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Happy New Year from Mill Creek Towne Garden Club!

Dear friends and neighbors,

We wish you and your family a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year!

Mill Creek Towne Garden Club
www.mctgardenclub.org

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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?

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Visit Our MCT Garden Club Website for Gardening Resources

• Local Gardening Resources: Looking for a Master Gardener as a guest speaker, need gardening advice, or want to learn about resources in or near Mill Creek Towne? Visit our Resources page for details.
• MCTGC Blog: Check our monthly blog for garden tips and local/online garden-related events.
• Gardening Books: Looking for a gift for your favorite gardener? Visit our Gardening Books Resources page for holiday gift ideas.
• Local Gardens: Visit our Local Gardens page to learn about local gardens in our area.
• Montgomery County Farmers’ Markets: Support our local farmers. Check this page to learn about local farmers markets in our area or join a CSA and get fresh local produce year-round!
• Online Gardening Resources: Looking for gardening apps or online resources to help with your gardening? Check out our Online Gardening Resources page for some apps for your smartphone and online gardening resources focused on the DMV area.
• Recipes: Looking for a recipe for your home-grown veggies and fruit? Check our Recipes page for ideas.

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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

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Flowers and Groundcovers

• Start seeds for: Petunia, Dwarf snapdragons. Check daily for moisture.
• Check any tropical or summer-blooming bulbs corms, tubers, and bare root plants in storage for rot or dessication.
• Store your fertilizer and seeds in a rodent-proof container.
• Plant bulbs you forgot to plant last fall! 
• Pot up any leftover bulbs that did not make it into the ground by now and force them for indoor blooms.
• Provide some special protection to tender or early flowering plants like Camellias.
• Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.
• Check that all vines are securely tied against winter’s cold winds.
• Rake up weeds and their seedlings.
• After hard frost, sow seeds of spring-blooming hardy annuals and perennials, then mark beds!
• Collect plant seeds for next year’s planting and for trading at the annual Washington Gardener Magazine Seed Exchanges.
• Gather seeds and carefully label them. Store in dry location.
• Gently clean up the garden.
• 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, spider mites, whiteflies, deer, voles.
• Diseases to watch for:  Powdery mildew, Rust
• 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

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Trees and Shrubs

• Prune damaged branches.
• Prune summer bloomers such as Hydrangeas, Rose of Sharon, Crepe Myrtles, and Butterfly Bushes.
• Set out your live potted evergreens from holiday decorating in a protected outdoor space to harden them off in advance of planting them.
• Remove dead and dying trees.
• Cut a few branches of flowering shrubs to force into bloom inside.
• Root prune trees and shrubs to be transplanted next year.
• If we do get more snow in the DC area, gently dislodge snow from trees and shrubs with a broom to prevent damage to branches.
• Plant frost-tolerant trees.
• Check that newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials have not been heaved out of the ground due to freezing and thawing cycles.
• Take hardwood cuttings from willow and dogwood to propagate them.
• Clean your gutters.
• Prune maples, dogwoods, birch, elm, walnut, and yellowwood to prevent “bleeding”.
• Water slowly and deeply if weather is very dry and ground is not frozen.
• Prune out Fireblight damage Malus and Pyrus when very cold.
• Use branches from your Christmas tree as bedding mulch or as a windbreak.
• Stake newly planted large trees or shrubs to protect them from winter winds.
• Keep an eye out for bark damage from rabbits or deer.
• Gently remove layers of snow from your outdoor evergreens with a broom.
• Check often and water newly planted trees if they don’t pass the finger test (stick your finger deep into soil – dry? Water!)
• Keep an eye out for bark damage from rabbits and deer.
• Check for vole problems and set out traps.
• Spray broadleaf evergreens with anti-desiccant to prevent dehydration.
• Use fallen leaves for mulch or compost.
• 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.
• Continue to remove fallen, diseased leaves.
• Put diseased leaves, pesticide-laden grass clippings and weed seeds in your trash — not your compost pile.
• Turn your compost pile weekly and don’t let it dry out. Work compost into your planting beds.
• Apply scale and dormant oil treatment to evergreens to decrease pest infestations.
• Remove dead and dying trees.
• Pests to watch for:  adelgids, aphids, azalea lacebug, borers, bagworms, caterpillars, deer, leafminers, Gypsy moths, sawfly, webworm, spidermites, scale, and Japanese beetles, and voles.
• Diseases to watch for: Wood decay/rot, Fireblight.
• For more tips, see UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more details.

