"The good rain, like the bad preacher, does not know when to leave off." - Ralph Waldo Emerson We were very fortunate that the rain held off until we finished most of our clean up for the Grow It Eat It event on Saturday! A huge thanks to Tom for mowing around the garden and keeping things tidy, fixing doors in our falling apart sheds and anything else that is asked of him. Garden Reports: Shade Garden: Carol Martin and Sue Schick Another great Thursday in the Shade Garden though it started off foggy, it became sunny & warm before we left. Two new interns showed up to work in the garden today, so the whole crew undertook placing our nice, new plant labels throughout the garden. In addition, we mounted an attack on the flowering Garlic Mustard & pulled about 2 bushels out of mainly the perimeter areas of the garden. We also identified Greater Celandine & dispatched that. After five days of rain all the materials we transplanted last week were looking great. A slime mold has appeared on the Halesia carolinia, Silverbell, so we will research it this week & see if we need to treat or if it will dry up as the weather warms. Plans are underway for replacing the partial log barrier along one of the sloped edges, so we look forward to improving that edge of pathway Compost Central: Susan Eisendrath Luckily the rain held out and I was able to first take the temperature of the material in the bins and do some turning. Bin #2 was 100 degrees and bin #3 was 120 degrees. I turned bin #2 into bin #1 and although the material still has some sticks and some uncomposted carbon, it's getting close to done. I did not turn the material in bin #3. The trash containers are full of weeds and that's o.k. for now, since we want Compost Central to look tidy for the GIEI event. I collected some sample weeds that do not have viable weed seeds and provided a reminder talk on what we can compost and what we want to be put in the trash containers. There was a pile of sticks and twigs in front of the compost bins, which a few volunteers moved to the pile we are storing between the leaves and wood chips. Also, thankfully, the area was mowed and weedwacked! We're ready for the GIEI event, there's a pile of leaves and a pile of greens (weeds w/out viable seeds) that can be used for the composting demonstrations. Next week, we need to turn bin #3 into bin #4 and check bin #1 to see if it's done and if not, turn it into bin #2. Also, if there's time and energy, we can start a new pile with the organic matter in the trash containers (however, that material should be dumped out and if there are any tuber/bulb plants mixed in, they need to be removed to decompose for a month or so in the trash containers). Conservation Garden: Maria Wortman The Conservation Garden is filled with bright color as well as the fresh green of new leaves. Ferns are unfurling. We continued with weeding -- so many of those pesky wild onions to dig out! Betsy Taylor attacked the dreaded Star of Bethlehem with a vengeance, and because of her zeal and the fact that the soil was saturated she was able to remove many of the clumps with their bulbs intact. Yea! This plant is still being sold in gardening stores, but shouldn’t be, and please don’t buy it or you will have to live with the consequences. It spreads and bullies out other desirable plants. Its only saving grace is that it does have pretty white flowers and the plant dies down and disappears when the weather gets warm – until next year. A very big thanks to intern David Padilla for his efforts at weeding and mulching the beds with those fantastic composted leaves. It made a huge difference in the garden’s appearance. It will be ready for its closeup at the GIEI event! And thanks to Lily for contributing a charming new birdhouse. We hope it will soon be occupied. Fragrance and Herb Garden: Kathy Tsai Today was an abbreviated workday due to the "iffy" weather. However, the whole team spent most of that time in sprucing up the space in anticipation of Saturday's Grow It Eat It event. A lot of effort was put into weeding in between the bricks, a tedious ( and probably futile) task. It does look nice afterward, however. John spent time planting a baptisia. We were also given several eucalyptus plants that were promptly planted in our containers - thanks, Lily!! Container Garden: Claude Allen The Container Garden is coming along nicely. We made the container area more presentable by installing pallets under the planters and bricks around the base of the area. We have added additional herbs and veggies (curry to the Asian container, mojito mint to the beverage container, and tomatoes to the Italian and Salad containers) to fill out the presentation for GIEI. Additionally, we have established 2 strawberry containers and established 2 water containers with plants and fish. We're set for a great season in the Demo Garden!!! Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Bob Loesche Largely a cosmetic improvement day in the TH beds today. In anticipation of the Grow It Eat It event this weekend, we removed weeds from the fence and other areas and added wood chips around the beds as needed. [By the way, the purple flowering weed that is prolific along the fence has been positively identified as creeping charlie, aka Glechoma hederacea,a member of the mint family.] Overall, things look nice and neat. The returning perennials have enjoyed the cool, wet weather and appear robust and healthy. Horticulturally, our intern Ying Yang planted a stick verbena (Verbena bonariensis) graciously donated by Lily (photo attached), and she moved several of the Yarrow plants so that they are in the center of Bed No. 2, rather than flopping over the edge. Some extra plants were moved to a new bed in the tenants garden. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Today was an unusual day in the Butterfly Garden. It was chilly, drizzling and breezy. I arrived early moved several loads of very wet chips to fence line in newly established portion of the garden. Bobbie followed me with more chips, spreading them as needed. I had to leave, Julie and Ginny arrived continued adding loads of chips to our paths to make way for GIEI visitors on Saturday. Julie planted "Cherry Queen" zinnia seedlings provided by intern Debbie A. Thanks Debbie, the butterflies love zinnias. Our "Bloomerang" Lilac is in bloom as well are the purple iris along the fence line. 100 Square Foot Garden: Hope Dieckhans The garden today was pretty and green thanks to Mother Nature’s watering. Many seeds have come to life and seedlings have become more vigorous. The peas are happy climbing the teepee strings and the lettuce around the teepee is starting to sprout. More red lettuce seeds were sowed although there isn’t too much hope that they will sprout since the seeds are dated :-( The turnips were thinned down to sixteen of the most robust seedlings - here’s hoping they do OK! The trellises were cleared of old twine and are ready for stringing next week. Finally, the brassicas under the covered structures are really coming along but there was a BIG and weird surprise under the covers too! Flies! Hundreds of flies swarming around inside the enclosures. After consultation with several experts, the mystery was solved, maybe. The consensus is that eggs that were laid in the dirt enjoyed the little warm weather and sunny days and hatched only to be trapped under our brassica structures AKA fly incubators! See ya next week! Edibles: Robin Ritterhoff Garden looks great with all the mulching done! Many barrowfuls of wood chips were dug, dumped and spread - think of all the calories burned. - Planted 'Tango' celery in Bed A. (Please note letter labels on all the beds now, thanks to LeeAnne. Also many new plant labels!) - Replanted 'Green Star' lettuce from newer seed in salad table, since it didn't come up from prior seeding. - Noted that potatoes have sprouted - and covered them up with soil again. They will be up and growing again by Saturday's GIEI event, whereupon we will demonstrate how to cover them up once more. - Noted that our new cucurbit area is not only successfully growing a peas-and-oats cover crop planted this spring, but also random cover crop forage radishes newly sprouted from last fall's seeding. We'll let some of them grow - they should be edible. - Started tidying up the old trellises by removing tattered string. In the next few weeks we'll need to spend time sprucing up these trellises, adding supports as necessary and weaving more twine. - In our raised beds, plants and seeds installed last week are thriving. We added some marigold seedlings at the edges of two of the beds to add beauty and attract pollinators. Please note LeeAnne has made a nice map of vegetables planted so far this year. You can take a look at it here. Tomato Bed - Dan Ward and Joslyn Read This week most of the activities in the tomato bed area were focused on the upcoming Grow It Eat It open house this weekend. The spring vegetables were thinned so that they will have room to grow. Wood chips were laid down between the tomato bed and the potato bed to show a path. And row markers were set up last week so visitors will (hopefully!) know not to step on the new spring seedlings. We have an enthusiastic crop of peas, radishes, lettuce, beets and other spring crops coming up near where we will plant the tomato seedlings later in May to show staged growing. We're