Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Happy New Year! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for January. 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 and we share them on our Facebook page as well as on our mctgardenclub.org website. Some upcoming events include GreenScapes Symposium, 2022 Montgomery County Master Gardener Virtual Spring Conference, University of Maryland Extension Woodland & Wildlife Wednesdays, and Spring Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College. Stay tuned for our upcoming Mill Creek Garden Club events including our garden educational programs, Mill Creek Spring Cleanup in April, and garden tours which will be announced in our upcoming monthly garden tips, on our Facebook and NextDoor pages, and on our website! These events will be hosted as online or live events.
- Take photos and update your garden journal.
- Buy seeds and order plants from the new garden catalogs.
- Start collecting plant seeds for planting and trading.
- Sharpen and replace tools as needed.
- Clean out pots; store non-frost proof containers in garage or basement.
- Plan for 2022 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.
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
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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
Become a Master Gardener volunteer in 2022!
Master Gardeners receive training from the University of Maryland Extension and then educate residents about safe, effective, and sustainable horticultural practices that build healthy gardens, landscapes, and communities. Spring 2022 Basic Training starts soon. Find all the details here:
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 2022 MoCo Food & Beverage Guide is here! The 4th edition of the Guide from the Montgomery County Food Council is out – 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 2021 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Wild Hydrangea for the Mid-Atlantic Region
Mt. Cuba Center’s native hydrangea report evaluated 29 species and cultivars of Hydrangea arborescens and its relatives. Learn more:
Year of the Lilac
Lilacs are among the most carefree spring-flowering, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrubs (or small trees), well-loved for their toughness, reliability, and fragrance.
There are about 30 different species of lilac. Lilacs do best in full sun.
Witchhazel blooming is under way. Photo is Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ at Brookside Gardens.
Flowers and Groundcovers
- Plant the bulbs you forgot to plant last fall!
- Start seeds for: Petunia and Dwarf Snapdragons. Check daily for moisture.
- Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.
- After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials, then mark beds.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, spidermites, whiteflies, Deer, 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
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/
Trees and Shrubs
- Prune damaged branches.
- Set out your live potted evergreens from holiday decorating in a protected outdoor space to harden them off in advance of planting them.
- 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”.
- Check that newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials have not been heaved out of the ground due to freezing and thawing cycles.
- Take hardwood cuttings from willow and dogwood to propagate them.
- Cut a few branches of flowering shrubs to force into bloom inside.
- Root prune trees and shrubs to be transplanted next year.
- Remove bagworm bags.
- Gently brush snow from evergreen shrubs.
- Prune out Fireblight damage Malus and Pyrus when very cold.
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- If your conifers start shedding their needles or your spring bulb foliage starts peaking out of the ground, don’t worry. This is normal for our autumn cycle.
- 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.
- Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
- Keep an eye out for bark damage from rabbits and deer.
- Remove dead and dying trees.
- Pests to watch for: Voles, Deer
- Diseases to watch for: Phomopsis and Kabatina of Juniper, Diplodia tip blight of 2 & 3 needled pines.
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Don’t grow these edible plants! (unless you really want to)
HGIC #startingfromseeds
https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/2022/01/07/dont-grow-these-edible-plants-unless-you-really-want-to
Easy Native Perennials from Seed: January is the Time, Snow & All
No grow lights or special equipment needed!
Nuts for Natives
https://www.nutsfornatives.com/post/easy-native-perennials-from-seed-january-is-the-time-snow-all
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit
- Spread ashes from wood fires on your vegetable beds.
- Cover garlic plants with straw or leaf mulch.
- Collect large plastic soda bottles to use as cloches. (A cloche is a clear, bell-shaped cover used to protect tender plants from frost.)
- Prune dead bramble canes.
- Remove finished plants.
- Harvest your herbs often and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
- Pot up rosemary and chives for over-wintering indoors.
- Cut herbs and flowers for drying indoors.
- This is a good time to have your vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
- Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
- Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, cabbage worms, cutworms, Deer, Japanese beetle, rabbits, woodchucks, birds.
- Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings, Fireblight of pears and apples, Fungal, bacterial viral diseases.
- Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.
Melting Ice Safely
Each winter, people apply tons of ice-melting materials to sidewalks, driveways, and steps, often without regard to proper application procedures or to what the deicing substance contains. Careless use of deicing products can damage both the home and the environment. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/melting-ice-safely
Lawns
- Avoid walking on frozen grass to avoid damaging the crowns.
- Shovel walks and driveway before applying ice melt or you’ll damage lawn.
