Every generationthinks it has the answers, and every generation is humbled by nature. Philip Lubin Another very hot day at the garden. It was indeed caterpillar-and-butterfly week. So many sightings -- What beautiful place to volunteer! With all the rain, weeds are vigorously growing making for another busy workday. Garden Reports: Compost Central: Kristy Hardy Marlowe arrived yesterday and quickly moved pile 4 into 3. He added more green material and it is now a large pile. It started at 112F and we're expecting the temps to go up next week. New pile 1 and pile 5 were not large and so with Ellina's help, she and I combined the piles, added greens and made one nice sized pile in bin #6. There is still some compost that can be used in the garden in bin #2 and some left in bin 1 to be added to bin 6. Hot day, but good one. Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai On this very hot and humid morning in the Herb and Fragrance garden, all we did was a bit of maintenance. The Black-eyed Susans were thinned out to allow more sun to get to the coreopsis and butterfly weed. Both large containers were cleaned up somewhat, especially the nasturtium's leaves that had yellowed and, of course, the spent blooms on our African blue basil plants were removed. We cut more of the apple mint to add to the Manna contribution. Also, the jasmine's vigorous growth was cut back some. Other plants got a bit of housekeeping done to them, including the yarrow, the chives, and the roses. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford It was great to be back in the garden today; however the weather made our day very hot and sticky. Today we continued our severe trimming and weeding. It was also the day of caterpillars. We found several Monarch caterpillars and the most interesting find was an Eastern Comma caterpillar. Backstory: We had almost given up on our Hops vine, never finding any evidence of its ability to support any butterfly. Today that changed when we discovered the Eastern Comma caterpillar. Now we will be on the lookout for the seemingly rare butterfly and we will not doubt the Hops vine again. Children’s Garden: Sandy Chernin There CAN be too much of a good thing! Although most of the plants in Mrs. MacGregor’s garden were thriving from the recent rains, there was one certain casualty – the Basil ‘Minette’ plants had a bad case of mildew and were pulled. In addition, the Sun Gold tomato plant was very sad looking, with rampant septoria, but persistent growth at the top. This shadow of its former self is still producing cherry tomatoes and a full basket was harvested for Manna. Considering the garden did not get any attention for several weeks, it was gratifying to see other plants holding their own. The peanuts were uncovered from (and later recovered with) their protective row cover. Putting them under row cover several weeks ago to protect against rabbit damage was a good decision: their tops had grown back and one could see quite a few pegs from the plants that have worked themselves into the soil. There is still hope that we can demonstrate the growing of peanuts at the Fall Festival! The following were doing well: gourds, cotton plants, Genovese basil, Purple Ruffles basil and recently planted beets. Radishes planted a few weeks ago were under attack from what seemed to be nymph stage harlequin bugs. Bugs were dutifully picked off and fed to the frogs. More seeds for radishes (of the same variety ‘Cherry Belle’) were planted in one of the raised planter boxes. Besides weeding, today was again spent refocusing vines: gourd vines off the tomato plant, tomato vines off the gourds, cardinal vine off the plants in the “Plants named after Animal Garden”, purple hyacinth vine off the popcorn plant and the Lion’s Mane plants - whew! The purple hyacinth vines are finally flowering and look beautiful! Opposite them and complementing them are the flowering pink Turtlehead. As always, it was a beautiful day in the garden! Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Virginia White-Mahaffey The TH beds this week fully displayed the results of our unusual amounts of summer rain. The plants are healthy, the flowers are blooming, and the weeds (though relatively few) were flourishing. I weeded, watered, and deadheaded. We hope Therapeutic Horticulture project leaders will utilize the currently available flowers. In Bed 1, the celosia, principally rescued from pathways and weed patches, is now blooming in vibrant shades of purple and red. The Cut and Come Again zinnias are still producing flowers to excess in a rainbow of colors, and the artemisia foliage looks grand. In Bed 2, the lavender is blooming, the Queen Red Lime zinnias are improving their output, and a dwindling batch of echinacea remain. In Bed 3, everything is blazing: a great crop of red gomphrena, an impressive stand of lavender colored verbena bonariensis, a dramatically increased number of chrysanthemum blossoms, a rebloom of fresh white tanacetum, a sun blast of golden rudbeckia in both its locations, a continuing explosion of fennel, a great burst of pinwheel zinnias, and even an army of pristine