2013 Derwood Demonstration Annual Report
Submitted by Darlene Nicholson and Maria Wortman
Derwood Demonstration Garden maintains 10 kinds of gardens: Shade, Wildlife, Kitchen, Vegetable, Herb/Fragrance, Butterfly, Children’s, Ponds, Therapeutic Horticulture including a Garden for Youth with Autism, and Turf plots. Its goal is to educate Montgomery County residents about what plants will grow well under prevailing conditions of soil and climate while illustrating Integrated Pest Management techniques.
There was an effort to provide training and orientation to the new class of interns and to pair them up with lists of jobs available, thereby increasing their involvement and ownership of Derwood successes and learning opportunities. We felt this was very successful as evidenced by the fact that for many weeks we had up to 40 regular volunteers. One of the jobs was to photograph and identify weeds in our garden and to produce a small handheld weed identifier. We are in the process of compiling this for the spring of 2014. Also, a waterproof comments book was added outside the main gate. To our pleasure, quite a few people took the time to say how important the garden was to them. We even had a few illustrations by children showing their favorite part of the garden.
As we donate more and more of our edible garden produce to Manna it seems necessary at this point to come up with a formal policy of how we are handling our bounty. Gardeners may take “tasting samples” of what is grown, with the majority of our produce going to Manna. At times when a less well-known crop is harvested it would be advisable to offer it to DDG volunteers as Manna clients are less likely to utilize it.
The interactive website of the Demo Garden, which can be accessed by going to our website at, “mcmgdemogarden.com”, was updated to reflect yearly changes. A QR code is available on the bulletin board near the front gate for quick access to the garden maps. The site contains maps and plant lists of all the gardens and informative links about each plant.
The Shade Garden had major tree removal in the early spring. At least six large dead or dying trees were removed, creating less shade. Actually, the remaining plants seemed to enjoy the addition of more sunlight. The Boxwood Leaf Miners are still a major problem in most of our boxwoods as we have not done any systemic spraying. The Wildlife Garden experienced a productive year. The Ninebark plant again provided a wonderful display of IPM in action. We witnessed an extensive infestation of aphids, along with Lady Beetle larva, and mature Lady Beetles on the same branches. The aphids were cleaned off the plant within a week with no spraying of any kind, providing observers with a display of IPM in action. The Campsis radicans, that was on the arbor at the front entrance was removed and replaced with a climbing hydrangea.
The Herb and Fragrance Garden did very well this season due to lots of rain and many volunteers. The lavender was moved and the Amsonia , Geraniums, Basil, Sorrel, Comfrey and Fragrant Tea Olive thrived. Lemon Balm, Ajuga, Artemesia, and Apple Mint spread a lot. The problems this year included weeds and a new Miss Kim Lilac not adapting as well as it should. Unfortunately, a German Chamomile didn’t survive. New plants added were four Basils, two Lavenders, a Gardenia, Comfrey, Geraniums, Thyme and Lovage.
The Kitchen Garden reported that the following plants had a good year: Curly Sage, Larkspur (from seeds) Calendula (reseeded) Pineapple Sage, and Malabar Spinach, which started slowly but had a great finish. Plants that had some issues this year included: Garden Sage(3 successive plantings died out early) sweet and cinnamon Basils started nicely and died out early, Rose Geranium grew beautifully but didn’t bloom, a Skeletal Rose Geranium keep losing its leaves. A Feverfew plant appeared by itself in the middle of the garden and did very well.
In the Butterfly garden Zinnias, Butterfly bushes, and Lantana all did well. Due to the abundance of rain this garden grew rapidly and densely, necessitating the need for some major pruning of the Snowball Viburnum and some removal of Goldenrod.
The Autistic Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Group maintained three plots used by two groups of autistic youths from the Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children and Sheppard Pratt School. The students met weekly during the growing season and planted, cultivated and harvested a variety of vegetables and flowers which were entered in the Montgomery County Fair. The students continue to win ribbons and cash for their entries.
The Therapeutic Horticulture group reported that the main improvement this year was getting the beds better organized by having specific areas for specific flowers and being more diligent about thinning new plants. The Monarda ‘ Jacob Cline’ was mildew free, unlike the other Monarda varieties. A virus attacked the Purple Coneflower causing malformed flowers. It was verified by Dave Clement that it was not necessary to destroy the entire plant but to just cut off the heads. Some low growing zinnias were added and the large blooms (3”-4”) worked out very well and were used a lot. A change in the garden might be to discontinue the planting of Monarda as it is not working out well as a cut flower and replacing it with the more versatile Strawflowers. More Yarrow might be added as it does work well in arrangements.
Turf plots were maintained by regular mowing to the proper height and one was reseeded this Fall. The automatic drip irrigation system was utilized mostly in the vegetable garden and appeared to be adequate for the most part. Because of the abundant rainfall during the growing season, little hand watering was required, except late in the season when fall crops were being planted.
