Another very hot day, but much accomplished! Thank you everyone! It was fun to see all the different T-shirts today! Enjoy the shots! Garden Reports: Shade Garden: Carol Martin and Sue Schick A group of Shady regulars worked on this muggy Thursday at a couple of problems. We removed the two Spicebushes (Lindera benzoin) which were struggling in the continuous dry conditions & pruned up the Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) trying to get a new leader established. The gluing job on the bench seemed to work & it was back on its feet gracing our brick patio. We were busy lifting the rock borders of our beds that the settling chips of the paths had just about buried. We didn't do any watering due to a few evening showers & expected rain by the weekend. Butterfly Garden: Julie Mangin and Bobbie Maxwell It seems like the vegetation in the butterfly garden doubled in size since last week. The heliopsis was so high that when I first arrived, I couldn't see Bobbie at all, although we carried on a conversation anyway. Eventually, she came out from her hiding place. Ginny and I cleared out some milkweed that was blocking some of the paths. The buddleia (butterfly bush) next to the pond is getting so big we had a hard time getting around it, so I cut it back a little. A monarch was spotted today, although I didn't see it. Three great spangled fritillaries (Speyeria cybele) were flying all over the garden. I managed to get two good shots, one with the wings open and one with them closed. There were lots of silver-spotted skippers. A beautiful dragonfly hung around the pond for a good while, and I got its picture, too. It's a twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella). The butterfly garden was really full of milkweed. Also all of the plants have filled in every space. Bobbie took out a bunch of heliopsis by the fence. Even the shrubs are expanding. The lilac looks great. Bobbie saw a black swallowtail before the meeting and Ginnie saw a hummingbird moth! Kitchen Garden: Chris Cedar This week the kitchen garden is regaling us with its splendor. The queen -- clary sage is glorious -- at the height of its bloom. It is surrounded by its court --the intense indigo blue of the larkspur juxtaposed with the brilliant sunshine yellow of the pot marigolds (calendula). Stands of lavender dance in the breeze. And everywhere I see bees and butterflies busy with their pollination duties. Such beauty! What a gift. Note: Thank you Chris for taking such good care of the garden for Ida! Ida, can't wait till you're back! We miss you! Compost Central: Kristy Hardy So Mr. Bubbles, my son's name for his toy snake when he was a little and now mine for the black snake who seems to have made his home in our compost piles made another appearance. He made his home in bin #4 which started at a temperature of 120 degrees. The pile is cooking nicely. The county bin started at a temperature of 110 degrees and also is cooking nicely. Alena helped again today and another intern Caroline, also helped. Caroline says she is doing vermiculture in her yard and is interested in the demo garden trying it. Corrine volunteered to help but we were done, so I am very grateful for all of the enthusiastic help. Children's Garden: Sandy Chernin On the last official day of spring in the garden, we were pleased to find that seedlings of the purple hyacinth bean vine are finally taking off (with the exception of two plants that were almost completely devoured by a rabbit). How do we know this, you ask? Well, said rabbit had the nerve to streak by us this morning while we were weeding this very site. Nearby, behind the tunnel and by the fence, the sunflowers are doing well but, for now, are veiled by the massive bed of flowering common milkweed that fronts them. The Lion’s Mane plants (Leonotis menthifolia) at the front side of the tunnel seem to have doubled in size in the past week. In the Plants with Animal Names garden area, the red bee balm (Monarda), Spiderwort (Tradescantia), and the Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) are all blooming. Throughout this bed, Bear’s Breeches (Acanthus mollis) is particularly aggressive and on its way to taking over. It was dug out in spots, and cut back elsewhere. Hopefully this will provide more sun and space to the two Lion’s Ear plants (Leonitis leonurus) cradled at the center edge. And around the tower, the cardinal vine seedlings are SLOWLY coming into their own. From Mrs. MacGregor’s Garden, a bag of beautiful white icicle beets and beet greens, some parsley, and a few banana peppers were harvested for Manna. Everything else –basil, marigolds, onions, pepper, cotton, peanut plants and gourd vines looked quite perky as a result of the recent rain. A big thank you to Amy Vigil for helping with weeding, thinning and tending! THERAPEUTIC HORTICULTURE: Virginia White-Mahaffey and Bob Loeschse Our TH garden tasks this Tuesday centered on weeding (minimal again), pruning, deadheading, planting new donations, and watering. In addition, we received and installed signs for our plants that were either newly planted this season or merely lacking signage. Our beds survived last week's high temperatures. The best current selections for TH projects include: achillea (pink, red, yellow, gold, and white in Bed 2 and white in Bed 4 (the new area outside the fence)), delphinium (beginning to dwindle), echinacea (blooming well now), lavender (2 of 3 varieties perfuming the area), gaillardia (brightly blasting away), and fennel and artemisia foliage (continuing in strong form). The new additions are Centaurea cyanus, commonly called cornflower or bachelor's button, which was donated by MG Sandy Chernin, and Aquilegia, commonly referred to as columbine, donated by intern Caroline Baker. Small Fruit Garden: Gail Ifshin and Ram Narula Our focus of concern is our new, young Asian persimmon tree. The variety is “Ichikikei Jiro” (Diospyros