ready for GIEI on Saturday! Small Fruits: Ram Narula and Gail Ifshin What We did We finished weeding (never ending job) most of the small fruit areas in the enclosed demo garden and dressed up the pathways with wood chips. Many thanks to Gail for all the hard work with the wheelbarrow. To preclude any unintended damage to the blue berry bushes we added a low height bamboo barrier. With help from Darlene and other mg volunteers, we weeded around the paw paw’s and spread wood chips. The rest of the ground cover was mowed. It really looked nice. Again, thanks to our fellow MGs for helping us out. With the exception of Fig bush (as it too early for it), most of the small fruit bushes are in full bloom and we should be able show the green fruit to the public. We also replaced lots of missing plant IDs. What we plan to so next week We had ordered a small Asian persimmon plant (Ichi Ki Kei Jiro- Japanese variety) from edible landscape and if received, expect to put it in the ground at the spot vacated by the white currant. We will continue work on the small fruit pruning guidelines and eventually have laminated cards. Special Projects Report: The Carols The rain held off just long enough for good things to be accomplished in readiness for Saturday’s event. Edith wheelbarrowed in a number of loads of mulch and the Carol’s and Robin spread it around. Keyhole: The beet and radish seeds that were planted last week have popped up profusely and some thinning was done. The spinach seeds are not yet convinced that it’s time to join them. The other plantings in both beds are coming along nicely, especially the sugar snap peas, lettuces, mustard and kale. Straw Bales: The strawberry plants and marigolds are growing nicely along with a healthy covering of grass. We may need to consider hiring a lawn service! Hopefully, with more consistent warm weather, the bales will heat up and eliminate that need. Some lettuce was added to the mix, as well. Pallets: The violas with their colorful blooms draw attention to these containers. Mustard, lettuces, and nasturtiums seedlings were added this morning. Joslyn’s sharp eyes detected that some nasturtiums, planted from seeds several weeks ago, were poking out among the radishes. This was happy news as we had begun to give up on them. Bill added reinforcements to the pallets insuring that they will remain standing during hurricane force winds and the occasional bump by a distracted gardener or curious visitor. Rain Drain/PVC planter: As this container came “pre-planted” Carol C and Bill tried to determine which offerings were weeds and which were desirable seedlings. Then the remaining space was planted with turnips thinnings, shared by Hope, from the Hundred Square Foot Garden and some radish thinnings from our Special Projects Gardens. Children's Therapeutic Gardening Beds: Ellen Meyerson We approached the garden warily fearing that the rains would shorten our time in the garden. Fortunately although it was surprisingly cool for late April the rain held off until we had accomplished our intended plans. The students and their aides arrived enthusiastically. Most of the seeds we planted the past weeks have germinated. We planted carrots, spinach, beets,, potatoes and zinnias seedling. The group is the same as last year but we are looking forward meeting one new student - a girl for a change. Closing Comments: Bill, Susan and Lily Great news from Ted Trey, the AgFarmPark manager who said we could have what-used-to-be-called the tenant's garden. So we bushwacked years of preading/invasive weeds, cleaned up the garbage and scrap wood, laid down cardboard to suppress further weed growth, transplanted some flowers, sowed a bed of kale under row cover, and dreamed gardening opportunities. Ted's guys fixed the gate and hauled away the mess-pile --- thanks Ted! Perhaps it was a fevered-dream after a day of hauling so much woodchips, but we overheard enthusiasm for Three-Sisters-Gardening, Grow-A-Row-Give-A-Row, additional volumes of cut-flowers for Therapeutic Horticulture projects, more possibilities for Manna donations, and (gasp!) maybe even some space-hog sprawlers like pumpkins, squash and melons or even a beer garden! It never ceases to amaze me as to the ambitions and creativity of Derwood Demo Garden MGs. Susan lead our 10 at 10 and Claude took a few minutes to talk about Grow It Eat It on Saturday. Susan Eisendrath also took a few minutes to clarify what goes where in the compost. Thanks all! See you all Friday for set up and Saturday for the event!
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AuthorOur weekly reports are a joint effort of all garden leads
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