The Children’s Garden basically just needed more minor adjustments as a major overhaul was completed last year. Some larger plants, such as the Popcorn Plant, were moved to other locations so that the smaller plants could be more visible and could get more sunlight. We were able to add a White Turtlehead to the pink ones we already had, hoping to attract the elusive Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly. Peanut plants seemed a good choice to grow as they could be planted early and harvested in time for the Harvest Festival. The children and adults seemed to enjoy knowing how they grow. The various gourds did well and were given to a group of pre-school children on a tour. This garden was really a hit when children visited Mr. McGregor’s garden, were able to sit on the log chairs in the vine-covered teepee and to craw through the great caterpillar tunnel. A cat statue in honor of Joan Burka was installed.
The compost area was maintained in a diligent and effective manner and again produced excellent results. Turning and recording of compost temperatures ensured that the process was working effectively. Several new volunteers became committed and lessened the load on the leader. A training was presented to all new DDG workers and interns.
The ponds in the Wildlife Garden and the Butterfly Garden were maintained by the addition of submerged plants and floaters, ie., water lettuce and water hyacinth, and some Chinese Snails to help clean and filter the water. We are aware that some of the plants are invasive and we make known that these plants should only be used in confined ponds and not in natural ponds or waterways. The plants seemed to keep the water mostly clear and we did not need to add any chemicals. We divided some of the older plants to better fit their containers and adjusted the depths of the new plants to appropriate levels. New plants we added were Lizard’s Tail, Water Arum, Pickerel Rush, and Dwarf Papyrus (which did not do well) and one unknown variety of hardy lily, which did well but did not bloom. The fish in the Wildlife Garden pond had survived the winter and seemed to do well throughout the seasons. At least 15 new young gold fish were noted in the shallow pond and were removed to the deeper pond in order to provide the young fish with a better chance to survive the winter. We also hoped to maybe introduce whichever opposite sex was missing in the deeper pond. Both ponds had frogs and many tadpoles, even up to cold weather. We cleaned debris from both ponds’ surfaces throughout the season. The deeper pond was netted in the Fall to keep leaves out. There is some speculation that we might want to enlarge (mostly deepen) the shallow pond next spring.
A general summary of events not noted above include:
• Continued as an official Tuesday morning Plant Clinic. (unfortunately we do not get much traffic)
• New interns attended orientation meeting and signed up for Demo Garden projects.
• Presented slide show and lecture to Regular monthly meeting.
• Sold shredder and put funds back into our budget.
• Participated in two (very successful) Annual Grow It, Eat It Events at DDG.
• Addition of many new bamboo structures in the garden and workshop given to new interns.
• Visiting Groups and Tours included daycare class of young perspective gardeners and a group from The Friends House.
• Second annual “Take It and Make It Picnic”
• Donated over 676 pounds of food to Manna
• Held the first annual tomato variety tasting event.
• Won the Award of Excellence in the Keep Mont Co. Beautiful Contest ( fourth year)
• Participated in the Harvest Festival Oct. 5, over 600 visitors .
• Produced a weekly message with images that summarized events of the workday to keep all informed from March -November
• A total of over 1000 images, which can be available for workshops and events, were taken over the 2013 garden season.
• Fences were maintained and the iron posts were replaced with wooden ones.
• Created a “Weeds of Derwood Demo Garden” resource to be use by volunteers new to the garden.
• Did soil tests on Shade Garden, parts of Vegetable Garden, and Children’s Garden. Results are at the end of this report.
The Vegetable Garden has implemented its own evaluation and plan for next year. It follows. Derwood Demonstration Garden: Vegetable and Fruit Beds 2013 Report and Planning for 2014 Season 14 December 2013 - Robin Ritterhoff & Erica Smith
We had a good and productive 2013 season. We delivered 676 pounds of fresh produce to Manna. For Grow It! Eat It!, 2013 was the Year of the Root Vegetable so Derwood veggie plantings highlighted those. Vegetable and Fruit Garden Work Arrangements What worked well in 2013, and improving in 2014:
o 100 square foot project: Good 2013 innovation; All of us learned from it, not just the dedicated team of interns that took full charge of the initiative. This garden produced 170 lbs. of produce this year and was considered quite successful. The team suggested better planning and management for next season. For 2014: Repeat 100 square ft initative. Determine whether any of the 2013 team wants to lead 2014 interns; sign up the 100 square foot team in March to facilitate making a garden plan earlier in the season; make sure the team has an experienced MG to lead it; give the team full access to plant and seed resources ahead of planting time; improve fertilization and irrigation.
o Labels: We did better on labeling, putting out small labels listing species and varieties for nearly everything. 2014: try to put up labels with more info including culture guidance for key crops. o Better mapping for spring planting, and identifying late summer crops (with Barbara D’s push). 2014: seek committed volunteer.
o Tomato tasting. 2014: Repeat, maybe do for other key varieties; store tasting kit in shed (cutting board, knife, toothpicks etc.).
o Drip irrigation system covered all of the veggie beds plus straw bales, containers and salad table. 2014: Repeat – maybe encourage Joe to train additional people.
