Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,
Fall is fast approaching, so it’s time to enjoy your fall crops this month! Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for September. There are some online events, check out 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 our Mill Creek Village Picnic – Meet Your Neighbors and Mill Creek Towne Garden Club members!, Farmers Markets, Brookside Gardens Hands-On Orchid Repotting webinar, Brookside Gardens Fall Plant Sale, Pawpaw & Pollinators Festival, Fall Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College, Smithsonian Garden’s Let’s Talk Gardens webinar series, Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club – Repurpose and Recycle Fall Decorating Workshop, Garden Q & A, Climate Change Workshops, and more.
- Peruse fall bulb catalogs.
- Plan where to plant your fall bulbs.
- Take photos and update your garden journal.
- Check your local garden center for end-of-summer bargains.
- Start collecting plant seeds for next year and for trading.
- 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.
Mill Creek Village Annual Community Picnic
Sunday, Sep 12, 2021, 4pm – 7pm
Caddy Court
Mill Creek Village (MCV) invites Mill Creek Towne residents of all ages to its 8th Annual Community Picnic. This event will be co-hosted by Mill Creek Towne Garden Club on Sunday, September 12, 2021 from 4 to 7 PM on Caddy Court. Come and enjoy:
- Grilled hot dogs and beef, turkey and veggie burgers
- Buns and condiments, salads, sides
- Desserts and flavored sno-cones
- Lemonade, iced tea, sodas, and water
- Canopies for shade and tables and chairs for sit-down dining
- A 50/50 raffle and lawn games
You are welcome to bring your own favorite beverage and chairs for comfort and social distancing. Mask wearing is optional for outdoor events under current pandemic guidelines.
MCV gratefully acknowledges the following local businesses for their kind support:
Gold Sponsor: Three Creek Dentistry (threecreekdentistry.com)
Bronze Sponsor: La Brasita Restaurant (labrasita.com)
Bronze Sponsor: Sasuns Cafe (sasunscafemenu.com)
*DONATIONS TO MCV ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AND MUCH APPRECIATED
*Founded in 2013, Mill Creek Village (MCV) is a volunteer-led, 501 (c) 3, tax-exempt, nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to assisting older neighbors (60+ years of age) in Mill Creek Towne to maintain their independence and age well at home. Services include transportation assistance, grocery shopping friendly home visits and phone contacts. MCV also conducts several community-wide, intergenerational social events each year.
To learn more about MCV or request help, please contact us at 240-686-5870 or by e-mail at mctvillage@gmail.com or visit our website and make a secure donation at https://www.millcreekvillage.org. For information about the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club, call Ellen McAdams at 301/869-7227.
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
Online Gardening Resources
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
#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 2021 Montgomery County Online Searchable Food and Beverage Guide has arrived!
This year’s Guide lists over 70 MoCo Made food and beverage producers and farmers, with products ranging from honey to craft beverages to artisanal meats and more.
Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2021 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.
Support our local farmers! Shop at the #derwoodfarmersmarket!
Now it’s time for the Fall market and we are so ready! Derwood Fall Market at the Hines Garden on Oaklawn Farm. 18510 Muncaster Rd, Rockville, MD 20855. 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, rain or shine through November 20. 
What a great summer season!
Starting Sept 11th until November 20, the Derwood Fall season continues at Hines Garden on Oaklawn Farm… 18510 Muncaster Road. Your favorite farmers, plus brunch, lunch, pastries, smoothies, coffee, art, music… more! 
Curbside Pickup will continue at this location! 9am until 1pm from September 11 – November 20 at 18510 Muncaster Road, Rockville 20855. We accept and provide Matching Dollars for EBT-SNAP, P-EBT, WIC and Seniors’ SFMNP. Catch us at Neighborhood Church for the 2022 spring season on April 23rd until September 3rd, 16501 Redland Rd, Rockville, MD 20855
Flowers and Groundcovers
Invite butterflies to your garden
Home & Garden Information Center
University of MD Extension
Read article:
- Begin replanting pots with hardy annuals.
- Your summer annuals will be reviving now with cooler temperatures and some rain. Cut back any ragged growth and give them some fertilizer. They should put on a good show until the first hard frost.
