Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
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.
- Volunteer at a local public or historic garden.
- Plan for 2024 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.
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.
Join Mill Creek Towne Garden Club!
- 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?
Maryland Grows Blog
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.
MD HGIC Video Tips
Our Extension experts are sharing one-minute video tips to help you in the garden this summer. We’re talking about pest management in the vegetable garden, tree and lawn diseases, native plants, mowing lawns, and more!
For more information, please visit:
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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
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:
New Gardening Books
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
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 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:
Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2024 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
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
Check out the revised list of Mid-Atlantic native plants for pollinators and beneficial insects, from the Xerces Society.
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
Flowers and Groundcovers
- Remove spent lilac and rhododendron blossoms.
- Direct-sow annual flower seeds.
- 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.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, slugs, snails, deer
- Diseases to watch for: Powdery mildew
- 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
5 Million Trees Initiative
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.
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/
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.
Trees and Shrubs
- Prune azaleas directly after blooming.
- Transplanting azaleas is still possible.
- Take soft wood cuttings of plants to propagate.
- Contact an certified arborist to have your trees’ health inspected.
- Directly after blooming, prune flowering shrubs and vines.
- Check often and water newly planted trees if they don’t pass the finger test (stick your finger deep into soil – dry? Water!)
- If you MUST mulch, remove old mulch then add 2″ – 3″ shredded pine or pine needles, keeping 3″ away from trunk.
- Fertilize plants not getting ready to bloom, if needed.
- Shape your evergreens and hedges.
- Prune broken, dead, or diseased branches.
- Keep an eye out for bark damage from rabbits and deer.
- Spray broadleaf evergreens with anti-desiccant to prevent dehydration.
- Use fallen leaves for mulch or compost.
- Prune foundation shrubs and trees to be no closer than 1 foot from the house.
- Look out for any Poison Ivy vines, which will turn crimson in the late fall and be easy to distinguish from other vines.
- Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like groundcover from under shrubs.
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- 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.
- Remove dead and dying trees.
- Pests to watch for: Eastern tent caterpillar, voles, and deer.
- Diseases to watch for: Gypsy moths, sawfly, azalea lacebug, webworm, spidermites, leafminers, caterpillars, adelgids, scale, aphids, borers, bagworms, and Japanese beetles.
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Vegetable Planting Calendar
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.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit
- Remove finished plants.
- Harvest strawberry beds daily.
- Direct-sow vegetable seeds.
- Harvest herbs to use in salads and summer dishes.
- Plant/seed warm season plants.
- Sow beets, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash for fall harvest.
- New fruit plants – keep watered their first spring, summer, and fall.
- Hand-pick cabbage worms from cabbage and broccoli.
- Thin seedlings.
- Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
- Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, cabbage worms, corn borer, corn earworm, cutworms, and tomato hornworm.
- Diseases to watch for: Fungal, bacterial, viral diseases.
- Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.
Lawns
- Move in the early evening and cut off no more than one-third of the grass height at one time. Leave clippings on the ground to provide nutrients.
- Sharpen your lawnmower blade.
- Test soil if you haven’t already.
- Dethatch if necessary and plug aerate BEFORE applying weed control.
- Clean yard of all leaves and other debris.
- Turn your compost pile.
- 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
- Give your houseplants a quarter turn every few weeks.
- Keep all houseplants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
- Keep succulents and cacti on the dry side.
- Repot root-bound houseplants and start fertilizing them.
- Change water in cuttings started last fall and add 2-3 pieces of fish tank charcoal.
- Do not over water house plants.
- Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
- 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, and scale.
- See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
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
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
- Check indoors for termites and winter ants.
- This is the perfect time to apply grub control.
- Look for slug trails in the early morning and put out slug bait as needed.
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- Put suet out for birds.
- Keep bird feeders clean and filled.
- Switch your deer deterrent spray.
- Set out traps for mice, moles, and voles.
- Watch for: eggs, larvae, overwintering stage of many species, carpenter ants, flies, 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:
Strawberry Festival at Derwood Farmer’s Market
Strawberry Celebration Day at Derwood Farmers Market!
Location: 16501 Redland Rd, Rockville, MD 20855
Join us on Saturday, June 1st, from 9 am to 1 pm for a berry spectacular day filled with:
- Juicy, locally grown strawberries
- Mouthwatering strawberry-inspired treats
- A thrilling Strawberry Food Competition
- Live music to keep the vibe alive!
- Sign up for the Strawberry Food Competition and compete for fantastic prizes, including a $50 Market Gift Certificate!
Don’t miss out on this fun-filled, flavorful event! See you there!
Montgomery County Heritage Days
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 – Upcoming Landscape Design Programs
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.
Montgomery Parks – Hot Volunteer Opportunities!
| 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!
Go to Montgomery Parks event calendar for a complete list of special events and programming and to learn how to sign up using ActiveMontgomery. Visit the Spring 2024 Montgomery Parks Program Guide
Montgomery College Lifelong Learning Home and Garden Classes – Summer 2024
See Schedule of Summer Classes below:
| Home and Garden | |||||||||
| Course | CRN# | Course Name | Hrs. | Mode | Start Date | End Date | Days | Times | Loc |
| LLP152 | 41482 | Annuals and Perennials for Mid-Atlantic Landscape | 5 | Structured Remote | 6/4/2024 | 6/11/2024 | Tue | 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM | A-DL-WD&CE Virtual-Remote |
| LLI519 | 41600 | Garden Design | 8 | Face to Face | 6/18/2024 | 7/16/2024 | Tue | 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | R-MK-Mannakee Building |
| LLI519 | 41601 | Garden Design | 8 | Face to Face | 6/18/2024 | 7/16/2024 | Tue | 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | R-MK-Mannakee Building |
| LLI022 | 11824 | Orchids:How to Grow and Bloom | 3 | Structured Remote | 8/10/2024 | 8/10/2024 | Sat | 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM | A-DL-WD&CE Virtual-Remote |
| LLI022 | 11826 | Orchids:How to Grow and Bloom | 3 | Structured Remote | 8/10/2024 | 8/10/2024 | Sat | 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM | A-DL-WD&CE Virtual-Remote |
Let’s Talk Gardens
Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.
Smithsonian Gardens
“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.
And we encourage you to watch videos in our Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library.
