Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,

Happy Spring! It’s time to start planting for the spring! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for April. 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 online events include Montgomery Park’s Seedling Giveaway, Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Container Gardening online event, Greenfest 2021, MC Master Gardeners’ Grow It Eat It 2021 Online Speakers Series, Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club’s Spring Everything Roses Virtual Discussion, and a “Native Plants for Sun and Shade” Online Event with guest speaker, Lauren Hubbard, Master Gardener, hosted by the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club on Tuesday, April 27th, and more.

• Mark beds outside where new plants are to go.
• Collect supplies for starting seeds.
• Sharpen and replace tools as needed.
• Earth Day is April 22nd.
• Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, April 30th.
• Take an inventory of pots and containers; clean or replenish potted soil.
• Go on a virtual garden tour to see what plants are thriving in other’s area home gardens.
• Plan for 2021 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.

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Lauren Hubbard, Master Gardener “Native Plants for Sun and Shade” Online Event
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
7:00 pm ET

Please join us for a Native By Design, LLC presentation by Lauren Hubbard, Derwood resident, Master Gardener, and Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, on “Native Plants for Sun and Shade”. Native plants make your garden beautiful and bring in the bees and butterflies too! Learn which plants native to our region grow best here.

About Native by Design, LLC:

Native by Design, LLC, founded by Dr. Lauren Hubbard, provides landscape design, consultation and project management with a focus on sustainable approaches that will provide beauty, support the ecosystem and reduce your long-term maintenance needs.

The event is sponsored by the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club and is free. Registration is required.

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Online Gardening Resources

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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

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

  “During shelter-in-place, farmers’ markets remain open as an essential service, providing a vital source of fresh fruits and vegetables and food staples for our communities in a spacious, open-air setting. But our community and our farmers’ markets could be jeopardized if we don’t each do our part to stay safe during this public healthy crisis.

  In good times, farmers’ markets have been places to gather and converse, however, now is the time to follow public health and safety advisories and resist the urge to linger and socialize. We all have a critical role to play in preventing the spread of COVID-19.” 

How to Support Farmers and Safely Shop at Farmers’ Markets

Support our local farmers! Shop at the #derwoodfarmersmarket!

Open for advance order curbside pickup & delivery until April 10th.

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​The Full Market Season Opens April 17th, 2021.

For the winter season through April 10th you can still get your market groove on with online ordering from all your favorite farmers and vendors using our curbside pickup or doorstep delivery to 20855, 20850, 20878 & 20880 on Saturday for doorstep delivery and/ or curbside pickup at the front yard of Neighborhood Church, 16501 Redland Rd, 20855. Pickup happens from 9am until 11am through April 10th. Get started here: MilkLadyMarkets.org/preorder

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Flowers and Groundcovers

• Hardy spring bulbs begin to emerge (crocus, snowdrops, daffodils, and tulips).
• Transplant seedlings into individual 3″-4″ pots when crowded. Water when dry to the touch.
• Pinch out growing tips of leggy seedlings.
• Transplant spring flowering bulbs after flowering.
• Fertilize summer flowering bulbs.
• After spring bulbs bloom, let leaves turn yellow and die before trimming.
• Begin hardening off hardier transplants. Sow seeds outdoors of hardier annuals.
• Plant and prune roses.
• Start seeds for: Mallow, Dwarf Zinnias, Cosmos, Celosia, Tall Marigolds, and Tall Zinnias.
• Pests to watch for: Aphids, Deer, 4-lined plant bug, slugs, snails.
• Diseases to watch for:  Damping off of seedlings.
• 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

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Trees and Shrubs

• Plant a tree for Arbor Day, April 30th.
• This is a good time to plant evergreens.
• Prune damaged branches.
• Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs before new growth.
• Prune out Eastern tent caterpillar egg masses.
• Begin planting when ground is not too wet.
• Fertilize plants not getting ready to bloom if needed.
• Test soil pH on some hydrangeas and adjust: pH 5-5.5 = blue; pH 6-6.5 = pink.
• Cut perennials and over-wintering ornamental grasses to 2 inches above ground.
• Take hardwood cuttings from willow and dogwood to propagate them.
• Check that newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials have not been heaved out of the ground due to freezing and thawing cycles.
• 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.
• Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
• Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
• Remove dead and dying trees.
• Pests to watch for:  Eastern caterpillar
• Diseases to watch for:  Fireblight Phomopsis and Kabatina of Juniper, Cytospora canker on Spruce. 
• For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