o Containers: not terribly exciting, but good demo. Repeat. o Straw Bales: not great outcomes. 2014: Give it another year, bigger grouping. Cold weather work needed to prepare for 2014 season: o Repaint mailboxes before GIEI training in late March.
o Consider what to put in the mailboxes – laminated basic HGIC reference docs like HGIC16 – can we attach this by a chain somehow?
o Labels with instructions for major species – tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans. Pests
o Compared to 2012, fewer BMSBs, many more Japanese beetles (particularly damaged passionfruit & pole beans). Harlequin bugs as bad as in 2012; impressive demo of row cover success with an 2 unprotected much-gnawed lacinato kale next to pristine lacinato under the enviromesh. o Some bean beetles, cucumber beetles, squash borers & squash bugs.
o Wireworms were an unfortunate new pest in the potatoes, sweet potatoes and some damage to a few peanuts.
o 2014: Consider what steps we can take beyond row covers and knocking bugs into soapy water – we are losing a lot to pests. Diseases o Bad year for fungal diseases with cool wet spring. Then very dry though overcast beginning 2nd week of August through late September. Early blight on tomatoes, powdery mildew. 2014: Consider spraying baking soda solution prophylactically. Planning 2014 Crops Main challenge - GIEI Year of Cucurbits – hard to grow well. For 2014:
o Will require larger space in garden beds for rambling vines, and supports for cukes & some squash; maybe reduce space devoted to tomatoes & peppers?
o Trial various pest/disease protection methods – consider trying BT; higher row covers; kaolin clay sprays that Jon T will provide; prophylactic spray of baking soda solution.
o For melons, try warming soil?
o Try assembling dedicated Cucurbits intern team under Erica/Robin guidance.
What We Grew in 2013
• Perennials: o Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): not visibly diminished by 2012 BSMB hordes. o Blackberries (genus Rubus): Fruited well, but tasted fairly sour 2013 & 2012. Try another variety if not better in 2014.
o Black raspberries (genus Rubus): Birds got most of them. o Blueberries (genus Vaccinium): Moved again; did not thrive. 2014: replace most. More sulphur or other soil acidifier?
o Bush cherries: Large ones went to good homes. 2014: purchase small ones and plant by back fence. o Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus): Early 2013: patch was reduced to about 2 feet square; seems sufficient. 2014: constrain any expansion.
o Kiwi (genus Actinidia): The Issai is doing well, not old enough to fruit. The Siberian male planted this spring at edge of the tree shade may have succumbed. 2014: replace if female is well. o Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis): Flowers hit hard by Japanese beetles; no fruit.
3 o Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum): Original planting by back fence and 2012 planting at edge of tree shade thrived, but early spring divisions replanted by Jerusalem artichokes did not. o Strawberries (genus Fragaria): Moved to spot by back fence after Jerusalem artichokes dug out; did not do well.
• Annuals: o Beta: Swiss chard and beets.
• Early spring planting of beets was productive. Late summer hot & very dry; very poor germination for late August planting in main veggie beds; no fall crop. But 100 square foot garden produced fine fall beets. 2014: try their late summer method.
• Chard: reliable, but in late summer more beat up than usual; not clear what was causing holes in the leaves. o Cruciferous: We grew kale, mustard greens, collards, pac choi, turnips, kohlrabi, rutabaga, and Chinese broccoli. Everything that we protected with row cover did reasonably well in spring and fall. Cool and rainy spring and slow onset of heat meant that brassicas produced for longer into the early summer. o Cucurbit: We planted cucumbers, melons, squash (zucchini/summer and winter varieties). 2014: Year of Cucurbits is likely to be a real challenge for us.
• Cucumbers: main planting (May) succumbed to bacterial wilt in about July; some brief success with extending the harvest into August with a later set planted in June.
• Melons: Except for reliably great mouse melons and a yellow watermelon that produced a handful of small fruits, rest were total bust, succumbed to powdery mildew – milk and baking soda sprays did not help, maybe not started early enough.
• Squash: ‘Trombocino’ very productive, withstood pests, and very showy – both the rambunctious plant and its curved fruits. 2014: Maybe should pick more fruit at young stage when it is easier to use. Zucchinis: produced a few, but borers and powdery mildew got the plants fairly early. ‘Mongogo’ winter squash pretty flower & very attractive fruit but not much taste. o Phaseolus: bush beans, pole beans, runner beans.
• Bush beans: Spring plantings of ‘Provider’ and ‘Masai’ (latter in container) did well, as did mix of varieties in succession planting.
• Pole beans less successful. ‘Blue Lake’ did okay, ‘Missouri Wonder’ produced well, but purple pole beans unimpressive.
• Peas: great spring crop thanks to cool wet weather.
• Yard-long beans: good start, but then production fell off. 2014: if seeds for green variety are used up, try red yard-long variety.
• Peanuts: Produced moderately well, fun to show kids how they grow.
