Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Happy New Year! If your new year’s resolution is to start a healthier lifestyle, studies have shown that gardening is a great way to get exercise and live a long healthy life! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and events for January. Events include Volunteer Fair for Montgomery Parks Historic Sites, MLK Day of Service, our MCT Garden Club Meeting Program on The Key to Soil Health, 14th Annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange in MD, Maple Sugaring Days, Spring Conference, and more!
Planning:
- Start reading those plant catalogs!
- Start collecting plant seeds.
- Decide where your plants from seed are going in your garden.
- Finalize catalog seed orders by the second/third week of January.
- Collect supplies for starting seeds.
- Clean and sharpen your garden tools.
- Clean and tidy up pots and seed trays to get a good start in February.
- Paint a few terra cotta pots in spring-like colors.
- Repair your shed and repair/paint your fences.
- Clean out your greenhouse and wash those windows.
- Volunteer at a local public or historic garden.
- Have a question about gardening? Check the University of Maryland Extension’s New Maryland Grows blog for garden tips.
- Support our local parks and gardens. Visit a garden or park for their winter festivities!
- Support our local farmers! Visit a local farmers’ market near you. Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2018 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Flowers and Groundcovers:
- Prune summer bloomers such as Hydrangeas, Rose of Sharon, Crape Myrtles, and Butterfly Bushes.
- Start seeds for: Petunia, Dwarf Snapdragons and check daily for moisture.
- Last chance to plant bulbs or, if you have waited until the ground is frozen, pot them up for forcing indoors.
- Hand-pull visible weeds.
- Clean out your cold frame or build a new one.
- Collect large plastic soda bottles to use as cloches (A cloche is a clear, bell-shaped cover used to protect tender plants from frost.)
- Check any tropical or summer-blooming bulbs, corms, tubers, and bare root plants in storage for rot or dessication.
- Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for birds to enjoy over the winter.
- After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials and then mark beds!
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, spidermites, whiteflies, snails, slugs
- Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings
- See UMD’s HGIC’s January Flower Tips for more details.
Trees and Shrubs:
- Prune damaged branches.
- Plant frost-tolerant trees.
- Check that newly-planted trees, shrubs, and perennials have not been heaved out of the ground due to freezing and thawing cycles.
- Moderately prune evergreens, especially hollies, for indoor decorating.
- For care of holiday plants and trees, see these articles on seasonal and indoor plants.
- Take hardwood cuttings from willow and dogwood to propagate them.
- Set out your live potted evergreens from holiday decorating in a protected outdoor space to harden them off in advance of planting them.
- If we have snow, gently dislodge snow from trees and shrubs with a broom to prevent damage to branches.
- Use leftover holiday greens and cut-up tree branches to mulch beds and create windbreaks.
- Prune maples, dogwoods, birch, elm, walnut, and yellowwood to prevent “bleeding”.
- Water slowly and deeply if weather is very dry and ground is not frozen.
- Prune out Fireblight damage Malus and Pyrus when very cold.
- Continue to remove fallen, diseased leaves.
- Put diseased leaves, pesticide-laden grass clippings and weed seeds out for recycling rather than the compost pile.
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like groundcover from under shrubs.
- Remove dead and dying trees.
- Pests to watch for: Gypsy moths, azalea lacebug, adelgids, aphids, bagworms, borer, caterpillars, scale, sawfly, spidermites, leafminers, and Japanese beetles.
- Diseases to watch for: Fireblight
- For more tips, see HGIC’s January Trees and Shrubs Tips for more details.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit:
- Start hardy herbs, onions, cabbage, pansies, and perennials.
- Prune out Fireblight damage on apple and pear trees when very cold.
- Remove finished plants.
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- Pests to watch for: Corn borer, corn earworm, asparagus, beetles, squash vine borer, tomato hornworm, rabbits, deer, woodchucks, birds
- Diseases to watch for: Fireblight
- Here are some more fruit and vegetable gardening tips for January from UMD’s HGIC.
Lawns:
- Avoid walking on frozen grass to avoid damaging crowns.
- Do not step on frozen soil in flower beds and lawns.
- Use de-icer sparingly or a nonchemical substitute such as sand, grit, fireplace ashes, or non-clumping kitty litter.
- Turn your compost pile.
- Rake leaves, shred, and gather in compost piles.
- The annual soil science calendars from the Natural Resources Conservation Service are both educational and beautifully done. The one for 2018 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 HGIC’s January Lawn Tips for more details.
Indoors/Houseplants:
- All indoor plants should be indoors now.
- Keep all houseplants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
- 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.
- Do not place live wreaths or greenery in-between your door and a glass storm door, especially if the doorway is facing south. This placement will “cook” the arrangement on a sunny day.
- Reduce fertilizing of your indoor plants (except cyclamen).
- Mid-month, pot amaryllis for winter holiday bloom.
- Take cuttings of plants you want to overwinter inside and place in water.
- Prune potted bougainvillea or hanging baskets that will overwinter inside.
- Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
- Maintain moisture in pots wintering indoors, but do not over water!
- Keep all houseplants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
- Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
- Pests to watch for: spider mites and whitefly
- See HGIC’s January Houseplants Tips for more tips.
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips:
- Clean and refill bird feeders.
- Switch your deer deterrent spray.
- Check for vole problems and set up traps.
- See HGIC’s January Insect Tips for more details.
- Watch for: carpenter ants, flies, stink bugs, termites, rabbits, raccoons, groundhogs, deer, moles, snakes, squirrels, and voles.
- For more information on wildlife management and attracting wildlife see HGIC’s January Wildlife Tips.
Source: University of Maryland’s Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) and the Washington Gardener.
Please Support the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club
Hello Friends, Neighbors,
Please support the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club! Your donations will help us continue to provide garden-related programs to the community and pay for maintaining and landscaping the Mill Creek Towne main entrances.
https://www.mctgardenclub.org/donations/
We accept donations throughout the year. Thanks to all of you that have recently donated as well as those of you who have supported us in the past years! Thanks for your continued support of the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club and our community programs!
Mill Creek Towne Garden Club – Derwood, Maryland
https://www.mctgardenclub.org | info@mctgardenclub.org | Like us on Facebook
January
See below for upcoming local events in January.
Montgomery Parks Special Events & Festivals
More events are being added regularly. Please check back often!
Save the dates for these upcoming events! Events include Volunteer Fair for Montgomery Parks Historic Sites, MLK Day of Service, MCT Garden Club Meeting Program on The Key to Soil Health, 14th Annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange in MD, Maple Sugaring Days, Spring Conference, 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):
Volunteer Fair for Montgomery Parks Historic Sites
February is Maple Sugaring Month at Brookside Nature Center. Every Saturday and Sunday you’ll have an opportunity to experience an American tradition: maple sugaring! Watch the whole maple sugaring process from start to finish. See sap drip from trees and taste it. Watch us boil it down into sweet maple syrup, then sample a tasty treat. Join in the fun and activities and learn something new at this family-friendly program!
Spring Conference
Saturday, February 23, 2019 | 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM
University of Maryland Extension, Montgomery County Office
Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm Park
18410 Muncaster Road
Derwood, MD 20855
Save the Date! Gardening From the Ground Up
This year’s Spring Conference will occur on Saturday, February 23, 2019. Our theme is “Gardening from the Ground Up”. The Montgomery County Master Gardener Spring Conference is held in February each year. The day-long event is open to the public and offers multiple presentations by Master Gardeners, morning snacks, a delicious bag lunch, door prizes, networking with other gardeners, answers to your gardening questions, handouts, and reference materials. Registration is required to attend. Click here to view this year’s Spring Conference flyer.