"How can one help shivering with delight when one's hot fingers close around the stem of a live flower, cool from the shade and stiff with newborn vigor!" ~Colette Our second workday at Derwood and it already felt like summer, we are definitely not used to the heat and were wilting! We had a few visitors to our garden already! Bill was able to give them an extended tour. We also had our first 10 at 10. If you don't know what this is, it's a 10 minute talk at 10 am. Any topic that seems important or one of our gardeners wants to share. If you have something that you think might be interesting to share, please let us know and we will schedule you in. This week we emphasized the Grow It Eat It Event on April 29th. We still need volunteers for this event. Please contact Claude Allen if you have not already volunteered. With spring break and holidays, our numbers were down from last week, but we hope everyone will return for next week. Note: Three jackets left behind 1. Long sleeve t-shirt 2006 Turkey Trot 2.Light brown jacket 3. Blue fleece with crew logo They are in the sheds. Garden Reports: Compost Central: Kristy Hardy We had a lot of material to compost, but with a limited number of helpers, still have a lot of material to work with. Not really a problem as we were able to add to the two piles we had started and Susan filled the black compost bin. Pile number 2 was active at a temperature of 110 degrees. Pile 4 wasn't at around 75 degrees. It was a smaller pile and with yesterday's additions hopefully will be hot next Tuesday. Molly, a new intern helped turn a pile until she was exhausted, but not overly so. I was watching her. Edith also came and offered much needed help after working in the keyhole garden. We are still looking for volunteers to help at compost central for the GIEI event August 29th and would love anyone else who'd like to come and help turn the piles if only for 15 to 20 minutes. They don't have to work to exhaustion. Beautiful day. PONDS: Rich Deickhans, Darlene Nicholson The front pond looked nice and clear after last weeks cleaning, and a couple of toads were visiting and trilling. Most of this week's pond action, however, was in the lower pond which was teeming with activity. There were about 10 fish of all sizes showing themselves and seemingly enjoying the warm weather and sunshine, and no doubt looking for food. We never feed the fish anything except for the occasional destructive bugs we find in the neighboring gardens. They have been surviving year round from what they find in the pond. There were several large frogs and a few toads mating. None of the critters seemed in no way concerned that we were in their space. The toads allowed themselves to be picked up by hand. Click here to watch video by Julie M. and turn up the sound . The frogs were a little shier but allowed humans in very close proximity. We proceeded to clean around the edges so as not to disturb the many hundreds of toad eggs/tadpoles that were in the middle. We cleaned and divided some plants. We welcomed Mary as our new pond intern. Bug Report: Darlene Nicholson We have been busy cleaning up and getting ready for the upcoming GIEI event and haven't been paying too much attention to bugs. As we were watching all the various antics provided by the pond residents, we noticed this critter on the pond. There were some conflicting opinions as to the identify, so I sent it to HGIC. Here Is what they replied, "Your image is that of a mayfly. They do not sting and can be considered beneficial as they are a main menu item for fish this time of year. Our entomologist said that these are what the fly fisherman attempt to mimic when they tie flies. Children's Garden: Sandy Chernin The focus in the Children's Garden today was to get the spring vegetables started in Mrs. McGregor's Garden. New compost and soil were placed in the three "box" gardens and seeds for carrots (Old's Science Fiction Blend), beets (Avalanche), and radishes (French Breakfast and White Icicle) were planted. Parsley plants and Cippolini onions were tucked in as well. The soil in the designated bed for gourds was weeded, amended, and covered with leaf mulch until planting time mid-May. A big thank-you to Audrey and Amy who pitched in! Small Fruits: Gail Ifshin and Ram Narula We continued our inventory and mapping of the small fruit plants in the garden today. We learned that because of the geography of the garden the asparagus patch is within our purview. It should consider itself lucky to be in such good company. As should the rhubarb, which is living near the salad table. In the strictly small fruit category, there is healthy early season activity on all the vines and bushes, with the exception perhaps of the blueberries, which apparently have a troubled history in the garden. A white currant bush and persimmon tree have gone missing, and we are considering replacement strategies. We identified plants missing their labels, and our near-term, pre-GIEI focus will be on weeding and improving the pathways through the beds. Edibles: Erica Smith A busy day in the vegetable garden! Thanks to all our great volunteers who pitched in. Today we: - Planted many brassica seedlings like kale, collards, kohlrabi, cabbage and bok choy and covered them with row cover. This includes three separate plantings of Georgia collards that will form the basis of our experiment with fake cabbage white butterflies (more on that in a later report). - Planted many onions under the cucurbit trellises, along with a peas/oats cover crop mix. - Moved 1 cubic yard (a lot) of topsoil/LeafGro mix, added in some perlite to lighten the soil, and filled one of the two new raised beds. - Replaced the broken small plastic bed with a new, unbroken one. - Planted a row of Swiss Chard Bright Lights (seedlings) and two rows of Danvers Half-Long carrots from seed in the new raised bed. - Filled the salad tables with potting soil, and planted lettuce, cipollini onions, and swiss chard, to join last week's lettuce and spinach. Salad table number two will be planted over the coming weeks. - Checked the potato planting (no sprouting yet) and decided on a location for the sweet potato bed (which won't go in until the weather warms more permanently). At home, potatoes have been planted in fabric pots; they'll be brought to the garden when they start growing. Mary Anne and LeeAnne worked on an improved bed labeling and record-keeping system so we'll be able to keep better track of what's planted where when. Please give our plantings some water if you visit. Let's hope for some rain in the next week! 