Cool and comfortable is the best description for conditions in the Garden this week--and we are not complaining. While we can tell by the changing colors in the trees near the Garden that autumn is approaching, there are still plenty of blooms on the flowers and vegetables to be harvested. Steve Dubik joined us at our 10 @ 10 to review our most recent soils test. He also provided some on-site plant diagnostics. Thanks, Steve! Announcements for September 19: Next Tuesday, the 26th, we will be hosting a group of students and teachers from the Ridge School who are visiting to get ideas for their own garden. We will not have a 10 @ 10, unless someone would like to volunteer. . . . Looking ahead, on October 3 Darlene will give a presentation on spiders at 10 @ 10. October 10 is our Open Garden, which will include a review of the garden successes and less-then successes at 10 @ 10. Don't forget the Harvest Festival on October 7! Garden Reports: Shade Garden: Carol Martin and Sue Schick ( Thursday workday) On Thursday, the 'Shady' crew was busy planting the purchases they made last week. The hillside is filling out nicely. In some areas, we are removing Lamium 'golden archangel' which we were using as ground cover & place holder to make space for new plants. It was a beautiful work day warming pleasantly until time to leave. We missed some of our regular workers who were celebrating Rosh Hanasana. Due to no sigtificant rain in the last two weeks, it was necessary to water & especially new plantings. We are hoping for rain from the hurricanes & hoping that they are kinder to us than they have been in the south. Conservation Garden: Maria Wortman On this beautiful workday, we spent time mulching the pathway with wood chips. It looks so much better now! Thanks to all who helped. There is still so much beauty here. You might have passed by the pond without noticing that the water hyacinth is blooming. Stop for a moment to appreciate the delicate lilac flower. The winterberries are sporting their brilliant red berries, which will remain for quite a while. Autumn Joy Sedum and Hardy Monch Aster make a lovely swath of color. Near the entrance to the garden, the white blossoms of the windflower, Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert are blooming. We love how the brilliant white pops out in the part shade of this garden. Children’s Garden: Sandy Chernin It felt like autumn in the garden today – clear, crisp, and cool! The gourd vines were an immediate standout, topped with beautiful yellow blooms at the top. Although one large luffa gourd was found on the ground, many others continue to grow and mature on their vines. Overall the vines are healthy, but, as in weeks past, here and there were leaves consumed with powdery mildew. These leaves were pruned out and errant vines were redirected to the trellis. Elsewhere in Mrs. MacGregor’s garden, pepper plants look good and are still producing. The carrots and lettuce planted last week are also thriving, despite some nibbling evident on a few lettuce plants. Thank you to LeeAnne Gellety for the new signage – throughout the season you have responded so quickly to so many requests! And also thank you to Audrey Hankinson who helped today with pruning in the garden and with the covering/recovering of the peanut plants! We are happy to report that the peanut plants still look healthy with multiple pegs! In the garden of “Plants with Animal Names”, the pink and white turtlehead continue to bloom, the teepee of cardinal vine is magnificent, and the catmint is lightly flowering. Some time was spent pulling rambling cardinal vine from the rest of the garden. The fuzzy lamb’s ear was lightly pruned of older, yellowing leaves to enhance air circulation and growth. Lastly, there was a new highlight to join the purple hyacinth vine and lion’s mane/lion’s tail plants! The Lady in Black aster is flowering! It hasn’t looked like much for most of the season. We have been patiently cutting this plant back (until about mid-July) and now are reaping the rewards of tiny white/pink flowers, on cascading stems of purple foliage. This is a nice native plant, flowering late in the season, attractive to both butterflies and bees, and it is known to be drought tolerant. Take a look, you may want to add this to your perennial garden! Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai It was a slow day in the herb and fragrance garden. There is really not much to be done at this time of year. We cut back/deadheaded all the basil plants, and removed some of the very vigorous apple mint which allowed the sorrel to "re-appear." Weeding was done around the fence line, between the lavendar and the tansy and, as usual, among the brick pathway. Marty put a call in to Ida and several people got a chance to say hello to her. Word is that she sounded great. We all miss Ida and wish her the best. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Mother nature gave us a pleasant workday, breezy and mild temperatures. It would not have been a normal day without removing wheel barrows(3) of overgrowth. The Monarch caterpillars were present today. This has been a bonus year for Monarch propagation. Also the Milkweed Bug was out in force today. Thank you to Darlene for donating a Horsetail Milk Weed plant to the garden. We planted it today and will be anxious to see it thrive. Small Fruit : Gail Ifshin and Ram Narula Vigorous pruning took place over the past couple weeks. As we do general cleanup, we not disturbing suckers and other colonization attempts on the part of the berry vines. Our intention is to dig out the growth we do not want to keep and make it available to interested MGs. We are surprised that the figs are taking so long to ripen. For almost three weeks, while they have been turning increasingly brown, they still remain quite hard. The ground cover