2015 Derwood Demonstration Yearly Report
Submitted by Lily Bruch and Bill Newman
This was Darlene Nicholson's last year as co-lead after leading many years with Maria Wortman, provide fantastic photographs, and helping to produce both the excellently educational Bug Books and Weed Books. We thank her for easing the leadership transition, and contributions to the success of the Demo Garden.
The Weed Book was enhanced with more examples, pictures, research, and other details. After thorough review and editing, a new printing of 500 units commenced and was completed in January 2016. These will be made available to the public for a donation of $10 including tax; and to Master Gardeners for a donation of $8. Demand at the January and February Master Gardener monthly meetings has been strong.
This was the last year the Demo Garden leadership attended Board Meetings – next year, Michael Parizer will represent the Derwood Demonstration Garden to The Board.
The Demonstration Garden as a whole is comprised of several types of gardens including:
Butterfly Garden, Herb and Fragrance Garden, Children's Garden, Shade Garden, Conservation Garden, two turf plots, and two ponds.
The Therapeutic Horticulture includes garden plots for growing cut-flowers to be used in therapeutic efforts as well as a garden plot for Youth with Autism.
Edibles Gardening includes small fruits(kiwi, fig, currants, gooseberry are recent additions), 100-Square-Foot Garden, Kitchen Garden with perennial herbs, potato gardening, straw bale gardening, container gardening, an asparagus bed, and salad tables. GrowItEatIt coordinates with these gardening endeavors.
The goal of the Demonstration garden is to educate the residents of Montgomery County and Master Gardeners about what plants will grow well under prevailing conditions of soil and climate while illustrating Integrated Pest Management techniques. Our guidelines are in accordance with The University of Maryland Extension philosophies.
Additionally, we aim to be inclusive, develop leadership, and educate Master Gardeners.
Orientation and training to new interns continues as a means to enhance involvement and learning. Some end of year feedback suggested that we increase both opportunities for involvement/ownership and learning. We saw a large drop off in attendance during the summer vacation period which proved challenging during this busy harvest season. But once again a few strong interns now serve important roles at the garden.
The Derwood Demonstration Garden has had an ongoing engagement with Manna in recent years. This year, 2015, after a late, mid-November harvest, the Derwood Demo Garden has provided 1720 pounds of our harvest to Manna (our 2014 total was 1801 pounds). Robin Ritterhof is usually the DDG volunteer who has the honor (and fun) of delivering the harvest, and wants you to know that the Manna staff is always thrilled to see our blue tubtrugs loaded with freshly harvested veggies arrive each Tuesday. Those vegetables usually go to Manna families the same day, or no later than the following day.. Manna's Annual Report lists Montgomery County Master Gardeners as one of the donors that provides over 1000 lbs of food per year (and Manna staff tell us repeatedly that our fresh vegetables are particularly highly valued by the organization and the people it serves). Leadership believes this total could be higher (and have more diversification) if more gardening space was available(in the under-utilized beds of the Tenant's Garden, for example)
Joe Ginther again provided an education session on irrigation systems and recruited a knowledgeable team to install and expand (to Salad Tables, Children's and other gardens) the irrigation system. Additional 'ten-minute talks' addressed a wide array of topics including suckering tomatoes, cover crops, mulching, gathering bamboo, building bamboo structures, and trench-method for potatoes.
As stated previous, the Derwood Demonstration Garden demonstrates many types of gardening -the reports of which follow:
The Compost Team (aka Compost Central) – co-leads Denny May and Larry Himmelfarb
The overall goals of the Compost Team:
education about composting to both Master Gardening interns and the general public, will conduct two composting “experiments” in the coming year. In essence our goal is an attempt to be somewhat more scientific to measure the composting process and the resulting black gold. And since the garden is used to assist the home gardener, we will also experiment with the bins provided by the county. These experiments, although not be rigorous in the truly scientific sense, might eventually provide us with at least some verifiable results about home or community garden composting practices. The scope of the experiments would center on composting issues of particular interest to the home and community composter in two separate experiments:
basis from the beginning of the composting to the point where we have a finished product. We will also
record general descriptions of the types and rough estimates of the amounts of the inputs, although we
will not weigh those inputs. Our hope is that the temperature log will be of value in various presentations about composting and in our general public outreach.
Shade Garden:
The Good: The new interns were enthusiastic in their work and interested in learning plant ID & the issues of growing & planting in shady conditions. The returning crew continued in their dedication to making the shade garden the best it could be.
Challenges: We are running out of room. Every member wants to add plants and expand into new areas. This is great, but we have been told that we are as big as we can get. However, this year we did purchase a variety of new/different plants & trees, so the garden is expanding in diversity & number of plants. Watering wasn’t an issue until mid-August, so w/ the help of some of the MG’s that come on Tuesday we were able help the garden survive our “mini-drought”. We were also able to delay new plantings until water/rain conditions improved.
New: We have purchased a stone garden bench to be placed behind sheds next spring. Furnishing a list of plants for visitors to use while touring the garden & also, a seasonal list of what you expect to see blooming an any time, a “What Blooms When” list, are projects we would like to develop. Due to limited space & demands of the garden, we do not need a lot of new volunteers. We welcome new interns each year & are glad for them to get the shade garden experience. As the season moves forward some will stay & others will find alternate opportunities for earning their service hours.
Carol Martin is the garden lead for the Shade Garden and Sue Schick is co-lead.
100 Square Foot Garden – Mary Anne Normile
The Good:
New design: The new design, conceived by Hope Dieckhans, was both eye-catching and functional. It made it much easier for 3 or more people to work in the garden at the same time, and garnered many favorable comments.
Some new crops: While we had some failures this year, there were many notable successes. Lettuces continued well into early summer and remained largely pest-free. Pole beans, once they escaped the ravages of the rabbit, were very productive. It was a good tomato year, although no single variety stood out. Tomatillo ‘Gulliver,’ a hybrid variety, allowed us to direct-sow as a succession crop and produced an abundance of large fruit. Peppers, and especially Anaheim chilies, were productive over a long season. We’ve noted elsewhere the qualified success of the partially downy mildew-resistant basil ‘Eleonora,’ which gave us many cuttings of basil throughout the basil season. The key to success with this variety seems to be cutting it back frequently. Fava beans, our first attempt at growing this plant, were successful, although short-lived. The variety "Extra Precoce," an early-maturing and compact variety, was started indoors and transplanted into the garden in early spring. It was also a good year for broccoli (spring), leeks, Swiss chard and carrots –variety ‘Danvers half-long’ grew particularly well for us.
Challenges: We had them all! (Well, maybe not crowding.)
