiation. Lighter (white or cream-colored), more in need of sun protection, are laid on the undersides of leaves.

When the eggs hatch in 5 to 9 days, the first nymphal instars appear and begin their journey through five developmental stages, getting bigger each time and changing in color, from red and black to reddish-orange with red, white and/or black markings. The first instars eat only whatever remains in their yolks, but the later nymphs demonstrate why they are such good friends to the gardener, by voraciously gobbling up pest insects, including those many times their size. The instar life stage takes about 3-4 weeks. Here, too, it’s a good idea to use a smartphone app because the nymphs of “good bugs” and “bad bugs” can easily be confused.

When cold weather approaches, the adult Spined Soldier Bug looks for a snug place to spend the winter. First choices are leaf litter and and deep mulch, but sometimes they nestle themselves in the deep crevices of leaf bark. When spring beckons, they emerge, mate, and begin to search for garden pests.

How to help the Spined Soldier Bug ID before you squish! Make sure you have the right species before you destroy stink bug eggs, nymphs or adults.

Leaves leaves alone in fall or at least rake them gently to the edge of your garden or property so that the adult Spined Soldier Bug and so many critters who live there can make it through the winter undisturbed. Control aggressive ants. Foraging

ants will attack, kill or scare off helpful Soldier Bug nymphs and eat their eggs.

Avoid insecticides. Use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) methods first. Read more about IPM on Cornell’s website (https:// cals.cornell.edu/integrated-pest-management)

Photo credit: Robert Webster / xpda.com / CC-BY-SA-4.0

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Find Your Favorite Fruits and Veggies at Putnam County Farms and Markets

by Ruby Koch-Fienberg, Ag & Food Systems Coordinator

This summer, Putnam County is bursting with flavor—and Fruit and Vegetable Month is the perfect excuse to get out, explore, and fill your fridge with food grown by your neighbors. Think of it as a delicious scavenger hunt across Brewster, Cold Spring, Mahopac, and every town in between.

Taste summer at our orchards

Strawberry season is short, sweet, and absolutely worth chasing, and Putnam County orchards make it easy to turn a regular Saturday into a mini road trip.

Start at Salinger’s Orchard in Brewster, where the farm store smells like warm cider donuts and the shelves are lined with apples, peaches, cherries, and jars of local honey. Grab a bag of fruit, a donut for the ride home, and maybe a pie if you “accidentally” wander past the bakery case.

Head down to Maple Lawn Farmers Market & Garden Center in Garrison for early berries and summer fruit, tucked right in among flats of flowers and vegetable starts—perfect if you want to snack on strawberries now and plant your own for later.

Round things out at Veras Marketplace in Cold Spring, where piles of local and organic produce make it easy to build a rainbow salad, a snack board, or a picnic spread for the riverfront.

Eat the rainbow, grown here

If you’ve ever wanted to build a plate that looks like it belongs on a cookbook cover, Fruit and Vegetable Month is the time—and our local farms are the secret weapon.

At Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Cold Spring, you can walk into the farm store and walk out with certified organic greens, carrots, tomatoes, and just-dug potatoes, plus milk, eggs, and cheese to round out your meals. They accept SNAP and offer payment plans, so that beautiful, colorful spread is within reach for more households.

Artemis Farm in Brewster keeps its stand stocked with organic vegetables, eggs, maple syrup, and house-made breads; it’s the kind of place where you stop in “just for lettuce” and leave with half your week’s meals planned out.

Boni-Bel Farm at Green Chimneys adds a little magic: organic fruits and vegetables, eggs, maple syrup, honey, and artisan cheese, all in one stop. It’s easy to grab a few new-to-you veggies and challenge your family to try a “mystery ingredient” each week.

Fire up the grill with local meats

Fruit and Vegetable Month isn’t only about produce—it’s also about building meals that showcase everything our farms can do, including pasture-raised meats and eggs.