in the pawpaw patch has been an issue of some concern. The red clover has not been performing well – it has let in large amounts of weeds. So last week we started an experiment, outlined in the pictures below. We cleared a patch where the weed population was most intense. Bill mowed as a first step. Gail did some additional cleaning, weed pulling, and put down a layer of newspaper. The area was then covered with a thick layer of leaf mulch, and watered thoroughly to, among other things, create conditions conducive to seed germination (especially the peas). We sowed a mixture of peas and buckwheat, and as you can see, were rewarded with some new growth after only one week. Special Projects: The Carols Straw bales: Yes, you can grow potatoes in straw bales! Today we dug up 3 more perfectly shaped Adirondack Blue potatoes in the bales. That brings the grand total to 7. Some sprouts have emerged so we will have a more thorough search next week. There are also potato sprouts coming up from the Ketchup and Fries grafted plant (tomato/potato). Since the cherry tomatoes are almost finished for the season, we look forward to cutting them off per instructions, letting the potato "season" for a week or so and then harvesting the potatoes, an interesting experiment. Over all the potatoes have done very nicely all season in the bales, from planting 6 eyes, vigorous shoots, to the now discovered potatoes. More browning leaves were trimmed from the tomato plants. The Cajun peppers continue to produce. Swiss chard is still thriving. The strawberry plants continue to look good, although they are not yielding lots of berries. We are anxiously awaiting for more of the Indigo Blue Berries tomato to fully ripen. Maybe next week….. We also added some soil to "dress" the top roots of one tomato that were bared as a result of watering the quickly decomposing bale. Pallets: The Bok Choy seeds planted last week on the top of the pallet came up and were delicately thinned. Some of the seedlings were added to the Keyhole gardens and the straw bales. The lettuce seed tape may have produced 1 or 2 seedlings. We are hoping for more proof of germination by next week. Our two mini munch cucumbers are growing, one with a flower. The Windowbox basil at the bottom of the pallet is a complete success. All were watered well. After a busy morning of gardening some fellow Demo MG stopped by to ask about the pallets. We discussed the soda bottle drip watering methods. Both Carols enjoyed sharing our experiences with pallet gardening this season with them. There was another visitor from Howard County MG who was heard to admiringly emote verbally about our wonderful Demonstration garden. Keyhole: Even though there were plenty of brown/diseased leaves to remove there are still plenty of green tomatoes and green leaves left on the various plants. The Bush Goliath Dwarf plant has the most, followed by the Waratah Dwarf, Summer Sunrise Dwarf, and Sweet Scarlet Dwarf. The Mouse Melons continue to grow happily up the teepee trellis, and one of the two green pepper plants has a number of blossoms and 5 peppers are developing. Today's harvest included lots of mouse melons, tomatoes, fish peppers, Swiss chard, basil, and beans. Manna: Robin Ritterhoff We delivered 88 pounds, for a year to date total of 1625 lbs. Vegetable Beds: Robin Ritterhoff, Erica Smith, Mary Anne Normile Harvesting: squash (summer and winter), watermelons, beans, peppers (sweet and hot, from raised bed and more Jalafuego from annex), yardlong beans, swiss chard, mouse melons, tomatoes, mustard, kale, okra, Malabar spinach, herbs from kitchen garden. Tending: - Pulled or cut back holy basil as it was about to go to seed. - Checked progress of squash and watermelons in Three Sisters area. Cut a couple of small mature butternut and several watermelons - hopefully mature as their stems were dried up. Next week we should be able to harvest Yokohama squash which is a dark green when mature, but seems not yet hardened enough on the outside. - Checked peas in annex - we'll be harvesting next week. - Did not get the needed bug patrol done (too much harvesting, not enough people). Spotted stink bugs, harlequin bugs, squash bugs. - Some needed weeding was accomplished but we have much more to do before the Harvest Festival! - Noted powdery mildew on most of the summer squash, which will come out next week. Tromboncino is still doing fine, though - so well that Erica's thorough harvesting completely missed one large squash hidden in the leaves, spotted by Bill later in the morning. - Thinned radishes planted last week in raised beds. - Irma (the friendly gardener, not the hurricane!) helped install row cover over kale and beets in the raised beds Educating Ourselves: -The ragged leaves and stems of the raised beds’ beets were clearly eaten by something, but what? No visible insects or eggs under the leaves, nor snail trails. The red Bulls Blood beets were reduced to stems, while the yellow beets’ foliage was intact, though full of holes. We raised the question to Steve, who identified two possible problems: red-leaf-loving rabbits or chipmunks, plus possible disease. Since new growth was visible, we installed row cover, hoping that will block any threats. -As we pulled out the lovely purple shiso (perilla) before it drops prolific seeds, we investigated how it could be used. Lots of ways! We found recipes for pickling it, making kimchi, combining with rice, adding it to lemonade – very versatile. Yinyang told us its health benefits as tea. There will doubtless be volunteer seedlings again next year if you’d like some for your own garden. BUG REPORT Darlene Nicholson (How a non-entomologist thinks about bugs) Tuesday was a busy bug day. Making accurate bug ID's is not always as easy as it might appear. Just when you think you get the gist, another one comes along