- Remove spent annuals and replace with hardy mums and fall season annuals. Water deeply.
- Start bulb plantings of early spring bloomers at the end of the month.
- Plant newly purchased plants.
- Continue to deadhead spent flowers to encourage reblooming.
- Cut fully yellow lily stalks.
- Divide ornamental grasses.
- Divide and transplant perennials — in particular, peony and iris.
- Dig up bulbs from your Gladiolus, Canna, Caladiums, and other tender bulbs; cut off foliage; let dry for a week; and store for the winter.
- Start bulb plantings of early spring bloomers at the end of the month.
- Fertilize established bulb beds.
- Pinch out growing tips of leggy plants.
- Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, spidermites, whiteflies, Deer, slugs, snails.
- 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
Poison ivy leaves will begin to turn red this month. Don’t be fooled by their fall color change, the leaves are still very irritating. Do not handle or shred the leaves and do not burn the vines. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/poison-ivy
Trees and Shrubs
- Remove fallen, diseased leaves.
- Plant evergreens for winter interest.
- Mulch or compost healthy leaves.
- Fertilize if necessary for the last time.
- Look out for any Poison Ivy vines, which will turn crimson in the fall and be easy to distinguish from other vines.
- Avoid late summer pruning.
- Transplant trees and shrubs.
- 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.
- If you MUST mulch: Remove old mulch and then add 2″-3″ shredded pine or pine needles, keeping 3″ away from trunk.
- 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.
- Remove dead and dying trees.
- Pests to watch for: adelgids, aphids, bagworms, borers, azalea lacebug, caterpillars, fall webworm, Gypsy moths, Japanese beetles, leafminers, sawfly, scale, spidermites
- Diseases to watch for: Apple scab Cedar-apple, hawthorn or quince rust, Powdery mildew, Verticillium wilt, Oak leaf blister
- For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.
Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit
The Heirloom Collards Project
Collards are cool-weather plants that prefer the temperatures of spring and fall. It’s too late to start collards from seed now (unless you just want tiny leaves for a salad, in which case go for it), but you can still buy plants at garden centers.
Maryland Grows Blog | Home & Garden Information Center
- Pick apples at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer’s market.
- 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.
- Remove rotting fruits from fruit trees and compost them.
- Pick mature tomatoes and peppers to ripen on your window sills.
- Plant cool-season vegetables; plant garlic now through the end of October.
- This is a good time to have your vegetable garden and landscape soils tested.
- Plant strawberries in a site with good drainage for harvest next spring.
- Start planting fall crops.
- Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
- Harvest your herbs and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
- 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.
Growing Great Fall Vegetables
Thursday, Sep 9 @ 6:30pm
The vegetable growing season isn’t over! Join Erica Smith with the University of Maryland Extension to learn about cool-weather vegetables perfect for the fall on Thursday, September 9, at 6:30 pm. Whether it’s kale to radishes to komatsuna, the rewards are worth the effort!
Lawns
- Apply fertilizer and lime to turfgrass based on soil tests and UME recommendations.
- Plug aerate when the soil is moist.
- Begin mowing leaves into turf to add organic matter and nutrients.
- Fertilized tall fescue and bluegrass with 1 lb. Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.
- Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″; zoysia grass at 2″
- 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 202 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
Hands-On Orchid Repotting
Saturday, September 11, at 10 am
Have you been given an orchid and don’t know how to take care of it? Join Brookside Gardens on Saturday, September 11, at 10 am for a hands-on repotting workshop that offers an “expert checkup” to assess your orchid’s health. You’ll learn how to treat issues ranging from root rot to pests and diseases, while repotting up to two of your orchids.
- Bring in tender plants before night temperatures dip to 60 degrees.
- Bring in houseplants if you took them out for the summer.
- Take cuttings of plants you want to overwinter inside and place in water.
- Bring Amaryllis indoors before a hard freeze. Repot every other year at this time. Store in a cool, dark place and do not water until flower buds or leaves emerge.
- Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
- Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.
- 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.
Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips
Fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) caterpillars produce a web of fine silk over terminal branches. There are 75 species of predators and parasites that normally keep this pest below damaging levels.
- 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.