Glynwood’s farm store is a one-stop shop for pasture-raised beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and eggs, so you can plan a grill night or Sunday breakfast that’s 100 percent Hudson Valley. Pair local sausage with sautéed greens and roasted potatoes and you’ve got a full “Putnam-grown” plate.

At Lobster Hill Farm in Brewster, Farm-to-Fork CSA boxes and on-farm pickup bring you goat meat and cheese, pastured poultry, eggs, and produce, all packed with stories you can share at the dinner table.

Make Fruit & Veg Month an adventure

Fruit and Vegetable Month is your invitation to turn “support local farms” from a nice idea into a lived, tasty habit.

Pick one “home base” for the season—maybe Glynwood, Salinger’s, or your favorite market—and commit to shopping there weekly, building your meals around what’s in season instead of what’s on sale at a distant warehouse.

Challenge your household to try one new local item each week, whether it’s Lobster Hill goat cheese, Sugar Shack Creamery Goat Milk Lassi, or a strange-looking squash from RE Endeavors by Ryder Farm or Boni-Bel, and share the results with friends, neighbors, or school communities.

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Striped Cucumber Beetle and Bacterial Wilt: Effective IPM Strategies

from Marion Zuefle, Cornell Integrated Pest Management

Bacterial wilt, caused by Erwinia tracheiphila, can be devastating to cucurbit crops—especially cucumbers and melons. This disease is spread by striped cucumber beetles (Acalymma vittatum) and spotted cucumber beetles (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi). The bacteria live in the beetles’ guts, so even a small number of beetles feeding on your plants can transmit the disease. Once the bacteria get inside, they multiply and clog up the plant’s water system, leading to wilting and, often, death.

Symptoms and Disease Development
Early signs of bacterial wilt show up as dull green patches on a few leaves. These leaves wilt during the day but may bounce back at night, making it easy to mistake the problem for drought stress. Over time, leaves yellow and brown at the edges, eventually withering and dying.

Infected fruit may be small or misshapen. A simple field test can help confirm diagnosis: cut a suspect stem and press the cut ends together, then slowly pull them apart. If you see a sticky, stringy sap, it’s likely bacterial wilt.

Cucumbers and melons are most vulnerable, but some squash, pumpkin, and gourd varieties can also be affected.

Beetle ID and Timing
Striped cucumber beetles are about ¼ inch long with yellow and black stripes that go all the way to the tip of the abdomen. Spotted cucumber beetles are similar in size but have a yellow-green body with 12 black spots. The larvae of both species feed on roots underground.

Adults overwinter in field borders or hedgerows and start showing up in late spring, usually when cucurbits are just emerging. They go straight for seedlings and young transplants—feeding on cotyledons, leaves, flowers, and even fruit. Adult beetles often gather in blossoms or on leaves.

Scouting and Thresholds
Start scouting for beetles early and often—twice a week is a good goal, especially before plants have five true leaves. At each of five spots in the field, check five plants. Don’t forget to look under cotyledons. Early infestations typically begin along field edges, so focus your efforts there first. Use these action thresholds to guide spraying decisions:

Cotyledon to 4-leaf stage: Treat if more than 5 beetles per plant. After 4-leaf stage: Treat if 1 or more beetles per plant and the crop is vulnerable to bacterial wilt.

Crops that don’t get bacterial wilt as easily—such as watermelon—can usually handle more beetles before treatment is needed, unless the beetles are damaging flowers.

Cultural and Non-Chemical Tactics Several IPM tools can help reduce beetle pressure and the risk of bacterial wilt:

1. Perimeter Trap Crops – Surround your main crop with something highly attractive like Blue Hubbard squash. Spray the trap crop to knock down beetles before they reach your main planting.
2. Row Covers – Use row covers to exclude beetles during early crop stages. Be sure to remove them at flowering to allow for pollination.
3. Resistant or Less Attractive Varieties – Some cucurbit varieties are less appealing to beetles or more tolerant of bacterial wilt.
4. Beneficial Nematodes – Heterorhabditis bacteriophora can help suppress larvae in the soil when applied to the root zone. They won’t control adults but can reduce the next generation.
5. Clean-Up – Deep plowing and removing crop residue helps eliminate beetle overwintering sites.

