Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,

It’s Harvest time and also a good time to take stock on what worked well for you this season and what didn’t.  Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and events for August. Events include Wings of Fancy at Brookside Gardens South Conservatory, Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, Pollinating Pairs, Food Matters: Montgomery County Breweries – Policy, Profit, and Pints, Mill Creek Clean Up, Pop-Up Movie Night: Agricultural History Farm Park, Mill Creek Towne Entrance Repair Project, and more!

Planning:

• The heat of summer is here. Time to start doing chores during early morning or evening. Take a break during the hottest part of the day.
• Take garden photos and make notes in your garden journal.
• Check your local garden club for end-of-summer bargains.
• Start shopping for spring bulbs.
• Start collecting plant seeds for next year and for trading.
• Preserve gourds and dry flowers for display in the fall.
• Attend a county fair and enter some of your garden bounty.
• Volunteer at a local public or historic garden.
• Have a question about gardening? Check the University of Maryland Extension’s New Maryland Grows blog for garden tips.
• Support our local parks and gardens. Visit a garden or park for their spring festivities!
• Support Our Local Farmers – Join a CSA and have fresh local produce delivered to you!
• Support our local farmers! Visit a local farmers’ market near you. Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2019 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.

 

Flowers and Groundcovers:

• Cut petunia stems back by 2/3rds and fertilize.
• Start seeds of pansies, calendula, flowering cabbage, kale, and other fall annuals.
• Divide Hostas and daylilies.
• Don’t fertilize plants that slow down in the heat, but keep them watered.
• Divide and cut back Bearded Iris and Peonies.
• Pinch back mums so they grow bushier and won’t flower until autumn.
• As the days get cooler, plant hardy mums.
• Check for black spot on your roses – remove and discard any affected leaves in the trash, never back in your garden or in your compost – apply a fungicide with Neem oil every two weeks during the growing season.
• Inspect for Powdery mildew. If seen, prune back perennials to create needed circulation.
• Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
• Pinch out tips of leggy plants.
• Fertilize transplants.
• Water transplants deeply when dry.
• Pests to watch for: Aphids, Deer, 4-lined plant bug, slugs, snails, spidermites, whiteflies
• Diseases to watch for:  Blackspot on roses; powdery mildew, rust, bacterial diseases.
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

Trees and Shrubs:

• Don’t transplant azaleas this month. Avoid late summer pruning.
• Prune evergreens to get in shape for fall/winter.
• Water slowly and deeply if summer is very dry.
• Take soft wood cuttings of plants to propogate.
• Pinch buds of fall-blooming plants (asters, mums, Joe-Pye weed).
• Prune out Eastern tent caterpillar egg masses.
• Do not fertilize newly planted or transplanted plants the first year.
• Keep mowers and trimmers away from trunks!
• Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
• Put diseased leaves, pesticide-laden grass clippings and weed seeds out for recycling rather than the compost pile.
• Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
• Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like groundcover from under shrubs.
• Remove dead and dying trees.
• Pests to watch for:  adelgids, azalea lacebug, bagworms, caterpillars, Gypsy moths, Japanese beetles, scale, sawfly, spidermites,  leafminers, and webworms.
• Diseases to watch for:  Fireblight, Anthracnose,  Powdery mildew, Exobasidium gall on azaleas, Phytophthora, top dieback and root rot on azaleas.
• For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

• Apply grub control to your lawn.
• Cool season lawns go dormant in hot, dry weather. Do Not Water.
• Don’t remove more than 1/3 of grass blade when mowing.
• Water established lawns deeply but infrequently.
• Fertilize Turf Only if Weak: apply 1 lb. N/1000 sq.ft.
• Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″
• Mow zoysia grass at 2″
• Control wild onions in warm season turf with broadleaf weed control.
• Test soil if you haven’t already!
• Dethatch if necessary and plug aerate BEFORE applying weed control.
• To control crabgrass, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
• Turn your compost pile.
• The annual soil science calendars from the Natural Resources Conservation Service are both educational and beautifully done. The one for 2018 as well as those for previous years are available as free PDFs here: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/edu/?cid=nrcseprd1250008
• Diseases to watch for: brown patch, and red thread
• Pests to watch for: Grubs
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

Indoors/Houseplants:

• Bring Christmas cactus and poinsettias indoors if you took them out for the summer in preparation for holiday blooming. Fertilize them and put them where they’ll get 10 hours of bright light per day.
• Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
• Pinch out growing tips of leggy cuttings and plants that are overwintering.
• Clean the leaves of your indoor houseplants to prevent dust and film build-up.
• Reduce fertilizing of your indoor plants (except cyclamen).
• Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
• Maintain moisture in pots wintering indoors, but do not over water!
• Keep all houseplants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
• Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
• Pests to watch for:  aphids, spider mites, mealybug, scale, whitefly
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
  

Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips:

• Clean and refill bird feeders.
• Clean your hummingbird feeders and add new sugar-water every three days.
• Switch your deer deterrent spray.
• Check your plants at night with a flashlight for any night-feeding insects like slugs.
• If you find slug damage, set out beer traps or Sluggo pellets.
• Hand-pick Japanese beetles or shake them off over a bucket of dishwasher.
• Caulk and seal your outside walls to prevent insect entry into your house.
• Be vigilant for mosquito breeding spots – any standing water from a bottle cap to blocked gutters- and clean them out immediately. Ask your neighbors to do the same. Put Mosquito Dunks in any areas that accumulate water.
• Watch for: carpenter ants, flies, mosquitos, stink bugs, termites, rabbits, raccoons, groundhogs, deer, mice, moles,  snakes, squirrels, and voles.
• For more information, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.

Source: University of Maryland’s Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) and the Washington Gardener.

Mill Creek Clean Up

Members of Mill Creek Towne Garden Club met with Henry Coppola of Montgomery County Department of Parks about Mill Creek, a tributary of Rock Creek. The banks of the creek have eroded with the heavy rains of the last few years. Trees are falling, roots are exposed, salt and chemical run off from roads impact water quality, and the banks will erode closer to the homes. Plus we saw all the junk in the creek, even a basketball. We learned about ways to counter the impact, but it will take cooperation from the people on the ground in the neighborhoods and leaders who understand what it will take to maintain the parklands we have, like this tucked away tributary. We are trying to arrange a volunteer clean up event in October with Henry’s help.

 

See below for upcoming local events in August.

 

Support Our Local Farmers – Join a CSA and have fresh local produce delivered to you!

CSAs can take many forms, but essentially they are community supported farms in which members contribute to farming projects, usually by way of membership fees, in exchange for fresh, local produce. The concept came to the United States from Europe in the 1980s.  They are a great way to take advantage of fresh, locally grown fruit, vegetables, herbs, and more while supporting nearby farms. Each one is different, some offer pickup locations in urban areas, some offer only farm-based pickups.

There are multiple CSAs located around the County offering a wide variety of products. CSAs begin taking sign-ups for spring and summer seasons in the early part of the year, and they tend to fill up FAST! Know of another CSA not on our list? Let us know! Montgomery Countryside Alliance also maintains a list: http://www.mocoalliance.org/community-supported-agriculture.html

Derwood Farmers Market

2019 Dates:  April 27 to October 26 on Saturdays
By popular request:  Early Hours  in 2019  9 am until 1  pm    

Support Our Local Farmers: Visit the Derwood Farmers Market!

A community farmers’ market featuring fresh local farm fruits, veggies, meats, baked goodies, arts, live music and more.  ​Meet sustainable local farmers and from-scratch makers of edibles!
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Located at the parking lot in the front yard of Derwood Alliance Church
16501 Redland Road, Rockville, MD 20855