Today was National Gardening Exercise Day (who knew?), and 42 of us celebrated with plenty of exercise on a beautiful day. The recent rain and cooler weather has resulted in lush growth throughout the garden. We treasure the cooler days before the start of the summer heat. We thank Joe Ginther for our 10- at 10 talk on our irrigation system. We look forward to next week's 10 at 10 with Jenna from MANNA who's going to talk about our weekly contributions. Garden Reports: Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Beautiful and crisp day in the garden. We spent our day again trimming the oh so lush foliage and planting a few more annuals. Listening to, watching and feeding bugs to the frogs in the pond was a lot of fun. We are working with LeeAnne Gelletly to improve plant Id. Stay tuned for details coming soon. Compost Central: Kristy Hardy Missed you Bill! Hope you are enjoying your vacation. Yesterday Denise and Edith helped with turning the two compost piles we had. The one from the county and the one in bin 5 moved to 3. Both were cooking at the low temperatures close to 90. They added more green as the gardeners cleaned up and watered and hopefully the temps will go up. Susan showed us and the encouraged all the master gardeners to look in the weed bins to see how they had decomposed. 3 of the 4 bins are ready to be added to the compost piles this week. Pile 2 was being used as top dressing in some of the gardens and it was a beautiful day in the garden. Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Virginia White-Mahaffey This week some plants showed significant growth and are ready for cutting or soon will be. Principal projects included: moving plants to maximize use of space and increase air circulation, planting additional echinacea purpurea, weeding, and watering. Several plants are mature enough for cutting for Therapeutic Horticulture projects. In Bed 1 delphiniums are blooming away In beautiful deep blue tones. Some have been cut for use but much more remains. The artemisia, though not blooming, is tall and healthy and can be used as well. In Bed 2 the lavender looks lovely with a fragrance to match, although flowering should be further improved by next week. The achillea is producing blooms in a stunning deep pink shade; the white and yellow achillea are blooming but are not yet as floriferous as the pink variety. In Bed 3 the tanacetum is producing a cloud of white petals already and the fennel continues to grow abundantly. In Bed 4 (in the new area outside the fence) the gaillardia 'Arizona Sun' is blazing away. Although the directly sown zinnia seeds in Bed 1 have developed into healthy looking small plants, the zinnias transplanted from indoor seed starting, in both Bed 2 and Bed 4, are still struggling. We have not yet abandoned the transplants. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Small Fruit Garden: Ram Narula and Gail Ifshin We finished putting the last window in the grapewine patch and weeded the pathways. All areas were cleaned and old bamboo were moved back. Susan helped with some additional trimming of the black berry and raspberry bushes. We noticed some rust on the persimmon plant and some curling of grape leaves. Some baby grapes were drying up and falling on the ground. The damp weather in May seems to have promoted some insects and diseases. Susan and I noticed aphids on lower off shoots. I cut these and left at Steve ‘s office for further analysis. Later Darlene and Maria examined found some mites as well. The fruit which had set on the beach plums have also dropped off. I am wondering if this is a suitable place for this fruit. On a positive note the blue berry bushes are doing very well 100 SQUARE FOOT GARDEN: Linda Taveira-dasilva The garden has been on over-drive with greens. We harvested kale, broccoli, collards, lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard. We sent a mixed bag of herbs comprised of chives, marjoram, and oregano to Manna. Green onions were pulled. In their spot cucumber plants were planted and stylishly covered with green tulle (wedding season) by Hope (Head of Art and Deco dept.) They will stay covered until the blossoms appear and the bee family can come and visit. We are hoping to protect them from evil cucumber bugs. The broccoli plants were evicted for the season. Now we could reposition the tomato plants next to their supports and moved the basil plants in front of the tomato family. We planted a jalapeno plant on the side. A zucchini and summer squash plant were added to the now summer garden. The turnips and beets are almost mature and may be ready for harvest next week. Two bush bean plants were caught trying to escape (growing out on the path), They were taken into custody and replanted with the rest of their growing buddies in the garden. The pole beans look promising. VEGETABLE GARDEN REPORT: Mary Ann Normile, Robin Ritterhoff, Erica Smith A picture-perfect late spring morning in the vegetable garden brought out a lot of gardeners. Apparently Tuesday was National Gardening Exercise Day - everyone feel adequately exercised? *wipes brow* Harvest: Lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce; radishes; baby beets and beet greens; peas; garlic scapes. --Harvested Caraflex and one each Red Express and Katarina cabbages, lots of Gypsy broccoli heads (plants left in place to develop side shoots), and different kinds of kale, collards, and other greens, plus some daikon radishes. Thanks to Corinne for valiant harvesting duty! --Intern Marianne harvested lettuce, spinach and chard from the salad table - thanks! Planting: --Planted three sweet potato slips in raised sweet potato bed. Thanks Lily! --Linda planted buckwheat ground cover in part of annex garden. --Joslyn planted three kinds of pole beans in the Three Sisters garden corn hills. --Planted four roselle hibiscus next to the cucurbit trellises. --Robin planted several jalapenos in the annex garden, also Window Box and Sweet Dani basil. Tending: --Removed about a dozen Colorado potato beetles from the potatoes, plus a few egg masses, and a few three-lined potato beetles. Drowned them in soapy water. --Checked on the decoy cabbage white butterfly experiment on the uncovered Georgia collards. No caterpillars yet, but our guess is that the hypothesis that female CWBs are deterred by the presence of fake butterflies is false, since we spotted a CWB landing to lay her eggs a few inches away from a decoy. We'll keep monitoring to see if there's any difference in number of caterpillars between the plants with decoys and those without, but it seems unlikely. --Weeded and mulched raised beds with shredded leaves. Thanks Hank and Mohammed! --Staked/caged determinate tomatoes in deep raised bed. --Lots of weeding in the annex garden and elsewhere, wood chip mulch placed in the Three Sisters garden and in paths between beds to keep down weeds. --Linda and Hank cut down remaining oats-peas cover crop, left cut parts on bed as mulch and organic matter/nitrogen addition. MANNA REPORT: Robin Ritterhoff We delivered 80 lbs to Manna today, bringing YTD total to 234 lbs. Special Projects Report – The Carols Bales and Pallets and Gutter: Oh dear, oh dear! The plants on the pallets were definitely dried out this morning. We found the short pocket pallet seriously dry and lost the mustards that were going to seed. Many thanks to Maria, who first noticed this emergency and performed triage watering which brought life back to some of the pockets. The Windowbox Basil planted last week is doing well in both sides of the pallet garden and did not suffer from dry conditions. Both bok choy and lettuces were harvested for Manna. Edith planted Eleonora Basil on top of the pallet after taking out the kales and bok choy which were going to seed. Cilantro was planted to replace harvested mustards in the short pallet. We also planted 2 Patio Cucumbers in the long pocket pallet… will they grow up or down? In the continuing saga of the bottles, we introduced another new method for the bottles test which nestles two bottles together with appropriate holes. This drip method fits the short pocket pallet better than the longer cones. It now joins the sand and permeable membrane methods. Adjustments to the membrane are still being considered. In the bales, Sunset Beans are growing nicely. There has been a sighting of carrot sprouts. The tomatoes clearly like their bales environment. Our Asti Zucchini has a small zucchini growing already. A few architectural structures were added to the bales. String was strung low on the trellis to support the thriving tomatoes. Marigolds were suspected to have deterred flea beetles on the eggplant in the keyhole garden when compared to the flea-bitten eggplant in the bales. Following Mary Ann's suggestion, a floating cover was placed on the bale eggplant that was being severely attacked by flea beetles. Carol C learned to recognize both them and their attack on eggplant leaves. She also learned they love the tender leaves best, which explains why more mature plants were not attacked in her home garden last season after taking off the cover to allow for pollination. She planted a Star Patio Zucchini in the SIDE of the bales. We shall see if it clings nicely. The gutter garden continues to thrive. Keyholes: The two keyhole gardens saw additions of new plants and seeds and some transplanting. Two marigolds were moved from the rear keyhole to the front keyhole. A fish pepper and amethyst basil were also added. In the back keyhole, all the remaining radishes were harvested and replaced with another fish pepper and another pepper, whose type is currently unknown. Two short rows of Mascotte Bush Beans were planted. The packet says they are container friendly – growing 16-18 inches – and provide full-sized harvests in 50 days. It will be fun to watch their progress. As noted above, the keyhole eggplant that was surrounded by marigolds showed much less flea beetle damage. So with fingers crossed, it was decided to leave it uncovered as an experiment. In addition, a ring of deadheaded marigolds was scattered around the eggplant. Many thanks to Edith, and Nikki, Chris, and Mohammad who helped with different tasks this week. POND REPORT : Darlene Nicholson We have about 8 or 10 frogs that have taken up permanent