Insects: Cabbage worm damage led to heavy losses of our plantings of lacinato kale in the Italian garden. We may have applied row cover too late, after cabbage moths had already laid eggs—lesson learned! Flea beetles emerged early in the season and damaged red mustard, mustard spinach (Komatsuna), and mizuna, and devastated our first planting of eggplant. We replanted eggplant, and used a combination of row cover and Surround (kaolin clay) to try to give this crop another chance. In the end, the eggplant plants were not able to recover from the damage done by persistent flea beetles, despite weekly application of Surround, and we never did get any fruit. Cucumber wilt, a bacterial infection carried by cucumber beetles, resulted in early removal of cucumber plants. In late summer, harlequin bugs appeared in large numbers on turnips, kale and other brassicas (this was likely due to the situation in the adjacent tenant garden—once those beds were cleaned up, the bugs migrated to the 100 Square Foot Garden). They were partially controlled by hand-picking.
Disease: The wet and warm early summer gave rise to lots of fungal diseases. Basil downy mildew infected our Thai basil ‘Siam Queen,’ although the basil varieties ‘Purple Tetra’ and (alleged) partially-resistant Genovese variety ‘Eleonora’ both escaped infection. Early blight and septoria leaf spot affected tomato plants, but constant removal of infected leaves, along with a single application of copper fungicide, helped keep the disease from advancing, and we had a successful tomato crop.
Small mammals: The biggest challenge was a rabbit or rabbits that took a particularly liking to the 100 Square Foot Garden, perhaps because of its location near an entry gate. The rabbit’s noshing made it difficult to grow bush beans until very late in the year and impossible to grow edamame, which was particularly disappointing in the Year of the Bean and Pea. Row cover helped exclude the rabbit for a while, but eventually had to be removed to allow access for pollinators. Low-tech attempts to discourage the rabbit (red pepper spray and blood meal) proved a mixed success—we aren’t sure whether the blood meal repelled the rabbit, or whether it disappeared on its own.
Weather: We already noted the effects of the weather in late spring and early summer. In late summer, we lost several newly-planted cool-season crops to the prolonged drought and heat. As this was a time when several of the team take vacation, it wasn’t possible to do more frequent watering to keep seedlings alive. Irrigation seems to be ineffective. I understand that this is a difficult garden to irrigate because of the irregular configuration.
Early-bolting onions: I wasn’t sure where to put this, but thought it merited a mention. We grew onions ‘Red Wethersfield’ from sets purchased from a reputable seed company, but they bolted before the onions reached full size. We got a lot of onions of small, but harvestable, size. I read that this is a common problem using onion sets, although it was the first time any of us encountered it. We’re not sure whether it was the variety, or whether it may warrant growing onions from seed rather than sets in the future.
For next year:
Theme: The 100 Square Foot Garden seems made for a garden theme. This year’s theme was an International Garden, with beds for Asian, Italian, Latin American, and French plants. This gave rise to lots of creativity and energy, but ultimately proved too constraining. For example, the Asian bed ended up being populated with spring brassicas that attracted insects. Finding plants that fit in the both the succession plan and the country theme, and were not too tall or too large for their placement, proved challenging. We like the idea of a theme, but will try to find a theme that affords greater
Succession plan: Losing so many crops to pests and other problems made succession planting a challenge. We will try to have a better plan for having things that can be planted in the event of a crop failure, although we realize that this is difficult. In that connection, we will also try to spread around the seed-starting duties to have more plants ready to plant out rather than
Garden journal: One thing the team has discussed is the value of keeping a journal that chronicles what is planted, any treatments given, what succeeds/fails. We realized at the end of the season that we can’t rely on our memories. The weekly report fills some of this need, although we don’t
Thwarting pests: Rabbits were such a problem for us this year that we are discussing things that won’t be so vulnerable. For example, pole beans, once they outgrew the rabbit, turned out to be a better choice than bush beans (although this would take a valuable go-to crop out of our summer arsenal). Use row cover early and often. Give up on eggplant.
Conservation Garden by Linda Davis
The conservation garden at the MG Demo Garden entry gate had a slow year with little
change. Summary of activities:
Moved the spectacular lily (variety unknown) to a sunnier spot just behind the Autumn Joy sedum that edges the lawn area.
Did some major pruning on the winterberry bushes that were encroaching on the path.
Added Allegheny spurge groundcover (a native) to the garden to start building our inventory of suitable native plants.
Hydrangeas, sweetspire and clethra continue to grow reliably.
Updated a few signs
Jack-in-the-pulpit was awesome under the winterberry bushes.
The spectacular Ninebark is reaching for more light, as is the Viburnum nudum growing behind it.
Many of the smaller plants originally planted in this part of the garden have died out, probably from lack of light.
Culver’s root was moved to the butterfly garden where it will have more room (it was too tall for the one sunny spot available in the conservation garden.)
Native switchgrass was moved out to the sunnier area near the turf.
Tall crape myrtle was removed. This should help the winterberry to receive more sunlight if another shrub is not put in its place.
Attempted to add color and focus to the low-growing area to the right of the entry gate. It was a failure this year: the coleus were too dark a color to attract attention (note: use bright pink, and green-and-white coleus next year) . The white-streaked hosta do not seem to be thriving, probably need more sun. Two exceptions to the disappointing show of color were: the spring trilliums, and the blooming of naked lady (resurrection lily) in late summer. It’s pinkness was refreshingly spectacular.
The sugar maples and the black cherry tree continue to engulf the garden in shade, making it more difficult to grow eye-catching displays. (Note: bring pole pruner in July to prune accessible branches of sugar maples).
Bugs and Pests issues:
Spotted cucumber beetles were "spotted" throughout the garden and are hard to see because they see us coming and move quickly out of view...but they are there helping to spread bacterial wilt and mosaic virus, which can quickly kill cucurbit vines.
For the second year in a row, the demo garden saw an abundance of Blue-winged wasps (Scolia dubia) which are a predator of Japanese Beetle grub...perhaps the reason our garden saw much fewer Japanese Beetles than was reported around the area? (IPM reports)
We also saw or maybe just noted, more Tomato fruit worms, (although nowhere near a significant amount to cause major damage) and the first time noted, cross-stripped cabbage worms, who did a good amount of damage under the protective coverings.
We also seemed to notice more Tobacco Hornworms, but they were mostly covered with parasitic wasps doing their jobs.
During the "bee counting" activity(in association with the University of Maryland project), we noted many, many soldier beetles doing their good work above ground and the North American millipede working below the ground.
Other bugs noted in other parts of the garden that we should keep our eyes out for are, three-lined potato beetles, 4-lined plant bugs, and two-lined spittlebugs. (just remember, 2,3,4)
A curious bug noted in abundance the first time this year was the Twice-stabbed stink bug. Although abundant throughout the garden, they seemed to do little damage. I saw only a few that seemed to make it to their adult size ? (about 1/3 smaller than the BSMB).
Vegetable Beds 2015 Report and Planning for 2016 Season
Erica Smith & Robin Ritterhoff
2015 was a productive year in the garden, with a few disappointments and and a lot of successes. We delivered 1704 pounds of fresh produce to Manna, not quite as much as in 2014, but a respectable number. 2015 was Grow It Eat It’s Year of Beans and Peas, so we focused more on legumes than usual.
Vegetable Garden Work Arrangements and Projects
What worked well in 2015, and what needs to be improved in 2016:
Winter Planning For 2016 Season
Pests
Diseases
2016 Crop Focus
2016 is GIEI’s Year of the Tomato.