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira They had been routinely crossing over for seasons. They were bad hombres, sucking out the juices of the leaves, pooping on the plants and worse of all pupating everywhere! After consulting and receiving permission from the pentagon (Bill) a wall was declared needed to keep them out. Discussions about payment were lied about and construction begin. Hope and Susan donned their hard hats, strapped on their tool belts and begin the needed work. They produced two glorious, magnificent, really, really very tall walls (structures). Really you need to see them. Now safe inside, Melissa and Lucy ( new ICE agent) installed additional broccoli, kale, collards and Swiss chard (some allowance for desirable foreigners) in each structure. North of the border, arugula and mustard plants were squeezed in their squares. Soaked beet seeds, lettuce, radishes and turnips were allowed in to populate the remainder of the garden on temporary visas (summer comes, they're out). The carrot seeds get a longer lease. Due to some incompetence on the presidents part (Linda) some seeds were left behind and will get planted belatedly this week. Tomato Bed: Dan Ward and Joslyn Read A pretty quiet week in the tomato bed. The spring crop planting was completed with the addition of a row of beets and a row of lettuce. All of these crops should be harvested by the time the tomatoes show any significant growth. We try to maximize the utilization of the tomato bed. We're probably going to put in a tomato plant early with some protection against cooler weather. Conservation Garden: Maria Wortman In the Conservation Garden, we are still spending much time cleaning up and weeding. After all, it’s just our second work day! The bright yellow flowers of the native plant Packera aurea, or Golden ragwort, are blooming profusely. If you want to use it in your landscape, plant it where you don’t mind it spreading, because it will spread by both seeds and underground rhizomes. Cut off the flower heads before they go to seed or you will have them everywhere. We often think of violets as nuisances and are often pulling them out of our flower beds, but there are many blooming right now in our garden, and they look so lovely! Under the Winterberries, the ajuga and beautiful pink phlox are duking it out. The ajuga seems to be bullying the phlox, so we removed quite a bit of it to make room for the phlox. Though they are not natives, we think Epimediums, or Bishop’s hat, are such great plants. They will grow just about anywhere, even in dry shade. They are semi-evergreen and have tiny flowers often of yellow or pink. Ferns are unfurling, and the Jack-in-the-pulpit spears are just peeking up from the ground. We can’t wait to see what next week will bring. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford A warm and beautiful day in our garden. We did what comes natural in our space, pulled lots of weeds. We enjoyed watching frogs and toads in the pond and our additional bench. Thank you to Ann, 2017 intern for joining us in our weeding adventure. Special Projects: Carol Olsen and Carol Conrad, The Carols This was another full morning of work under a brilliantly shining sun. Many thanks go to Edith and to Donna Kolis and Ellina Sorokina. Both are interns who have joined our team. Also, to Karen Kim, who constructed a teepee for the Super Sugar Snap Peas to climb up. Keyhole Gardens: It was decided that the center compost basket in one of the keyholes needed to be extended, so that was accomplished. Then the planting areas of both gardens were filled with a 6-8 inch layer of topsoil/Leafgro mix sloping away from the compost baskets to the edge of the gardens. Perlite was added to the mix. We will need more perlite for the second keyhole. The teepee was placed and secured and the peas planted. We also planted lettuce, Giant Red Mustard, onions, and several different kinds of kale. Space was left to add some marigolds and pansies next week. Kitchen scraps and a layer of leaves were added to the compost baskets and watered in. Pallets: Finally, the planting areas of the pallets are finished and potting soil added and watered in! Landscape cloth was stapled in place forming planting pockets. One pallet is divided with individual pockets from top to bottom…making “window boxes” that can then be planted. The second pallet is divided into three verticle long pockets. To plant, cuts are made in the landscape cloth and plants are inserted. We planted pansies, parsley, strawberries and some nasturtium and radish seeds. The remaining pockets will be planted next week. Straw Bales: The bales are on their second week of conditioning – sprinkling them with Milorganite and watering it in. They should be ready for planting next week. However, we decided to stick in a few strawberry plants across the front of one of the bales. Herb and Fragrance: Lily Bruch Lots of weeding was done in the garden today. We saw Marty walking in with his bay tree and some other special plants that needed a warm basement during the winter. Closing Comments: Lily, Bill and Susan Lots of weeding was done in the Therapeutic beds, both the autistic and the flower beds. The kitchen garden got new compost and was also weeded. Ida also divided and shared her Cleary sage with some lucky gardeners. The key word this week was weeding! It would have been much worse without the thick leaf mulch we applied in the fall. A bunch of new containers appeared today with Claude. Thank you for bringing the self watering containers and planting some out. Claude is in need of an intern to help him out with the container garden. A big shout out to John Gelb and Leeanne Gelletly for all the new signs in the garden. It takes dedication to accomplish this. Thank you! If you have not visited the garden yet, The Shade garden is at its peak! Just beautiful! All hands on deck next week to prepare the garden for Grow It Eat It on April 29th! See ALL of you next week.
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