Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Seasons Greetings and best wishes for a Happy Healthy New Year! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for December. 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 Spring Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College.
- Take photos and update your garden journal.
- Start collecting plant seeds for next year and for trading.
- Clean out pots; store non-frost proof containers in garage or basement.
- 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.
Preparing for the holidays? Remember to #BuyLocal#ShopSmall and support local businesses and artists. Look for low-cost gifts on local community online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace and the Buy Nothing Project, small businesses or farms. bit.ly/GiftGreener#GiftGreener
Master Gardener Plant Clinics
“Ask a Master Gardener” Plant Clinics are returning to several county locations in Maryland. Bring your plant and gardening questions and get answers from Master Gardeners trained by the University of Maryland Extension. Check out the details in your county: https://extension.umd.edu/programs/environment-natural-resources/program-areas/home-and-garden-information-center/master-gardener-program/local-programs
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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
Become a Master Gardener volunteer in 2022!
Master Gardeners receive training from the University of Maryland Extension and then educate residents about safe, effective, and sustainable horticultural practices that build healthy gardens, landscapes, and communities. Spring 2022 Basic Training starts soon. Find all the details here:
New Gardening Books
Online Gardening Resources
Online Garden-to-Table Recipes
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
Local Farms
#LocalIsTheNewNormal #BuyLocal
- 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
Montgomery County MD Food and Beverage Guide
The 2021 Montgomery County Online Searchable Food and Beverage Guide has arrived!
This year’s Guide lists over 70 MoCo Made food and beverage producers and farmers, with products ranging from honey to craft beverages to artisanal meats and more.
Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2021 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
How do pollinators find plants and flowers?
How do pollinators find plants? In this post, the Maryland Grows blog discusses that topic, which can help us become even better at helping pollinators and the plants they pollinate.
https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/2021/12/13/how-do-pollinators-find-plants-and-flowers/
Flowers and Groundcovers
- Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.
- After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials, then mark beds.
- 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
Trees and Shrubs
- Dig hole now if you will be planting a “live” Christmas tree.
- Water your cut Christmas tree daily.
- Apply scale and dormant oil treatment to evergreens.
- Moderately prune evergreens, especially hollies, for indoor decorating.
- Gather holiday greens. Some, like holly and boxwood benefit from being pruned by growing thicker.
- Prune maples, dogwoods, birch, elm, walnut, and yellowwood to prevent “bleeding”.
- Water very slowly and deeply if weather is very dry and ground is not frozen.
- Prune out Fireblight damage Malus and Pyrus when very cold.
- Plant evergreens for winter interest.
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- No more fertilizing for the year.
- 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.
- 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.
- Keep an eye out for bark damage from rabbits and deer.
- 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
- Spread ashes from wood fires on your vegetable beds.
- Cover carrots, parsnips, and turnips with straw to extend harvest.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Consider Composting Your Yard Waste
Instead of raking your leaves and having them picked up for recycling or trash, you can compost your yard waste. Your composted leaves will make a great nutrient-rich soil for your growing gardens and other areas in your yard. To learn where you can pick up a free compost bin click on link below.
Lawns
- Avoid walking on frozen grass to avoid damaging the crowns.
- Some alternatives to de-icing salts include sand, beet juice sugars, light gravel (grit), or non-clumping kitty litter. Using de-icing salts around driveways and sidewalks can harm your garden plants and turf.
- Begin mowing leaves into turf to add organic matter and nutrients.
- 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.
Thanksgiving & Christmas Cacti
To distinguish between the Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti, look at the shape of the flattened stem segments, which are botanically called phylloclades. On the Thanksgiving cactus, these stem segments each have 2 to 4 saw-toothed serrations or projections along the margins. The stem margins on the Christmas cactus are more rounded.
Indoors/Houseplants
- For readying poinsettia for holiday blooming, see this: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/poinsettias
- Take cuttings of plants you want to overwinter inside and place in water.
- Do no fertilize until January.
- Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
- Check any tropical or summer-blooming bulbs, corms, tubers, and bare root plants in storage for rot or desiccation.
- 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.
Montgomery Parks Deer Population Management Program
Our deer population management program runs through March 2022.
For the schedule of locations and dates, visit our website:
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
- 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.
See more tips from HGIC:
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
Until then, Happy Gardening!”
“Grow” your gardening know-how! Our free online gardening program, Let’s Talk Gardens, covers a wide range of topics presented by our own professional staff, as well as guest speakers. No matter your level of gardening knowledge, there’s always something new to learn!
To learn more about these presentations visit: https://gardens.si.edu/learn/lets-talk-gardens/
Check out their video library for past Let’s Talk events!
Spring Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College
Its Class time at Montgomery College. Janet Johnson will be teaching a great class on How to Grow and Bloom and Floral Arrangements for Home.
This class is offered online, so you can take this class from the comfort of your living room. We focus on your questions and your needs. Montgomery College classes are open to everyone-so lets learn together! See the Spring schedule for garden classes at MC (upcoming classes listed below). Come and join this really fun class! Hope to see you there.
What’s All the Buzz About Bees? Beekeeping Class
A beekeeping class is being offered through Montgomery College starting in January! “What’s All the Buzz About Bees?” is taught by Regional Apiary Inspector Gregg Gochnour. More info at
Horticulture Classes | MC Lifelong Learning Spring 2022
| HOW TO GROW AND BLOOM – LLI 022 |
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| View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
| Course | CRN | Credits | Days | Time | Start – End Dates | Seats Avail. | Waitlist Count | Campus | Location | Instructors |
| LLI022 | 37874 | 0.300 | W | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | 01/26/22 – 01/26/22 | 20 | 0 | WD&CE Virtual-Remote | DL | Janet S. Johnson |
| FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HOME – LLI 028 |
| View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
Montgomery College Spring 2022 Landscape Classes
Classes being offered at Montgomery College (Germantown) in the Landscape Technology Program for the Spring term of 2022. Classes start the week of Jan. 24. Contact information at the bottom.
https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/admissions-registration/search-the-class-schedule.html
