"He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower." Mary Howitt A very busy day at the gardens today. Glad to see so many volunteers and lots of activity! Trellis building, planting, weeding and eating! Thanks Muhammd for the tasty chicken Pulao Garden Reports: Shade Garden: Carol Martin and Sue Schick We had a good turn out in the Shade Garden this beautiful warm day. Our "guy" crew completed the construction of about 3/4ths of the landscape timber border along the main path. The rest of us accomplished a lot including cleaning the brick patio, weeding pokeweed on the hill, clearing greenbriar, planting some donated Joe Pye Weed, pruning & general neatening of the paths & beds. The garden is looking amazing as usual so we encourage all to come visit us on Thursday or take a walk through when you are there. Compost Central: Kristy Hardy Yesterday was a beautiful day to work in the garden. At compost central, bin #3 was emptied to be used in the bottom of the new raised bed garden. They were very happy. Bin #2 was left alone and will probably be ready to use as a soil amendment next week in the garden. Ephraim and I cleared up the leaf and green pile completely into bin #5 so it can start to be turned next week. Ephraim also turned the county compost bin for the first time. We filled it last week and it had not gotten hot, but with being turned and some more greens and water being added, we expect it to be hot next week. Susan came and evaluated everything and took some of the weeds with seeds out the trash bins and put them into bags so that we could have more room in the trashcans and that's about it. Please help turn piles if you have a few minutes to spare. All help is welcome! Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai This was another short work day. Everything in the Herb and Fragrance garden is putting out new growth and flowers or, in the case of all the new plants we added this season, quietly setting down roots. We should have a growth spurt soon on all of them. The lovage has practically tripled in size since the first week. If you recall last year, it topped out at over six feet. Our one remaining chocolate-scented daisy is "lookin' good," with 3 to 4 blooms on it. You have to enjoy the scent of this plant early in the day. We weeded a little, watered mostly the containers, and put down some leaf mulch. We also added a butterfly weed and a jasminum sambac, or arabian jasmine. It is an annual in our zone, sometimes treated as a houseplant, but has a fantastic fragrance when it blooms. We will enjoy it this season and winter it over in my home. Children's Garden: Sandy Chernin Having been away for four weeks, it was amazing to return and see the growth in the Children’s Garden, especially in the section dedicated to plants with animal names! The turtlehead, pigsqueak, bee balm, and spiderwort have grown to the point that the Lion’s Ear/Mane plants are struggling to show their presence. The spiderwort (tradescantia) is in full bloom and quite beautiful. The cutting back of perennials in this bed was deferred to a later date, with planting being the real priority for today. In Mrs. Macgregor’s garden, four varieties of gourd seeds were planted at the trellis. Plants that Lily Bruch had started from seeds were welcomed as well: a Sungold tomato, two pepper plants (sweet banana and orange blaze), two cotton and three peanut plants. Seeds for cardinal climber (Ipomoea sloteri syn I. multifidi) were tucked in around the tower. (In the past this vine has been known to vigorously self-sow, but only a few plants were apparent today, so seeds planted in hopes of ensuring a nice showing.) Seeds for Hyacinth Bean Ruby Moon were also planted around the tunnel. A big thank you to Audrey Hankinson and Beth Meyers for all of your help! Butterfly Garden: Julie Mangin and Peggy Stanford Wow, how can we be so lucky to have another beautiful day in the garden? The garden looks pristine and contoured. We continue to thin out over growth and remove weeds. We planted Lantanas and are planning for future annuals to be added during the weeks that follow. MG Margaret replaced our tattered Butterfly sign. A great new addition to our garden. Thank you to John Gelb and Margaret Polcawich for making this improvement to our garden. Julie Mangin's note from Thursday visit to garden: I was at the demo garden today, with my husband. He found two caterpillars on the fennel in the therapeutic horticultural garden. They were black swallowtail caterpillars. The smaller one doesn't look like the bigger one because they go through molting stages called instars. I think the small one is a 2nd instar. The larger one has its osmeterium showing. This is an orange antenna-like structure on its head which the caterpillar sticks out when it is threatened. He didn't like me rooting through the fennel looking for him! Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Virginia White-Mahaffey This Tuesday our principal projects were twofold: we expanded the content of the TH beds and corralled wandering plants back into their assigned sections. Our most recently acquired TH bed (in the separately fenced area) reached full occupancy with Tuesday's addition of 1) zinnias, which replaced the failing zinnias that did not successfully weather the transition from seedling to transplant; and 2) celosia. Derwood Demo Garden gardeners donated both sets of plants, which are still very young. The achillea, monarda, and mollucella in that bed are all developing well, and the gaillardia has started blooming. Bed 1 is growing the strongest, with the delphinium displaying buds likely to bloom in a week or two. Tiny ageratum seedlings have begun to appear. The artemesia plants are more than thriving. In Bed 2 the lavender is exhibiting healthy fresh growth, the echinacea is expanding, and the achillea is developing very lush foliage. In Bed 3 I planted gomphrena, which benefited from another week's acclimation to the outdoors before transplanting. The tanacetum and the chrysanthemums in that bed are looking healthy, and the fennel and the agastache have