Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
It’s getting warmer and almost time for Spring! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and events for March. Events include Nature Matters Lecture Series: Edible Landscaping, St. Patrick’s Day Green and Growing Scavenger Hunt, How Does Your Garden Grow Day, Arbor Day Video Contest, Montgomery Parks Speaker Series, Nature Matters Lecture Series: African Penguin Conservation, MCT Garden Club’s Brookside Garden Guided Group Tour, Earth Day Festival, and more! Mark your calendars and save the 
date for our 50th Anniversary Mill Creek Town Garden Club Celebration on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 @ 7:30pm with special guest speaker Kathy Jentz, who will help us get our gardens ready for Spring!
Planning:
- Mark beds outside where new plants are to go.
- Build a raised bed for vegetables. Add lots of manure and compost.
- Read a good gardening book or magazine.
- Select and order fruit plants
- Decide on new tree/shrub locations.
- If you want a street tree, pick one under 20-30 feet if you have overhead power lines.
- Plan landscape design projects.
- Order/buy those seeds!
- Collect supplies for starting seeds.
- When planning your wildlife-friendly backyard don’t forget to include native trees and shrubs that produce fall and winter persistent fruits.
- Learn about native plants with this Native Plant Essentials Online Class
- Have a question about gardening? Check the University of Maryland Extension’s New Maryland Grows blog for garden tips.
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Support our local farmers! Visit a local farmers’ market near you. Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture Farmer’s Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Flowers and Groundcovers:
- Hardy spring bulbs begin to emerge (crocus, snowdrops, daffodils, tulips).
- Plant pansies.
- Transplant seedlings into individual 3″-4″ pots when crowded.
- Pinch out growing tips of leggy seedlings.
- Cut your daffodils for indoor bouquets. Do not combine with other flowers since they give off a toxic substance that may kill your other blooms prematurely.
- Divide perennials.
- Plant and prune roses.
- Pests to watch for: voles
- Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings.
- See UMD’s HGIC’s March Flower tips for more details.
Trees and Shrubs:
- Prune damaged branches.
- Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs before new growth.
- Spray with dormant oil to decrease pest infestations.
- Begin pruning of flowering shrubs.
- Remove dead and dying trees.
- Prune out Fireblight damage Malus and Pyrus when very cold.
- Water newly planted trees and shrubs weekly or as needed.
- Pests to watch for: Deer, vole, scale.
- Diseases to watch for: Fireblight, Phomospsis and Kabatina of Juniper, Diplodia tip blight of 2 & 3 needled pines.
- See HGIC’s March Trees and Shrubs Tips for more details.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit:
- Turn under cover crop when soil has warmed enough and is not too wet.
- Fertilize established asparagus, tree, bramble fruits, and strawberries.
- Prune grapevines.
- Plant potatoes.
- Start pepper, tomato, and eggplant seeds indoors
- Sow greens indoors or outdoors in cold frame.
- Start seeds for: cabbage, chives, fennel, sage, thyme, and rosemary.
- Cover garden beds with shredded leaves to minimize soil erosion.
- Insulate outdoor containers by wrapping with bubble wrap or landscape fabric.
- Look for evidence of pest or fungal damage throughout your garden.
- Prune out Fireblight damage on apples and pears when very cold.
- This is a good time to have your vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
- Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
- Pests to watch for: rabbits, deer, woodchucks, birds
- Diseases to watch for: Damping off of seedlings, Fireblight of pears, apples
- Here are some more fruit and vegetable gardening tips for March from UMD’s HGIC.
Lawns:
- Test soil if you haven’t already (every 3 years minimum).
- Start lawn seeding.
- Dethatch if necessary and plug aerate BEFORE applying weed control.
- Apply pre-emergent crabgrass and broadleaf weed control when forsythia finishes blooming.
- 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 - Build a compost bin.
- Get your lawn mower serviced.
- Diseases to watch for: brown patch, and red thread
- Pests to watch for: Grubs
- See HGIC’s March Lawn Tips for more details.
Indoors/Houseplants:
- Repot larger plants that are going outside for the summer.
- Buy a few new houseplants.
- Maintain moisture in pots wintering indoors, but do not over water!
- Keep all houseplants out of drafts and away from heat vents.
- Clean the leaves of your indoor houseplants to prevent dust and film to build-up.
- Set up a humidifier for indoor plants or at least place them in pebble trays.
- Reduce fertilizing of indoor plants (except cyclamen).
- Remove old leaves, damaged stems.
- Fertilize houseplants now that they are actively growing again.
- Repot root-bound houseplants and start fertilizing them.
- Pests to watch for: aphids, spider mites, scale, and whitefly
- See HGIC’s March Houseplants Tips for more tips.
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips:
- Clean and refill bird feeders.
- Wash and refill the bird bath or set out a shallow bowl of water in icy weather.
- Vacuum up any ladybugs that come in the house.
- Don’t put your birdbath away. Birds need fresh water for drinking and bathing throughout the fall season. Clean frequently and keep filled with fresh water.
- Check for vole problems and set up traps.
- Switch your deer deterrent spray.
- See HGIC’s March 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 March 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
March
See below for upcoming local events in March.
Montgomery Parks Special Events & Festivals
More events are being added regularly. Please check back often!