What We Grew in 2015
Perennials:
Annuals:
The therapeutic garden list for 2015 included:
Common Larkspur
Cockscomb
Ageratum (volunteers) or Floss Flower
Zinnia mix from seed
African Blue Basil
Silver King Artemisia
Provence French Lavender
English Lavender
Bee Balm
Purple Coneflower
Love-in-a-mist
Marigold
Yarrow Achillea
Common Yarrow
Globe Amaranth
Black-eyed Susan
Anise Hyssop
Fennel
Strawflowers
Garlic Chives
Mum
Butterfly Garden – Bobbi Maxwell and Peggy Stanford
We have had an interesting year, putting in plants to attract and feed butterflies.. It's been fun watching the different butterflies that have been there. Julie has taken some great pictures. We even saw a few Monarchs.
With the drought this summer , a few plants did not do as well, but so many did fine. The Heliopsis continues to flourish and spread like mad., as does the Golden Rod.
Next year we will take out the many areas of golden rod and just leave it by the fence, hence more room.
The Glossy Abelia needs a new home, as it is so big. We may cut it way back and see what happens. Hopefully we'll have a large amount of milkweed, as the Monarchs need it.
The annuals did well, and the perennials. The coneflowers and bee balm were great. The Hibiscus was lovely too.
We have our share of weeds, and invasives, but controllable. Aphids were the worst.
Potatoes report: Barbara Knapp
Our Potatoes were planted on March 31. Three rows, one of Kennebec, one of Yukon Gold, and one of Red Pontiac. They were rather slow to germinate, as the weather was not particularly cooperative. The first variety that showed any leaves were the Red Pontiac, on April 21. On April 28 two rows were showing, and on May 5, all three. The all grew well, and I kept hilling them up. Sometime in the middle of the summer we noticed that some of the Yukon Gold were dying. It seemed to be caused by something burrowing into the stem and then going down to the base of the stem, just as we had seen several years ago. At that time Steve told us that it was a corn borer. We never actually found the culprit this year, but eventually about a third of the plants in that row had died back. I dug the rest of the Yukon Gold early, on August 11, so that Erica could use that space for a wider planting under a row cover. The Red Pontiac potatoes were dug on August 18. The last row of potatoes, Kennebec, was dug on September 1. They were mostly good, but a few had been attacked by wireworms.
The sweet potatoes were planted at the beginning of June. Three plants of Georgia Jet, and 2 of Beauregard. They all did well, though there were a few with wireworm damage. They had more than filled the available space. I probably should have just planted 4.
Ponds: – Darlene Nicholson
There are two ponds at DDG. The fabricated pond in the Conservation Garden was emptied and roughly cleaned in March of 2015. There were no surviving fish and several plants were thinned, repotted, and replaced back into the pond. We bought new submerged plants, grasses and added them to both ponds as soon as they could be purchased. When danger of frost was over we added one water lettuce and one water hyacinth plant to each pond. They multiplied many times over by the end of the summer and we gave some away to friends with enclosed ponds. We are aware that some of the plants we use in the pond are invasive in natural ponds or waterways and we always explain to visitors that they are annuals and we compost them at the end of the season. We purchased some new gold fish (about 8) and added them in this pond. They did well in the early parts of the season and managed the mosquitoes nicely. However in late summer several fish were found floating dead, amid an oily chemical floating on the pond surface. We are really not sure what caused this, perhaps something as innocent as someone wearing suntan lotion putting their hands in the pond or someone putting something in there. Tadpoles and plants were not effected. We blotted up the surface as best we could and added additional water to dilute. After a couple of weeks the pond returned to normal and after a month we transferred some fish from the other pond to it. They survived the transfer and looked healthy going into the winter. The liner pond located in the Children's Garden was only half drained, to help keep the balance we had achieved. This appeared to be adequate and due to the the cooler early part of spring and summer we had very little trouble with algae. A couple of times in late summer we hand removed some small amounts.
There were numerous frog and toad eggs in both ponds in the spring. Unfortunately lots of the frog eggs were eaten by the goldfish but some survived and many toad eggs seemed to make it. We had a couple of resident frogs at both ponds throughout the season. All plants in both ponds had a great year; our water lily and water hyacinths had beautiful blooms. Both ponds were hand cleaned each week and nets covered both at the end of the season.
The Autistic Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Group manages three plots used by Sheppard Pratt School and two groups of autistic youth from the Community services for Autistic Adults and Children. The students visit each week during the growing season, depending on weather; to seed, weed, and harvest vegetables and flowers. This gardening, and the Children's garden, continue to be popular with visitors.
Small Fruits: The small fruit section of the demonstration garden continued to expand and thrive during 2015. As well as adding a “Paw Paw Patch” of approximately 500 square feet behind the demonstration garden, we added small fruit to the shade garden and to various locations within the demonstration
2015 Vegetable Labeling report – LeeAnne Gelletly 10/20/15
Possible goals for next year
Conclusion
We are behind on updating the interactive website of the Demo Garden, “mcmgdemogarden.com” A QR code is available on the bulletin board near the front gate for quick access to the garden maps. This site contains maps and plant lists of all the gardens, as well as yearly reports. We hope to recruit additions to the Labeling team to help keep this more current. Other accomplishments include:
Thank you to the garden leaders who submitted year-end assessment information to be used in compiling this report:
Erica Smith, Bobbi Maxwell, Linda Davis, JoAnn Mueller, Carole Martin , Sue Schick, Lily Bruch, Maria Wortman, Darlene Nicholson, Denny May, Peggy Stanford, Susan Eisendrath, Larry Himmelfarb, Robin Ritterhof, Sally Reynolds, Patti Oseroff, Bonita Condon, Judy Bradley
Marty Isaacson, Kathleen Tsai, Ida Wallenmeyer, Ellen Meyerson
–
This was Darlene Nicholson's last year as co-lead after leading many years with Maria Wortman, provide fantastic photographs, and helping to produce both the excellently educational Bug Books and Weed Books. We thank her for easing the leadership transition, and contributions to the success of the Demo Garden.
The Weed Book was enhanced with more examples, pictures, research, and other details. After thorough review and editing, a new printing of 500 units commenced and was completed in January 2016. These will be made available to the public for a donation of $10 including tax; and to Master Gardeners for a donation of $8. Demand at the January and February Master Gardener monthly meetings has been strong.
This was the last year the Demo Garden leadership attended Board Meetings – next year, Michael Parizer will represent the Derwood Demonstration Garden to The Board.
The Demonstration Garden as a whole is comprised of several types of gardens including:
Butterfly Garden, Herb and Fragrance Garden, Children's Garden, Shade Garden, Conservation Garden, two turf plots, and two ponds.
The Therapeutic Horticulture includes garden plots for growing cut-flowers to be used in therapeutic efforts as well as a garden plot for Youth with Autism.