Insecticides
When beetle counts exceed thresholds, timely action is important. Apply insecticides within 24 hours to prevent infection. One spray at planting won’t last the whole season—keep scouting and be ready to follow up.

Protecting seedlings and young transplants is key. Older plants can often tolerate more feeding, especially if they’re less susceptible to wilt.

Pollinator Safety
To reduce the risk to pollinators:

• Treat only when cucumber beetle thresholds are met.
• Spray in the evening when bees are less active.
• Avoid spraying during bloom.
• Choose selective insecticides that are less toxic to bees.
• Remove blooming weeds in and around fields before spraying.
• Avoid drift—don’t spray on windy days or near flowering plants.

In Summary
Managing bacterial wilt and cucumber beetles takes early action and a mix of tools. Scout often, use thresholds based on crop type and growth stage, and combine cultural strategies with careful insecticide use. That way, you’re protecting your plants and minimizing pesticide use in the process.

Photo: Striped cucumber beetles feeding on the underside of a cucurbit cotyledon. Early feeding damage is often first seen on the underside of cotyledons.

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National Pollinator Week is June 22-28

by Pete Salmansohn, Master Gardener Volunteer

In late June, the Putnam Cornell Cooperative Extension Pollinator Pathway will join with both national and international efforts to celebrate the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, and help deepen commitments to protecting them. This activist-based effort formally began back in 2008 when the U.S Senate gave its unanimous approval to designate a week in June as "National Pollinator Week”. Pollinators, like all insects, have faced drastic declines due to the widespread use of pesticides, habitat destruction, and the vast spread of invasive vegetation.

Local members of the CCE Putnam Pollinator Pathway group have established a successful and colorful pollinator garden on the grounds of the Desmond-Fish Public Library in Garrison, which is open to the public every day for enjoyment and observations.

Volunteers and staff members have also created a demonstration garden at the CCE offices, 1 Geneva Road in Brewster, next to the DMV. That garden is open seven days a week, and features native plants and educational signage that is especially helpful for beginning pollinator gardeners.

There are now dozens of gardens both large and small throughout the county that are part of the Pollinator Pathway, currently totaling about 1,700 acres. They join thousands of other designated locations across 300 towns in 24 states, all working to create a corridor of native plantings and pesticide-free habitats to help connect fragmented ecosystems.

During National Pollinator Week, why not take a tour of one of the open-to-the-public gardens for inspiration, or learn more about the sharp decline in helpful insect populations and what each individual and community can do about it? Visit cceputnamcounty.org/gardening/putnam-pollinator-pathway to learn more.

You can also join the Putnam Pollinator Pathway by signing up HERE. All CCE asks of potential Pathway participants is to make a pledge to follow these three guidelines:

Avoid pesticides: Eliminate or significantly reduce the use of synthetic pesticides and lawn chemicals.

Plant natives: Incorporate native plants, trees, or shrubs that provide forage for pollinators in every stage of growth.

Rethink your lawn: Reduce lawn size or allow for a more natural, "messy" garden style that provides forage and overwintering habitat for insects.

The benefits of doing this are both huge and varied because you are making a direct and almost immediate positive impact for bees, butterflies and other pollinators in your neighborhood and community. As one local participant told us, “Every time I see a bumblebee on my new plantings, I feel a personal sense of victory.”

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Rooted in Learning: Brewster and North Salem Students Give Microgreens a Try

by Brandy Keenan, 4-H Educator, and Sarah Divi, North Salem Schools Communications Coordinator

“They are the best vegetables I ever tried!” declared kindergartener Marina at her Pequenakonck Elementary School lunch table.