•Limas: Pole variety only produced sparsely & late, never ripened. 2014: try bush limas. o Solanaceae: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers (hot and sweet). 4 § Tomatoes: We learned in April that the person who led on tomatoes and peppers for several years could not volunteer in 2013. Therefore we solicited seedlings from Derwood volunteers and got plenty of interesting varieties. The cold and wet spring/early summer caused some early blight, and tomatoes were a little slow to start producing. But most stayed productive despite the stressful late summer dry spell. An early August tomato tasting identified ‘Orange Icicle’ as the best tasting variety after considerable rain. ‘Mortgage Lifter’ did well. ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’ was popular for kids to pick and sample at the Harvest Fest. ‘Sungold’ produced very well, starting early and lasting until frost, but wet weather exacerbated its fruits’ propensity to split. ‘Patio’ tomatoes did amazingly well in container & kept producing; taste okay but nothing special. Unsuccessful varieties: ‘Tropic VFN’ and ‘Iron Lady’ both quit early despite reputed disease resistance. § Peppers: we relied on volunteers’ extras for peppers as well. Not a great year for peppers weather-wise; production off generally, best among the hot peppers. § Potatoes: disappointing, wireworm damage. Mystery why they suddenly appeared.
o Ipomoea: Sweet potatoes. Good productivity, but some wireworm damage. Took harvests of leaves several times. o Leafy greens: lettuces, Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach. Not a focus this year. We planted it in the salad table, where it did reasonably well, and the 100 square foot gardeners also planted it very successfully.
o Yacon: Impressive plant, not well known, good production. Because it is unfamiliar, it was hard to give away to volunteers (much less Manna); we held over maybe 20 lbs of the harvest & gave volunteers recipes for using it, marginally successful approach. o Hibiscus Rosella: Production okay, a little too crowded where it was planted, very ornamental; visitors asked about it. Attachments: Nov. 2013 Manna Meeting Read-Out 2013 Manna Deliveries 5 Derwood and Manna Food Bank – 2013 Wrap Up Key points of our 11/7/2013 wrap-up discussion with Manna Food Bank's Director of Operations Kevin Trostle and Director of Nutritional Programs Jenna Umbriac:
• The Manna folks love Derwood garden's donations and the way we deliver them. o Our donations totaled 668 pounds this year, and while we are far from their biggest donor, Manna folks value our freshness and overall quality over total weight. One example: they spoke passionately about their clients getting locally grown tomatoes that taste "real".
o They really appreciate our 2013 innovation of delivering familysized portions in transparent plastic bags. (When I volunteered last winter in Manna's warehouse, it became clear that such bags facilitate getting veggies to clients most rapidly and in the best shape.) Maria Wortman found & ordered a supply of such bags in early 2013, and the Derwood volunteers adapted readily to bagging the harvest, making delivery really easy.
o Our usual delivery time (12:20ish) is just about the worst timing for Manna since eligible folks pick up their food boxes between noon and 3PM, with heaviest traffic in the first hour. It just hasn't worked to move up our delivery to 11:30 despite several tries - the Derwood rhythm means harvesting goes until nearly noon. So in August Kevin suggested that I start loading Derwood’s plastic bags right into the boxes for that day’s pickup; this works pretty well because I'm fairly well known at Manna. (When someone else delivers Derwood's harvest they should give it to Kevin or Norman.) o When we gave Manna some 20 bags of Jerusalem artichokes last month, we included in each bag a recipe for soup using them and a few relatively common, inexpensive materials. Jenna encouraged us to include recipes whenever possible with our less common crops – she really values getting clients beyond the usual vegetable comfort zone. Labeling unusual items can also help.
• Manna would love to see us scale up - rather than nearly 700 pounds, how about 7000 pounds per year? Erica and I were very encouraged that Manna wants more from us, but explained our constraints - we're already fully gardening the space available to us pretty intensively, and we're using the skills of all of our volunteers as well as we can in our weekly 4 hour work session.
• Manna would like us to partner in new ways, including hands-on demonstrations. Jenna would like to organize a few demonstrations next spring where MGs could teach clients how to grow easy veggies in window boxes or containers. She suggested starting with an MG standing at a table in Manna’s entry during the busy noon-1PM time, 6 showing clients an unusual veggie or green and explaining how to use it. The MG would also have a sign-up sheet for a container gardening class for interested clients. The container gardening classes might be timed for just before food pick-up (11:30-noon), and Jenna suggests providing written very streamlined guidance in English and Spanish. Ideally, an incentive can help bring people to classes– such as Grow It! Eat It! seed packs if they are available; she will think about other possibilities. She said that Manna’s past classes have had anywhere from 7 to 30 people, a little hard to predict. She suggested another possibility – a one minute elevator speech on growing in containers, plus handout, maybe with a demo, in Manna’s lobby.
• Long range dream – Manna gaining access to a farm. Kevin would love to see Manna buying into a farm where clients could grow food, to improve their nutrition, educate them about where veggies come from…if this dream ever becomes reality, he would want MGs’ support. We responded that if that comes about, we know just the right people to connect him with.
