The MCT Garden Club recently had our annual summer luncheon at Fontina Grill. The luncheon included lunch, a gift swap, and a farewell to one of our members, Lynn Hughes, a Mill Creek Towne resident for 27 years, who is moving to Gettysburg, PA to be closer to family. Lynn has been in the club 25+ years serving as social chairperson, vice president, and 8 years as president! She has also hosted numerous meetings and celebrations in her home and beautiful backyard. On behalf of our garden club, Beth Gianone, President of Mill Creek Towne Garden Club, presented Lynn with some going away gifts as well as an honorary lifetime membership in the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club. We had a great attendance, with twenty-one members attending. We feel so fortunate to have two founding members, Emily Chiswell and Carol Hyland, in attendance. Our garden club was established in 1968 and we also salute Sandy Ceely and Linda Settlemyer, two very active members serving our club for 50 years! Everyone enjoyed the delicious lunch provided by Fontina Grill, the gift swap, and the chance to get together to socialize and celebrate the beginning of summer! Although it was bittersweet as we bid a longtime member farewell, we will miss Lynn but hope to see her when we have our field trips!
Happy Summer! It’s time to enjoy the outdoors and our gardens! In May, Mill Creek Towne Garden Club members went on a field trip to Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD. A short video with some photos from our visit are included here. Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for June. A lot of gardening events are announced on Facebook as well as on our website. Some upcoming events/resources include a Strawberry Festival at Derwood Farmer’s Market, Montgomery County Heritage Days, Volunteer Gardener Opportunities with Montgomery Parks for SSL Hours, Brookside Garden’s Landscape Design Programs, Montgomery Park’s – Flora & Fauna Program, Montgomery College’s Home and Garden Lifelong Learning classes, American Horticultural Society’s Great American Gardeners Webinar Series, and more! These events will be hosted as online or live events.
Planning Tips
Mark and photograph your bulb plantings now, while they are still visible.
Plan where fall bulbs will go.
Order spring-flowering bulbs to arrive for planting this fall.
Check out plants going on sale!
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, concentrate on maintaining the beds you’ve already established and nurturing your new plantings.
Start or update your garden journals.
Read a good gardening book or magazine.
Plan who is going to water plants during your vacation.
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.
MCT Garden Club Ladew Topiary Garden Field Trip
One of the “10 incredible topiary gardens around the world.”
In May, Mill Creek Towne Garden Club members had the pleasure of visiting a local garden in Monkton, Maryland, Ladew Topiary Gardens, which is a short 1 hour and 15 minutes drive from Derwood, MD. Ladew Topiary Gardens is a place of ever-changing beauty, with 22 acres of spectacular award-winning gardens, more than 100 remarkable topiaries, a mile-long Nature Walk, and native Butterfly House. See short video below with photos from our recent visit.
Are you interested in gardening? Perhaps you’re a beginner, looking to learn more, or an experienced gardener interested in sharing your experiences and learning from others?
Are you interested in making your home and community a more beautiful place to live?
Are you interested in getting more involved in your community and getting to know your neighbors better?
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.
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):
UMD Home and Garden Information Center: Ask a Master Gardener
Do you have a gardening question? Our Certified Professional Horticulturists, faculty, and Master Gardener Volunteers are ready to answer – year-round!
See below to ask a master gardener a question on the UMD Extension website:
See our list with recently published books. This cumulative list for 2023-2024 has more than 120 titles and serves as a great resource for holiday gift ideas. Visit our Gardening Books Resources page for gardening ideas.
Sarah Raven’s new book “A Year Full of Pots” (photo above) is one of the books in our June 2024 garden books list.
Online Gardening Resources
Here are some online gardening resources focused on the MD/DC area:
We are so thankful for our local farms each and every day. During this challenging time, consider supporting your local farms, whether they farm produce, flowers, animals, or specialty. Our food supply is safe and secure, and many farms are continuing to offer delivery or curbside pickup. #LocalIsTheNewNormal#BuyLocal
The 2024 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:
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:
Attract pollinators and natural enemies to your landscape by planting a wide variety of flowering annuals and perennials, including native plants that will bloom over the entire growing season
Inspect your garden hose for leaks and tighten all connections.
Start a sunflower patch with help from a few kids.
Check your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
Gently clean up the garden.
Stake tall plants.
Fertilize transplants. Water transplants deeply.
Transplant seedlings into individual 3″ – 4″ pots when crowded. Fertilize transplants with 1/2 strength houseplant fertilizer (every 2 weeks).
Feed your roses and new plantings with slow-release fertilizer sparingly.
Check for black spot 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.
Plant summer flowering bulbs.
Lightly fertilize bulbs when green starts to show.
Pinch back asters, mums, salvias, Joe-Pye weed, and other late-season bloomers to encourage bushy, not leggy growth.
Tie up clematis and other fast-growing climbing vines.
Deadhead spent blooms on your annuals and perennials to encourage re-flowering.
Weed. Especially look for fast-growing vines such as honeysuckle, autumn clematis, bittersweet, wild grape, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy.
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.
Older leaves of holly and magnolia may begin to yellow and drop. This is a natural process of regeneration and does not indicate a problem with the trees.
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.
Saturday, June 29 & Sunday, June 30, 2024 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Each year, Heritage Montgomery hosts Heritage Days on the last weekend of June. Sponsored by HM since 2004, this FREE festival highlights historic, cultural, and outdoor recreation sites offering special programs including exhibits and demonstrations, live music, activities for children, and much more! Heritage Days is the perfect chance to enjoy many small sites that are not regularly open to the public.
Brookside Gardens is hosting a variety of landscape design courses in June with both online and in person options.
Information about the programs and links to register online are listed below. Recordings of online programs will be made available to participants. If you need help with registration, please call 301-962-1451.
Are you looking for a way to complete your Student Service-Learning Hours? Or are you looking for a way to give back to your community? Check out these gardening volunteer opportunities:Gardener | Various dates and times | Ages 16+ | Agricultural History Farm ParkGardener | First Tuesday of every month beginning May 7 through October 1 | 9 am to 1 pm | Ages 21+ | Silver Spring Intermediate Neighborhood ParkCrop Production Aide | Various dates and times | Ages 18+ | Pope Farm Nursery Grown@Pope Volunteer Coordinator | April through September | Ages 18+ | Pope Farm NurseryGrown@Pope Workdays | Various dates and times | Ages 16+ | Pope Farm Nursery
Trail Ambassador Program Two sessions: June 17-28 or July 8- July 19 | Ages 15+ Various Locations Work with your peers to complete hands-on trail improvement projects in the morning and enjoy a group ride in the afternoon to celebrate! Spots are limited so be sure to apply here!
Montgomery Parks – Flora & Fauna Program
Montgomery Parks is pleased to offer a new online learning series for adults that teaches you to recognize the most common species of Montgomery County. Led by our expert Parks staff, you’ll practice identification skills, learn the best ways to see wildlife, and be empowered to practice conservation in your own neighborhood. Montgomery County is a biodiverse place with so many interesting plants and animals, and we can’t wait to share them with you!
“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.
