What a difference a week makes! Gone was the humidity and heat, and touches of frost could be seen around the garden. Hats, jackets and gloves appeared on the gardeners who worked to take down the fading flowers and vegetable plants. Today was the annual shed cleaning day, a necessary but not always fun project. A special thanks to Dan Ward for organizing the clean-out, and to LeeAnne Gelletly, Darlene Nicholson, Joe Ginther and Julie Mangin for their invaluable assistance. The shed looks fabulous! Announcements for October 17: The season may be coming to an end, but we have plenty going on in the next couple of weeks. October 24: Joe Ginther will discuss garden tool care at our last 10 @ 10. October 31: Optional half work day with pitch-in lunch at Maria Wortman's at 11:00. Bring a dish that you like to share. Maria's address is: 15609 Amelung Lane, Derwood, MD 20855. Telephone (301) 424-4719 or (301)928-9141 (c) Manna Report: Robin Ritterhoff Our delivery of 112 pounds of fresh harvest today brought our YTD total to 2006 pounds - just over a ton . That surpasses by more than 200 lbs our biggest ever previous total (1801 lbs, 2013). Many thanks to everyone who harvested, bagged & helped load the tubtrugs for delivery to Manna. And special thanks to the Derwood gardeners who shared some of their home harvest, including those beautiful eggplants that thrilled the Manna staff. Vegetable Garden Report: Mary Anne Normile, Robin Ritterhoff, and Erica Smith The early arrivals to the garden this morning reported traces of light frost, visible in some dark gray-tinged sweet potato & squash leaves. With cooler temperatures forecast for Wednesday morning, we took advantage of the brisk but sunny morning to continue cleaning out beds, especially where summer crops had been planted. Harvesting: Loads of greens--kale (Russian Red, Lacinato, and Portuguese), collards, mustard, lettuce; peppers, a few squash (crookneck, tromboncino and "Butta"), sugarsnap and snow peas, mouse melons, carrots, okra, sweet potato greens, and sweet potatoes. Also a very generous donation of beautiful eggplant for Manna from one of the Shade Garden volunteers. Planting: Karin completed clearing beds previously planted with Amish pretzel cowpeas and bok choy to plant 4 types of garlic--two softneck (Polish White artichoke-type and Silverwhite Silverskin) and two hardneck (Chesnok Red and Romanian Red). Tending: The remaining summer crops--mostly peppers, okra and squash--were harvested and plants removed. We left frost-tolerant greens--brassicas, chard, and lettuce--for one more cutting next week or on the last workday. Robin, Lauren and Lily cleaned out beds in the annex garden and applied the newspaper-and-shredded leaf treatment that we hope will protect them from weeds over the winter. Special Projects: Carol Conrad and Carol Olsen The Carols found their tasks a little bittersweet as they made the final big harvest from the Bales, Keyholes and Pallets. Lots of tomatoes from the Keyholes, various cherry tomatoes from the bales, one more potato, many peppers and some chard and lettuces. We then turned to pulling up the tomato plants and mouse melons and deconstructing the bamboo supports. The lovely and prolific marigolds were pulled up and given to Lily for Therapeutic Horticulture. The bales were cleaned of plants and dug into to see the state of the decomposed bales. We found much rich compost ready made for next year's special projects. The well decomposed loose bales were put into the crated bales to sit over the winter. All that was left were the strawberries that will stay for spring fruits. Final report on the "Ketchup and Fries" grafted tomato/potato : Although interesting for its novelty, the cherry tomatoes were not that tasty and after cutting them off last week, we dug in for the potatoes this week, and found only one minuscule potato among the roots. The pallets continue to demonstrate their herb and salad worthiness. There is one mini-munch cucumber in the pallets with 2 tiny fruits trying to beat the frost. The nasturtiums have rebounded beautifully. The lettuces are fine and the star of the pallets continue to be the Windowbox Basil. Therapeutic Horticulture: Bob Loesche and Virginia White-Mahaffey Fall is definitely arriving and things are slowing down in the TH beds. Nonetheless, as demonstrated by the photo of flowers picked yesterday by Helen, many beautiful plants remain. Virginia and I did some weeding and deadheading and removed spent annuals. We also took advantage of the large pile of leaf compost and put a healthy layer on all the beds. In Bed 1 the celosia continue to flower strongly in neon reds and oranges. The zinnia are starting to fade, but some isolated blossoms remain. In Bed 2, the orange tithonia continue to put out vibrant flowers, even from a stalk that was partially broken during the open house. In Bed 3, the red gomphrena are still blooming but fading in color a bit. In Bed 4 the gaillardia continue to chug along. Finally, in Bed 4.5 the pink gomphrena are absolutely dazzling, as shown in the second photo. Pond Report: Darlene Nicholson and Rich Dieckhans We had a bit of frost at the Demo Garden on Tuesday morning. The frogs and pond critters were snuggled away from the colder temps awaiting the late morning, early afternoon warm-up. Next week we will cut down any remaining water perennials and drop their buckets a little deeper in the water as they go dormant in preparation for the freezing temps. We will clear away all floaters and put them in the compost pile. We will also check to make sure the deepest parts of both ponds aren't too cluttered with plant material so that the fish can retreat down there in the very cold winter weather. We used to net the ponds before we left for the season, but the longer seasons encourage the many frogs we have to linger, and we find that they get stuck in the netting. So we defer to the frogs and have a little more cleaning in the spring. It has been a very good year for toads, frogs, and fish minus the mishap at the conservation garden. Some of the people behind the plants. . . Children’s Garden Report: Sandy Chernin A chilly morning that initially required a coat and hat became a warm and comfortable afternoon in the garden. Tasks today were:
Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford It was a very chilly beginning to our morning. As an early arriver, I saw a film of crystal like ice on some of the plants. Luckily it warmed up quickly. Today we pruned the Fringe tree in the Butterfly Garden. We removed and thinned out lower branches, giving it what we called "a designer look". Actually the tree will appreciate the haircut come spring. We dead headed the zinnias which are still in bloom. We plan to leave much of the of foliage for bird refuge and protection this winter. Painted Ladies were in the air and on the flowers today. Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai This week we thinned out the lemon balm, apple mint, comfrey, and southernwood artemesia, cut back the chaste tree and the jasmine, put down more leaf mulch and did some weeding. We also trimmed back the catmint, cut off some of the spent annual nasturtiums, and deadheaded the basils that remain. Enjoy the beautiful weather this week--and we will see you in the garden next Tuesday!
Lily, Bill, and Susan
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