Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
We wish you and your family a Happy and Safe Holidays! 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 online events include Holiday Gardening Tips, Holiday Decorating, and iNaturalist.org app Talk hosted by the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club in January.
Planning
- As beds empty, make changes to shape and size of beds.
- Collect plant seeds for next year’s planting and for trading. Gather seeds and carefully label them. Store in dry location.
- Clean, sharpen, and store your garden tools.
- Clean out pots; store non-frost proof containers in garage or basement.
- Start shopping for spring bulbs.
- Go on a virtual garden tour to see what plants are thriving in other’s area home gardens.
- Plan for next year 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.
A Truly Green Holiday: A Talk on Seasonal Plants and a Bulb Forcing Demo
Sunday, December 6, 2020
2:00pm to 3:00pm ET
Have you ever given or gotten a beautiful blooming poinsettia or amaryllis and then slowly watched it decline? What a New Year’s bummer! This talk will teach you how to care for classic seasonal plants. She’ll also cover some unique holiday plant choices as well that make great gifts and additions to your home decor. Finally, she’ll teach you bulb forcing basics–tricking spring-blooming bulbs like tulips into flower earlier to enjoy during those seemingly endless gray days of late winter when we crave green the most.
Registration is open for our next webinar: “A Truly Green Holiday: A Talk on Seasonal Plants and a Bulb Forcing Demo” on Sunday, December 6*, 2-3pm on Zoom
Speaker: Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine.
Fee: $10. Register at: https://py.pl/4oRnjFT9Xc0
*Note that if you cannot attend the live class, you can still register and get a link to view the class recording for two weeks after the actual class date
iNaturalist Talk via Zoom
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
7:00 pm ET
Join us and learn how to use the app iNaturalist in this informative talk by Guest Speaker, Deborah Barber, member of the Maryland Native Plant Society, is the Director of Land Management for the Maryland/D.C. Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Registration is required.
Online Gardening Resources
#LocalIsTheNewNormal #BuyLocal
- 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
Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2020 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Support our local farmers! Shop at the #derwoodfarmersmarket!
For the fall season through December 19 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 December 19. Turkey orders coming soon! Get started here: MilkLadyMarkets.org/preorder
Let’s Talk Gardens
Turn your thumb green! Join Smithsonian Gardens’ horticulturists for a series of free lunchtime webinars on gardening basics on Thursdays 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.
December 3 – Holiday Wreaths & Evergreen Decorations
December 10 – Poinsettias and Holiday Trees
https://gardens.si.edu/events/lets-talk-gardens/
In the Garden Q & A
12 PM EDT – 1 PM EDT
Montgomery County Master Gardeners – Maryland
Flowers and Groundcovers
- Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.
- After blooming, cut mums back to 6 inches above ground.
- After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials then mark beds.
- Walk your garden — look for early signs of fungal disease.
- Weed—especially look for fast-growing vines such as honeysuckle, autumn clematis, bittersweet, wild grape, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy.
- Apply deer deterrent.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, Deer, 4-lined plant bug, slugs, snails, spidermites, whiteflies.
- Diseases to watch for: Blackspot on roses, powdery mildew, rust, bacterial diseases.
- 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
- Moderately prune evergreens, especially hollies, for indoor decorating.
- Dig a hole if you will be planting a “live” Christmas tree.
- Water slowly and deeply if weather is very dry.
- Look out for any Poison Ivy vines, which will turn crimson in the fall and be easy to distinguish from other vines.
- Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like ground cover from under shrubs.
- Soil test established trees that have not been performing well.
- Prune out Eastern tent caterpillar egg masses.
- 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: bagworms, caterpillars, Gypsy moths, Japanese beetles, scale, sawfly, spidermites, leafminers, and voles.
- Diseases to watch for: Apple scab, Cedar-apple, hawthorn or quince rust, Verticillium wilt, Oak leaf blister, and powdery mildew.
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit
- Plant cover crops in vegetable gardens and annual beds (e.g., rye, clover, hairy vetch, and winter peas).
- Set up a cold frame, then plant lettuces, radishes, and carrots from seed.
- Harvest sweet potatoes.
- Remove rotting fruit from fruit trees and compost them.
- You can still have your vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
- Watch your pumpkins/squash. Harvest them when their rinds are dull and hard.
- 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: Asparagus beetle, aphids, cabbage worms, cutworms, Japanese beetle, rabbits, squash vine borer, and deer.
- Diseases to watch for: Apple-scab, Cedar-apple rust, Powdery mildew, Fungal, bacterial viral diseases.
- Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.
Lawns
- Have soil tested (every 3 years minimum).
- Apply lime as needed to adjust pH.
- Fertilize tall and fine fescues and bluegrass with 1 lb. Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.
- Over seeding may be done now through October.
- Keep newly seeded lawns well watered!
- Water established lawns deeply but infrequently!
- Divide ornamental grasses.
- To control crabgrass, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
- Control wild onions in warm season turf with broadleaf weed control.
- 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: Grubs
- See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Indoors/Houseplants
- Mid-month, pot amaryllis for winter holiday bloom.
- Begin conditioning the Christmas Poinsettias and Christmas cactus to get them ready for the upcoming holiday season.
- Force the buds on Christmas cactus by placing in a cool (55-60 degree) room for 13 hours of darkness.
- Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
- 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.
- Start to fertilize 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, scale, whitefly
- See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
- Start feeding birds to get them in the habit for this winter.
- Check indoors for termites and winter ants.
- Put up birdhouses.
- 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.
Montgomery County MD Food and Beverage Guide
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.
Master Gardener Plant Clinics
Varied Locations, dates, and times
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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
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