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
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021 AT 12 PM EDT – 1 PM EDT &
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 AT 12 PM EDT – 1 PM EDT
In the Garden
Montgomery County Master Gardeners – Maryland
Pawpaw & Pollinators Festival 2021 – Celebrating during the Month of September
Celebrate the unique pawpaw tree and its fruit. Revel in the mystery and wonder of the pollinators that fuel our plentiful harvests. September is a month-long online festival for both the pawpaw and the pollinators in Montgomery Parks, Montgomery County, MD.
We have many programs planned and native plant and honey sales hosted by three of our nature centers.
Native Plant and Honey Sales Begin August 23-September 1!
Check back often to find out about all the unique programs for this fun month-long festival!
FOBG’s 25th ANNIVERSARY PLANT SALE 2021
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 10 AM – 3 PM
(8 AM – 10 AM : open to FOBG members ONLY)
Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021 10 AM – 1 PM
10% discount for FOBG members (Join at Sale!) and early entry
NOTE: This is an “In Person” Sale and NOT a virtual sale like 2020 (you have to come to Brookside Gardens and select your own plants). Quantities are limited.
This year’s plant sale will be held in person at:
Brookside Garden’s Visitor Center (South Terrace)
1800 Glenallan Avenue
Wheaton, MD 20902
Fall Online Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College
Its Class time at Montgomery College. Janet Johnson will be teaching a great class on how to bloom and grow your Phalaenopsis Orchids. So if you would like to learn how to help your orchid plant thrive, please check out this class. 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 Fall schedule for garden classes at MC (upcoming classes listed below). Come and join this really fun class! Hope to see you there.
HOW TO GROW AND BLOOM – LLI 022
View Catalog Description & Prerequisites
Tue
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
09/14/21 – 09/14/21
GARDEN DESIGN – LLI 370
View Catalog Description & Prerequisites
Wed
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
09/22/21 – 10/13/21
PERENNIALS FOR YOUR GARDEN – LLI 079
View Catalog Description & Prerequisites
Wed
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
10/20/21 – 10/27/21
FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HOME – LLI 028
View Catalog Description & Prerequisites
Mon
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
11/15/21 – 11/22/21
Climate Change Workshops
University of Maryland
Every Other Wednesday, Jun 23 – Sep 15, 2021
4pm to 5:30pm EDT
Dr. Sara Via, Professor & Climate Extension Specialist from University of Maryland, College Park is offering a series of free community-friendly climate change workshops. Learn more and register for some or all of them here: https://climatecorner.org/webinars/
Let’s Talk Gardens
Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.
Smithsonian Gardens
Let’s Talk Gardens, a free lunchtime webinar series on garden basics on Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.
Our September topics and presenters are the following:
September 9th- ‘Plants, Passion and Perseverance: A Focus on Positive Solutions and Experience Gained’ by Janet Draper, Smithsonian Gardens, Horticulturist
September 16th- ‘Seeds and How to Find Them’ by Philp Evich, Smithsonian Gardens, Horticulturist
September 23rd- ‘Getting the Most out of Small Space/Urban Gardens’ by Kathy Jentz, Editor and Publisher, Washington Gardener Magazine
September 30th- ‘Washington National Cathedral Gardens: Divine Inspiration & Earthly Challenges’ by Sandra Flowers, Director of Horticulture & Grounds Washington National Cathedral
To learn more about these presentations visit: https://gardens.si.edu/learn/lets-talk-gardens/
Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club – Repurpose and Recycle Fall Decorating Workshop
Sunday, September 19 at 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
$7.50 for Museum members, $15 for non-members
Decorating doesn’t have to break the bank! Participants in this workshop will create a decorative pumpkin made from recycled materials and a festive garland to take home to enhance their fall displays.
Join Lauren Peirce and Lori Thomas for an interactive discussion and workshop to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. The mother-daughter duo has a passion for creating holiday displays – especially for the fall season.
Lori and Lauren will share their tips and tricks on how to use items you have on hand, scour the thrift and dollar stores, and create fun and festive pieces that you can continue to use year after year.
Fall entertaining ideas, including tablescapes and appetizers, will be featured. Attendees will have an opportunity to sample the appetizers and beverages highlighted in the presentation!
For accommodation requests, please contact the museum via email or at 301-774-0022.
