Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Happy Summer! Now is the time to enjoy the outdoors and our gardens! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and events for June. Events include Wings of Fancy at Brookside Gardens South Conservatory,Summer Twilight Concert Series, Soleado Lavender Day, Heritage Days, Champion Trees Tour and Walk, and more! Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Mill Creek Village Walk Around the Towne! See pictures from this event below.
Planning:
- 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 spring festivities!
- Support Our Local Farmers – Join a CSA and have fresh local produce delivered to you!
- Support our local farmers! Visit a local farmers’ market near you. Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2019 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Flowers and Groundcovers:
- Provide stake supports for tall plants.
- Deadhead spent blooms on your annuals and perennials to encourage re-flowering.
- Check for black spot on your roses – remove and discard any affected leaves in the trash, never back in your garden or in your compost – apply a fungicide with Neem oil every two weeks during the growing season.
- Fertilize spring blooming bulbs after flowering.
- Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
- Plant warm-season annuals and tender bulbs (calla lilies, dahlias, gladiolus) in the ground and in containers.
- Pinch out tips of leggy plants.
- Remove last of spring flowers, replacing with transplants or seeds.
- Fertilize transplants.
- Water transplants deeply when dry.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, slugs, snails, spidermites, Deer
- Diseases to watch for: Blackspot on roses; powdery mildew, rust, bacterial diseases.
- See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Trees and Shrubs:
- Plant and transplant shrubs that have finished blooming.
- Prune boxwood.
- Transplanting azaleas is still possible.
- Remove spent lilac and rhododendron blossoms.
- Take soft wood cuttings of plants to propogate.
- Pinch buds of fall-blooming plants (asters, mums, Joe-Pye weed).
- Prune back forsythia, spirea, azalea, and other early-spring blooming shrubs.
- Prune out Eastern tent caterpillar egg masses.
- Do not fertilize newly planted or transplanted plants the first year.
- Keep mowers and trimmers away from trunks!
- Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
- Begin planting when soil is not too wet.
- Test soil pH on some hydangeas and adjust: pH 5-5.5 – blue; pH 6-6.5 – pink.
- 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: adelgids, Eastern tent caterpillar, Gypsy moths, lacebug, scale, sawfly, spidermites, leafminers, and Japanese beetles.
- Diseases to watch for: Fireblight, Anthracnose, Powdery mildew, Exobasidium gall on azaleas, Phytophthora, top dieback and root rot on azaleas.
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit:
- New fruit plants – keep watered.
- Cover berry bushes and fruit trees with bird netting.
- Remove finished plants.
- Plant/seed warm season plants.
- Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
- Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
- Put cages/stakes in at same time that you plant your tomatoes and peppers.
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- Pests to watch for: Corn borer, corn earworm, asparagus beetles, tomato hornworm, rabbits, deer
- Diseases to watch for: Apple scab, Cedar-apple rust.
- Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.
Lawns:
- Don’t remove more than 1/3 of grass blade when mowing.
- Fertilize Turf Only if Weak: apply 1 lb. N/1000 sq.ft.
- Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″
- Mow zoysia grass at 2″
- Control wild onions in warm season turf with broadleaf weed control.
- Test soil if you haven’t already!
- Dethatch if necessary and plug aerate BEFORE applying weed control.
- To control crabgrass, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
- Turn your compost pile.
- 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 UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Indoors/Houseplants:
- Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
- Begin hardening off before putting outside in shade for summer.
- Move to shady location for summer.
- 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.
- Reduce fertilizing of your indoor plants (except cyclamen).
- 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, mealybug, scale, aphids
- See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips:
- Clean and refill bird feeders.
- Switch your deer deterrent spray.
- Be vigilant for mosquito breeding spots – any standing water from a bottle cap to blocked gutters- and clean them out immediately. Ask your neighbors to do the same. Put Mosquito Dunks in any areas that accumulate water.
- 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.
May 2019 Walk Around the Towne | Sponsored by Mill Creek Village & Mill Creek Towne Garden Club
Here are some pictures from our Mill Creek Village and Mill Creek Towne Garden Cub Walk Around the Towne and Garden Tour. We plan to have another walk/garden tour in the fall. Let us know if you would like to show your garden for our future walks. Special Thanks to Joan Reynolds and Jean Durscher for letting us tour your beautiful gardens! #millcreekvillage#gardentour #walkaroundtowne
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
June
See below for upcoming local events in June.
Montgomery Parks Special Events & Festivals
More events are being added regularly. Please check back often!
Save the dates for these upcoming events! Events include Wings of Fancy at Brookside Gardens South Conservatory,Summer Twilight Concert Series, Soleado Lavender Day, Heritage Days, Champion Trees Tour and Walk, and more!
Montgomery County MD Food and Beverage Guide
The third edition of the MoCo Made Food & Beverage Guide
is available!
The Guide features more than 60 local producers and farmers offering local-made products. Find the online version here:
https://
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):
Support Our Local Farmers – Join a CSA and have fresh local produce delivered to you!
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://
Derwood Farmers Market
2019 Dates: April 27 to October 26 on Saturdays
By popular request: Early Hours in 2019 9 am until 1 pm
Support Our Local Farmers: Visit the Derwood Farmers Market!
A community farmers’ market featuring fresh local farm fruits, veggies, meats, baked goodies, arts, live music and more. Meet sustainable local farmers and from-scratch makers of edibles!
Located at the parking lot in the front yard of Derwood Alliance Church
16501 Redland Road, Rockville, MD 20855
Heritage Montgomery in celebrating the 22nd annual Heritage Days with a weekend packed with fun, family-friendly, free events all across the county. You can explore the agricultural heritage of Montgomery County at Agricultural History Farm Park as part of Heritage Days 2019.
Champion Trees Tour and Walk
Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 10 AM – 1 PM
Meadowside Nature Center, Montgomery Parks
Montgomery County is home to international, national, state, and county champion trees. Join us with guests Joe Howard of the Montgomery County Forestry Board and Carole Bergman, Forest Ecologist, as we visit several champions in the North Bethesda area. We?ll hear about each tree?s story and what makes it a champion. Van transportation included in fee; meet at Meadowside. Bring a snack and drink and plan to do some walking. Registration required.
