Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Hope you are finding ways to stay cool and enjoying these last days of summer in August! As we approach the end of summer, enjoy the summer crops and flowers and preserve some for the winter months. Don’t forget to support our local farmers by visiting our local farmer’s markets and local farms! Make sure you have your gardens taken care of when you plan your summer trips. 🌞🌼 Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for August. This includes some events from U.S. Botanic Garden, Master Gardeners of Montgomery County, and Maryland Gardens. A lot of gardening events are announced on Facebook as well as on our website. Some upcoming events include Ask a Master Gardener at Twinbrook Library, National Farmers Market Week (August 6-12), Montgomery County Ag Fair, Foodie Fridays: Saving Seeds & Stories, Montgomery College’s Fall 2023 Garden Classes, American Horticultural Society’s Great American Gardeners Webinar Series, and more! These events will be hosted as online or live events.
Planning Tips
- It’s harvest time and also a good time to start taking stock of what worked well for you this season and what didn’t.
- Check out garden centers for end-of-summer bargains.
- Take photos and update your garden journal.
- Start shopping for spring bulbs.
- Inspect your garden hose for leaks an tighten all connections.
- As the heat and humidity move in, take it easy by working in the morning or early evening to avoid intense sun and humidity. Leave the big projects for this fall. For now, just concentrate on maintaining the beds you’ve already established and nurturing new plantings.
- Plan for 2023 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.
Maryland Grows Blog
In weekly posts on MD HGIC’s blog, learn about pollinator conservation, growing native plants and food, and how to solve plant pest and disease problems.
In a Flash: How You Can Help Fireflies
Dr. Anahí Espindola from the University of Maryland Entomology Department offers ways you can support these special insects that light up the summer nights to the delight of children and adults alike. Read her post
MD HGIC Video Tips
Our Extension experts are sharing one-minute video tips to help you in the garden this summer. We’re talking about pest management in the vegetable garden, tree and lawn diseases, native plants, mowing lawns, and more!
For more information, please visit:
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
 |
|
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
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 2023 MoCo Food & Beverage Guide is here! The Guide from the Montgomery County Food Council is available online – delicious baked goods, prepared foods, condiments and more. The craft beverage list grows each year and find two dozen local and amazing farms:
Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2023 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Check out the revised list of Mid-Atlantic native plants for pollinators and beneficial insects, from the Xerces Society.
Flowers and Groundcovers
- Cut petunia stems back by two thirds and fertilize.
- Start seeds of pansies, calendula, flowering cabbage, kale, and other fall annuals.
- Start collecting plant seeds for next year and for trading.
- As the days get cooler, plant hardy mums.
- Renew your container plantings, which may be looking a bit ragged at this point. Pinch back overgrown plants. Pull out any spent ones and pop in some substitute annuals or mums. Keep them well-watered and add a little liquid fertilizer every few weeks to keep them going through early autumn.
- Don’t fertilize plants that slow down in the heat, but keep them watered.
- Fertilize lightly plants that are blooming heavily.
- Divide Hostas and Daylilies.
- Divide and cut back Bearded Iris and Peonies.
- Fill in bare spots in the garden with annuals.
- Check your container plants and keep them well-watered.
- Deadhead spent flowers to encourage reblooming.
- Cut a few flowers to enjoy in your workplace or home.
- Water transplants deeply when dry.
- Pinch out tips of leggy plants.
- Stake tall plants.
- Spray roses with Neem oil every two weeks.
- Feed your roses and new plantings with slow-release fertilizer sparingly.
- Check for black spots on your roses – remove and discard any affected leaves in the trash, never back into your garden or in your compost – apply fungicide with Neem oil every two weeks during the growing season.
- Tie up clematis and other fast-growing climbing vines.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, spidermites, whiteflies, Deer, slugs, snails.
- Diseases to watch for: Powdery mildew, Damping off of seedlings, Botrytis on peonies, Volutella blight on pachysandra.
- 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
5 Million Trees Initiative
Maryland’s goal is to plant and maintain 5 million native trees by 2031. There are various ways you can get involved – plant trees and register them — or volunteer! A number of tree-planting assistance programs are available at the municipal, county, and state levels.