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Herbs, Veggies, and Fruit

• Cover garlic plants with straw or leaf mulch.
• Prune dead bramble canes.
• Till and add organic matter to annual/vegetable beds.
• Start hardy herbs, onions, and cabbage.
• Clean and tidy up pots and seed trays to get a good start in February.
• Prune out Fireblight damage on apples and pears when very cold.
• Spread ashes from wood fires on your vegetable beds.
• Avoid walking on frozen planting beds.
• Clean out your cold frame or build a new one.
• Vent cold frames on sunny days.
• Remove finished plants.
• Cover strawberry beds with straw or pine needles.
• Thin seedlings.
• Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees.
• Pests to watch for: Asparagus beetle, aphids, cabbage worms, corn borer, corn earworm, cutworms, Japanese beetles, squash vine borer, and tomato hornworm.
• Diseases to watch for: Powdery mildew, fungal, bacterial, viral diseases, Fireblight.
• Here are some more UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips.

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Lawns

• Shovel walks and drive before applying ice melt or you’ll damage lawn.
• Get your lawnmower serviced.
• Avoid walking on frozen grass to avoid damaging the crowns.
• Some alternatives to de-icing salts include sand, beet juice sugars, light gravel, or non-clumping kitty litter. Using de-icing salts around driveways and sidewalks can harm your garden plants and turf.
• Keep newly seeded lawns well watered.
• Apply fertilizer and lime to turfgrass based on soil tests and UME recommendations.
• Sharpen your lawnmower blade.
• 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.

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Indoors/Houseplants

• Cut off flower stalk on your amaryllis once flowers fade. Leave foliage to grow.
• Keep poinsettias in a well-lit area – but out of direct sun and away from drafts.
• Buy a few new houseplants.
• Fertilize only your winter-blooming houseplants, such as violets.
• Change water cuttings started last fall and add 2-3 pieces of fish tank charcoal.
• Pinch back leggy plants.
• Maintain moisture in pots, but do not overwater!
• Set up humidifier for indoor plants or at least place them in pebble trays.
• Start new indoor plants from cuttings – try an easy one such as violets.
• Vacuum any ladybugs that come into the house.
• Clean the leaves of your indoor houseplants to prevent dust and film build-up.
• 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.
• 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, scale, and whitefly.
• See UMD’s HGIC Garden Tips for more information.
  

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Indoor/Outdoor Insect and Wildlife Tips

• Check indoors for termites and winter ants.
• Caulk and seal your home to prevent wildlife from coming indoors.
• Put suet out for birds.
• Keep bird feeders clean and filled.
• Wash out birdbaths weekly with diluted bleach solution.
• Switch your deer deterrent spray.
• Set out traps for mice, moles, and voles.
• Remove and destroy gypsy moth egg masses.
• 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:

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Montgomery Parks – Events

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Birding Events

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Brookside Gardens Winter Tour

Thu – Fri, January 23 and 24 | 1‒2:30 p.m. (1/23); 10:30 a.m.‒12 p.m. (1/24)
Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Wheaton

Winter brings a different dimension to the gardens that is sometimes overlooked by visitors. Walk and talk with Brookside Gardens expert, Kristin Davey, to uncover the “bones of the garden” without the distraction of leaves or flowers. Explore the architectural elements that shape the gardens including woody plants, hardscape, and other components of design. Ages 18 and older. $12 per person. Register for Brookside Gardens Winter Tour.

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Socials for 55+: Green Dreams Vision Board

Friday, January 17, 2025
11:00AM – 12:30PM
Ages 55+ | FREE
Meadowside Nature Center
5100 Meadowside Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20855

Turn your dreams and goals into a tangible vision while staying kind to the planet! This sustainable dream board workshop invites you to create personalized vision boards using recycled and eco-friendly materials. All materials are provided. No crafting experience is necessary. Register yourself and bring a friend for free!

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55+ Nature Book Club – Book Discussion