Dew-drops are the gems of morning but the tears of mournful eve! Coleridge Every dew drop and rain drop had a whole heaven within it Wadsworth Yet another busy day of discovery and learning: new pests, plenty of pollinators, weeds growing like a milkweed. Reminds me of the ol' sayin' “Even a one-eyed frog finds the vine borer larvae”. Garden Reports: Compost Central: Susan Eisendrath Today, Susan, Denise, Claude, and Lily all worked on turning the compost piles. Bin #1 with Garden Waste was 109 degrees and we turned into Bin #2 and watered it while turning it. Bin #3 with Food Scraps was 92 degrees and curing. Bin #5 was 124 degrees and we turned it into Bin #4. We aerated (light turning inside the compost) County Bin with Food Scraps which was 100 degrees, Couinty Bin with Garden Waste which was 89 degrees and the Earth Saver box which was 100 degrees. Thanks to Larry and Denny and everyone else who's worked on the compost, we have a lot (the most we've ever had!) of rich compost finishing for top dressing and for fall planting and application! Susan and Denise also taped up the educational signs again and weeded a bit. Next week we can check all bins and determine if any at all need turning and we will continue to let the garden debris stock pile and some of the plant material will turn from green to browns and we can use this material to build a new compost pile in Bin #1 on Sat. Aug. 6th at the GIEI event. Thus far we have Larry leading Compost Central for the GIEI event and Susan will be there to help...who else will help out? Conservation Garden: Maria Wortman Today, we continued adding more donated ground covers to the garden. Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense, is a native plant which forms low mats through rhizomes. In the Spring, it has a hardly noticeable flower which grows low to the ground. You won’t see it unless you take the trouble to lift up the low-growing leaves. You wouldn’t want to get close enough to smell it anyway, as it apparently smells like carrion. The rhizomous roots do have a gingery smell and flavor, and the plant was used by native Americans and early settlers for flavoring food as well as for medicinal purposes, but that practice is highly discouraged today, as scientists have discovered that it contains a carcinogenic compound, aristolochic acid. Ingesting this could cause kidney failure and other nasty things. We also added an epimedium which sports yellow flowers in the Spring. We’re not sure what the variety is – we’ll have to do some research on that. We planted a fern under the winterberries. We think it is a native of North America, the Sensitive Fern, Onoclea sensibilis. We are pleased to see that, even in part shade conditions, the beautiful coneflowers, Echinacea, are blooming profusely. Another lovely bloomer is the plumleaf azalea, Rhododendron prunifolium, a rare native azalea found in the wild only in certain parts of Georgia and Alabama in the Chattahoochee River Valley. It’s one of the latest-blooming azaleas. We’re not sure why the specimen in our garden hasn’t got many blooms on it. Perhaps it needs more moisture. Some plants don’t need flowers to add color and beauty to the garden. Check out the dwarf red switchgrass, Panicum virgatum. Its blue-green blades are tipped and edged in red. We’re waiting to see if the red color increases as the season progresses. Herb Garden: Kathy Tsai Today in the Herb and Fragance garden, we weeded, watered, and thinned. A lot of Black-eyed Susans were removed to give other plants a better chance of getting adequate sun, like the Forester rosemary, which was moved from the back of the bed to the front. The bee balm was thinned out as well. The nicotiana was propped up to keep it from falling into the mulch walkway, as was one of our African Blue basil in the center planting bed. In the rear bed, the amsonia was cut back to allow light and moisture to get to the parsley. Much of the work in the garden at this time of the year is "minor maintenance," since everything is in full growth. Therapeutic Horticulture Children’s: Sandy Occhipinti The large zucchini bush that produced a several pound fruit last week was completely wilted, a victim of squash borers. Replacement zucchini were transplanted under the supervision of a friendly brown toad ( those evictees from the 100 sq ft garden!). Lots of green and yellow bush beans, hot peppers and basil were harvested, as well as some romaine and radishes from the salad table. The first two very small patty pan squash were picked. Red and white potatoes were harvested. Damage to low hanging ripening tomatoes was attributed to chipmunks; at least two were seen racing through the garden while we were there. No pole beans yet but many blossoms on the vines, maybe next week. Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Patty Neame The three Therapeutic Horticulture beds were watered well since it will be a hot week. Several Master Gardeners mentioned they will harvest flowers for their therapeutic projects which is great encouraging more flowers to grow. The Larkspur plants were removed and the many Celosia/Cockscomb seedlings will need to be thinned and spaced out next week. The Ageratum plants have lots of purple flowers just starting to open and the African Blue Basil plants are thriving. There is space behind the Marigolds now that the Nigella and Larkspur plants are gone so maybe more Marigolds could be planted. The Yarrow continues to produce lots of flowers. The Zinnias were tied back so that the Dianthus would get more sun. some dead-heading was needed on the Salvia, Zinnia and Daisy plants Note from Sandy Charmin: Several MGs from three different TH groups cut flowers at Derwood today. Flowers cut were: zinnias, artemisia, yarrow, African basil, anise hyssop, and perhaps some ageratum. There are still plenty of zinnia left and more coming in. White yarrow are