• Manna’s clients: Jenna mentioned that Manna is pretty consistently providing food boxes daily to + 200 families, generally low-income folks slightly above food stamp eligibility. Their numbers are a significant increase from 2012. (In addition to distributing food to eligible people at their warehouse and several sites in Montgomery County, Manna also provides food to low income school kids for weekends, and to various entities such as shelters.)
There was an effort to provide training and orientation to the new class of interns and to pair them up with lists of jobs available, thereby increasing their involvement and ownership of Derwood successes and learning opportunities. We felt this was very successful as evidenced by the fact that for many weeks we had up to 40 regular volunteers. One of the jobs was to photograph and identify weeds in our garden and to produce a small handheld weed identifier. We are in the process of compiling this for the spring of 2014. Also, a waterproof comments book was added outside the main gate. To our pleasure, quite a few people took the time to say how important the garden was to them. We even had a few illustrations by children showing their favorite part of the garden.
As we donate more and more of our edible garden produce to Manna it seems necessary at this point to come up with a formal policy of how we are handling our bounty. Gardeners may take “tasting samples” of what is grown, with the majority of our produce going to Manna. At times when a less well-known crop is harvested it would be advisable to offer it to DDG volunteers as Manna clients are less likely to utilize it.
The interactive website of the Demo Garden, which can be accessed by going to our website at, “mcmgdemogarden.com”, was updated to reflect yearly changes. A QR code is available on the bulletin board near the front gate for quick access to the garden maps. The site contains maps and plant lists of all the gardens and informative links about each plant.
The Shade Garden had major tree removal in the early spring. At least six large dead or dying trees were removed, creating less shade. Actually, the remaining plants seemed to enjoy the addition of more sunlight. The Boxwood Leaf Miners are still a major problem in most of our boxwoods as we have not done any systemic spraying. The Wildlife Garden experienced a productive year. The Ninebark plant again provided a wonderful display of IPM in action. We witnessed an extensive infestation of aphids, along with Lady Beetle larva, and mature Lady Beetles on the same branches. The aphids were cleaned off the plant within a week with no spraying of any kind, providing observers with a display of IPM in action. The Campsis radicans, that was on the arbor at the front entrance was removed and replaced with a climbing hydrangea.
The Herb and Fragrance Garden did very well this season due to lots of rain and many volunteers. The lavender was moved and the Amsonia , Geraniums, Basil, Sorrel, Comfrey and Fragrant Tea Olive thrived. Lemon Balm, Ajuga, Artemesia, and Apple Mint spread a lot. The problems this year included weeds and a new Miss Kim Lilac not adapting as well as it should. Unfortunately, a German Chamomile didn’t survive. New plants added were four Basils, two Lavenders, a Gardenia, Comfrey, Geraniums, Thyme and Lovage.
The Kitchen Garden reported that the following plants had a good year: Curly Sage, Larkspur (from seeds) Calendula (reseeded) Pineapple Sage, and Malabar Spinach, which started slowly but had a great finish. Plants that had some issues this year included: Garden Sage(3 successive plantings died out early) sweet and cinnamon Basils started nicely and died out early, Rose Geranium grew beautifully but didn’t bloom, a Skeletal Rose Geranium keep losing its leaves. A Feverfew plant appeared by itself in the middle of the garden and did very well.
In the Butterfly garden Zinnias, Butterfly bushes, and Lantana all did well. Due to the abundance of rain this garden grew rapidly and densely, necessitating the need for some major pruning of the Snowball Viburnum and some removal of Goldenrod.
The Autistic Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Group maintained three plots used by two groups of autistic youths from the Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children and Sheppard Pratt School. The students met weekly during the growing season and planted, cultivated and harvested a variety of vegetables and flowers which were entered in the Montgomery County Fair. The students continue to win ribbons and cash for their entries.
The Therapeutic Horticulture group reported that the main improvement this year was getting the beds better organized by having specific areas for specific flowers and being more diligent about thinning new plants. The Monarda ‘ Jacob Cline’ was mildew free, unlike the other Monarda varieties. A virus attacked the Purple Coneflower causing malformed flowers. It was verified by Dave Clement that it was not necessary to destroy the entire plant but to just cut off the heads. Some low growing zinnias were added and the large blooms (3”-4”) worked out very well and were used a lot. A change in the garden might be to discontinue the planting of Monarda as it is not working out well as a cut flower and replacing it with the more versatile Strawflowers. More Yarrow might be added as it does work well in arrangements.
Turf plots were maintained by regular mowing to the proper height and one was reseeded this Fall. The automatic drip irrigation system was utilized mostly in the vegetable garden and appeared to be adequate for the most part. Because of the abundant rainfall during the growing season, little hand watering was required, except late in the season when fall crops were being planted.
The Children’s Garden basically just needed more minor adjustments as a major overhaul was completed last year. Some larger plants, such as the Popcorn Plant, were moved to other locations so that the smaller plants could be more visible and could get more sunlight. We were able to add a White Turtlehead to the pink ones we already had, hoping to attract the elusive Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly. Peanut plants seemed a good choice to grow as they could be planted early and harvested in time for the Harvest Festival. The children and adults seemed to enjoy knowing how they grow. The various gourds did well and were given to a group of pre-school children on a tour. This garden was really a hit when children visited Mr. McGregor’s garden, were able to sit on the log chairs in the vine-covered teepee and to craw through the great caterpillar tunnel. A cat statue in honor of Joan Burka was installed.
