Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,

Fall is here, so it’s time to enjoy your fall crops this month! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for October. There are some online events, check out U.S. Botanic Garden, Master Gardeners of Montgomery County, and Maryland Gardens. A lot of gardening events are announced on Facebook and we share them on our Facebook page as well as on our mctgardenclub.org website. Some upcoming events include Farmers Markets, Fall Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College, Smithsonian Garden’s Let’s Talk Gardens webinar series, Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club – Spooky Workshop, Garden Q & A, and more.

• Take photos and update your garden journal.
• Start collecting plant seeds for next year and for trading.
• Plan for 2022 with these Free resources: Landscaping with Native Plants by the Maryland Native Plant Society, Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas by the National Park Service, Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia Reading Room. Visit our Online Gardening Resources page for more helpful online resources.
• Buy a good gardening book or magazine subscription for a gift for your favorite gardener.
• Have a question about gardening? Check the University of Maryland Extension’s New Maryland Grows blog for garden tips.

---

Master Gardener Plant Clinics

Montgomery County Master Gardeners - Maryland

What can Master Gardeners do for you?

• Help you select and care for annual and perennial plants, shrubs and trees.
• Determine if you need to test your soil.
• Provide you with information on lawn care.
• Identify weeds, beneficial and noxious insects, and plant diseases and remedies.
• Teach you how to use pesticides, mulch and compost.
• Guide you in pruning trees and shrubs.
• Provide you with options for managing wildlife.
• Provide you with gardening resources.
• Help you submit a plant sample for diagnosis

Plant Clinics are held at several sites in the county on a weekly basis and at special events such as garden festivals and the county fair. Regularly scheduled Plant Clinics are located at public libraries and farmers’ markets throughout the county as well as at the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase.  There are also clinics three days per week at Brookside Gardens.  The busiest season is April through September, but some clinics are open year-round.  Bring your plant samples and questions to one of these locations in Montgomery County, MD (see link below to find a location near you):

https://extension.umd.edu/mg/locations/plant-clinics

---

---

Online Gardening Resources

---

There are many resources for recipes to make from your garden crops including seed companies, local farms, and online recipe cookbook catalogs. If you grow vegetables, these are very useful resources as the recipes feature the very plant you are growing. Here are few links to recipes you can make from your garden crops

---

---

• Support Our Local Farmers – Join a CSA and have fresh local produce delivered to you!
• Visit a local farmers’ market.

How to Support Farmers and Safely Shop at Farmers’ Markets

Support our local farmers! Shop at the #derwoodfarmersmarket!

Now it’s time for the Fall market and we are so ready! Derwood Fall Market at the Hines Garden on Oaklawn Farm. 18510 Muncaster Rd, Rockville, MD 20855. 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, rain or shine through November 20. What a great summer season!

Starting Sept 11th until November 20, the Derwood Fall season continues at Hines Garden on Oaklawn Farm… 18510 Muncaster Road. Your favorite farmers, plus brunch, lunch, pastries, smoothies, coffee, art, music… more!

Curbside Pickup will continue at this location! 9am until 1pm from September 11 – November 20 at 18510 Muncaster Road, Rockville 20855. We accept and provide Matching Dollars for EBT-SNAP, ​P-EBT, WIC and Seniors’ SFMNP. Catch us at Neighborhood Church for the 2022 spring season on April 23rd until September 3rd, 16501 Redland Rd, Rockville, MD 20855

---

Flowers and Groundcovers

• From mid-October through November, plant hardy bulbs for spring flowering.
• You can still have vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
• Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.
• Continue to divide and transplant perennials.
• Sow wildflower seeds, such as California Poppies, for next spring.
• Dig up bulbs from your Gladiolus, Canna, Caladiums, and other tender bulbs; cut off foliage; let dry for a week; and store for the winter.
• After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials, then mark beds.
• Pinch out growing tips of leggy plants.
• Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, spidermites, whiteflies, Deer, slugs, snails.
• Diseases to watch for:  Powdery mildew.
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
• For a list of native plant resources, visit: https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/native-plant-resources