Edibles Gardening includes small fruits(kiwi, fig, currants, gooseberry are recent additions), 100-Square-Foot Garden, Kitchen Garden with perennial herbs, potato gardening, straw bale gardening, container gardening, an asparagus bed, and salad tables. GrowItEatIt coordinates with these gardening endeavors.
The goal of the Demonstration garden is to educate the residents of Montgomery County and Master Gardeners about what plants will grow well under prevailing conditions of soil and climate while illustrating Integrated Pest Management techniques. Our guidelines are in accordance with The University of Maryland Extension philosophies.
Additionally, we aim to be inclusive, develop leadership, and educate Master Gardeners.
Orientation and training to new interns continues as a means to enhance involvement and learning. Some end of year feedback suggested that we increase both opportunities for involvement/ownership and learning. We saw a large drop off in attendance during the summer vacation period which proved challenging during this busy harvest season. But once again a few strong interns now serve important roles at the garden.
The Derwood Demonstration Garden has had an ongoing engagement with Manna in recent years. This year, 2015, after a late, mid-November harvest, the Derwood Demo Garden has provided 1720 pounds of our harvest to Manna (our 2014 total was 1801 pounds). Robin Ritterhof is usually the DDG volunteer who has the honor (and fun) of delivering the harvest, and wants you to know that the Manna staff is always thrilled to see our blue tubtrugs loaded with freshly harvested veggies arrive each Tuesday. Those vegetables usually go to Manna families the same day, or no later than the following day.. Manna's Annual Report lists Montgomery County Master Gardeners as one of the donors that provides over 1000 lbs of food per year (and Manna staff tell us repeatedly that our fresh vegetables are particularly highly valued by the organization and the people it serves). Leadership believes this total could be higher (and have more diversification) if more gardening space was available(in the under-utilized beds of the Tenant's Garden, for example)
Joe Ginther again provided an education session on irrigation systems and recruited a knowledgeable team to install and expand (to Salad Tables, Children's and other gardens) the irrigation system. Additional 'ten-minute talks' addressed a wide array of topics including suckering tomatoes, cover crops, mulching, gathering bamboo, building bamboo structures, and trench-method for potatoes.
As stated previous, the Derwood Demonstration Garden demonstrates many types of gardening -the reports of which follow:
The Compost Team (aka Compost Central) – co-leads Denny May and Larry Himmelfarb
The overall goals of the Compost Team:
- Produce a sufficient amount of high quality compost* for creating and amending vegetable and flower beds and to amend perennial plants, including fruit bearing plants.
- Maintain and improve the educational materials (signs, handouts, etc.) on the demonstration site.
- Provide educational composting demonstrations during public events such as the Grow It Eat It Open Houses and contact and work with the county to bring in free bins and thermometers.
education about composting to both Master Gardening interns and the general public, will conduct two composting “experiments” in the coming year. In essence our goal is an attempt to be somewhat more scientific to measure the composting process and the resulting black gold. And since the garden is used to assist the home gardener, we will also experiment with the bins provided by the county. These experiments, although not be rigorous in the truly scientific sense, might eventually provide us with at least some verifiable results about home or community garden composting practices. The scope of the experiments would center on composting issues of particular interest to the home and community composter in two separate experiments:
- A comparison between the measured quality of compost produced in our regular bins using our normal garden greens as our nitrogen source and our typical composting practices with that of a similarly-produced compost that features food waste (primarily coffee grounds) and grass clippings as the nitrogen source. Production time, watering, aeration (turning the piles), and the carbon source (leaves) would be the same for both batches of compost; the only difference would be in the nitrogen supplied. We will have the final compost batches professionally tested and compare the results for such qualities are extent of organic matter, pH, and carbon and nitrogen levels.
- The second experiment would be exactly the same as the first in terms of the two different nitrogen inputs and all other factors remaining identical. The only difference with this experiment would be that instead of using the large wooden bins for the trial, two Montgomery County composting bins would be used. This experiment would closely approximate the composting situation faced by your typical home gardener.
basis from the beginning of the composting to the point where we have a finished product. We will also
record general descriptions of the types and rough estimates of the amounts of the inputs, although we
will not weigh those inputs. Our hope is that the temperature log will be of value in various presentations about composting and in our general public outreach.
Shade Garden:
The Good: The new interns were enthusiastic in their work and interested in learning plant ID & the issues of growing & planting in shady conditions. The returning crew continued in their dedication to making the shade garden the best it could be.
Challenges: We are running out of room. Every member wants to add plants and expand into new areas. This is great, but we have been told that we are as big as we can get. However, this year we did purchase a variety of new/different plants & trees, so the garden is expanding in diversity & number of plants. Watering wasn’t an issue until mid-August, so w/ the help of some of the MG’s that come on Tuesday we were able help the garden survive our “mini-drought”. We were also able to delay new plantings until water/rain conditions improved.
New: We have purchased a stone garden bench to be placed behind sheds next spring. Furnishing a list of plants for visitors to use while touring the garden & also, a seasonal list of what you expect to see blooming an any time, a “What Blooms When” list, are projects we would like to develop. Due to limited space & demands of the garden, we do not need a lot of new volunteers. We welcome new interns each year & are glad for them to get the shade garden experience. As the season moves forward some will stay & others will find alternate opportunities for earning their service hours.
Carol Martin is the garden lead for the Shade Garden and Sue Schick is co-lead.
100 Square Foot Garden – Mary Anne Normile
The Good:
New design: The new design, conceived by Hope Dieckhans, was both eye-catching and functional. It made it much easier for 3 or more people to work in the garden at the same time, and garnered many favorable comments.
Some new crops: While we had some failures this year, there were many notable successes. Lettuces continued well into early summer and remained largely pest-free. Pole beans, once they escaped the ravages of the rabbit, were very productive. It was a good tomato year, although no single variety stood out. Tomatillo ‘Gulliver,’ a hybrid variety, allowed us to direct-sow as a succession crop and produced an abundance of large fruit. Peppers, and especially Anaheim chilies, were productive over a long season. We’ve noted elsewhere the qualified success of the partially downy mildew-resistant basil ‘Eleonora,’ which gave us many cuttings of basil throughout the basil season. The key to success with this variety seems to be cutting it back frequently. Fava beans, our first attempt at growing this plant, were successful, although short-lived. The variety "Extra Precoce," an early-maturing and compact variety, was started indoors and transplanted into the garden in early spring. It was also a good year for broccoli (spring), leeks, Swiss chard and carrots –variety ‘Danvers half-long’ grew particularly well for us.
Challenges: We had them all! (Well, maybe not crowding.)
Insects: Cabbage worm damage led to heavy losses of our plantings of lacinato kale in the Italian garden. We may have applied row cover too late, after cabbage moths had already laid eggs—lesson learned! Flea beetles emerged early in the season and damaged red mustard, mustard spinach (Komatsuna), and mizuna, and devastated our first planting of eggplant. We replanted eggplant, and used a combination of row cover and Surround (kaolin clay) to try to give this crop another chance. In the end, the eggplant plants were not able to recover from the damage done by persistent flea beetles, despite weekly application of Surround, and we never did get any fruit. Cucumber wilt, a bacterial infection carried by cucumber beetles, resulted in early removal of cucumber plants. In late summer, harlequin bugs appeared in large numbers on turnips, kale and other brassicas (this was likely due to the situation in the adjacent tenant garden—once those beds were cleaned up, the bugs migrated to the 100 Square Foot Garden). They were partially controlled by hand-picking.