The compost area was maintained in a diligent and effective manner and again produced excellent results. Turning and recording of compost temperatures ensured that the process was working effectively. Several new volunteers became committed and lessened the load on the leader. A training was presented to all new DDG workers and interns.
The ponds in the Wildlife Garden and the Butterfly Garden were maintained by the addition of submerged plants and floaters, ie., water lettuce and water hyacinth, and some Chinese Snails to help clean and filter the water. We are aware that some of the plants are invasive and we make known that these plants should only be used in confined ponds and not in natural ponds or waterways. The plants seemed to keep the water mostly clear and we did not need to add any chemicals. We divided some of the older plants to better fit their containers and adjusted the depths of the new plants to appropriate levels. New plants we added were Lizard’s Tail, Water Arum, Pickerel Rush, and Dwarf Papyrus (which did not do well) and one unknown variety of hardy lily, which did well but did not bloom. The fish in the Wildlife Garden pond had survived the winter and seemed to do well throughout the seasons. At least 15 new young gold fish were noted in the shallow pond and were removed to the deeper pond in order to provide the young fish with a better chance to survive the winter. We also hoped to maybe introduce whichever opposite sex was missing in the deeper pond. Both ponds had frogs and many tadpoles, even up to cold weather. We cleaned debris from both ponds’ surfaces throughout the season. The deeper pond was netted in the Fall to keep leaves out. There is some speculation that we might want to enlarge (mostly deepen) the shallow pond next spring.
A general summary of events not noted above include:
• Continued as an official Tuesday morning Plant Clinic. (unfortunately we do not get much traffic)
• New interns attended orientation meeting and signed up for Demo Garden projects.
• Presented slide show and lecture to Regular monthly meeting.
• Sold shredder and put funds back into our budget.
• Participated in two (very successful) Annual Grow It, Eat It Events at DDG.
• Addition of many new bamboo structures in the garden and workshop given to new interns.
• Visiting Groups and Tours included daycare class of young perspective gardeners and a group from The Friends House.
• Second annual “Take It and Make It Picnic”
• Donated over 676 pounds of food to Manna
• Held the first annual tomato variety tasting event.
• Won the Award of Excellence in the Keep Mont Co. Beautiful Contest ( fourth year)
• Participated in the Harvest Festival Oct. 5, over 600 visitors .
• Produced a weekly message with images that summarized events of the workday to keep all informed from March -November
• A total of over 1000 images, which can be available for workshops and events, were taken over the 2013 garden season.
• Fences were maintained and the iron posts were replaced with wooden ones.
• Created a “Weeds of Derwood Demo Garden” resource to be use by volunteers new to the garden.
• Did soil tests on Shade Garden, parts of Vegetable Garden, and Children’s Garden. Results are at the end of this report.
The Vegetable Garden has implemented its own evaluation and plan for next year. It follows. Derwood Demonstration Garden: Vegetable and Fruit Beds 2013 Report and Planning for 2014 Season 14 December 2013 - Robin Ritterhoff & Erica Smith
We had a good and productive 2013 season. We delivered 676 pounds of fresh produce to Manna. For Grow It! Eat It!, 2013 was the Year of the Root Vegetable so Derwood veggie plantings highlighted those. Vegetable and Fruit Garden Work Arrangements What worked well in 2013, and improving in 2014:
o 100 square foot project: Good 2013 innovation; All of us learned from it, not just the dedicated team of interns that took full charge of the initiative. This garden produced 170 lbs. of produce this year and was considered quite successful. The team suggested better planning and management for next season. For 2014: Repeat 100 square ft initative. Determine whether any of the 2013 team wants to lead 2014 interns; sign up the 100 square foot team in March to facilitate making a garden plan earlier in the season; make sure the team has an experienced MG to lead it; give the team full access to plant and seed resources ahead of planting time; improve fertilization and irrigation.
o Labels: We did better on labeling, putting out small labels listing species and varieties for nearly everything. 2014: try to put up labels with more info including culture guidance for key crops. o Better mapping for spring planting, and identifying late summer crops (with Barbara D’s push). 2014: seek committed volunteer.
o Tomato tasting. 2014: Repeat, maybe do for other key varieties; store tasting kit in shed (cutting board, knife, toothpicks etc.).
o Drip irrigation system covered all of the veggie beds plus straw bales, containers and salad table. 2014: Repeat – maybe encourage Joe to train additional people.
o Containers: not terribly exciting, but good demo. Repeat. o Straw Bales: not great outcomes. 2014: Give it another year, bigger grouping. Cold weather work needed to prepare for 2014 season: o Repaint mailboxes before GIEI training in late March.