THIS is the SUPERPOWER of YOUR KEYSTONE NATIVE PLANTS.
- No exotic plant could ever achieve this.
- Want butterflies? Feed the caterpillars with keystone plants!
- Exotic plants will never support as many different species of caterpillars as the Keystone Natives can.
- Find your keystone native plants here by zip code.
If your zip code doesn’t give you enough information try zip codes of the nearest larger town or city. LINK: https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/
Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a serious threat to Maryland ash trees. It has killed many millions of ash trees across the Mid-West and Eastern U.S.
- The presence of the emerald ash borer typically goes undetected until trees show symptoms of being infested, usually, the upper third of a tree will thin and then die back. This is usually followed by a large number of shoots or branches arising below the dead portions of the trunk.
- Other symptoms of infestation include small D-shaped exit holes in the bark where adults have emerged, vertical splits in the bark, and distinct serpentine-shaped tunnels beneath the bark in the cambium, where larvae effectively stop food and water movement in the tree, starving it to death.
Trees and Shrubs
- Prune evergreens to get in shape for fall/winter.
- Don’t transplant azaleas this month. Avoid late summer pruning.
- Water slowly and deeply if summer is very dry.
- Prune foundation shrubs and trees to be no closer than 1 foot from the house.
- Contact a certified arborist to have your trees’ health inspected.
- Remove spent lilac and rhododendron blossoms.
- Fertilize your azaleas and rhododendrons and monitor them closely for any lacebug damage.
- Prune flowering shrubs as their flowers fade. Last chance to do so for fall-blooming camellias.
- Cover berry bushes and fruit trees with bird netting.
- Take soft cuttings of plants to propagate.
- Check often and water newly planted trees if they don’t pass the finger test (stick your finger deep into soil – dry? Water!)
- 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 groundcover from under shrubs.
- Soil test established trees that have not been performing well.
- Keep mowers and trimmers away from trunks!
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- 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: azalea lacebug, bagworms, borers, caterpillars, gypsy moths, Japanese bettles, scale, sawfly, spidermites, leafminers, voles, and deer.
- Diseases to watch for: Powdery mildew.
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Vegetable Planting Calendar
Download vegetable planting calendars from University of Maryland Extension, in English and Spanish. This page also has a link to a frost/freeze date calculator.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit
- Remove finished plants.
- Plant/seed cool season plants (turnips, carrots, beets, spinach, Chinese cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts).
- Harvest leaves of herbs used in cooking (rosemary, basil, sage) in early morning, for best flavor. Dry them indoors if you can’t use them right away.
- Preserve gourds for display in the fall.
- Attend a county fair and enter some of your garden bounty.
- New fruit plants: keep watered their first spring, summer, and fall.
- Pick raspberries and peaches at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer’s market.
- Deadhead garlic chives before they go to seed. Makes a nice cut flower.
- Dig up garlic when tops turn brown. Let dry in sun, then store.
- Sow seeds of: beets, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash for fall harvest.
- Sow heat-tolerant greens like Swiss Chard and mustard greens in part-shade.
- Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
- Put in supports for tomatoes and tall-blooming plants.
- Divide perennials and herbs. Pot up extras and give away at plant swaps.
- Thin seedlings.
- Harvest your herbs often and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
- Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
- Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, birds, cabbage worms, corn earworm, cutworms, deer, rabbits, squash vine borer, and tomato hornworm.
- Diseases to watch for: Apple scab, Cedar-apple rust.
- Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.
Lawns
- Cool-season lawns go dormant in the hot, dry summer. Do not water!
- Mow in the early evening.
- Over seeding may be done now through October.
- Keep newly seeded lawns well watered.
- Apply grub control to your lawn.
- Calibrate your spreader before fertilizing.
- To control crabgrass, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
- Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″, Zoysia: 2″
- Control wild onions in warm season turf with broadleaf weed control.
- Have soil tested (every 3 years minimum).
- Clean yard of all leaves and other debris.
- Turn your compost pile.
- The soil resources from the Natural Resources Conservation Service are available here:
- 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
- Prune potted bougainvillea or hanging baskets that will overwinter inside.