Disease: The wet and warm early summer gave rise to lots of fungal diseases. Basil downy mildew infected our Thai basil ‘Siam Queen,’ although the basil varieties ‘Purple Tetra’ and (alleged) partially-resistant Genovese variety ‘Eleonora’ both escaped infection. Early blight and septoria leaf spot affected tomato plants, but constant removal of infected leaves, along with a single application of copper fungicide, helped keep the disease from advancing, and we had a successful tomato crop.
Small mammals: The biggest challenge was a rabbit or rabbits that took a particularly liking to the 100 Square Foot Garden, perhaps because of its location near an entry gate. The rabbit’s noshing made it difficult to grow bush beans until very late in the year and impossible to grow edamame, which was particularly disappointing in the Year of the Bean and Pea. Row cover helped exclude the rabbit for a while, but eventually had to be removed to allow access for pollinators. Low-tech attempts to discourage the rabbit (red pepper spray and blood meal) proved a mixed success—we aren’t sure whether the blood meal repelled the rabbit, or whether it disappeared on its own.
Weather: We already noted the effects of the weather in late spring and early summer. In late summer, we lost several newly-planted cool-season crops to the prolonged drought and heat. As this was a time when several of the team take vacation, it wasn’t possible to do more frequent watering to keep seedlings alive. Irrigation seems to be ineffective. I understand that this is a difficult garden to irrigate because of the irregular configuration.
Early-bolting onions: I wasn’t sure where to put this, but thought it merited a mention. We grew onions ‘Red Wethersfield’ from sets purchased from a reputable seed company, but they bolted before the onions reached full size. We got a lot of onions of small, but harvestable, size. I read that this is a common problem using onion sets, although it was the first time any of us encountered it. We’re not sure whether it was the variety, or whether it may warrant growing onions from seed rather than sets in the future.
For next year:
Theme: The 100 Square Foot Garden seems made for a garden theme. This year’s theme was an International Garden, with beds for Asian, Italian, Latin American, and French plants. This gave rise to lots of creativity and energy, but ultimately proved too constraining. For example, the Asian bed ended up being populated with spring brassicas that attracted insects. Finding plants that fit in the both the succession plan and the country theme, and were not too tall or too large for their placement, proved challenging. We like the idea of a theme, but will try to find a theme that affords greater
Succession plan: Losing so many crops to pests and other problems made succession planting a challenge. We will try to have a better plan for having things that can be planted in the event of a crop failure, although we realize that this is difficult. In that connection, we will also try to spread around the seed-starting duties to have more plants ready to plant out rather than
Garden journal: One thing the team has discussed is the value of keeping a journal that chronicles what is planted, any treatments given, what succeeds/fails. We realized at the end of the season that we can’t rely on our memories. The weekly report fills some of this need, although we don’t
Thwarting pests: Rabbits were such a problem for us this year that we are discussing things that won’t be so vulnerable. For example, pole beans, once they outgrew the rabbit, turned out to be a better choice than bush beans (although this would take a valuable go-to crop out of our summer arsenal). Use row cover early and often. Give up on eggplant.
Conservation Garden by Linda Davis
The conservation garden at the MG Demo Garden entry gate had a slow year with little
change. Summary of activities:
Moved the spectacular lily (variety unknown) to a sunnier spot just behind the Autumn Joy sedum that edges the lawn area.
Did some major pruning on the winterberry bushes that were encroaching on the path.
Added Allegheny spurge groundcover (a native) to the garden to start building our inventory of suitable native plants.
Hydrangeas, sweetspire and clethra continue to grow reliably.
Updated a few signs
Jack-in-the-pulpit was awesome under the winterberry bushes.
The spectacular Ninebark is reaching for more light, as is the Viburnum nudum growing behind it.
Many of the smaller plants originally planted in this part of the garden have died out, probably from lack of light.
Culver’s root was moved to the butterfly garden where it will have more room (it was too tall for the one sunny spot available in the conservation garden.)
Native switchgrass was moved out to the sunnier area near the turf.
Tall crape myrtle was removed. This should help the winterberry to receive more sunlight if another shrub is not put in its place.
Attempted to add color and focus to the low-growing area to the right of the entry gate. It was a failure this year: the coleus were too dark a color to attract attention (note: use bright pink, and green-and-white coleus next year) . The white-streaked hosta do not seem to be thriving, probably need more sun. Two exceptions to the disappointing show of color were: the spring trilliums, and the blooming of naked lady (resurrection lily) in late summer. It’s pinkness was refreshingly spectacular.
The sugar maples and the black cherry tree continue to engulf the garden in shade, making it more difficult to grow eye-catching displays. (Note: bring pole pruner in July to prune accessible branches of sugar maples).
Bugs and Pests issues:
Spotted cucumber beetles were "spotted" throughout the garden and are hard to see because they see us coming and move quickly out of view...but they are there helping to spread bacterial wilt and mosaic virus, which can quickly kill cucurbit vines.
For the second year in a row, the demo garden saw an abundance of Blue-winged wasps (Scolia dubia) which are a predator of Japanese Beetle grub...perhaps the reason our garden saw much fewer Japanese Beetles than was reported around the area? (IPM reports)
We also saw or maybe just noted, more Tomato fruit worms, (although nowhere near a significant amount to cause major damage) and the first time noted, cross-stripped cabbage worms, who did a good amount of damage under the protective coverings.
We also seemed to notice more Tobacco Hornworms, but they were mostly covered with parasitic wasps doing their jobs.
During the "bee counting" activity(in association with the University of Maryland project), we noted many, many soldier beetles doing their good work above ground and the North American millipede working below the ground.
Other bugs noted in other parts of the garden that we should keep our eyes out for are, three-lined potato beetles, 4-lined plant bugs, and two-lined spittlebugs. (just remember, 2,3,4)
A curious bug noted in abundance the first time this year was the Twice-stabbed stink bug. Although abundant throughout the garden, they seemed to do little damage. I saw only a few that seemed to make it to their adult size ? (about 1/3 smaller than the BSMB).
Vegetable Beds 2015 Report and Planning for 2016 Season
Erica Smith & Robin Ritterhoff
2015 was a productive year in the garden, with a few disappointments and and a lot of successes. We delivered 1704 pounds of fresh produce to Manna, not quite as much as in 2014, but a respectable number. 2015 was Grow It Eat It’s Year of Beans and Peas, so we focused more on legumes than usual.
Vegetable Garden Work Arrangements and Projects
What worked well in 2015, and what needs to be improved in 2016:
- Labeling and Mapping
- LeeAnne Gelletly, our labeling volunteer, has submitted a separate report. Her goal for 2016 is to keep better records and make labels more consistent.
