Category Archives: Meetings

Private Gardens of the Potomac and Chesapeake (Recap)

Mill Creek Towne Garden Club and guests enjoyed Claudia Kousoulas’ presentation about her book: “Private Gardens of the Potomac and Chesapeake”. Claudia Kousoulas’ talk focused on design, architecture, urban planning, and plant materials. The gardens spanned the vast expanse from the vibrant Washington, DC, Metro Area to the serene Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We delved into the enchanting realm of 15 exquisite gardens, carefully crafted by renowned designers, as they unveiled the captivating landscape style of the Capital region. We were able to ask questions during the presentation to learn more about these various types of gardens and how they were developed. Garden locations included:

  • Washington, DC
  • Bethesda, Maryland
  • Alexandria, Virginia
  • Montgomery County, Maryland
  • Arnold, Maryland
  • North Shores, Delaware
  • Falls Church, Virginia
  • Annapolis, Maryland
  • Easton, Maryland

Following her presentation, we had the opportunity to purchase her book. We also enjoyed refreshments and talked to guests and members of the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club. We hope you will be able to join us in future events in 2024! Stay tuned, as we will post events on our website, Facebook, and NextDoor.

azalea and golden ragworts (Packera aurea)

May Garden Tips

Hello Friends, Neighbors, Fellow Gardeners,

This May seems more like April, but we’ve had some nice warm days and spring doesn’t seem to last long here before summer arrives. 🌞🌼 Here are some garden tips, educational opportunities, and videos for May. This includes some events from U.S. Botanic GardenMaster 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 Backyard Gardening Zoom Sessions, The Great Grow Along, Summer Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College, Mill Creek Garden Club events including our Backyard Beekeeping event on Tuesday, May 24th, and Mill Creek Village and Mill Creek Garden Club’s Walk Around the Towne event with two garden tours on June 4th!



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

Montgomery County Master Gardeners logo

Montgomery County Master Gardeners - Maryland

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


Thank You to All Our Volunteers for Our April Mill Creek Spring Cleanup!


New Gardening Books

Gardening Books
See our December list with 10 recently published books. This cumulative list for 2021 has more than 120 titles and serves as a great resource for holiday gift ideas. Visit our Gardening Books Resources page for gardening ideas.

Online Gardening Resources

online garden resources
Here are some online gardening resources focused on the MD/DC area:

Online Garden-to-Table Recipes

garden to table recipes feature box

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

We are so thankful for our local farms each and every day. During this challenging time, consider supporting your local farms, whether they farm produce, flowers, animals, or specialty. Our food supply is safe and secure, and many farms are continuing to offer delivery or curbside pickup.
#LocalIsTheNewNormal #BuyLocal

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:

https://bit.ly/3rqwshY

2022 Farmers Market - Montgomery County, MD
i-love-farmers-markets

Download Montgomery County’s Office of Agriculture 2022 Farmers Market Flyer to find a farmer’s market near you.


Clematis

Flowers and Groundcovers

  • After the last frost date, plant warm-season annuals and tender bulbs (calla lilies, dahlias, gladiolus) in the ground and containers.
  • Cut back spent tulip an daffodil blooms, but not the foliage!
  • Feed your roses and new plantings with slow-release fertilizer sparingly.
  • Remove last of spring flowers, replacing with transplants or seeds.
  • Do not set out seedlings or tender annuals until after Mother’s Day (traditional last frost-free date for our entire area).
  • Plant and prune roses.
  • Check for black spots 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.
  • Provide supports for fast-growing perennials such as delphiniums, peonies, and lilies.
  • Tie up clematis and other fast-growing climbing vines.
  • Plant summer bulbs (such as dahlias and caladiums). 
  • Pests to watch for: Aphids, 4-lined plant bug, spidermites, whiteflies, Deer, slugs, snails.
  • Diseases to watch for:  Damping off of seedlings, Botrytis on peonies, Volutella blight on pachysandra.
  • 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

Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping


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

  • Plant and transplant shrubs that have finished blooming.
  • Prune back forsythia, spirea, and other early-spring blooming shrubs.
  • Check often and water newly planted trees if they don’t pass the finger test (stick your finger deep into soil – dry? Water!)
  • Plant tree, shrubs, perennials; this is a good time to plant evergreens.
  • If you must mulch, remove old mulch and then add 2″ – 3″ shredded pine or pine needles, keeping 3″ away from trunk.
  • Prune crepe myrtle when you can see what is still alive.
  • Prune azaleas when they finish blooming.
  • Remove Ivy, Pachysandra, and other vine-like groundcover from under shrubs.
  • Soil test established trees that have not been performing well.
  • Keep mowers and trimmers away from trunks!
  • Test soil pH on some hydrangeas and adjust: Blue: pH 5 – 5.5; Pink: pH 6 – 6.5 
  • Remove bagworm bags.
  • 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:  Gypsy moths late in month, scale, sawfly, spidermites, leafminers, caterpillars, voles, and deer.
  • Diseases to watch for:  Antracnose, Exobasidium gall on azaleas, Phytophthora, top dieback and root rot on azaleas.
  • 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. 