residence in the Butterfly garden pond. We also have seen a one-eyed frog that seems to travel back and forth between both ponds. This Tuesday the Butterfly pond frogs were very active and exhibiting some rather strange behavior. We'll chalk it up to mating, although this is not the normal way frogs mate; frog foreplay?? See for yourself in the photos below. BUG REPORT: Darlene Nicholson Have you noticed all the tiny little iridescent flies in the garden? The photos below are two of many varieties of Family Dolichopodidae-Longlegged Flies This species varies in appearance. Sources consider this a beneficial as it eats small insects and occasionally feed on flower nectar. See more about them at Bugguide.net. The best find today was the Lacewing egg, found on a grape leave by Maria W. The first image is a close up of the egg, and the second is the same egg on the grape plant to depict the tiny, tiny size of it. Can you see it? The full grown lacewing image was taken last year in the garden. This is a wonderful beneficial, so if you see it or the eggs, please be careful not to harm them. TOMATO GARDEN REPORT: Dan Ward, Joslyn Read It was a glorious day as we surveyed the vast tomato plantations we have established. Tomato seedlings both in the main garden (with its nature-provided partial shade cover) and the two rows in blazing sun in the Annex look healthy and are doing well. We staked up a few tomatoes but the main effort to build long term supports will come next week. We tied back and supported the peas planted along the edge of the tomato area in the main garden, and picked about a pound of lovely sweet peas for Manna. Yumm! ** IMPORTANT: The Tomato Grafting team, who worked so hard this spring to bring us some innovative grafting combinations for demonstration, emphasized that we must be careful not to bury the grafted "seam" of the tomato (between the rootstock and the tomato top (scion)). It is really important for us to keep that grafted point above the soil line and above the mulch line. Otherwise, the scion will start to sprout and we will not have the advantage of the rootstock. THREE SISTERS GARDEN REPORT: Joslyn Read, Dan Ward, Linda MacShay Oh, my, what a few weeks of inattention brings! We did a massive weeding in this area, and put down more leaf mulch around the "mounds". With the help of Darlene and Lily, we peeled back part of the metal mesh edging the garden and then more easily brought in wood chips to edge the perimeter. The corn seeds have sprouted in most of the mounds and this week we added the pole bean seeds. It feels so authentic to plant "Cherokee Trail of Tears" pole beans on some of our mounds. Once the pole beans sprout, we will be adding the third "sister", the squash seeds, which should spread out throughout the whole area between the mounds. Fascinating! CHILDREN'S GARDEN REPORT: Sandy Chernin In what was a most enjoyable and idyllic cool weather morning, the Children's Garden was weeded and coddled along. A few marigolds were transplanted to make way for a chili pepper plant. The basil seeds that were planted last week lie dormant but we will patiently wait and watch for sprouting next week. The beets were thinned, and beet greens and some white radishes were harvested for Manna. The cotton and peanut plants continue to be healthy but at a standstill without our normal summer heat. Jesse completed the stringing of the trellis area for the gourds. It looks fantastic, thank you Jesse! In a nearby pot, a beautifully blooming although very woody santolina plant has taken over what once was a fairy garden. We are entertaining ideas of how to recreate a miniature garden here but may have to sacrifice the santolina (after it blooms!). And another challenge appeared in the central garden area: there seem to be several varieties of cardinal vine growing at the perimeter of the tower trellis. The variety planted was Ipomoea x multifida - but two seed sources were used. Hmm, will need to wait and see what develops... On the other side of the garden, the popcorn plant and lion's mane plants (generously donated) are establishing themselves. We were surprised to find a second lion's mane plant this week, right next to the one we settled in last week. It must have seeded from a previous year! Luckily, it was easy to see that the two plants are identical and not weeds! Once we are certain that at least one plant is established, we plan to transplant or give away the second plant. And finally, thank you to Beth Meyers and Audrey Hankinson, for both your companionship and your help! Thanks again for everyone's hard work at the garden this week. We also want to thank you for the wonderful reports and pictures that your faithful weekly report editorial staff receives so promptly. The Derwood Demonstration Garden is clearly a group effort.
Have a great weekend, and we look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday. Remember to bring some water with you as the weather reports indicate a very hot day. Don't forget that we will have our special T-Shirt day on Tuesday, 20th of June! Lily, Susan and Bill
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