Save the dates for these upcoming events! Events include Nature Matters Lecture Series: Edible Landscaping, St. Patrick’s Day Green and Growing Scavenger Hunt, How Does Your Garden Grow Day, Arbor Day Video Contest, Montgomery Parks Speaker Series, Nature Matters Lecture Series: African Penguin Conservation, MCT Garden Club’s Brookside Garden Guided Group Tour, Earth Day Festival, Mill Creek Garden Club’s 50th Anniversary Celebration featuring guest speaker Kathy Jentz, who will give a presentation on “Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring” on Tuesday, March 20th at 7:30pm, and more!
Master Gardener Plant Clinics
Varied Locations, dates, and times
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):
The Woods in Your Backyard Online Course
March 7, 2018 – May 21, 2018
UMD Extension is offering an online non-credit course called The Woods in Your Backyard, March 7 – May 21, 2018. Cost is $85. The course is about creating and maintaining natural areas around your home. The course work is spread out over the entire 10 1/2 week period and comprises orientation + 5 instructional modules with activities, assignments, and course materials. Click below for more details and a link to the course outline.
https://extension.umd.edu/woodland/woods-your-backyard/online-course
TGIF Crafty Gals- Weave a Spring Basket!
Eggsciting Eggs
Sunday, March 11
Black Hill Nature Center | 2p – 3p
Some eggs have a hard shell, some are soft and squishy. Eggs come in all shapes and sizes and are laid by all sorts of animals. We’ll learn about some of our local egg-layers, meet some egg-laying animals, and go on a hike to see if we can find any eggs.
Mill Creek Towne Garden Club 50th Anniversary Community Event-“Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring”
Save the date, and don’t miss our special 50th Anniversary celebration on Tuesday, March 20th! We will have a special guest speaker, Kathy Jentz, who will present “Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring”. Refreshments and cake will be served. We hope you can join us. Below are the meeting details.
Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Mill Creek Towne Elementary School All Purpose Room
17700 Park Mill Dr.
Derwood, MD 20855
Speaker: Kathy Jentz
Topic: Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring
Hostess: MCT Garden Club members
Cost: FREE, Donations gratefully appreciated!
NOTE: If Montgomery County Schools are closed due to inclement weather, the Garden Club meeting will be cancelled.
Kathy Jentz Bio
Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine. A life-long gardener, Kathy believes that growing plants should be stress-free and enjoyable. Her philosophy is inspiration over perspiration.
Kathy’s work has been featured in numerous Washington, DC-area publications and she appears on regular gardening guest spots on television and radio programs in Washington, DC.
She is also the Green Media columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Grower newspaper, where she does a great deal of hand-holding and coaxing to get independent garden centers, plant breeders, and other horticultural businesses to join the social media revolution and maximize their online brands.
Montgomery Parks Speaker Series
March 21, 2018
12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Montgomery County Planning Department Auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Join us for the Montgomery Parks Speaker Series, which will cover a diverse range of parks topics including planning and design for urban parks, park advocacy, public-private partnerships, and more! RSVP for lunch – space is limited.
Scott Kratz and Ariel Trahan– Design: 11th St. Bridge Project and Anacostia Watershed
Could an old bridge be turned into a park? That’s what community activist Scott Kratz wants to achieve. He’s been working with Washington DC government and Building Bridges Across the River, a Ward 8-based non-profit, to transform an old freeway bridge into a park above the Anacostia River.
Ariel Trahan is the Director of River Restoration Programs through the Anacostia Watershed Society, and oversees youth and adult education programs. As a native Michigander who is no stranger to lakes and rivers, Ariel wants to ensure everyone has access to clean water.
RSVP for Lunch-Space is Limited
April
Montgomery Parks Speaker Series
April 17, 2018
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Montgomery County Planning Department Auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Join us for the Montgomery Parks Speaker Series, which will cover a diverse range of parks topics including planning and design for urban parks, park advocacy, public-private partnerships, and more! RSVP for lunch – space is limited.
Beth Shogren, Stacie West, Robin-Eve Jasper Panel Discussion with Green Minneapolis and NOMA BID
Beth Shogren is the Executive Director of Green Minneapolis.
Stacie West is the current director of Parks Projects with the NoMa Bid. West leads the foundation’s efforts to acquire sites, design parks and build a network of public spaces for the rapidly growing DC neighborhood.
As the current President of the NoMaBid, Robin-Eve Jasper has furthered the foundation’s plan to continue business improvement and park development.
RSVP for Lunch-Space is Limited
Brookside Garden’s Guided Group Tour
Saturday, April 21, 2018
10:30 am – 11:30 am
$9
Brookside Gardens Visitors Center
1800 Glenallan Ave.
Wheaton, MD 20902
Join us for a horticulturally-oriented, guided adult group tour of Brookside Gardens, where we will enjoy the splendors of spring flowers! Tours are led by well-trained volunteer guides and last approximately one hour. We encourage questions from participants.
Registration required.
Deadline for registration is Monday, April 2, 2018.
Registration is available online and offline. Please visit our registration page for online and offline payment options for registration (see link below).
Questions?
For questions, please send an email to: info@mctgardenclub.org or call 240-912-5508.
Friends of Black Hill Nature Center Native Plant Sale
Thursday, April 26 – Sunday, April 29
Black Hill Nature Center
Many of the plants on sale have been cultivated locally and most are important food and shelter sources for Maryland butterflies, birds, and an array of other wildlife. All proceeds go to support nature programming at Black Hill Visitors Center.