enjoyed impressive growth spurts since last week. In addition to planting, I watered and weeded (the latter task primarily limited to the paths near the beds to prevent future invasions). Another generous DDG colleague had offered us rudbeckia, which would be a nice addition if we can fit it. Finally, we received a very professional sign delineating the TH beds. It is located in Bed 2 and looks quite sharp. Thanks Margaret Polcawich! Small Fruit Report - Ram Narula and Gail Ifshin Our, Persimmon bush seems to have settled well into her new home and doing fine. In anticipation of the upcoming 90F hot days, it was watered deep. The tops of fig bush canes were removed, still leaving some of the dried out canes in case new growth moves further up. Our new intern Yingyang mentioned to me that she heard applying olive oil to the green fig helps it ripen faster. I looked into this one and found out that some people had good luck with this method. All you have to do is to dab the fig eye with olive oil using a Q tip. As figs ripen with the acetylene gas with in the fruit, applying olive oil on the eye seals it and precludes leakage of the gas, thus allowing the fruit to ripen quicker. A better method is to remove all the leaves and chop of the tops to allow the fig to prevent new growth and letting all the energy go to ripening. This should be done 4 to 6 weeks before the anticipated first frost. I will experiment with these methods at my fig this year and share the results. Talking of my fig, brown turkey, I noticed that around mid April that half a dozen baby figs had come out before the new growth. This was about 9 inches below the top and now the growth is moving below and above. My fig cane is about 6 feet long. See the photo attached. It seems it is confused as this is not normal. Gail and I are the proud parents of the first Paw Paw flower in our paw paw patch. Congratulations to the grand parents who planted these three years back. Darelene has included a photo of this flower and Susan Eisendrath has added a write up how the female flower changes to male flower. As new bamboo crop has arrived with help from Susan we stated replacing the old and decayed bamboo fence with new one and expect complete over the next couple of weeks. 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira Hope, Melissa and I were requited to build supports for our fellow gardeners. Before we donned our hard hats, put on our work boots and strapped on our tool belts, we harvested our garden bounty. We pulled green onions and radishes, making way for the coming tomato plants. Kale, lettuce, arugula, collards and Swiss chard were clipped. Mustard and spinach were also gathered . We stared at the laggard peas. They have been warned and little do they know they are on borrowed time. The beans are getting ready to move in (higher rental fees). Next week with the warmer weather we anticipate planting of some of our summer crops. Special projects: The Carols There was lots of activity in the keyhole gardens today. The compost towers were filled with kitchen scraps and brown leaves, and watered in well. Some nice fat worms were noticed crawling around near the tower. We harvested and dug out the red mustard plants as they had begun to bolt. Also harvested were kale, lettuces, and tat soi. One tomato trellis was built and the bamboo for a second was cut. Two lettuce plants were moved so that two dwarf tomatoes could be planted (will provide their names next week). We found two Super Sugar Snap pea pods on the vines, hopefully with more to come as the vines are blossoming. It will be interesting to see how the cooler season veggies do in the predicted heat wave for later this week. With the hot weather in mind, both keyhole gardens were given a good soaking. Many thanks to Ellina and Mohammad for their ideas and help! The straw bales continue to support all that is planted in them. Two strawberries were shared and reported to be very tasty. We replaced the unnamed cucurbit with an Asti Container Zucchini to compare with the same in the ground next door. Edith and Carol C considered the sage advice from Jessie regarding our tomato trellis. We completed the first one with good use of the auger to dig and sailors' whippping cord to lash to the crate securely. We relocated our volunteer sunflowers to be a back drop to the bales. We planted two tomato transplants, Big Rainbow and Cherokee Purple and await some Sungold and Indigo Blue Berry cherry plants. Of Particular note was the planting in the non-crated bale (to facilitate end of year access) of our greatly anticipated (at least by Carol C) Tomtato (registered TM) Named "Ketchup and Fries" it is an indeterminate cherry tomato that has been grafted onto a potato plant (they are in the nightshade family). The plant is expected to yield cherry tomatoes all season then in September the tomato stalk is to be cut and we then harvest the potatoes after 7-10 days. Should be interesting. Unlike most grafted plants, we were instructed to bury the graft so there will be little to see until the end of the season. Our "free to be whatever" gutter garden also thrives. The Pallets are really doing well and we harvested some lettuce and mustard for Manna. However, our research lab on watering encountered some blips. Bill reported that when he left last Tuesday, that many of our bottles with the carefully punctured membranes were found strewn on the ground. He replaced the bottles but did not know of our experiment on watering. Flummoxed as to who would dismantle them, Carol C dutifully refilled and replaced to see what happened this week. After working elsewhere on the bales, she turned to see several of the bottles strewn on the ground in the manner described by Bill. Quickly looking around to see the whereabouts of said Bill, suspected as somehow an accomplice in the problem, he was nowhere near the bottles. CC dutifully filled again, turned and when she turned back, the bottle was again strewn on the ground separated from both the cone and the carefully needled permeable membrane (piece of plastic). The consensus was that