---

Science of Fall Colors

https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/fall-colors/science-of-fall-colors

Trees and Shrubs

• Remove fallen, diseased leaves.
• Plant evergreens for winter interest.
• Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
• Plant evergreens for winter interest.
• Look out for any Poison Ivy vines, which will turn crimson in the fall and be easy to distinguish from other vines.
• Transplant trees when leaves begin to color.
• If your conifers start shedding their needles or your spring bulb foliage starts peaking out of the ground, don’t worry. This is normal for our autumn cycle.
• If you MUST mulch: Remove old mulch and then add 2″-3″ shredded pine or pine needles, keeping 3″ away from trunk.
• Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like ground cover from under shrubs.
• Soil test established trees that have not been performing well.
• Put diseased leaves, pesticide-laden grass clippings and weed seeds out for recycling rather than the compost pile.
• Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
• Remove dead and dying trees.
• Pests to watch for:  Voles
• Diseases to watch for:  Apple scab Cedar-apple, hawthorn or quince rust, Powdery mildew, Verticillium wilt, Oak leaf blister
• For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

---

Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit

---

---

• Pick pumpkins at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer’s market.
• Harvest most fruit before frost.
• Harvest sweet potatoes.
• Plant garlic for the spring.
• You can still have a vegetable garden and landscape tested.
• Mulch strawberry beds for winter.
• Remove finished plants.
• Harvest your herbs often and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
• Pot up rosemary and chives for over-wintering indoors.
• Cut herbs and flowers for drying indoors.
• Remove rotting fruits from fruit trees and compost them.
• Pick mature tomatoes and peppers to ripen on your window sills.
• Plant cool-season vegetables; plant garlic now through the end of October.
• This is a good time to have your vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
• Plant strawberries in a site with good drainage for harvest next spring.
• Start planting fall crops.
• Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
• Harvest your herbs and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
• Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
• Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, cabbage worms, cutworms, Deer, Japanese beetle, rabbits, woodchucks, birds.
• Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings, Fireblight of pears and apples, Fungal, bacterial viral diseases.
• Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.

---

---

Lawns

• Apply fertilizer and lime to turfgrass based on soil tests and UME recommendations.
• Plug aerate when the soil is moist.
• Begin mowing leaves into turf to add organic matter and nutrients.
• Fertilized tall fescue and bluegrass with 1 lb. Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.
• Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″; zoysia grass at 2″
• Have soil tested (every 3 years minimum).
• Clean yard of all leaves and other debris.
• Turn your compost pile.
• The annual soil science calendars from the Natural Resources Conservation Service are both educational and beautifully done. The one for 202 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

• For readying poinsettia for holiday blooming, see this: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/poinsettias
• Force budding of Christmas cactus by placing in a cool (55-60 degree) room for 13 hours of darkness.
• Take cuttings of plants you want to overwinter inside and place in water.
• Store Amaryllis in a cool, dark place and do not water until flower buds or leaves emerge.
• Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
• Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
• Rotate houseplants to promote even growth.
• 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.
• Pests to watch for:  aphids, spider mites, mealybug, scale, and whitefly.
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
  

---

Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips

The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/american-bumblebee-has-vanished-from-eight-us-states-180978817/

• Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
• Check your plants at night with a flashlight for any night-feeding insects like slugs.
• Look out for slug eggs grouped under sticks and stones. They are the size of BBs and pale in color.
• Leave hummingbird feeders out until October 15th.
• Put up birdhouses. 
• Put suet out for birds.
• Keep bird feeders clean and filled.
• Switch your deer deterrent spray.
• Caulk and seal your outside walls to prevent insects and wildlife from coming indoors.
• Set out traps for mice, moles, and voles.
• 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.

---

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

CSAs are seeing record numbers of subscribers http://ow.ly/eiQT50zD5lW – find your farmer here: http://ow.ly/jbO250zD56M

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

---

---

Let’s Talk Gardens

Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.

Smithsonian Gardens

---

Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club – Spooky Workshop

Sunday, October 24 at 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

---