kaki). It has what appears to be anthracnose, one of a group of fungi that causes leaf spots, which in an established tree is not of great concern. However, in a young tree like ours it is. We have read that once significant leaf spots appear it may be too late to treat, however we are currently researching treatment options. Fingers crossed! We augmented the trellises for the grape vine and blackberry plants. Most of the small fruit vines and bushes are somewhere on the fruit-ripening timeline. Gooseberries are prolific. Red and black currants should be ready to pick next Tuesday. The red raspberry bushes are thin and seem to have suffered in the hot days we have experienced recently. The thornless blackberry is a bit out of control – in a good way. The fruit will be ready perhaps in two weeks. We observed that the bush cherry plant that gets more sun is about four times larger and than the one that is shaded by the aggressively growing gooseberry bush. Rest assured that as the berries ripen, we will share them with the Demo garden volunteers! Special Projects: Carol Conrad The weather and yesterday's rain had all the projects looking well this week. We harvested a bag of lettuce heads about to bolt from the key hole garden and added various lettuce leaves from the pallet to fill a nice bag for Manna. We also sent a bag of Bok Choi and leaves from both the keyhole and the pallet gardens. Our final contribution was a bag of parsley from the pallets. In the Keyhole: The snap peas had met their end and were removed. The dill was so big we thought it might be fennel. It was flowering, and there was debate over whether to harvest or let go another week. Carol C decided to let it go until Carol O's return. The red lettuce heads were ready for Manna but had really thrived under the shade of the Dwarf Tomato. The marigolds did not protect the eggplant sufficiently, and it was recovered with tulle after Edith purged them of bugs. Everything else was thriving. The Dwarf tomatoes are looking especially happy. In the Pallets: All the lettuces looked great and contributed to the Manna donation. Carol C keeps harvesting just leaves from the Bok Choi each week, and they grow back strong. The parsley in the long pocket is doing great as are the Nasturtiums that in blooming color. The mustard was gone to seed and removed, and Edith and Carol considered adding Thyme in the future. One cucumber has succumbed but the other is hanging on (literally). The pallets seem best suited for herbs and lettuces. We watered everything in and made a few more nesting bottles in anticipation of a hot later summer. In the Bales: The tomatoes are thriving with the Sungold and Ketchup & Fries both showing baby tomatoes. The Big Rainbow is high on the horizon, and we added horizontal string support on the trellis at a second level this week. One Adirondack Potato leaf stalk was browned and so removed. The cucumber seeds that had germinated last week had withered this week. It was replaced with a generic zucchini transplant. The Nantes carrots are slowly growing. Caroline weeded and side dressed the tomatoes with compost. The Asti Zucchini is doing well and the giant sunflower is rising . And then there is the gutter! We harvested one very nice radish that was going to seed. There are flowers blooming...we need some ID help there. And the lettuces still grow. All in all and good week! Vegetable Beds: Robin Ritterhoff, Erica Smith and Mary Anne Normile We loved seeing all of the vegetable beds flourishing and abundant today, thanks to yesterday's rain and extra watering over recent hot days. Here’s what we did today: Took out bolting spring lettuces in the salad tables. Summer lettuces are still doing well. Removed the Georgia collards that were part of the cabbage white butterfly experiment. They were all pretty chewed on, though no active caterpillars were found. Leaves that looked edible went into the Manna bags. Planted in the former collards bed two rows of Royal Burgundy bush beans, and a bunch of Jewels of Opar seedlings. You can read about the latter here: http://www.southernexposure.com/blog/2015/03/a-heat-tolerant-leafy-green-vegetable-disguised-as-a-flower/ Jewels of Opar | Southern Exposure Seed Exchange www.southernexposure.com "A wonderful surprise for us in our 2014 trial garden was Jewels of Opar. Last spring, when I planted a couple of pinches of these tiny seeds in a flat in our ... " Barbara removed several Colorado potato beetles (adults and larvae) from the potatoes, and examined the stems of some collapsed plants (no corn borers located, but this may be the cause). Linda D. weeded around the cucurbit trellises - thanks! Fussed with the mouse melons, encouraging them to climb up the cattle fence arch – they’re still small and may be getting less sun than they might prefer. Finished the Three Sisters planting by putting in seeds of butternut, Jumbo Pink Banana, Yokohama, and Cushaw squashes, as well as watermelon (which I guess makes it Four Sisters, but let's ignore that). The cucurbits are in separate mounds than the corn and beans. In the raised beds, admired the gorgeous lettuces and beets before harvesting them, as well as many chard leaves – thanks Illina! We also admired the stunning red cabbage in the small raised bed, hidden under row cover, which still is not heading up – let’s see what happens over the next week. In the annex garden, we harvested greens and staked up okra – we’re growing Clemson Spineless and Burgundy. Harvested: greens, lettuce, beans, peas, beets, chard, basil and onions. Watering: pay special attention to Three Sisters garden (anywhere there are labels), Bed B, and bases of trellises. Please go to sign up for watering the garden. Please click on the following web link (or copy it into your web browser if clicking doesn't work) to go to the signup sheet: www.volunteersignup.org/D4QDR To sign up, just follow the instructions on the page. It