they were "exploding" independent of outside action. Carol O suggested we put a hole in the bottom/now top of the bottle which we did. The water drained immediately and quickly, not our goal. SO it seems we need a physicist to help us sort out the required pressure and/or density needed to avert explosion and still facilitate a slow drip. Independent of our machinations, there really seemed to be no problem with the moisture levels in either of the pallet sides, both short pocket and long pocket. But then it was a cool and rainy week. TO BE CONTINUED... Edibles: Erica Smith, Robin Ritterhoff and Mary Anne Normile We got lots accomplished in the veggie garden this week! The biggest projects were: - Filling the new deep raised bed. We put in about half partially broken down compost with lots of twigs and small branches left in for drainage, topped off with the remaining top soil-LeafGro mix, lightened with perlite. We will let it settle over the week and add more topsoil mix as needed before planting determinate tomatoes, eggplants, and compact zucchini next week. - Bamboo Trellis Project. Huge thanks to the gardeners who built, restored and restrung many of the trellises that add function, vertical growing space and beauty to our garden. Jesse, Melissa, and Hope lent their experience to train gardeners who wanted to develop their trellis building skills, including Yi-Len, Paula, and Ram. Edith and Carol focused on designing bamboo structures to support future tomato crops. Hope, Rich and Linda designed a new arbor over the bench by the CSAAC area that will tempt anyone nearby to sit & admire the beds. There's plenty more to be done with the bamboo supply that gardeners harvested last week, so anyone who wants to expand their trellis building skills should look around next week to join gardeners continuing this work. We also: - Planted Muir and Cherokee summer crisp lettuce seed in the salad table. These heat-tolerant lettuces should do well in the shade into the hot weather. - Uncovered the two rows of Georgia collards in bed B and placed fake cabbage white butterflies above one row. This is an experiment to test a hypothesis about territorial behavior in these butterflies - will female cabbage whites avoid laying eggs on plants that seem to be "claimed" by other females? The fake insects were made out of Tyvek envelope material and were given appropriate black markings. The unprotected row will serve as a control. We will need to check these plants each week for caterpillars. - Harvested lots and lots of greens including kale, collards, pak choi, and chard. Thanks Millicent! - Harvested beautiful French Breakfast radishes from the raised beds; thanks Mohammed. - Checked potatoes for Colorado potato beetles - not a one. - Kept adding soil to the potatoes in bags. Potatoes in ground are hilled up as far as they can go. - Planted a few zucchini plants near the potato area. - Constructed the rest of the mounds for the Three Sisters garden in the new annex, and planted the corn. Thanks to Joslyn for taking this project on, and to Dan and Linda for working on it last week. After the corn has sprouted and grown for two weeks, we'll plant the pole beans and squash that are the other components in this symbiotic combination used by Native American gardeners. See http://www.southernexposure.com/blog/2017/05/the-three-sisters-garden-guide/ for more information. - Put in a new sign about cover crops created by Linda Davis and Margaret Polcawich. Make sure to bring in any extra summer vegetable or flower seedlings that you may have over the next two weeks! Thanks to the tomato donors! Tomato Bed - Dan Ward and Joslyn Read This week was the week for bringing tomato (as well as other tender crops) for the Demo Garden. But, because of the cold temperatures the previous week the decision was made to hold off for a week before actually planting the. Although the air temperature is quite warm (or hot) this week the ground temperature was still a bit chilly. A one week delay in putting the plants in the ground really won't have any impact on the growing season. For those who would like to contribute tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc., please bring them in next week (5/23). I'm sure they will find a welcoming home somewhere in the garden. And for those who did bring in plants, thank you. Your generosity is warmly welcomed. This week we also put some more planning in the new tomato areas opened up to us. An unexpected bonus. We also assisted Erica with her "3-sisters" Native American project by adding more mounds and planting corn POND REPORT: Darlene Nicholson and Rich Dieckhans Frog Wisdom How to handle the heat and still be involved. Keep your body in the water and head above. BUG REPORT : Darlene Nicholson Wandering in the Butterfly Garden on Tuesday, I noticed the return of the small Milkweed bugs. They look very much like Boxelder bugs. Boxelder bugs have more black to orange ratio with usually an all black head and orange eyes. We usually feed the Milkweed Bugs to the frogs patiently waiting in the pond. Of course the quickest clue we get to identification is the fact that we don' t have any Boxelder trees in the area and we do have lots of Milkweed plants. When trying to ID a bug always consider the plant they are on as a possible first clue to the identity. We also come upon the Milkweed beetle this time of year in the same area. We see so few of them, we just let them be. BEWARE...THEY'RE HERE!! While I have seen evidence of the Four-lined Plant bug in the garden I haven't seen one at Derwood this season although I have seen some of the damage. They are very quick and hard to catch. Below you see the Four-lined Plant bug along with an example of early damage. Definitely frog food, if you can catch'em. By the way, they seen to eat everything! Closing Comments: Bill, Susan and Lily
Great workday! A request at 10 at 10 for our volunteers to spread the news about education in the garden. Please bring your summer seedlings to the garden next week. See you all next week.
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