that throws a monkey wrench in the whole thing. The most interesting thing about bug ID's is the fact that a single bug can appear in many different forms in its life progressions. In complete metamorphosis, the bug completely changes the way it looks; think caterpillar/butterfly. Incomplete metamorphosis, shows the bug as tiny changing versions (instars) of basically the adult form it will be. I always think this form makes it easier for us to figure out what the adult will be. Body designs on early to late instars can look quite different as the design stretches to accommodate the enlarged body shape. The body shape at this point is an important element to help narrow the ID down, but even that doesn't always work. A case in point, this happened when LeAnne G. noticed this large grouping of insects in the vegetable patch. My immediate reaction was the large amount of these bugs together. Are they some kind of squash bug? Looking a little closer, the obvious leaf shape on the leg, hence, the leaffooted bug. Looking closer still, I noticed the proboscis. I had never noticed these on the adult form. This led my thinking to some version of an assassin bug? Another clue, these bugs were on the pretzel bean plant. In my mind, I associate the leaffooted bug (a kind of squash bug), with usually being found on cucurbit plants. Some of the earlier forms of assassins have a more slender body shape but assassin bugs usually aren't seen in large groupings. Okay, here's where the ID becomes much more important. One choice is saving a very beneficial species, the other is destroying a crop destructive bug. I always like to err on not killing, in case they could be beneficials. UGH oh! After much reading, I found that I was not the only novice who had this ID difficulty. It turns out that the leaffooted bug, while having a proboscis, seem to keep them held close to their bodies, while assassin bugs kinda hang them out there for all to see. I had to really look hard to photograph the proboscis on the guys in the images below. Note the small orange creature in the 2nd photo, looking a lot like an assassin baby from this view. Turns out, the leaf footed bug also have similar looking young. Yeesch! (quoting Maria W. here). Since I report the bug ID's in the weekly report at Derwood, I really need to be SURE I have the correct ID. At this point, I am going with leaffooted bug, but I have so thoroughly confused myself that I will send this into HGIC to get a confirmation. " Thank you for your nice comment. You are correct. These are leaf-footed bugs." "We've seen a few of these around and about in the garden. It is a 4th or 5th instar of the green stink bug. Chinavia halaris (Say) UGA2134079 entnemdept.ufl.edu This was a first timer (as least as far as documenting purposes go) at Derwood. Schizura unicornis Unicorn caterpillar. Looking much like a crumpled leaf, we noted this very small caterpillar on the bush cherry. We actually found two of them. Caterpillars in this genus are unusual in that they can eject a stream of formic acid for up to several inches from a gland in the hump. GOOD to know. Formic acid has some interesting uses. Look it up. They seemed to be enjoying this bush cherry leaf, but we hardly ever see this so them so we let them be. Please check them out on this link. http://bugguide.net/node/view/28015 Obviously, I spend waaaaay too much time looking up, photographing, and discovering information about bugs. THERAPEUTIC HORTICULTURE: Bob Loesche and Virginia White-Mahaffey While fall continues to make its presence known in the beds, we still have lots of flowers in active growth. In Bed 1, the Celosia are still amazingly vibrant, mostly in red with a little orange mixed in. These would pair beautifully with the Rudbeckia Goldquelle from Bed 4. Production from the Cut and Come Again zinnia is waning, but many blossoms remain. Virginia cleared away a lot of weeds along the fence and removed spent foliage from the Artemisia so that usable plant material will be easy to access. In Bed 2, the queen red lime zinnia are flowering nicely, and the Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) are flowering sufficiently that cuttings can now be taken (see photo). In Bed 3, the red Gomphrena continue to bloom very strongly. I have been remiss in my weekly reports in failing to also laud the Verbena Bonariensis, which is flowering like crazy (that's a technical gardening term, in case you didn't know). The Chrysanthemum also have plenty of blooms; although the flowers are on short stalks we hope that they can be useful in projects. In the bad news department, the foliage on the Rudbeckia Goldstrum and pinwheel zinnia are showing pretty significant signs of mold or fungus. Both sets of plants are still producing flowers, but the blooms are so close to unattractive foliage that I figured they would not be useful in projects. Accordingly, I cut back much of the diseased foliage (and, regrettably, lost a lot of buds in the process) in the hope that new leaves and flowers will emerge before the growing season is over. In Bed 4, the Rudbeckia Goldquelle continue to produce dozens of spectacular yellow flowers. Virginia and I did a lot of deadheading of spent blossoms, which means they weren't used for projects--for shame! Please, come and grab them and combine them with other material from the beds, like, say, Celosia. There is also a pretty good supply of Celosia in this bed, in a form that's a little taller--and not quite as dramatic--as the plants in Bed 1. After a lot of carefully deadheading last week, the Gaillardia rebounded amazingly and produced a host of new blossoms. Finally, in Bed 4.5, the pink Gomphrena are flowering just as magnificently as their red cousins in Bed 3. See you next week in the Garden!
Lily, Susan, Bill
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