Once I came in the terms of pots and pans, in the dun-color of soulless moiling. Now I come in the terms of dahlias, and hepaticas, in a happy garden. My spade chortles, the poppies flaunt their red skirts of abandon. I hang laughing vines over my garden wall, and have planted a purple grape that climbs up and kisses the red-cheeked cherries in my trees. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "At the Roots of Grasses: XIII," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923 With the sounds of power-tools mixing with the songs of the bluebirds and chatter of busy gardeners, the earth moved to make way for new seeds and more plants. It seemed like humans outnumbered the seedlings today with a tour of 38 4-year-old's including their adult teachers and chaperones. Add in 3 curious couples ("You mean we can just walk in now?" "And just one more question....") and a cheerful father-daughter; and it felt like we could use more room in the demo garden. Also overheard debate about expanding shade, proper spacing for new tomato starts, milkweed management, drill-driver-alignment, purple-marting timing, the difference between a pickaxe and a mattock, bamboo lengths, the tameness of frogs, the upcoming herb festival, mosquitoes/fish/mosquito-fish, mulch, mounds, and more (oh my). Susan counted 50 of us including 5 interns. Thank you all for coming out to help make Derwood Demo Garden a wonderful place. Garden Reports: Compost Central: Kristy Hardy Yesterday, I had help from another Susan and Heidi. Heidi is an intern and Susan has been a master gardener for 2 years. They were a great help. We had a preschool class come through during a garden tour and Bill also brought a few people through during a tour. Pile #1 was moved to bin 2 and Susan E. says it is about ready for garden use. Bin 4 was transferred to 3, but needs a little more time, so we will turn that next week and maybe even add some more greens. We were able to fill the county compost bin so that could be turned next week and we started a new pile in bin #5, so we are cooking away. Small Fruit Garden: Ram Narula and Gail Ifshin Our Persimmon bush was looking good. The fig bush has started getting some new growth at the bottom third of the last year’s stock. It looks like the upper portion had some winter damage and we will chop off the top of the canes. We continued the weeding and took an aim at the bigger ones. Not sure if this was a Lamb’s ear or Mullein weed in the strawberry patch, it was over powering the strawberries, so we decided to remove it. The area behind the gogi berry was over taken by Joe pye weed with deep roots, so with lot of hard work Gail was successful in removing it. We spotted a bitter sweet weed with it orange colored roots. It was strangling one of our beech plum, so we took it out. We also cleaned the area behind the black berries and more needs to be. Erica planted one asparagus dormant root stock at an empty spot in the asparagus patch. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Today was an absolutely perfect weather day.......bright, sunny and the temperature was just right. We did our usual weeding and trimming. We also planted Vincas, Marigolds and Cannas. We spread leaf grow and plotted our future annual planting. Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai Today was a short work day for the team. We first checked on all the plants that we put in last week; all appear to be doing well. A jasmine plant was removed because I realized I had purchased the wrong variety. A very fragrant annual variety will be put in next week; the original plant will go into my own garden .... somewhere. The heirloom rose was cleaned up of faded blossoms, and the chaste tree was cut back. Some weeding was done and mulch was added to a few areas to help suppress new weeds. Our own John Reilly gave a short talk on the upcoming herb festival in Baltimore at the 10 At 10. Thanks, John! Conservation Garden: Maria Wortman Every week brings incremental changes to the Conservation Garden. We see our own gardens daily and changes come little by little each day until we see the rose in full bloom. But we usually come to the Demo Garden only once a week, so each visit brings a sudden new surprise. Blooming now is the Ninebark ‘Diablo’. It is a cultivar of the native Physocarpus opulifolius, and is quite attractive with its prolific light pink flowers against the dark maroon foliage. In addition to its beauty, it is drought-tolerant and quite easy to grow, with few problems. In the winter when the leaves have fallen, its exfoliating bark is a plus. Another native plant blooming now is the Zizia aurea, Golden Alexander. As its name suggests, it sports umbrels of bright yellow flowers which are extremely popular with pollinators, especially the black Swallowtail butterfly for whom it is a larval food source, though we haven’t yet seen any larvae on the plants. It’s a member of the carrot family, and self-seeds freely and pops up here and there in the garden. We haven’t found this to be a problem, though some folks have said it’s a bully in their garden. A big thanks to Linda Reiger, who has generously donated several plants from her home garden. This week, she planted a Lanceleaf Wild Licorice, Galium lanceolatum, a native ground cover. We hope it prospers and spreads here. As we’ve said before, we have been trying in the last couple of years to utilize more native plants. Linda and LeeAnne Gelletly have been making an effort to correctly label the plants and to indicate which are native to the U.S. and to our area. It’s nice to have color in the garden all season long, and the leaves of the hosta ‘Popcorn’ certainly accomplish that. They look as if the blue-green border streaking into the light yellowish-green center had been painted onto the heavily corrugated leaves. Happily, occupants have wasted no time in moving into the sweet birdhouse on the shepherd’s crook. Thanks, Lily! Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Bob Loesche Notwithstanding the March-like weather, things are progressing in the TH beds. The perennials are continuing to get large, and we even spied the beginning of a bud or two on the Echinacea. The Fennel is growing gangbusters, and I spent a fair bit of time corralling it into its boundaries. Additionally, Virginia and I purchased some new plants. In Bed 3, next to the Fennel, we installed three Rudbeckia Goldsturm. Although I have not had good luck with these in my home garden, they are the Maryland state flower, so surely they will thrive in the UMD-sponsored Demo Garden! In Bed 4, Virginia installed four Gaillardia Arizona Sun, aka Blanket Flower (photo). Virginia and I don't think we've ever grown these in the TH beds, but they are reported to be very good cut flowers, with large red and yellow blossoms from June through August. They grow about 1 foot tall, and attract butterflies. In unfortunate news from Bed 4, the Cherry Queen Zinnias look quite bad. We speculate that they were not sufficiently hardened before being planted in last week's alternating warm and cold (not to mention wet) weather. Before we give up on them we will give them a little time to revive; if that doesn't happen we'll find something else for the space. The other plants added to the bed last week are doing OK. Returning to the good news department, Linda Davis delivered to us 12 very nice looking, but small Gomphrena plants. We're not sure how much time these have spent outside, so, In light of our unfortunate experience with the cherry Zinnias, Virginia took them home for hardening and we'll install them in Bed 3 next week. Container Garden: Claude Allen The Container Garden is progressing nicely with veggies growing, fish acclimating to fluctuating weather and water temperature, and water lettuce multiplying. It doesn't appear that we have lost any fish. In fact, we have a number of babies swimming in both water containers. This week, we will begin adding plants to the Latin and Italian containers. We will also transplant the marginal water container plants to a floating basket once I create it from a small basket and swimming pool noodles. The cold weather snap doesn't appear to have affected adversely the other plants. We'll keep an eye on their progress. 100 Square Foot Garden: Linda Taveira After a 2 week hiatus it was a delight to see how many seeds had germinated and how big the plants had grown! The arugula and giant Japanese mustard were so large I was wondering if Hope had fed them illegal steroids while I was gone! Under the row covers the greens were elbowing each other for some serious room. The growing broccoli plants with collaboration from the sneaky collards, engineered the complete removal of innocent, lovely pak choy whose only crime was to over grow it's space. However justice was served, as next the collards got stripped down to size. Watching all this next door were French breakfast radishes who were also collected and stuffed into a similar bag. Hope, invaded the herb section and being in a serious mood gave a serious haircut to the tall blooming chives. While she was at it, she gave apiece of her mind to the parsley plants. But she didn't touch her baby fennel plants which are still babies. Seniors onions, Mister Turnips, and Misses Spinach are all honoring their contracts by growing nicely in their spaces. Carrots being carrots are taking their good old time. Then there are the peas..........laggard's! Somebody remind me why we plant these fussy pants legumes. I'm ready to put BEANS in their spot (warning)! Grudgingly they got watered along with the rest of the garden. Ebidles: Erica Smith, Robin Ritterhoff and Mary Anne Normile Replaced several of the asparagus plants that were not producing well, by digging holes and placing in new crowns. (Thanks to Dan for the donation.) - Checked on progress of brassica plants. All growing well! Will start harvesting next week. - Dug up a few volunteer mouse melons from under the row cover with the cabbages. In that protected space, they have begun emerging, while next to the cattle panel trellis, they have not - but soon they will. We also have several mature mouse melon seedlings to plant there when it is warm enough. I hope the little volunteers found good homes - if you missed taking one home, there will likely be more. - Covered up potatoes, both those in the ground and those in the fabric pots. Barbara found several wireworms, sad to say. We hope we can find them all before they burrow holes in our potatoes. --Raised beds: completed the construction (with help from Bill, Vera and Joe G.) of the deep raised bed (see photo Deep Raised Bed Completed, attached). Next week we will level it, add a weed barrier, and begin to fill it with compost and soil mix. The bed measures 3' x 8' x 22-23" deep and willl demonstrate an option for making vegetable gardening more comfortable for people who have trouble bending or kneeling. --Robin thinned the carrots in one of the new raised beds. A few stray weeds were pulled, everything given a good drink. --Harvested asparagus, lettuce from the salad table, radishes. . --Our first Manna donation of the season--14 lbs of lettuce, mustard, kale & bok choy, asparagus, and radishes-- was greeted by Manna staff with delight. And it went right into the boxes of people collecting food today (see photo First Manna delivery of the season, attached). --We entertained and educated lots of visitors to the garden. Robin explained to a young group why it's too early to plant tomatoes just yet. (See photo New raised bed proves irresistible). --Next week is trellis building day - please come if you want to help/learn. All are welcome! Special Projects: The Carols So, how many pin holes in a reservoir bottle does it take to self water a pallet garden? Last week we found that the water emptied out too quickly from the reservoir bottles with the various methods we tried. This week we stretched a plastic membrane across the bottle openings and poked the membrane with an embroidery needle, starting with one pin hole and working up to 4. Next Tuesday, we'll evaluate that experiment. We are pleased with the progress of our gardens so far. The pallets are eye-catching with the combination of colors textures and leaf sizes and shapes. Although the bales have not yet heated up as we expected, we did notice some mushrooms growing - perhaps a sign that they are beginning to decompose. Also, more potato greens have popped up. We are hoping to be able to plant tomatoes and peppers soon. The keyhole compost towers were 10 to 20 degrees hotter this week. We would happily accept kitchen scraps from anyone willing to save them. Mustard greens, lettuce, and kale were harvested for Manna. Constructing trellises for the keyholes and straw bales will be on the agenda for next Tuesday. Many thanks to interns, Yingyan, Donna, and Vera for their help today. BUG REPORT: Darlene Nicholson LOOK BEFORE YOU BITE!!! If you are picking asparagus, please take a look at the top of the plant and along the stalk before you take a bite. Here are 2 images from Derwood. The first shows a closeup of an Asparagus Beetle munching along the tender top of the plant and the second image of the eggs of the Asparagus Beetle protruding from the plant head (very tiny). Another noticeable pest intruder spotted this week was the Eastern Tent Caterpillar. We noted a small nest in the Cherry tree near the garden entrance (We can't reach it to get it down). They leave the nests during the day and munch about in the garden. Both are pests in the garden, and if you come upon them, put them in soapy water OR take them to the far pond and feed the frogs. They are anxiously awaiting. POND REPORT: Rick Dieckhens, Darlene Nicholson This week Rich and Mary spent time pulling the overgrown plants from the deep center of the pond in an effort to clean up some of the pond and free the water lily.This was delayed due to the massive toad/frog egg laying earlier in the season. We emptied about half the water out of the pond, netted as much debris as we could, and refilled. Even though there was much commotion during the cleaning, I think just about all the frogs returned and the fish seems settled in their slightly different environment. Mary even got to hold a frog! Maria got to hold one too! Bamboo Harvesting: Linda Davis
The bamboo cutting expedition went well, although the site is not ideal (rather steep). We harvested about 45 canes of 10' to 15' length, trimmed the side branches, cleaned up the site, and John Reilly transported them back to Derwood. Thank you Pam, Carol, the other Carol, and John for your hard work. Closing Comments: Bill, Susan and Lily Ida, we miss you - feel better soon. Thank you Linda for organizing and your hard work at harvesting the bamboo! Thank you to everyone who helped with the garden tours. Remember that we have another group of students touring May 23. Next Tuesday, May 16, is Bring the Tomatoes Day. If you have extra tomato seedlings that you want to donate to the demo garden or to your fellow gardeners, please bring them on Tuesday. We will sort them out and some will be planted in the garden (or held until the next week if the soil temperature is still too cold). Please wait until the tomato team has finished selecting plants before taking any for your own garden. We will also be giving some plants to the White Oak Youth Garden. If you have tomato seedlings that you want to donate but that are still too small, make a list of them and bring that. Thank you! On Tuesday 5/23 we will be sorting out other seedlings in the same way, so please hold your peppers, squash and other extra summer seedlings for that time. “I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” ― Ruth Stout
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