plentiful; there is a moderate amount of lavender/pinkish left. There is very little yellow yarrow at this time. Plenty of African basil and artemisia remain. Plenty of anise hyssop remains. We did not touch the cone flowers - they look like they are on their way out, but seedheads will be available for future dried flower arrangements. Thank you Bob and Patty and all others who work in the TH beds! We are very excited about using these flowers in arrangements tomorrow! Children's Garden: Susan Kirby Intern Annie Odette braved the heat and humidity to join the vey select Children's Garden team (me, actually) yesterday. It was great to have help with the trimming and weeding that needed to be done. Thank you, Annie! A number of the perennials have finished blooming and have been cut back, but the Tiger Lilies and the Monarda continue to bloom and attracted pollinators. Peter Rabbit and his friends have not revisited the vegetable beds, so the vegetables and gourds continue to grow. Manna received a contribution of carrots, and next week we should be able to send along some green beans. Note: a mother and daughter visited/toured that garden today and enjoyed the shade provided by the climbing cardinal vine. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Today in the Butterfly Garden was a little warm. The weeds are abating giving us a time to reflect on our future plans for our area. We were joined today by Ada and Sam. We gave the 10 at 10 talk today on Butterflies. This gave us the opportunity to show off our garden, educate our co-gardeners on butterfly habits and the use of plants to attract butterflies in their gardens at home. Butterflies were not flying today; however we did capture a photo of a Horace's Duskywing Edibles: Erica Smith I would just like to mention in regard to nothing in particular that my FitBit usually registers about 5000 steps when I get home from a demo garden workday. That's a lot of walking, especially considering I seldom get out of the vegetable section! So, another busy day of harvesting and weeding. Red Acre cabbages finally came out; we also picked some kale and Tronchuda cabbage, beans, lettuce, New Zealand spinach, one big zucchini, beets, peppers, and basil. Next week: mouse melons! Cucurbits in the far bed are still creeping along, but the Tromboncino squash is at least starting to climb. Last week's transplanted squashes and cucumbers are coming along slowly as well. We lost one squash to vine borers (Darlene will show you the photos, I'm sure). Check out the gorgeous purple perilla in the salad table and the shady bed by the maple. I wish I'd remembered to take a photo. Perilla is also known as shiso, beefsteak plant and many other names - you can read about it here: http://www.eattheweeds.com/perilla/. It has many culinary uses (although I guess we'd better not make oil from it or graze livestock, according to the article) and is a nice ornamental plant, although it tends to spread so watch the seeds. Next to it is the New Zealand spinach, a good warm-weather substitute for the unrelated spinach we love in the spring. We made a good dent in the weeding today, but there's a lot left to do. Could also use help getting wood chips onto the paths, and compost and/or leaf mulch around the plants - which will cut down on the weeding. Just so you know, I have started seeds for fall greens, and others will be starting some as well. Yes, it's time to think about fall already. And the annual question of "where will we put them?" The beds are pretty full right now! Small Fruits: Patti Osseroff We weeded mostly. The grape was tied up and the goji berry was aggressively pruned and we discussed moving it outside the fence to keep the pawpaws company. It is suckering up in other sections nearby and layering as well. Since it has thorns we are thinking it will be safe from the deer and will cause less trouble there. Tomato Bed: Dan Ward and Joslyn Read This week sees continuous growth of all plants, including a few that we thought would not make it. New rows of support twine were put on the poles to accomodate this growth. To help with water retention from the hot dry conditions this past week we added compost to the base of the tomatoes, and, as always the continuous task of weeding. We are also seeing Septoria and Early Blight taking hold on several plants. We removed the vines with the offending leaves in hopes that helps control the spread of these fungul infestations. We are awaiting final word from the powers that be as to whether or not we can use the Bonide Copper Fungicide because of the new Montgomery County rules for pesticide usage. There are still a few plants without fruits, but just a few. Leaf curl is still on a few plants, but that has not had much of an effect because those plants are producing nice fruits. Like everyone else who grows tomatoes at home it seems like those nice, big green tomatoes won't ripen until October. The cold weather in the spring didn't help because our tomato plants didn't get into the garden until the third week May. Darlene's graciously donated grafted tomato plant has beautiful foliage and the beginnings of what looks like cherry type tomatoes. The Tom Thumb tomato (determinate) Robin donated that looked like it was not going to produce fruit is now pretty loaded with nice tomatoes. Keyhole garden: Sandy Chernin The keyhole garden needed very little maintenance today. This was partly due to the intermittent watering provided during the week by team members - special thanks to Dan and Claude! We have discovered how dry the K.G. becomes without the addition of daily kitchen scraps and daily watering of the center composting ring. Nonetheless, tomato plants are looking good, as are herbs. and the purple sweet potato vines. Only one bean plant has sprouted and survived from the many seeds planted at the end of June. Purple basil and one lonely small