Marina and her classmates tried four kinds of microgreens at lunch as part of a program that connects students with local farmers and the food they grow. Nicole Harris, who owns Tiny Greens Farm in East Fishkill, NY, brought sweet pea shoots, radish greens, broccoli greens and popcorn shoots to share, along with a lesson on how they grow and why they are important.

Many students were surprised not only by the taste but also by the story behind the food. “All of them had different textures and flavors,” said fourth-grader Lucy. “It’s so cool that those little seeds turned into food in ten days.”

“For microgreens, you don’t need a big farm or a lot of land. You can just grow them on a windowsill,” said Harris, who grows them indoors using vertical farming. Even though they are small, these greens are full of nutrients. “That little bit of broccoli greens on your tray equals the nutrients of a whole head of broccoli,” said Harris.

Students tried the samples, sometimes with a nibble and sometimes by the fistful. They described the flavors as sweet, peppery, or spicy, and then voted for their favorites on a sticker chart.

“I think the popcorn is so delicious. It’s sweet and savory,” said fourth-grader Henry, holding a handful of the bright yellow shoots. “We should do this more often. I like trying new vegetables and new food.”

“When a kid sees a bunch of green things, a kid doesn’t normally want to eat it,” said fourth-grader Lily, who cautiously discovered that she loves popcorn shoots. “They’re telling us about what it is, how they grow them, and encouraging us to try without pushing. That’s why I like this.”

Harris also visited with Brewster Elementary students during their lunch period, explaining to strudents that microgreens are "baby" vegetable plants, harvested when they are just 1–3 inches tall, usually within 7-14 days of planting. They are packed with vitamins and are a super-nutritious, crunchy snack. 

Whether they liked them or not, students were engaged in the tasting, and in their options on them! Even the SRO took a bite and declared them “delicious."

Harris believes that good nutrition begins with high-quality whole foods. She uses good seeds and grows those seeds in healthy soil that is then composted and reused for the farm. She also uses BPA-free growing trays, and 100% recycled and compostable packaging to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. Harris grows lots of types of microgreens: popcorn, sunflower shoots, pea tendrils, broccoli, radish, red cabbage, kohlrabi, arugula, mustards, micro kale, micro cilantro, and nasturtiums. Learn more about Tiny Greens Farm at www.tinygreensfarm.com.

This event is one of several farmer visits funded by Harvest NY’s Rooted in Learning grant and organized by Brandy Keenan, a 4-H Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Putnam County. The program helps students learn about healthy eating, understand where their food comes from, and supports farmers in New York.

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This Summer, Try This Delicious and Refreshing Salsa Recipe

from Josephine Quiocho, Nutrition Educator

Watermelon Salsa

Enjoy this unique salsa as a sweet, tangy and fresh snack or as a topping for tacos or fish.

Helpful hints to choosing the perfect watermelon:

• Look the watermelon over. You are looking for a firm watermelon that is free from bruises, cuts or dents. Scratching is ok.
• Lift it up. The watermelon should be very heavy for its size.
• Turn it over. The underside of the watermelon should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun.
• If you want to try the thump, you’re listening for a dull, muffled, hollow sound if it’s ripe. If it’s unripe, the sound may be more of a metallic, clear ring. Another way to describe it is a “ping” for unripe or a “pong” when ready.

Store whole watermelons at room temperature. Refrigerate cut watermelons in airtight container for use within 5 days.

Fun fact: The rind of a watermelon is edible! The rind can be stewed, pickled, or stir-fried. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups small cubes of watermelon, seeds removed
• ¼ cup sliced green onion
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion (try red or sweet)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (try rice vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• ¼ teaspoon cumin

Directions
1. Rinse or scrub fresh fruits and vegetables under running water before preparing.

2. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients. 

3. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Serve salsa with burritos, tacos, fish or grilled meat. Try adding corn, hot pepper or avocado. Try lemon or lime juice instead of vinegar. Serve with fresh vegetables or tortilla chips.

Find the recipe at Oregon State University Food Hero: https://foodhero.org/recipes/watermelon-salsa

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Last updated June 1, 2026