- Some alternatives to de-icing salts include sand, beet juice sugars, light gravel (grit), or non-clumping kitty litter. Using de-icing salts around driveways and sidewalks can harm your garden plants and turf.
- Get your lawn mower serviced.
- 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 2022 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
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Did you receive an amaryllis for the holidays? Keep it in a sunny window. After it is done flowering, the plant will produce leaves and with proper care can rebloom.
- For poinsettia care, see this: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/poinsettias
- Change water in cuttings started last fall and add 2-3 pieces of fish tank charcoal.
- Do not over water house plants.
- Start to fertilize with 1/2 strength houseplant fertilizer.
- Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
- Check any tropical or summer-blooming bulbs, corms, tubers, and bare root plants in storage for rot or desiccation.
- 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.
Montgomery Parks Deer Population Management Program
Our deer population management program runs through March 2022.
For the schedule of locations and dates, visit our website:
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
University of Maryland Extension Woodland & Wildlife Wednesdays
Wednesday, January 19th
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
What can you do for the bees? Find out at our first session of the 2022 Woodland Wildlife Webinar Series at noon on January 19. Join us as we learn more about these amazing insects, the challenges they face and what we can do for bees! Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/…/2022-woodland-wildlife….
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- 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.
- Leave hummingbird feeders out until October 15th.
- 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.
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
GreenScapes Symposium
February 18, 2022
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
*LIVE ZOOM EVENT
Contact
Contact Jason Gedeik at 301-962-1470
or jason.gedeik@montgomeryparks.org.
Join us for a fascinating day of presentations highlighting design strategies that make it easier and more effective to integrate native plants into a variety of landscapes. For more information and to register online, visit www.brooksidegreen.org.
2022 Montgomery County Master Gardener Virtual Spring Conference
Saturday, February 19, 2022
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST
Sign up now for the 2022 Montgomery County Master Gardener Virtual Spring Conference, to be held on Saturday, February 19, 2022. Level Up! Tips and Tricks To Help Take Your Garden to the Next Level, presented via Zoom, features talks on native plants, vegetable gardening, flowering ornamentals, vertical gardening, beneficial insects and more!
$30 per person.
More info at https://2022mcmgconference.eventbrite.com/
American Landscape Institute & CCBC Scholarship Program Offers Debt-free College-level Classes for High School Students
The ALI is a unique “Earn and Learn” scholarship program for high school graduates to take college horticulture classes at CCBC while working for a landscape or nursery company. Students work 4 days per week for a landscape or nursery company and attend classes at CCBC every Friday. Students graduate debt-free with a Certificate in Landscape Installation, Maintenance, and Design. High school seniors or graduates can apply via ALI website. http://www.americanlandscapeinstitute.com/program-overview/
Let’s Talk Gardens
Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.
Smithsonian Gardens
Until then, Happy Gardening!”
“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. No matter your level of gardening knowledge, there’s always something new to learn!
To learn more about these presentations visit: https://gardens.si.edu/learn/lets-talk-gardens/
Check out their video library for past Let’s Talk events!
Spring Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College
Its Class time at Montgomery College. Janet Johnson will be teaching a great class on How to Grow and Bloom and Floral Arrangements for Home.
This class is offered online, so you can take this class from the comfort of your living room. We focus on your questions and your needs. Montgomery College classes are open to everyone-so lets learn together! See the Spring schedule for garden classes at MC (upcoming classes listed below). Come and join this really fun class! Hope to see you there.
What’s All the Buzz About Bees? Beekeeping Class
A beekeeping class is being offered through Montgomery College starting in January! “What’s All the Buzz About Bees?” is taught by Regional Apiary Inspector Gregg Gochnour. More info at
Horticulture Classes | MC Lifelong Learning Spring 2022
| HOW TO GROW AND BLOOM – LLI 022 |
|---|
| View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
| Course | CRN | Credits | Days | Time | Start – End Dates | Seats Avail. | Waitlist Count | Campus | Location | Instructors |
| LLI022 | 37874 | 0.300 | W | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | 01/26/22 – 01/26/22 | 20 | 0 | WD&CE Virtual-Remote | DL | Janet S. Johnson |
| FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HOME – LLI 028 |
| View Catalog Description & Prerequisites |
Montgomery College Spring 2022 Landscape Classes
Classes being offered at Montgomery College (Germantown) in the Landscape Technology Program for the Spring term of 2022. Classes start the week of Jan. 24. Contact information at the bottom.
https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/admissions-registration/search-the-class-schedule.html