salad cucumber were harvested for Manna. Another cucumber had a "bite" taken out of it: we pulled up the vines hanging off the edges of the garden, wove them into the holes of the outside bin walls. The hope is that removing this natural "ladder" will discourage visits from mice or chipmunks....perhaps wishful thinking.... Bale Garden: Sandy Chernin Tomato plants continue to GROW! Only one, the 'Black Krim" showing signs of blossom end rot. An organic fertilizer with calcium was lightly applied and added to this plant's growing area. Hoping that regular watering and this treatment will lead to better results in the weeks to come. Tomato plants were shading a small fish pepper plant and this plant was relocated to the front of the bales where it is now happily taking in the sun. Eggplants, without cover, doing well, with fruits forming. Overall looking very good! MANNA: Lily Bruch We delivered 34 pounds of food for MANNA. Included in the bounty were cucumbers, carrots, beets and lots of green stuff! Our total for the year is an impressive 440 pounds! Containers: Claude Allen The Container Garden is looking great! We have tomatoes and more tomatoes ripening up nicely. We should be able to harvest some next week. We have 3 varieties: San Marzano, Italian Roma, and Rolger Select. Additionally, the Italian Container herbs are doing well. Some of the herbs are flowering and going to seed. I suggest we leave this for the Open House and freshen up some of the other plants. The Asian Container has herbs growing profusely and spilling out of the container. It is beautiful to see. Peppers are growing nicely as well. We'll be able to harvest them soon. The Salad Container will be ready next week for harvesting. So, we'll need to come up with something else to plant here. Finally, we have a new container in which we plan to plants some flowers (probably edibles) to add some color to the Container Garden. Carol printed more recipes and placed them in the mailbox at the Container Garden. I'll stop by Thursday to water everything to make sure the plants don't succumb to the heat!!! 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira da Silva Tuesday was hot and humid. The soil was dry as a bone and there was bad blood in the neighborhood (garden).The summer squashes had taken over their corners and bullied their neighbors into submission. Word came down from the Boss (Mary Anne) they had to be dealt with. With guns blazing and garden forks gleaming 4 very large yellow Gold Rush squashes were forcibly evicted, with one biting the dust almost immediately. The zucchini guys were more cooperative and the extra 4 plants were removed and entered into the Witness Protection program (other people's gardens). Then attention was turned to the circle where the Cosmos and pansies had refused to give the beets a piece of the action (sun). The pansies fell right away but the Cosmos , tough and tall still rule. The beets are still skirmishing. With the bullies gone, timid Swiss chard and the lettuces now had a chance to make good, although the lettuces negotiated for a shade cloth. A few brave beets, peppers and carrots now eagerly volunteered to go to Manna. With danger gone the rest promised to grow real fast. The cowardly collards and kale voted to stay safely behind the row cloths and wait for Grow It and Eat It. The tomatillos and tomatoes growing quietly in their upscale corners still had nothing to say despite a little bribing with tomato tone. The cucumbers and pole beans had figured the best way out of the hood was up, but the bush beans had decided to make the best of the situation and blossom. Button soldiers (weeds) were rooted out as best as possible. BUG REPORT: Darlene Nicholson The cucurbits are being quietly attacked around the garden. I noticed this guy early Tuesday morning on a cucumber plant. Appropriately named, the Striped Cucumber Beetle, at first glance, might bring to mind the Three-lined Potato Beetle, which has been harassing us this spring. I decided to post both images so you could see close-up the difference So while the Spotted and Striped Cucumber Beetles are not welcomed visitors, the bug pictured below strikes fear in the hearts of all cucurbit growers! We found a devastated squash plant in the vegetable garden. After some prying around in the mutilated stem we saw two squash vine borers. They can completely destroy even a large plant in a few days. Check for small holes near the base of the plant filled with greenish or orange sawdust-like frass. After pulling the plant, make sure to solarize it first to kill any existing borers before putting in the general compost. I had to do quite a bit of searching inside the vine before I found these. For more information on this pest go to: http://extension.umd.edu/node/844 select vegetables and scroll down to Squash Vine Borer and see a video by Mike Raupp and HGIC information. Pond Report: Darlene Nicholson Both ponds, fish, etc. are looking quite well. We are beginning to see young frogs in both ponds. Julie found this one in the children's garden pond. As you can see, he is missing an eye but seems to be adapting well. Closing Comments: Lily and Bill Big thanks to Peggy and Bobbie for hosting our 10 at 10 by the butterfly garden. Encouraging all of us to grow for our butterflies and pollinators. We won't have a "10 at 10" next week as Sue K.'s “Growing Forward” children are coming for a visit and tour of the Demo Garden. Please help us make their experience a fun one for them.
Bill and I plan to meet with Steve next week so we can help provide clarity on the use of fertilizers and pesticides in the Demo garden. Stay tuned. Don’t forget to wear your special T-Shirt next week! And remember to drink plenty of water while you work – gardeners really do give their sweat to the garden! Here’s a preview of T- shirt week!
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