- Some discussion between LeeAnne and the Nancy Ballard Room volunteers about printing labels occurred, but no decisions to have them assist resulted. Hand-printed labels, which are immediately available, may end up being easier and better. We can explore computer printing further, however.
- We did not have a map of the garden in 2015, despite plans to use GrowVeg. LeeAnne’s division of the garden into beds with letter designations, and her spreadsheet that keeps track of what was planted in which bed, may assist with this. The “map” may end up being a printout of lettered beds with lists of crops planted there during the year, which is better than nothing.
- It would still be very useful to have a volunteer assisting LeeAnne. We can try again to recruit for that position in the spring.
- It would also be helpful to have assistance on producing larger (8x11) signs to be placed throughout the garden, describing concepts and cultural guidelines. We used to do more of this and it’s a good outreach to visitors.
- 2016: recruit additional volunteer(s) to do labeling and/or mapping. More signage in garden, possibly with QR codes.
- Containers: Production not great – best were herbs. Heavy June rains compacted containers’ substrate; July 7 we removed substrate, mixed it well with compost & replanted with summer crops, which did better, but not nearly as well as plants in the ground or in bales. 2016: Still worth demonstrating containers, especially for early season lettuces & Asian greens, also herbs & hot peppers; exercise greater selectivity for eye-catching plantings of container-oriented varieties. Demo Self-watering containers, if staffing permits.
- Hay Bales: Great year for large bales installation dubbed Taj-Mah-Bale; highly productive, especially for tomatoes, peppers, beans, chard, basil planted in sides, and astonishingly large and lush cosmos. (Cucurbits fared less well; squash, cucumbers and melons failed to thrive whether direct-seeded or planted as seedlings.) Bales were placed on the bed by the water faucets to give ground a restorative year off, where 2014 tomatoes had not thrived and 2013 potatoes had suffered wireworm infestation. Edging with 6” high boards kept the bales orderly and path clear as they broke down. Attracted considerable attention at open house days and from other MCMGs who visited. 2016: Smaller bales arrangement, sharing a bed with African keyhole garden. Endeavor to attract dedicated team of gardeners to help design and tend both consistently.
- Cover Crops: Mixed crop planted in fall 2014 came through the winter and was dug under. An experimental comparison of bush beans grown in the residue of the cover crop and in non-cover-cropped soil didn’t yield any definite results – probably our soil is just too good overall to be improved much by cover crops! It’s worth continuing to plant them in unused beds, however, as a demonstration to visitors. A patch of phacelia grew well in the spring, and a patch of crimson clover may take off this fall, though may have been planted too late. 2016: Try some different cover crops as beds go fallow. See if weeds are reduced as much in those beds as with ordinary mulching.
- Season Extension: We have left several low tunnels covered with floating row cover in the garden, with kale, broccoli, and other brassicas underneath. We’ll check back on these in the next couple of months to see if the plants are growing and harvestable. The idea of using plastic on these tunnels was considered and rejected. Since we can’t visit the garden frequently, there is no opportunity to open and vent those tunnels on warm days and then close them again for cold nights. We also have two cold frames growing lettuce and spinach, which may make it through the winter. 2016: Continue season extension projects.
- Gardeners: We had a good group of interns volunteering in the vegetable beds at the start of the season. One intern distinguished himself by his consistency and drive to learn ever more, and took on leadership of the tomato bed. Other interns who came consistently until late June were less often present or did not reappear later in the season. 2016: Consider whether there are additional ways to attract interns and other MCMGs to become consistent DDG volunteers in the vegetable area.
Winter Planning For 2016 Season
- Seedling Production: Continue to recruit volunteers to grow seedlings for spring and summer crops. Perhaps repeat seed-starting workshop, which was useful to attendees in 2015.
- African Keyhole Gardening: Learn more about this intensive small-space gardening technique to demonstrate it most knowledgeably and effectively in 2016.
Pests
- Relatively low numbers of pests in general throughout the season, though more than in 2014.
- Bean plants were affected only moderately by Japanese beetles. Mexican bean beetles were present in very small numbers.
- The biggest pest for beans and other plants was a pesky rabbit! Or possibly more than one rabbit. Row covers keep them out, but need to be removed eventually. Rabbits did not bother neighboring bean plants in hay bales, probably due to rabbit-unfriendly altitude (about 2-1/2 feet high).
- Squash bug populations were low, and squash vine borers apparently absent. Cucumber beetles were present in higher numbers, but did less damage than fungal disease to cucumbers.
- Harlequin bugs appeared late in the season, and brassicas needed to be covered to keep them at bay. Some of them found their way under the covers or fed through them.
- Cabbage loopers and other caterpillars did only small damage. Covering the brassicas helped to protect against these. It’s important to check that covers are free of gaps and holes, and that plants placed underneath have no eggs or caterpillars on them.
- Potatoes were affected less by Colorado potato beetles than usual, and had only minimal wireworm damage.
- Saw some brown marmorated stink bugs, but they did little damage.
- 2016: Maintain vigilance and combat pests as needed. Continue to use row covers early and often. Work on keeping rabbits out.
Diseases
- Fungal diseases present again, due to wet spring, especially in tomatoes and cucumbers. Late spraying of copper fungicide didn’t help much.
- Hay bales tomatoes appeared relatively less affected by disease; tomatoes exhibited some septoria leaf spot but less than those planted in the ground.
- 2016: Spray copper fungicide prophylactically on tomatoes to combat disease. Research best ways to prevent powdery mildew on cucumbers.
2016 Crop Focus
2016 is GIEI’s Year of the Tomato.
- See above on spraying fungicide. Fungal diseases have regularly sapped the vigor of our tomato plants, especially with the wet springs we’ve been having.
- Our new tomato leader, Dan Ward, is planning to showcase multiple varieties and types of tomatoes, and different systems for supporting them.
- We have found that later-planted tomatoes (late May, early June) consistently have fewer disease problems, so we will not be hurrying to put the plants in.
- In the hay bales and containers, plant some tomatoes that are amenable to containers. Ideally, plant one each of the same variety in the bales and containers for comparison.
What We Grew in 2015
Perennials:
- Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): Less vigor this year; came up late and produced less. Plot was amended with compost and asparagus seedlings were thinned. 2016: Keep amending and keep an eye on this plot.
- Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus): We maintained and irrigated two large containers of JAs. One of them died back in late summer and produced very few tubers, but the other did well and gave us a good crop. Surprisingly, practically no plants came up in the ground in the area previously full of JAs; those that did were removed and we hope we have come close to eliminating this aggressive crop. 2016: Grow in pots again. We’ll need some new tubers to start with since we harvested all of this year’s crop.
- Cardoons: The varietal Avorio, which is hardy to zone 6 (unlike many others) came back again despite cold winter. This is a tough variety. They grew well and produced bee-attracting flowers, then sent out a new crop of fresh leaves. Some of these were harvested and cooked by DDG volunteers. Inner leaf stalks appear to be tender enough despite no blanching by wrapping plants. 2016: To provide more room for tomatoes, plants will be removed in spring. But we’ll grow cardoons again in another year.