https://extension.umd.edu/res…/vegetable-planting-calendar


Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit

  • New fruit plants: keep watered their first spring, summer, and fall.
  • Plant tender transplants: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, sweet potato.
  • Sow seeds of: beans, melons, cucumbers.
  • Keep all transplants watered deeply for 2-3 weeks.
  • Divide perennials and herbs. Pot up extras and give away at plant swaps.
  • Thin seedlings.
  • Harvest your herbs often and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
  • Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
  • Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, birds, cabbage worms, cutworms, deer, Japanese beetle, rabbits, woodchucks.
  • Diseases to watch for: Apple scab, Cedar-apple rust.
  • Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.

Lawns

  • Fertilize turf only if weak: apply 1 lb. N/1000 sq. ft.
  • Calibrate your spreader before fertilizing.
  • To control crabgrass, apply pre-emergent herbicide to lawn (when forsythia blooms drop).
  • Mow high to reduce weeds and stress: Fescue & Bluegrass: 3″ – 3 1/2″, Zoysia: 2″
  • Control wild onions in warm season turf with broadleaf weed control.
  • 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

yellow and pink orchidsyellow and pink orchids

  • Begin hardening off prior to putting outside in shade for summer.
  • Repot and fertilize houseplants when new growth begins.
  • Repot larger plants that are going outside for the summer.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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


house finch and birdfeeder

What Gardeners Should Know about Avian Influenza

The types of perching birds that frequent your garden do not normally comingle with waterfowl and are considered a low risk for avian flu. As always, keep bird feeders clean and disinfected.

https://extension.psu.edu/what-gardeners-should-know-about-avian-influenza

Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips

  • Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.
  • Ticks are very active now. 
  • 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.
  • Put out slug traps around your vulnerable edibles and hostas.
  • 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.
  • 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:

HGIC GARDEN TIPS & TASKS
 
 

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

Montgomery County Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

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


Montgomery County Master Gardener Virtual Question & Answer Program

“In the Garden”

Streaming on Facebook Live on the First and Third Tuesdays of the Month. Next “In the Garden” session is on May 3, 2022 on Facebook at 12 Noon ET. Recording available at:

https://www.facebook.com/MoCoMasterGardenersMD


Backyard Gardening Zoom Sessions

Tuesdays at 12 noon

March 8 – May 31, 2022

Join UMD Extension for “Backyard Gardening Zoom Sessions” this spring! This 7-part series will be held on Tuesdays at noon. The first talk will be on March 8: Cole Crops & Spring Gardening with vegetable specialist Jon Traunfeld. For details and registration visit: https://go.umd.edu/get_growing

A free 10-day virtual festival connecting gardeners with the influencers, taste-makers and cutting edge content of today’s gardening world.

Over 40 workshops, virtual tours of inspiring public and botanic gardens nation-wide and Houseplant Happy Hours… join real time and connect with presenters plus other attendees or watch at your convenience for six-months.

This timely content will help you up your plant game or inspire you to try new ideas in 2022. A unique opportunity to be encouraged and educated by some of the biggest influencers, educators and taste-makers in today’s gardening world.

Get more info at https://greatgrowalong.com.


Backyard Beekeeping

TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022 AT 7 PM

Backyard Beekeeping
Join us for our May meeting featuring Karen Henderson, beekeeper. Karen Henderson, co-owner of Glass Bee Apiary, has been a beekeeper since 2013. She will talk about the practical aspects of backyard beekeeping using a real hive (no live bees) and assorted equipment. Before retiring in 2016, she worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 32 years.

Karen will have Glass Bee Apiary honey and skin care products made with apiary beeswax available for sale after the presentation.

In-person event precaution measures: We ask that everyone age 2 and older wear a mask, and offer options for social distancing. Please arrive early to provide contact information with our greeters for contact tracing. This is so we ensure the safety and well-being of all our community and members.
Please do NOT attend this event if you are or have been experiencing symptoms of illness.

This event is FREE. Donations of $10 or whatever you can afford are appreciated. Donations pay for landscaping, repair and maintenance of the Mill Creek Towne Entrances, and our garden-related programs at our community meetings.

NOTE: If Montgomery County Schools are closed due to inclement weather, the Garden Club meeting will be cancelled.

Location:
Mill Creek Parish United Methodist
7101 Horizon Terrace
Derwood, MD 20855

RSVP: info@mctgardenclub-org

Grow It Eat It 2022 Event

Sat, May 14, 2022

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT

University of Maryland Extension – Montgomery County

UMD Montgomery County Master Gardener Extension logo


Location

Montgomery County Extension

Agricultural History Farm Park

18410 Muncaster Road

Derwood, MD 20855

View Map

Due to severe thunderstorm conditions forecast for this weekend, the May 14 GIEI Open House has been cancelled. Refunds for Workshops will be issued through Eventbrite.