only takes a few seconds to do. It is unlikely that the garden would need to be watered more than every other day in the hottest weather (what we are currently experiencing), but Thursday through Sundays are open so that you can water on a day that works for you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Mary Anne. Tomato Beds: Dan Ward & Joslyn Read This week we were able to complete putting stakes next to each plant. There were more than just a few. All the tomato plants look really good, with a few exceptions. Those tomatoes planted in the originally designated are with the Demo Garden boundary, don't look as healthy and prosperous as those in the "annex". There are a few reasons for this. The first, although not the primary reason, is that many planted in that area were younger seedlings. The second, and most important reason, is that the area doesn't get amount of direct sunlight that those on the "annex" gets. The maple tree continues to grow putting more or the DDG under its shade. Also, the pea trellis blocks some of the sun as well. That problem is temporary because the pea trellis will be coming out either next week or the week after. Thanks all for the great questions during the 10@10 presentation. One of the great things of the DDG is the free exchange of ideas. In addition to the topics covered during the presentation we want to let you know that tomatoes can be grown with or without supports. In my early years my parents had a pretty good size garden where tomatoes and bush beans were the principle crops. The tomatoes grew just sprawled on the ground with no supports. We do not recommend this method because of critters and disease, but it's included in this report because it's addressed by the Extension Service. Here is a link to their site on tomatoes: http://extension.umd.edu/growit/vegetable-profiles-tomatoes. If you decide to use one of the support methods one thing to keep in mind is that you will need to support the main stem, otherwise, the stem will collapse down on itself. MANNA REPORT: Robin Ritterhoff Our harvest today was 72 pounds, bringing the Derwood contributions to Manna to 368 pounds YTD. Many thanks to Cindy Reilly for donating labels & sharpies, which will help Manna clients know how best to enjoy our harvest. Much gratitude to all those who labeled their bags of harvested crops, and to Erica, Susan, Illina and Corrine for helping complete labeling, loading the harvest into tubtrugs, and getting all of those tubtrugs into my car. 100 SQUARE FOOT GARDEN: Linda Taveira-dasilva Only Mother Nature knows how to pour a drink (rain). After having a tall minty cool glass, the refreshed garden responded with fresh, lush greens and vibrant looking plants. Our newly planted squash and zucchini plants are already branching out. The tomatillo and tomato plants are beginning to grow and blossom. The pepper plants are budding with tiny baby peppers. (Yea summer)! The pregnant moms got a little extra organic feeding to nurture them along. Not to be outdone with the warm season newcomers, the beets are in full force, three bags full and the spinach, hiding behind the shade of the tall beets is still hanging in there. Our bush beans shame us, one in every family. We harvested red lettuce, green lettuce, romaine lettuce, mixed lettuce, big lettuce, little lettuce, blue lettuce, black lettuce, lettuce lettuce! (You get the picture). The pole beans are reaching up and the yellow pansies continue to add color to the circle. The undercover veggies (kale, collards and Swiss chard) continue to safely thumb their leaves at the bugs and the baby cukes are still in hiding (under netting). The star of this weeks show is the fennel Hope planted for the first time in the garden. It really looks marvelous. We will be planting more next year. We also snuck in a baby zucchini between a space left by pulled beets and lettuce. It will get more space next week when more beets mature. The herbs and basil continue to flourish. Oh, and did I mention the lettuce? Closing Comments: Bill, Susan and Lily
We had many visitors to the garden today. Two separate young families were really enjoying our frogs and children's garden! It is so nice to see our garden enjoyed by the general public! A few quotes from notes left at our front gate: 5/27/2017 "Very nice! Can't wait to see things in full bloom." 6/3/2017 "My 3 year old boy and I came to explore. We had a blast! Thanks" 6/8/2017 "Brought mom here on her 95th birthday! Beautiful! 6/8/2017 "I got to kiss my fiance in the garden today! Amazing place! Soon to be Mr and Mrs! 6/9/2017 "Lovely, serene and informational. Learned a lot. Will be back! 6/18/2017 "Happy froggers!" 6/18/2017 " I love your garden. Much better than others I've seen. My compliments to the master gardeners." Children's therapeutic garden harvested our first tomatoes as well as some garlic. Its that time of the year to harvest your garlic. Don't forget to prune scapes. Thanks to John Reilly for his help in removing the rusted out metal trellis in tenants garden. A huge thanks to Dan Ward for doing our 10 at 10. Much interest and many questions about tomatoes! Please check out Grow It Eat it website on year of the tomato from last year(https://extension.umd.edu/growit/vegetable-profiles-tomatoes). Next week at 10 at 10 Steve Dubik will talk about our garden expansion. We are so appreciative of his interest in the garden as well as his enthusiasm for the new space. Thanks Steve! Please don't forget to sign up to water the garden. See vegetable section in this weekly report for information. If you have recipes for the master gardener recipe book, please contact Maro. We will not have an official work day on Tuesday, July 4th. Tomato tasting date is Tuesday August 8th. Please bring tomatoes from home on that day to share with other master gardeners. Thanks all! Have a nice weekend!
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