Annuals:
- Beta:
- Spring beets grew well. No luck with getting fall beets to germinate for fall crop in hot dry weather.
- Chard grew well in the hay bales, planted from seedlings very early (variety names lost). The yellow chard remained productive through to the very end of the season; the red chard bolted in late spring, possibly more susceptible to stress from sudden onset of June heat.
- Brassicaceae: We grew kale, mustard greens, collards, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and a few Asian greens. Everything that we protected with row cover did reasonably well in spring and fall. Cabbages were a surprising spring success (and added greatly to our donation poundage!). Broccoli was a modest success in spring and fall. Fall Brussels sprouts, started inside in June and planted out in late July, struggled against pests despite row cover, and had not started to form sprouts as of late October.
- Cucurbitaceae: It’s a good thing last year was the Year of Cucurbits. Lower harvest due in part to lower planting rates, but also to high disease rates.
- Cucumbers: Mostly succumbed to powdery mildew.
- Mouse melons great as usual.
- Melons: All plants failed to thrive and eventually died without production. 2016: Plant at least a few melons in ideal, sun-filled conditions. Start late.
- Squash: Tromboncino produced well on trellis, joined by Himalayan pumpkin. Summer squashes mostly struggled with disease, but not many were planted. Some late production from squash planted in tenant’s garden.
- Fabaceae:
- Bush beans: All varieties planted did well, including ‘Red Swan’ and ‘Romano Purpiat’ as well as old favorites like ‘Provider’. Also managed to grow some ‘Canary’ to dry stage.
- Pole beans: Two yellow varieties, ‘Marengo Romano’ and ‘Gold of Bacau,’ did spectacularly well on trellises. ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears,’ grown for green beans this time, also did very well.
- Limas: Had modest crops from bush and pole varieties.
- Yardlong beans: Red variety on trellis and green semi-bush variety both did well.
- Chickpeas: Plants looked great, but lost the crop to an unidentified pest.
- Hyacinth beans: Beautiful. Did not harvest for eating. 2016: If grown again, consider harvesting and collecting recipes, but check safety advice.
- Peas: Good spring crop, but no luck in fall.
- Cowpeas: Both Pretzel Bean and Pink-Eye Purple Hull did very well. 2016: Need a recipe sheet.
- Fava beans: Fall 2014 planting did produce, but some plants died and others didn’t yield well. Much better yield from 100SFG’s spring-planted early-yielding variety. Determined that these should be given to Manna only with caveats about allergies, or perhaps not at all.
- Other beans: tried adzuki beans and soybeans, both of which were popular with the rabbit and yielded close to nothing. Grew mung beans, which produced a modest crop.
- An enormous ‘Big Red Ripper’ cowpea plant (from a 2014 DDG plant whose dried pod was lingering among garden gloves) dominated one side of hay bales, was very productive, and attracted considerable visitor attention for its beautiful blooms and striking long beans.
- Solanaceae:
- Tomatoes: Did well aside from fungal disease. New location helped.
- Peppers: Very good crop if on the late side. As with tomatoes, better not to hurry to put these plants in the ground.
- Tomatillos: Modest crop from two plants. 100SFG did better.
- Potatoes: Three varieties grown which all did reasonably well. Decided to harvest in summer (rather than waiting for the Harvest Festival, which ended up being canceled anyway), which limits wireworm damage and sprouting, as well as opening up space for planting fall greens.
- Ipomoea: Sweet potatoes. Fewer plants in larger bed helped productivity. Modest harvest of greens.
- Alliums: Fall-planted garlic did fine. “Tucking in” onions where they fit is only a good strategy if they can be protected from stepping on. Leeks produced in the ground and also, moderately well, in a container.
- Leafy greens: Lettuce in salad table, moderate harvest. Interesting and beautiful Italian dandelion (really a chicory) grown in shady bed. Got a small crop of New Zealand spinach in the salad table – worth trying this again. Still finding it hard to fill salad table in the summer. 2016: Maybe replace one of the shallow salad tables with a deeper one, to make growing summer crops easier. Get volunteers to start lettuce inside for spring crop.
- Yacon: Plants looked fine, but produced hardly any tubers. 2016 we will not grow this crop.
The therapeutic garden list for 2015 included:
Common Larkspur
Cockscomb
Ageratum (volunteers) or Floss Flower
Zinnia mix from seed
African Blue Basil
Silver King Artemisia
Provence French Lavender
English Lavender
Bee Balm
Purple Coneflower
Love-in-a-mist
Marigold
Yarrow Achillea
Common Yarrow
Globe Amaranth
Black-eyed Susan
Anise Hyssop
Fennel
Strawflowers
Garlic Chives
Mum
Butterfly Garden – Bobbi Maxwell and Peggy Stanford
We have had an interesting year, putting in plants to attract and feed butterflies.. It's been fun watching the different butterflies that have been there. Julie has taken some great pictures. We even saw a few Monarchs.
With the drought this summer , a few plants did not do as well, but so many did fine. The Heliopsis continues to flourish and spread like mad., as does the Golden Rod.
Next year we will take out the many areas of golden rod and just leave it by the fence, hence more room.
The Glossy Abelia needs a new home, as it is so big. We may cut it way back and see what happens. Hopefully we'll have a large amount of milkweed, as the Monarchs need it.
The annuals did well, and the perennials. The coneflowers and bee balm were great. The Hibiscus was lovely too.
We have our share of weeds, and invasives, but controllable. Aphids were the worst.
Potatoes report: Barbara Knapp
Our Potatoes were planted on March 31. Three rows, one of Kennebec, one of Yukon Gold, and one of Red Pontiac. They were rather slow to germinate, as the weather was not particularly cooperative. The first variety that showed any leaves were the Red Pontiac, on April 21. On April 28 two rows were showing, and on May 5, all three. The all grew well, and I kept hilling them up. Sometime in the middle of the summer we noticed that some of the Yukon Gold were dying. It seemed to be caused by something burrowing into the stem and then going down to the base of the stem, just as we had seen several years ago. At that time Steve told us that it was a corn borer. We never actually found the culprit this year, but eventually about a third of the plants in that row had died back. I dug the rest of the Yukon Gold early, on August 11, so that Erica could use that space for a wider planting under a row cover. The Red Pontiac potatoes were dug on August 18. The last row of potatoes, Kennebec, was dug on September 1. They were mostly good, but a few had been attacked by wireworms.
The sweet potatoes were planted at the beginning of June. Three plants of Georgia Jet, and 2 of Beauregard. They all did well, though there were a few with wireworm damage. They had more than filled the available space. I probably should have just planted 4.