May 14, 2022 (Rain date May 15th) Attendees will comply with COVID public health recommendations – applicable at the time of the event.

Visit the Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm Park for all things edible at the University of Maryland Grow It Eat It Spring Event on May 14, 2022, from 10 am-4 pm!  All parts of the event will be in outdoor spaces. The rain date is May 15, 2022, from 10 am-4 pm.

Entry to the event is free and tickets are not required for entry into the event. Fees charged for tickets as noted for some workshops and children’s programs. The Master Gardener Plant Shoppe will be selling Spring plants for your garden and vendors will be at the event.

The preliminary schedule of the day is as follows (all programs with links require registration):

Throughout the event:

  • Plant Clinic: Get one-on-one answers to your gardening questions
  • Visit the Demonstration Garden to view what is possible in your garden
  • Children’s Activity Table
  • Seed Swap, bring your extra seeds and pick up new ones
  • Classes, Workshops, and Children’s programs (see below)
  • Master Gardeners will be available to answer your questions in the garden
  • Master Gardener Plant Sale to purchase your spring transplants
  • Many vendors will be on-site selling items for your home and garden

Classes and Workshops  

9:40-10:40

10:50-12:10

11:00-12:00

  • All about Chile Peppers free, no registration

12:20-1:20

1:40-2:40

  • Organic Fertilizers for your Vegetable Garden – free, no registration

2:50-4:10

3:00-4:00

Children’s programs start at different times, mostly in the morning.  See the registration links below for details.

Discover Nature! (K-1st-grade children) $10

Discover Bugs! (2nd & 3rd-grade children) $12

Discover Flowers! (4th & 5th-grade children) $15

Discover Gardening! (2nd to 5th-grade children)  $15

Discover Trees! (4th to 8th-grade children) $15

Discover Local Food! (high school-aged students) $24

Scouts BSA Gardening Merit Badge $20


Summer Garden/Landscape Classes at Montgomery College

Dahlias

Its Class time at Montgomery College this summer. Janet Johnson will be teaching a great class on Garden Design. Learn about Conserving Monarch Butterflies in your backyard, or learn about perennial and annual herbaceous plants!


Horticulture Classes | MC Lifelong Learning Summer 2022

GARDEN DESIGN – LLI 519
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CourseCRNCreditsDaysTimeStart – End DatesSeats
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CampusLocationInstructorsSchedule TypeBookstore
LLI519468810.800T6:30 pm – 8:30 pm06/07/22 – 06/28/22170WD&CE Virtual-RemoteDLJanet S. Johnson Lecture
CONSERVING MONARCH BUTTERFLIES IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD – LLI 794
View Catalog Description & Prerequisites
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LLI794469730.150F10:30 am – 12:00 pm06/03/22 – 06/03/22200RockvilleMK 101TBA TBALecture

This class meets on campus. Students attending face-to-face classes or using on-campus student support services are expected to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or request a medical or religious exception.

HERBACEOUS PLANT MATERIALS – LNTP 244
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LNTP244467113.000W6:00 pm – 8:30 pm06/08/22 – 08/14/22150GermantownREMOTEStephen P. Dubik Lecture

CRN 46711: This class will not meet in the classroom. Instruction will be offered remotely during the times indicated. Must be taken with Lab LNTP 244L 46712. For more information, contact Prof. Dubik, SA 220H, 240-567-7803, steve.dubik@montgomerycollege.edu.


HERBACEOUS PLANT MATERIALS – LNTP 244L
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LNTP244L467120.000W8:35 pm – 10:05 pm06/08/22 – 08/14/22150GermantownSA 213Stephen P. Dubik Lab

CRN 46712: This class meets on campus. Students attending face-to-face classes or using on-campus student support services are expected to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or request a medical or religious exception. This lab will meet on campus during scheduled class time. Must be taken with Lecture LNTP 244 CRN 46711. Requires three mandatory Saturday field trips: 06/18/22 to U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C., 07/09/22 and 07/23/22 to Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, MD. Contact Prof. Dubik, SA 220H, 240-567-7803, steve.dubik@montgomerycollege.edu. (Class meets 1x – Increased mandatory field trip time to shorten lab time).


Walk Around the Towne

Saturday, June 4th, 9:30am – 11:00am

Meet your neighbors on Saturday, June 4th! Neighbors from Mill Creek Towne are invited to join Mill Creek Village and the Mill Creek Garden Club for a walk in our neighborhood! We will visit two gardens for a quick tour during the walk. The walk will start at the Mill Creek Towne Elementary School, 17700 Park Mill Dr., Derwood, MD 20855.


Let’s Talk Gardens

Thursdays 12 to 1 p.m.

Smithsonian Gardens

Lets Talk Gardens October Speakers Panel
 
“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.

mctgc-logo-with-flowers