white chives at the end by the fence. In Bed 4, the Goldquelle rudbeckia appears terrific in both quality and quantity. The celosia is producing solidly. The mollucella, gaillardia, monarda, and achillea are fading or finished. In Bed 4.5, the feathery lilac-pink gomphrena is flowering abundantly. Edibles: Mary Anne Normile Thanks to all for lending a hand to harvest while Erica and Robin were away. We also had good support from Anne, LeeAnne, Ellina, and Margarita. Here's what we did today in the vegetable garden: Harvesting: tomatoes, beans, squash, basil, parsley, Swiss chard, peppers, lettuce (salad table), eggplant. Planting: Swiss chard, mustard, kale under cover. With the arrival of cooler weather expected, we will be bringing plants of lettuce, kale, chard, and bok choy for planting next week. Tending: Lots of evidence of fungal disease this week, including on the early blight-resistant "Mountain" series tomatoes, which are otherwise very productive. Found a very large tomato hornworm without cocoons, sent him to hornworm heaven [photo below]. Some diseased plants removed, others trimmed of affected leaves and branches. Watering: Despite the rains we've had over the past few weeks, things were starting to look a little dry today. There is a chance of a thunderstorm tomorrow, but otherwise the week ahead is looking sunny and pleasant with cooler temperatures and lower humidity, and no rain in the forecast after Wednesday. If you can donate an hour to water the garden, please sign up at https://www.volunteersignup.org/D4QDR. The irrigation system is still turned off, so especially newly planted areas (mostly under row cover) will need supplemental watering. Thanks! Manna: Anne Kelley The total donated to Manna this week was 112 pounds! Many beans, tomatoes and squash! Thanks Anne for taking all our goodies to Manna! 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira-dasilva Two weeks of Hurricane Katrina (damaged irrigation pipe) did in the upper quarter of the garden. The dykes gave way and with no transport to the Super dome.......... FEMA was called in for restoration. Last Thursday the Army Core of Engineers (Linda & Hope) started construction with new starts from Garden God-mothers Mary Anne, Robin and Erica. A new structure was erected to protect the greens and lettuce seed was liberally sown about the garden. This week we replaced and planted more kale, Swiss chard and collards. Unfortunately only some of the lettuce seeds germinated and our newly born spinach bit the dust (too hot).Our valiant Leonora basil is slowing succumbing to the fungus as well as the tomato plants. We had some nice looking tomatoes with some with nice-size holes in them . We suspect (*+#&) rabbits. To further deny the critters we harvested the just-beginning -to blush tomatoes. We had a nice size bounty of green beans from the" bushie sisters" as well as from the leaning tower of beans, which is finally straight. The dependable never-too-hot-for me peppers and tomatillos also had a nice yield. The oregano had a big haircut. In general the garden is beginning to wind down which brings us back to progressively planting the cool weather crops in the empty summer spaces. Tomato Bed - Dan Ward and Joslyn Read This week we harvested lots of tomatoes, mainly from the "annex", and we also saw the first two plant losses of the year. The first (San Marzano) was expected. Last week it was pretty apparent it was succumbing to fungus. The second (Cherokee Purple) was a total surpise because last week it looked so healthy and productive. It was one of the two under the 30% shade cloth and showed no signs of distress. When we got there today it was dead -- what a heartbreaking development. We'll be doing some research to see what we can come up with for a diagnosis for the cause of this plant death. We'll put that in next week's report. The other Cherokee Purple plant is showing signs of distress from fungus, but it's not dead. We harvested very few from the main garden area. Darlene took this photo of one gnarly looking Black Ruffled tomato. I've never see anything like it. Leanne harvested this one for us. Additionally we would like to thank Irene and Hessie for their invaluable help in the tomato beds. And, and always, Ying was her usual self. We even had the pleasure of meeting her daughter and daughter's friend. I know I'm forgetting someone but my memory is failing me so please accept my apologies if your name has been left out. All help is greatly appreciated. Next week is our tomato tasting. We are very excited to be hosting this, We will need some help setting up. Additionally, we will also need tables, cutting boards and knives. Please contact Dan at [email protected], or Joslyn at [email protected] if you can provide any of these or would like to help. Keyhole Garden: Carol Conrad Tuesday was hot, hot, hot. Mostly Carol C and Elina helping. Everything is growing great guns but clearly missed the one week hiatus from last week's rain. The tomatoes kept producing and producing to the point where all were either hanging over the edges risking breakage or encroaching in other space. All