- 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 will get just 10 hours of bright light per day.
- Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
- Change water in cuttings started last fall and add 2-3 pieces of fish tank charcoal.
- Do not over water house plants.
- 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.
Read and follow label instructions on all pesticides and herbicides.
Start the year off by minimizing your #risk to #pesticides and always #ReadTheLabel! Learn more here: http://npic.orst.edu/health/readlabel.html
Questions about your label? Call us! 800-858-7378 M-F 8am-12pm PST
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- Ticks are very active now.
- 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.
- This is the perfect time to apply grub control.
- Put out slug traps around your vulnerable edibles and hostas.
- Leave hummingbird feeders out until October 15th.
- Make hummingbird food by boiling two cups sugar in four cups of water.
- Put suet out for birds.
- Keep bird feeders clean and filled.
- Change the water in your birdbath daily and throw the Mosquito Dunk (or bits) into any standing water.
- Switch your deer deterrent spray.
- 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
Ask a Master Gardener at Twinbrook Library
SATURDAY
September 9th & 23rd
10 AM – 1 PM
202 Meadow Hall Drive
Rockville, MD 20851
Struggling with your garden? Do you have plant questions?
The Master Gardeners from Montgomery County Cooperative Extension will offer their highly popular plant clinics. Bring your ailing plants or any other gardening questions for expert advice. See below for upcoming in-person events schedule and details:
https://www.facebook.com/MoCoMasterGardenersMD
National Farmers Market Week
August 6-12, 2023
It’s National Farmers Market Week! Find your local market on our market map:
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/…/farmers-market.html
Learn more about the initiative from the Farmers Market Coalition: https://farmersmarketcoalition.org/
Montgomery County Ag Fair
August 11-19, 2023
The Montgomery County Ag Fair will open August 11, 2023! The fair has activities for all ages and includes special events for children, the military, and seniors. Be sure to visit the Montgomery County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden. Master Gardeners will be there to answer your gardening questions!
More info found at their website.
Foodie Fridays: Saving Seeds & Stories
Friday, September 22, 2023
6:30pm to 8:30pm
Josiah Henson Museum and Park
11410 Old Georgetown Road
North Bethesda, MD 20852
Fee
$10, includes light refreshments, drinks, and a ticket to Josiah Henson Museum
Every seed tells a story. With each seed planted, the genetic story of the plant is passed onto the next generation, just as the stories, memories, and feelings associated with specific foods are passed down among our families. Learn from Niraj Ray, founder of Cultivate the City, about how to save seeds as well as the value of saving seeds from culturally important and hard-to-find crops.
Garden Classes | MC Lifelong Learning Fall 2023
| HOW TO GROW AND BLOOM – LLI 022 |
| Orchids are more popular than ever, and are readily available at mass markets, florists, and garden centers. Explore how to be successful with orchid selection in the home environment. Learn how to purchase, care, handle, repot, and rebloom your orchid. The instructor will use live plants to demonstrate best practices. You are encouraged to bring your own orchid plants for questions. View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
| Course | CRN | Credits | Days | Time | Start – End Dates | Campus | Location | Instructors |
| LLI022 | 24269 | 0.300 | T | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | 10/24/23 – 10/24/23 | WD&CE Virtual-Remote | DL | Janet S. Johnson |
| GARDEN DESIGN – LLI 519 |
| Do you ever wish you could have a beautiful home garden? In this course, garden enthusiasts and homeowners will examine the basics of garden design. You will discuss current garden trends; and how to integrate the architecture of your home/buildings into the landscape for a cohesive overall design. You will focus on using plants and materials that are suitable for the Mid-Atlantic region to create a garden design suitable for your own home. View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
| Course | CRN | Credits | Days | Time | Start – End Dates | Campus | Location | Instructors |
| LLI519 | 24268 | 0.800 | T | 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm | 11/07/23 – 11/28/23 | Rockville | MK 101 | Janet S. Johnson |
Let’s Talk Gardens
Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.
Smithsonian Gardens
“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.
And we encourage you to watch videos in our Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library.
