Photo: Julie Mangin “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” Stanley Horowitz So much gratitude for all our amazing volunteers who stood with us for hours in the heat on Saturday morning. We had so many enthusiastic visitors. It was so much fun sharing our passion of gardening with so many people. Thanks everyone for sharing your love of gardening and knowledge with so many. Today was a quiet day after the storm for Derwood. After the hot and scorching day on Saturday with 98% humidity and temps over 90 degrees, today’s work day was cool and breezy. One starts thinking that summer does not last forever and that fall is not so far in the future or is it wishful thinking as we prepare to plant out our fall garden?? We had a few visitors to our garden today as well. One woman didn’t want to stay because she likes to paint in the garden when it is quiet. She will bring her finished works of art to the building...will it be a watercolor, oil painting or mosaic?? The other family was a master gardener from Minnesota and her family. She was fascinated by our gardens! She loved the idea of the African keyhole garden, the bales and the teepee in the children’s garden. She took lots of notes and pictures and was going to try to replicate some of our amazing creations in their demo garden. Garden Reports: Herb Garden: Kathy Tsai Today in the Herb & Fragrance garden, we focused on cleaning up and trimming back. Our once-spectacular lovage was cut back to about a one-foot height. The tansy was found to be dying out in the center, so was also cut back hard and the dead wood in the center removed; the whole plant will now get more sun and air circulation. The jasmine was trimmed to be more managed looking, and one of our knockout roses was dead-headed to see if we can get another round of blooms before fall. The faded blooms on the dahlias and the nicotiana were removed and the sage plant was trimmed, until it was discovered that sparrows had built a nest in the center of the plant, with two nestlings inside. Once discovered, the plant was left alone, to the great relief of mom and dad sparrow, who had been raising quite a fuss. Watering and some weeding rounded out the activity for the day. Horticultural Therapy- Children’s: Ellen Meyerson Having a cooler day was helpful. Four students came today and were cheerful participants. We picked red and yellow onions, carrots, beans, radishes, sungold tomatoes and pumpkins for the fair. Also the small red peppers and the green peppers and one zucchini. Alga will harvest herbs - basil, oregano and rosemary right before the Fair. Unfortunately our parsley all died. Everyone enjoyed snacking on the sungolds. We have two plants. One is not very productive but the other is going gangbusters. We ended with the children watering which is the favorite activity for many of them. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Bob Loesche Things continue to look great in the TH beds notwithstanding the crazy weather over the last couple of weeks; many thanks to Patty Neame and Claude Allen for their excellent work in maintaining the beds while I was away for two weeks. The Zinnias continue to flower out the wazoo and (knock on wood) demonstrate no signs of mold despite being in very crowded conditions. Also flowering abundantly are the Celosia, Ageratum (both blue and white!), Marigolds, Gomphrena, Anise Hyssop, and Garlic Chive. The Fennel continues to thrive and is now sending out attractive seed heads. Monarch butterflies and lots of bees are enjoying all the blossoms. The Salvia is nicely in flower but I fear it may be too delicate to be picked and used in TH projects. There are only a few, weak blooms left on the Coneflower, and the Yarrow are pretty much entirely punked out. I have largely left the Yarrow in place to self seed for next year, but I did a little thinning to promote some new growth that is showing up down near ground level. The Shasta Daisies and Feverfew also appear to have run their course; hopefully next year they will have lengthier blooming seasons. Photos: Bob Loesche Children's Garden Report: Susan Kirby It was a surprisingly pleasant day in the Children's Garden. Despite a lack of rain, most everything looked good. The cucumbers dried up, alas, but the gourds have taken off. A number of very interesting small gourds are appearing on the vines. The hyacinth beans are growing, but we saw no signs of flowers. Not sure what that means. The cardinal vine teepee is lush, and the popcorn plant is growing well. Butterflies continue to visit whatever they find most attractive--they, along with the children and families who come by, are most welcome visitors. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Today was a quiet day in the Butterfly Garden. We had great weather as well. Yellow Swallowtails made their expected visit and Julie was able to capture a female Zabulon skipper. Photo: Julie Mangin Conservation Garden Report: Maria Wortman Today, we installed three new plants that we bought at the GIEI: two Antennaria howellii, Howell’s Pussytoes, and one Prunells vulgaris, Common Selfheal. Both are natives which we hope will thrive here. It was hard finding a place that gets partial sun, since the huge trees in our garden create so much shade. Some judicious pruning of said trees is much desired. The “Naked Ladies”, or Belladona Lilies, are blooming now and adding some much-welcomed color to the garden. Their leaves come out in the Spring and die down in mid-Summer. Later, “naked” stems emerge, along with the gorgeous blooms. MANNA: Robin Ritterhoff Our harvest donation of 112 pounds to Manna is our largest this year, and brings our 2016 total to 724 pounds. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff VEGETABLES: Robin Ritterhoff Our focus today was on harvesting all of those vegetables that looked so great for the Grow It Eat It Open House last Saturday, and we also got some beds ready for our cool winter crops. The potato beds had disappointed us, with potatoes ruined by some pest or disease not yet identified. In their place, we planted some cabbage, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts, covered immediately with row cover. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff We harvested some beautiful kale from under the row covers, and pulled out their un-row-covered cousins, the tall Tronchuda cabbage, which the Harlequin beetles and striped cabbage beetles had so enjoyed. (This was a great educational tool at the Open House.) Added benefit: some gardeners had fun feeding the beetles to the back pond frogs, whose enthusiastic response was very rewarding. Some lettuce was harvested from the salad tables, and more lettuce seeds planted. It is a bold experiment to plant lettuce seeds outdoors in a week forecast to be extra hot & steamy, but it’s covered with row cover laid right on the bed, which we hope will help to preserve the bed’s moisture. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff KEYHOLE: Robin Ritterhoff Our “Tiny Tim” tomatoes have dropped all of their leaves & have stopped producing flowers. While the aggressive sweet potato vines that stole their sun did not help, we concluded that these determinate tomatoes have come to the end of their cycle – which we verified by checking the “Tiny Tims’’ in the tomato beds, suddenly looking pretty sorry, and those in a gardener’s home bed, which look like they lost a bar brawl. Some research revealed that this very productive, tiny (12 inches tall) open pollinated variety was bred in 1945 by the University of New Hampshire, and we wonder whether it prefers the gentler temperatures of a New England summer. BALES: Robin Ritterhoff The bold mice living in the bales kept sticking their heads out and gloating at Edith during the GIEI Open House. (Luckily none of the visitors complained.) And to top it all off, they completely hollowed out the 2 very nearly ripe eggplants growing on a formerly gorgeous plant, and then chewed off several of the plant’s main branches which they left neatly stacked by the remains of the plant. It is just about enough to make a gardener throw in the towel for the season. However, for whatever reason, the mice have not yet gone after the bales’ tomatoes, which continue to be leafy and productive (knock on wood!). Photo: Robin Ritterhoff- Mouse eaten eggplant Containers: Carol Olson and Claude The self-watering containers that Claude set up were a big hit with visitors to the demo garden on Saturday and Tuesday! Folks were pleased to see how simple they are to set up. It was fun sharing info about them. The idea of planting themed herb containers (Asian, Latin, bruschetta, Italian, etc) was popular, too. Also, a big thank you to Hope who shared the shade of her umbrella with us on Saturday. This Tuesday, most of the containers were happy to be watered, although none were seriously dried out. The reservoir of the floral self-watering container was empty. We'll need to keep an eye on that...hopefully there isn't a crack in it. Some jalapeno peppers, parsley, chard, and a few tomatoes were harvested. Some of the tomato leaves and stems have been exhibiting a "frosted" look, mainly around the edges. Dan Ward took home a sample and volunteered to do some research. He later reported that he thinks the cause might be spider mites, or a magnesium deficiency which would be caused by a lack of fertilizer. We have been fertilizing, so it looks like mites are more likely. 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira-dasilva The garden is looking rather matronly green these days. It is no longer the exciting color of a lush green spring garden or the bright enchanting look of summer but the beginning to age green of a hot August. The girls (plants) are beginning to show their age. The beyond marriage-age carrots and beets with hairy roots were the first to be pulled entirely. Our greatly overgrown cosmos (the forever single overbearing Aunt) likewise was removed and the young and up coming beets were finally given permission to grow. The pole beans now with their pretty purple flowers can finally flash their stuff. The tomatoes and cucumbers in the back have decided dating is not worth the effort and have not given their best effort to attract attention (lazy producers). The basil and herbs remain fat and satisfied. However the male flowers on the zucchini plant is looking around for some action of which he has yet to receive (no female flowers yet). The tomatillo plant is doing