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Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit

• Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
• Harden off cool season transplants.
• Plant asparagus.
• Plant cool season transplants.
• Sow seeds of: carrots, endive, sunflowers, lettuce.
• Turn under cover crop when soil has warmed enough and is not too wet.
• Fertilize established asparagus, tree and bramble fruits and strawberries.
• Plant cool-season crops (potatoes, lettuce, peas, root crops, and cole crops, including spinach, and kale).
• Divide perennials and herbs.
• Put up trellises and teepees for peas, climbing beans, etc.
• Harvest your herbs and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
• Cut garden herbs and hang to dry in a cool, dry place indoors.
• Water deeply when needed.
• Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
• Pests to watch for: Deer, rabbits, woodchucks, birds.
• Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings, Fireblight of pears, apples.
• Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.

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Lawns

• Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″
• To control crabgrass and broadleaf weeds, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
• Dethatch if necessary and plug aerate BEFORE applying weed control.
• Reseed bare spots or overseed (through early April).
• 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 2020 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: Spidermites, mealybug, scale
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

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Indoors/Houseplants

• Begin to pot up rooted cuttings. Fertilize with 1/2 strength houseplant fertilizer every other watering.
• Change water in cuttings started last fall and add 2-3 pieces of fish tank charcoal. 
• Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
• Keep all house plants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
• 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.
• Fertilize only your winter-blooming house plants, such as violets with 1/2 strength houseplant fertilizer (every 2 weeks) .
• Maintain moisture in pots wintering indoors, but do not over water!
• Pests to watch for:  aphids, spider mites, mealybug, and scale
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
  

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Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips

• Check indoors for termites and winter ants.
• Give your house plants a quarter turn every few weeks.
• Repot larger plants that are going outside for the summer.
• Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
• 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.

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The 2019-2020 Montgomery County 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.

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Master Gardener Plant Clinics

Varied Locations, dates, and times

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

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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

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GreenFest 2021

April 2021

This year, GreenFest will be held as a series of free online events and is a chance for residents, businesses, nonprofits, and neighbors, to come together, share ideas and get involved. GreenFest will showcase of series of free lectures by industry experts, and initiatives to reduce your carbon footprint. We’ll also feature interactive children’s games and educational activities that can be enjoyed safely at home.

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Montgomery Parks Seedling Giveaway 2021

April 10th and 17th, 2021

We’re giving away FREE tree seedlings for Arbor Day and Earth Month April 10 and 17. Catch our arborists during the Facebook Live April 7, 12:15 pm, to learn about planting young trees. Learn more and sign up for your tree: https://mocoparks.org/EarthMonth. #MoCoEarthMonth

Earth Day – April 20-22, 2021 Events

MC Master Gardeners’ Grow It Eat It | 2021 Online Speakers Series

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Everything Roses Virtual Discussion    

April 11 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

A “rose by any other name may smell as sweet,” but there are a bewildering number of types and species to choose from. During this virtual discussion, guests will learn about some of the most common types of roses and their attributes. Rose care and pruning will also be covered.

Horticulturalist, Carol Allen, leads this informative and entertaining program. She has more than thirty years of experience in the horticultural industry with special interests in landscape design and native plants. She has led a wide range of horticultural discussions at area colleges and enjoys helping people understand how to care for their plants.

Registration is required. You will receive a link to the virtual meeting with your registration confirmation email. You must be opted in to receive SSM emails to receive the confirmation.

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Drive-Thru Plant Sale

SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2021 AT 9 AM EDT

Orders will be taken online for homegrown seedlings of vegetables, transplants of perennial flowers and hanging baskets.

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