the dwarf tomatoes have lovely, heavy fruit sent off to Manna with cherry tomatoes contributions from the straw bales. However, even being dwarf, they still need to be "guided" and get some extra support. That was accomplished both by some ties but also added bamboo for both vertical and horizontal structure. Now it is much more open and easier to find what else is growing such as the beans, eggplant, fish peppers chives, mouse melons, and zucchini. The pallet garden showed sign of stress from the heat but most plants were doing well. However, our lovely radish seedlings had been eaten by some hungry bug. These were replaced by transplant mustard. The straw bales are producing cherry tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, lovely sunset runner beans and a few strawberries. The uncrated bales are showing heavy disintegration, it will be interesting to see what goes with the "Ketchup and Fries", the cherry tomatoes are producing and the potatoes are still underneath. Our volunteer sunflowers are bee magnets and the birds have been feasting on the seeds. All was watered well. Ponds: Darlene Nicholson and Rich Dieckhans OH NO !!!!!!!!! When we arrived at the conservation garden pond on Tuesday, we were horrified by what we saw! On the images (BELOW), you can see that the normally clear pond surface, had a heavy film of gray scum, actually bubbling in some areas. We were relieved to see that at least some frogs were sitting on the rocks outside the pond. We also noted that the area close to the pond had a much heavier than usual activity of bees, wasps, even a butterfly walking about. Upon closer activity they seemed a little disoriented, and not the least bit concerned that we were there. The ground was covered with berries from the native Black Cherry tree (Prunus serotina) that grows directly next to the pond. While we usually experience some leaves and tree debris, this year provided a bumper crop that all seemed to fall at one time. Upon looking up at the tree, it appeared that only about one third the crop remained on the tree. There was also a sweet smell similar to wine in the area. Some of the leaves of the smaller floater plants were yellow. Pond surface, with bubbles: We immediately began removing the large plants, then pulled the skimmer through the pond taking out the surface scum. As we kept skimming lower, we pulled up many dead fish and noticed since all the fish were gone, how quickly mosquito larvae were appearing in the pond. At that point, the decision was made to drain the whole thing of what ever was affecting the water. Rich brought his pond pump, but we were unsuccessful in finding some working electricity so we hand drained the whole thing, down to the bottom scum. We rinsed all the plants, except the floaters, which we put in compost, refilled the pond and added 2 mosquito dunks. We will check about mid week and reassess. If things look ok we will add some gambusia fish. (added on Thursday) At this point, we are thinking that the berries and tree leaves had something to do with this disaster. Research seems to indicate that parts of the black cherry tree, such as the roots, bark, leaves and twigs can be highly toxic to some wildlife, due to the presence of cyanogenic compounds. Apparently the berries are edible, although after reading that, I'm not game to test one. It is obvious that this pond is not in a great place, but the original was there for some time, possibly when the tree was still quite small. We have gone the the last 5 years without incident, but wonder if leaving it in this location will continue to be a problem. If anyone in our reading community has experienced something like this or has some ideas pertaining to this rather quick pond deterioration, please leave us a comment on this site or email [email protected]. Resource Plants.usda.gov Black Cherry Prunus serotina EHrh. Plant symbol PRSE2 Closing Comments: Lily, Bill and Susan
We could not do all we have done in this garden without our amazing volunteers! Thank you all! It seems that the days are getting shorter and we are trying to jam everything into the remaining weeks of the garden. Our schedule is filling up! Here's what we have going on at Derwood: August 29- Tomato tasting + Open Garden for all MoCo MG's, and HAT DAY! September 5- Steve Dubik at 10@10 about soil test report results and tomatoes. September 12- Butterfly team at 10@10 Friday, September 15- Pam Hosimer's school students tour DDG. September 19- : Harvest lunch- take it/make it/cook it - in conference room. September 26- Ridge School coming to tour DDG. Kids will ask gardening questions. October 3- Darlene at 10@10 -- spiders October 7- Harvest Festival at Agricultural Park October 17- Lisa Berray- 10 at 10 talk to us about the Mansion and Ag park- October 31- Last day of work at Derwood-Optional work day! Party at Maria Wortman's house at 11 am. Bring something to share for lunch. Wow, that is one full calendar already. Hats off to everyone of our volunteers -- and don't forget to wear your special hat next week for Hat Day. See you next week!
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