her best by producing a number of beautiful tomatillos ( a Latin lover?). Surprisingly the kale and collards (those old stalwart uncles) are still growing leaves and sticking it to the harlequin beetles siting on top of the row covers. The jalapeño plant is doing well but the fisher pepper plant has been mauled by that brat vole that runs around the garden like an out of control kid at the wedding reception. The newly planted lettuce and beans are the youth of the garden. The lettuce was harvested and covered (too young for dating) and the beans have just begun to produce. We plan to introduce some cool weather plants as soon as the oppressive heat of this week passes. (New suitors!) Photo: Robin Ritterhoff Tomato Bed: Dan Ward & Joslyn Read The tomato bed was well represented at the GIEI Open House this past weekend. A lot of very good questions were asked. One feedback that was given to Robin was that a formal presentation didn't seem to be needed because visitors came through at a pretty steady rate, not in clumps more suited to a presentation. The weather may have had an impact on that, it was sweltering and the visitors may not have wanted to stand through a formal talk on tomatoes. They were reassured that even we Master Gardeners were having the same issues they experienced at home, especially with tomatoes ripening being delayed because of the cold, wet spring and scorching temperatures. Small Fruits: Patti Oseroff The weather on Tuesday was much more cooperative for us. It was definitely cooler and the sun stayed behind the clouds. The day was focused on cleaning up the bed and harvesting an abundance of ripe (or nearly so) tomatoes of all varieties. Finally, they are ripening! Fungal infections are still running rampant through most varieties. So, Daniel and Muhammad lent a hand pruning out the vines with major fungal damage (almost all of it was Septoria and Early Blight). Our thanks to both of you for your help. Since wood chips were added in the aisles between the rows, and a good weeding accomplished, last week weeds are almost non-existent in the beds. First the good news: Today we weeded and collected blackberries. The paw paws and most of the other plants are thriving. Bad news: The patch of rhubarb I mentioned last week was removed as it was actually rotting. Also, we think the Russian female kiwi is dead. Other news: The goji is producing flowers on the new growth that was stimulated by the pruning (tipping) a couple of weeks ago. I don't expect we will see fruit this year because the pruning happened in July but we will hopefully have fruit next year now that we understand about pruning it. Here is a link for goji berry fact sheet. http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/news/2014/goji-berry-culture . This link might be an even better explanation of pruning a goji... http://homeguides.sfgate.com/prune-goji-63858.html This look like what we need to do for our goji berries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EJTHx8sPQ After everyone sees this, I think they will want a goji of their own. The Fruit team is looking for suggestions for additions to our fruit collection. New fruits suggestions so far include ground cherries, dwarf mulberry, cornelian cherry, alpine strawberry. Any ideas to enhance the small fruit aspect of our garden? please email ideas or catch us at the demo garden on Tuesday! Photo: Robin Ritterhoff Ponds: Darlene Nicholson The frogs were out en masse on Tuesday! As some of you know, we sometimes pick excessive Milkweed bugs and ANY Harlequin bugs and feed them to the pond frogs. Please enjoy the pictorial depiction of the morning's event. Even the goldfish nabbed a Harlequin! Bug Report: Darlene Nicholson A new spotting this week includes a leaf footed bug, prowling on bamboo supporting squash plants. I always get them confused with squash bugs on first glance. One major difference is the extra growth on the hind legs resembling a leaf. They are actually more closely related to stink bugs than squash bugs. Read more about them in Mike Raupp's BUG OF THE WEEK. Just type in leaf footed bug in the search section. http://bugoftheweek.com/thebugguy/ I usually only report bugs that I see in the Derwood Garden each week, but I found this caterpillar on some weeds in my home garden. It is a mature Fritillary caterpillar. I thought it would be of interest to show it as we see lots of Fritillary butterflies at Derwood. Note the 5 prolegs shown on the second view as the caterpillar is trying to rebalance itself. (BTW, the blueish tinge you see are only refections of highlights on the black) Closing Comments: Lily and Bill Our 10 at 10 was a wrap up of the Grow It Eat It event lead by Robin and Mary Anne.Thank you both for the enormous amount of work put towards this effort. Good comments and suggestions by all. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff- Setting up for Grow It Eat It
Next week we will have our tomato tasting instead of the 10 at 10. Please bring some of your favorite tomatoes and we can see which is our favorite. Please do not forget that Monday, 15th at 10 am in the garage at Derwood, Steve Dubik will be talking about our soil tests. Thanks all!
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