o Consider what to put in the mailboxes – laminated basic HGIC reference docs like HGIC16 – can we attach this by a chain somehow?
o Labels with instructions for major species – tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans. Pests
o Compared to 2012, fewer BMSBs, many more Japanese beetles (particularly damaged passionfruit & pole beans). Harlequin bugs as bad as in 2012; impressive demo of row cover success with an 2 unprotected much-gnawed lacinato kale next to pristine lacinato under the enviromesh. o Some bean beetles, cucumber beetles, squash borers & squash bugs.
o Wireworms were an unfortunate new pest in the potatoes, sweet potatoes and some damage to a few peanuts.
o 2014: Consider what steps we can take beyond row covers and knocking bugs into soapy water – we are losing a lot to pests. Diseases o Bad year for fungal diseases with cool wet spring. Then very dry though overcast beginning 2nd week of August through late September. Early blight on tomatoes, powdery mildew. 2014: Consider spraying baking soda solution prophylactically. Planning 2014 Crops Main challenge - GIEI Year of Cucurbits – hard to grow well. For 2014:
o Will require larger space in garden beds for rambling vines, and supports for cukes & some squash; maybe reduce space devoted to tomatoes & peppers?
o Trial various pest/disease protection methods – consider trying BT; higher row covers; kaolin clay sprays that Jon T will provide; prophylactic spray of baking soda solution.
o For melons, try warming soil?
o Try assembling dedicated Cucurbits intern team under Erica/Robin guidance.
What We Grew in 2013
• Perennials: o Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): not visibly diminished by 2012 BSMB hordes. o Blackberries (genus Rubus): Fruited well, but tasted fairly sour 2013 & 2012. Try another variety if not better in 2014.
o Black raspberries (genus Rubus): Birds got most of them. o Blueberries (genus Vaccinium): Moved again; did not thrive. 2014: replace most. More sulphur or other soil acidifier?
o Bush cherries: Large ones went to good homes. 2014: purchase small ones and plant by back fence. o Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus): Early 2013: patch was reduced to about 2 feet square; seems sufficient. 2014: constrain any expansion.
o Kiwi (genus Actinidia): The Issai is doing well, not old enough to fruit. The Siberian male planted this spring at edge of the tree shade may have succumbed. 2014: replace if female is well. o Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis): Flowers hit hard by Japanese beetles; no fruit.
3 o Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum): Original planting by back fence and 2012 planting at edge of tree shade thrived, but early spring divisions replanted by Jerusalem artichokes did not. o Strawberries (genus Fragaria): Moved to spot by back fence after Jerusalem artichokes dug out; did not do well.
• Annuals: o Beta: Swiss chard and beets.
• Early spring planting of beets was productive. Late summer hot & very dry; very poor germination for late August planting in main veggie beds; no fall crop. But 100 square foot garden produced fine fall beets. 2014: try their late summer method.
• Chard: reliable, but in late summer more beat up than usual; not clear what was causing holes in the leaves. o Cruciferous: We grew kale, mustard greens, collards, pac choi, turnips, kohlrabi, rutabaga, and Chinese broccoli. Everything that we protected with row cover did reasonably well in spring and fall. Cool and rainy spring and slow onset of heat meant that brassicas produced for longer into the early summer. o Cucurbit: We planted cucumbers, melons, squash (zucchini/summer and winter varieties). 2014: Year of Cucurbits is likely to be a real challenge for us.
• Cucumbers: main planting (May) succumbed to bacterial wilt in about July; some brief success with extending the harvest into August with a later set planted in June.
• Melons: Except for reliably great mouse melons and a yellow watermelon that produced a handful of small fruits, rest were total bust, succumbed to powdery mildew – milk and baking soda sprays did not help, maybe not started early enough.
• Squash: ‘Trombocino’ very productive, withstood pests, and very showy – both the rambunctious plant and its curved fruits. 2014: Maybe should pick more fruit at young stage when it is easier to use. Zucchinis: produced a few, but borers and powdery mildew got the plants fairly early. ‘Mongogo’ winter squash pretty flower & very attractive fruit but not much taste. o Phaseolus: bush beans, pole beans, runner beans.
• Bush beans: Spring plantings of ‘Provider’ and ‘Masai’ (latter in container) did well, as did mix of varieties in succession planting.
• Pole beans less successful. ‘Blue Lake’ did okay, ‘Missouri Wonder’ produced well, but purple pole beans unimpressive.
• Peas: great spring crop thanks to cool wet weather.
• Yard-long beans: good start, but then production fell off. 2014: if seeds for green variety are used up, try red yard-long variety.
• Peanuts: Produced moderately well, fun to show kids how they grow.
