Sidney’s Hill & Valley Garden Club has presented 2024 Green Thumb awards to a residential gardener in Sidney and a second award for a unique business, Butterfly Whispers Farm, outside of Sidney Center.
Lynn Tuttle and her husband live on the corner of Seneca and Pearl streets in Sidney where the front of the house has a delightful cottage garden showcasing a variety of flowers in full summer bloom.
Additional small flower gardens appear throughout the yard including a friendship garden. Tuttle explained this garden contains plants friends have gifted her over the years including a now full-grown hydrangea tree which shades the side of their back patio area.
Behind the home, the Green Thumb committee was shown through Tuttle’s expansive vegetable garden. Besides keeping busy with her hair salon customers, Tuttle harvests and preserves her garden vegetables for her family’s enjoyment. (This week’s project was “dilly beans.”)
Meranda Reynolds, a Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener, operates Butterfly Whispers Farm, 339 Abe Boice Road, Sidney Center. This successful AgriTourism* venture includes a small farm stand, fresh egg availability, and of special note - her fresh-cut flower bouquet business. Reynolds’s seasonal subscription clients arrive each Tuesday for their hand-crafted, specialty cut flower bouquets. All flowers are locally grown from the 28 acre farm or greenhouses. Besides her subscription clients, flowers are also available for special events including weddings or “just because.” Fresh-cut flowers can also be purchased at Butterfly Whispers Farm wholesale or by the bucket. Contact Butterfly Whisper Farm on Facebook or other social media sites.
Each recipient was given a certificate of recognition, a Green Thumb Award Winner lawn sign and a fresh pair of garden gloves - with green thumbs of course - to show that Sidney’s Hill & Valley Garden Club recognizes the time and effort that is devoted to their gardens and their love of flowers and fresh grown fruits and or/vegetables.
The club has given Green Thumb awards annually for more than 25 years to businesses and residential gardeners that help make our communities attractive places to live. Sidney’s Hill & Valley Garden Club meetings or excursions are held on the third Wednesday evenings each month, March through December. New members are always welcome. For additional information phone Mary Jane Plumber at 607-435-7610.
*Agritourism is defined by the USDA as a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner.