Ponds: – Darlene Nicholson
There are two ponds at DDG. The fabricated pond in the Conservation Garden was emptied and roughly cleaned in March of 2015. There were no surviving fish and several plants were thinned, repotted, and replaced back into the pond. We bought new submerged plants, grasses and added them to both ponds as soon as they could be purchased. When danger of frost was over we added one water lettuce and one water hyacinth plant to each pond. They multiplied many times over by the end of the summer and we gave some away to friends with enclosed ponds. We are aware that some of the plants we use in the pond are invasive in natural ponds or waterways and we always explain to visitors that they are annuals and we compost them at the end of the season. We purchased some new gold fish (about 8) and added them in this pond. They did well in the early parts of the season and managed the mosquitoes nicely. However in late summer several fish were found floating dead, amid an oily chemical floating on the pond surface. We are really not sure what caused this, perhaps something as innocent as someone wearing suntan lotion putting their hands in the pond or someone putting something in there. Tadpoles and plants were not effected. We blotted up the surface as best we could and added additional water to dilute. After a couple of weeks the pond returned to normal and after a month we transferred some fish from the other pond to it. They survived the transfer and looked healthy going into the winter. The liner pond located in the Children's Garden was only half drained, to help keep the balance we had achieved. This appeared to be adequate and due to the the cooler early part of spring and summer we had very little trouble with algae. A couple of times in late summer we hand removed some small amounts.
There were numerous frog and toad eggs in both ponds in the spring. Unfortunately lots of the frog eggs were eaten by the goldfish but some survived and many toad eggs seemed to make it. We had a couple of resident frogs at both ponds throughout the season. All plants in both ponds had a great year; our water lily and water hyacinths had beautiful blooms. Both ponds were hand cleaned each week and nets covered both at the end of the season.
The Autistic Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Group manages three plots used by Sheppard Pratt School and two groups of autistic youth from the Community services for Autistic Adults and Children. The students visit each week during the growing season, depending on weather; to seed, weed, and harvest vegetables and flowers. This gardening, and the Children's garden, continue to be popular with visitors.
Small Fruits: The small fruit section of the demonstration garden continued to expand and thrive during 2015. As well as adding a “Paw Paw Patch” of approximately 500 square feet behind the demonstration garden, we added small fruit to the shade garden and to various locations within the demonstration
- PawPaws and Persimmons:The new Paw Patch contains six pawpaw (asimina triloba) and two persimmon (diospyrus virginiana) trees all of different varieties, some native and others grafted onto native stock. The Pawpaw varieties planted were Allegany, Mango, Potomac, Shenandoah, Susquehana, and Wasbash. The Persimmon varieties were Weber, and Rosseyanka (d. virginiana x kaki).We also planted two more Pawpaws in the Shade Garden, Select andSunflower, to experiment on how they prosper compared to those in the PawPaw Patch. The trees were merely seedlings when they went into the ground in the spring, but all survived, and prospered throughout the year. We are eagerly awaiting to see how they fared through the long arduous winter months.
- Cherries, Berries, and Plums: Two bush cherry plants (prunus japonica x prunus jacuemontii) of the varieties Joy and Joel were added to the garden. The two beach plum (prunus maritima) bushes and the gogi berry (lyceum barbarum) flowered this year for the first time, but they did not set fruit. We added one new blueberry (vaccinium corymbosum) of the variety Misty to the garden. We also planted five lingonberry bushes next to the blueberries as they require the more acidic soil. As of late fall 2015, four of the five lingonberries had died. The thornless blackberry (rubus Canadensis) continued to thrive and we aggressively pruned it throughout the year. We replaced two thorned black raspberry (rubus occidentalis) with two thornless red raspberries. We added two chokeberries, a red one and a black one, (aronia arbutifolia and aronia melancarpa) in 2015.
- Fig: One fig tree (ficus carica) were added to the garden. We protected it by surrounding it with three bales of hay and covering it with leaves. A second fig tree is being wintered-over indoors and will be planted in early spring.
- Grape: The concord grape (vitis labrusca) thrived in 2015 and produced several large bunches of delicious grapes which were shared among the gardeners. We had to aggressively prune it throughout the season to prevent it from taking over the entire small fruit area.
- Kiwi: The Assai kiwi vine suffered winter damage last year and died to the ground. It managed to come back a little, and we protected the new growth for the winter by laying it on the ground and covering it with straw. We may need to replace it in the spring with a hardier variety.
- Rhubarb: The rhubarb plants thrived in 2015.
2015 Vegetable Labeling report – LeeAnne Gelletly 10/20/15
- Maintained labels for vegetable garden throughout summer.
- Maintained spreadsheet of plant, scientific name—in some cases included where and when planted. Goal for next year is to always record location and date.
- Consolidated 2014 and 2015 spreadsheets into one spreadsheet. Goal for next year is to add columns for 2016. But also need to figure out a way to include space for beds used for succession plantings.
Possible goals for next year
- Have garden bed signs with alphabetic designations A though L/M
- To provide for easier reuse of labels, set up a label box in shed. Box was categorized as in the spreadsheet: Bulbs, Flowers, Fruits, Leaves, Roots, Seeds, Stems, Tubers, Herbs
Conclusion
We are behind on updating the interactive website of the Demo Garden, “mcmgdemogarden.com” A QR code is available on the bulletin board near the front gate for quick access to the garden maps. This site contains maps and plant lists of all the gardens, as well as yearly reports. We hope to recruit additions to the Labeling team to help keep this more current. Other accomplishments include:
- 10 Paw Paw trees were planted, 3 in the Shade Garden and 7 outside the deer fence beside the Conservation Garden and wood-chips.
- Many volunteers, many hours.
- Supported 2 large GIEI events.
- Provided a weekly write-up of Demo Garden activities.
- Provided cut-flowers for Therapeutic Horticulture programs.
- Emptied, inventoried, and re-organized/re-stocked the shed.
- Conducted many impromptu and scheduled tours to groups and individuals
- Won Award of Excellence in the Keep Montgomery County Beautiful contest for the sixth year in a row. Next year eligible for the 'Golden Trowel'
- Remained an official Plant Clinic for Tuesday mornings – several samples were brought for review and analysis
- Possible goals for next year:
- Repair/replace the shed
- Expand to improve demonstration of important programs such as “Grow-a-Row, Give-a-Row”, more native small fruits, frequently-requested pumpkins and melons, and planned research/experiments such as
- benefits of cover-cropping
- does compost improve yields
- tilling vs no-till gardening
- Repairs to back and side gates
- Pruning tree limbs in Conservation garden
- Installing bench(already purchased) in Shade Garden
- Adding depth to 1 salad table and improving stability
- Conducting a seed-starting class for DDG MGs so that we can
- Start more of our tomato plants for 2016 Year of the Tomato
- Harvest more bamboo so that we can
- Build more of our own bamboo-structures for tomatoes and other plants.
Thank you to the garden leaders who submitted year-end assessment information to be used in compiling this report:
Erica Smith, Bobbi Maxwell, Linda Davis, JoAnn Mueller, Carole Martin , Sue Schick, Lily Bruch, Maria Wortman, Darlene Nicholson, Denny May, Peggy Stanford, Susan Eisendrath, Larry Himmelfarb, Robin Ritterhof, Sally Reynolds, Patti Oseroff, Bonita Condon, Judy Bradley
Marty Isaacson, Kathleen Tsai, Ida Wallenmeyer, Ellen Meyerson
–