•Limas: Pole variety only produced sparsely & late, never ripened. 2014: try bush limas. o Solanaceae: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers (hot and sweet). 4 § Tomatoes: We learned in April that the person who led on tomatoes and peppers for several years could not volunteer in 2013. Therefore we solicited seedlings from Derwood volunteers and got plenty of interesting varieties. The cold and wet spring/early summer caused some early blight, and tomatoes were a little slow to start producing. But most stayed productive despite the stressful late summer dry spell. An early August tomato tasting identified ‘Orange Icicle’ as the best tasting variety after considerable rain. ‘Mortgage Lifter’ did well. ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’ was popular for kids to pick and sample at the Harvest Fest. ‘Sungold’ produced very well, starting early and lasting until frost, but wet weather exacerbated its fruits’ propensity to split. ‘Patio’ tomatoes did amazingly well in container & kept producing; taste okay but nothing special. Unsuccessful varieties: ‘Tropic VFN’ and ‘Iron Lady’ both quit early despite reputed disease resistance. § Peppers: we relied on volunteers’ extras for peppers as well. Not a great year for peppers weather-wise; production off generally, best among the hot peppers. § Potatoes: disappointing, wireworm damage. Mystery why they suddenly appeared.
o Ipomoea: Sweet potatoes. Good productivity, but some wireworm damage. Took harvests of leaves several times. o Leafy greens: lettuces, Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach. Not a focus this year. We planted it in the salad table, where it did reasonably well, and the 100 square foot gardeners also planted it very successfully.
o Yacon: Impressive plant, not well known, good production. Because it is unfamiliar, it was hard to give away to volunteers (much less Manna); we held over maybe 20 lbs of the harvest & gave volunteers recipes for using it, marginally successful approach. o Hibiscus Rosella: Production okay, a little too crowded where it was planted, very ornamental; visitors asked about it. Attachments: Nov. 2013 Manna Meeting Read-Out 2013 Manna Deliveries 5 Derwood and Manna Food Bank – 2013 Wrap Up Key points of our 11/7/2013 wrap-up discussion with Manna Food Bank's Director of Operations Kevin Trostle and Director of Nutritional Programs Jenna Umbriac:
• The Manna folks love Derwood garden's donations and the way we deliver them. o Our donations totaled 668 pounds this year, and while we are far from their biggest donor, Manna folks value our freshness and overall quality over total weight. One example: they spoke passionately about their clients getting locally grown tomatoes that taste "real".
o They really appreciate our 2013 innovation of delivering familysized portions in transparent plastic bags. (When I volunteered last winter in Manna's warehouse, it became clear that such bags facilitate getting veggies to clients most rapidly and in the best shape.) Maria Wortman found & ordered a supply of such bags in early 2013, and the Derwood volunteers adapted readily to bagging the harvest, making delivery really easy.
o Our usual delivery time (12:20ish) is just about the worst timing for Manna since eligible folks pick up their food boxes between noon and 3PM, with heaviest traffic in the first hour. It just hasn't worked to move up our delivery to 11:30 despite several tries - the Derwood rhythm means harvesting goes until nearly noon. So in August Kevin suggested that I start loading Derwood’s plastic bags right into the boxes for that day’s pickup; this works pretty well because I'm fairly well known at Manna. (When someone else delivers Derwood's harvest they should give it to Kevin or Norman.) o When we gave Manna some 20 bags of Jerusalem artichokes last month, we included in each bag a recipe for soup using them and a few relatively common, inexpensive materials. Jenna encouraged us to include recipes whenever possible with our less common crops – she really values getting clients beyond the usual vegetable comfort zone. Labeling unusual items can also help.
• Manna would love to see us scale up - rather than nearly 700 pounds, how about 7000 pounds per year? Erica and I were very encouraged that Manna wants more from us, but explained our constraints - we're already fully gardening the space available to us pretty intensively, and we're using the skills of all of our volunteers as well as we can in our weekly 4 hour work session.
• Manna would like us to partner in new ways, including hands-on demonstrations. Jenna would like to organize a few demonstrations next spring where MGs could teach clients how to grow easy veggies in window boxes or containers. She suggested starting with an MG standing at a table in Manna’s entry during the busy noon-1PM time, 6 showing clients an unusual veggie or green and explaining how to use it. The MG would also have a sign-up sheet for a container gardening class for interested clients. The container gardening classes might be timed for just before food pick-up (11:30-noon), and Jenna suggests providing written very streamlined guidance in English and Spanish. Ideally, an incentive can help bring people to classes– such as Grow It! Eat It! seed packs if they are available; she will think about other possibilities. She said that Manna’s past classes have had anywhere from 7 to 30 people, a little hard to predict. She suggested another possibility – a one minute elevator speech on growing in containers, plus handout, maybe with a demo, in Manna’s lobby.
• Long range dream – Manna gaining access to a farm. Kevin would love to see Manna buying into a farm where clients could grow food, to improve their nutrition, educate them about where veggies come from…if this dream ever becomes reality, he would want MGs’ support. We responded that if that comes about, we know just the right people to connect him with.
• Manna’s clients: Jenna mentioned that Manna is pretty consistently providing food boxes daily to + 200 families, generally low-income folks slightly above food stamp eligibility. Their numbers are a significant increase from 2012. (In addition to distributing food to eligible people at their warehouse and several sites in Montgomery County, Manna also provides food to low income school kids for weekends, and to various entities such as shelters.)