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Anne Arundel County Master Gardener News | |
Coordinator's Corner
Nancy Allred, Interim Master Gardener Coordinator
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Yeh! Master Gardener projects are up and running.
Monthly Master Gardener Newsletters provide project updates, information about volunteer opportunities as well as announcements about upcoming educational events. Master Gardeners need to proactively look for volunteer work to meet their annual service requirement. MGs can also reach out directly to Project Chairs via the website https://extension.umd.edu/locations/anne-arundel-county/master-gardener-program/just-master-gardeners
Scroll to and click on “Project Chairs,” then click on “2022 Master Gardener Project and Contact List.” Note: password: aamg2022.
Happy volunteering and please record those hours!
To focus on the Year of Soil Health we will try a different format for the April 12 virtual zoom meeting. Together we will watch a recorded documentary produced by the Soil Health Institute. Then we will go into breakout rooms for discussion. Breakout room groups will come back to the main zoom room to share their ideas. The registration Zoom Link for the April meeting is below. https://umd.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIodO6qpzgrGNDaq0m4UICgJZf6Z4SmNhoq
The May 10 Plant Swap, will be conducted in person at the Dairy Farm pavilion, 97 Diary Lane, Gambrills. The event will begin at 6:00. Years of Service pins and certificates will be distributed. Concern has been raised about the potential spread of the Asian jumping worm (Amynthas spp.), also commonly known as the crazy worm and snake worm. As gardeners, we’re already trained to look for signs of disease, weeds, root health, and pests when buying, selling, or swapping plants. This diligence gives us confidence that as we bring new plants and soil into our gardens, we’re not bringing problems too. Below are a few things to keep in mind.
- Do not share plants in potted soil from your garden if you know you have jumping worms.
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When the presence of jumping worms/cocoons is unknown, as a precautionary measure, plants can be bare-rooted and potted into sterile potting medium prior to exchange. The University of New Hampshire Extension has a best practice link for Plant Sales and Swaps. https://extension.unh.edu/resource/plant-sales-and-jumping-worms
- Educate yourself and others about jumping worms and good practices to prevent their spread.
HGIC YouTube Channel jumping worm video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQZbCIt5gw&t=12s and UME factsheet https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasive-jumping-worms
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Master Gardener Project Reports
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The new season for the Apprentice Garden has begun at Kinder Farm Park. Clean-up has started and we are looking forward to meeting with the eight families registered to garden with us for the season. The program is fully subscribed, and we have a wait list for 2023.
The introductory meeting will be held in the Harvest Hall on Wednesday, April 6. Volunteers arrive at 5PM to set up, and the families arrive at 6PM. The children will paint signs to hang on the fence at their family’s plot while the parents review their paperwork (the UMd photo release form, family contact information, garden map, watering schedule, etc.) and receive some general gardening information. Special thanks to the Master Gardener volunteers who supervise the painting!
The rest of the meetings in the month of April will be planning sessions in the Apprentice Garden to help families choose their vegetables, space the plants, and plan the timing for planting. Volunteers will also assist the families with early planting.
During mid-March work parties, volunteers cleared winter debris, replaced the trellises, and cleaned up along the outside of the garden fence. Master Gardener volunteers “adopted” portions of the perennial gardens that contain native goldenrod, chives, brown-eyed Susans, milkweed, tall phlox, and iris, cultivated to help feed pollinators and attract them to our garden. A very big thank you to Kathy Enderle, Karen Strange, Wendy Boardman, Kathy Albers, Ray Palasik, Lourdes Hergenroeder, Kristin Silva, Sharon Whitney, Cindy Wells and Elle McGee for all their help!
Potatoes were planted at the work party on March 26, and more general garden clean-up was accomplished. Plastic strips were added along the fence line to contain the soil in the garden. The sage, rosemary and thyme were trimmed in the herb garden. Planting of the greens and strawberry plants is planned for early April.
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Please be aware that the shed is now a “nursery” occupied by two baby squirrels and one very protective mama. We are all bringing our own tools for the time being so as not to disturb the squirrel family.
Another new addition to the Apprentice Garden is an antique wagon wheel, a gift from Master Gardener Noreen Krispin. It is a delightful objet d’art and we will enjoy making it a part of our garden landscape.
Throughout the season, April through September, the project meets at 6:30PM every Wednesday at the community gardens at Kinder Farm Park in Millersville.
Please consider volunteering in the Apprentice Garden. Volunteers, and interns are welcome anytime. You can do the Wednesday meetings, and/or do other-day garden checks and extra watering. Your children are welcome to join you. There is always a sign-in sheet in the garden mailbox for noting your presence and recording your hours. Many thanks.
The names of Apprentice Garden volunteers are provided to the gatekeeper so there is no entry fee for people part of the Apprentice Garden project.
Hope you can join us in the Apprentice Garden in 2022!
If you would like more information, please contact Janet or Deb.
Co-chaired by Janet Clauson and Deb Fritz
janetclauson301@gmail.com, 410.987.2027
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Composting and Native Gardens | |
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The Compost Project team had a productive March. Some of us met a local coffee roaster to take delivery of a used coffee grounds and chaff. The grounds provide our leaf filled compost bins with much needed nitrogen.
Later, we had our first spring cleanup when we turned the compost bins, cleaned out winter debris from the native beds and spread fresh wood chips around the bins and plant beds to hold down weeds.
Our first compost demonstration for the public will be on Sat. Apr. 23 at 11am which is the park’s Earth Day celebration.
Pam Dennison, Project Chair
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Greetings from the Dairy Farm Project.
Due to inclement weather, our first work session on March 12, had to be cancelled. However, on March 24, as many as 25 MG’s came out to the farm despite the cold, cloudy weather, with rain threatening. We had a strong, dedicated and enthusiastic group. Thank you all so much.
A lot of pruning, raking and disposal of dead debris was accomplished. There are still some areas that need attention.
The veggie garden crew weeded out all the beds and we planted cool weather crops of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce and peas. We also emptied our compost bins into the Ag section. We will start new compost in those bins soon.
We were able to give a tour of the gardens to Lauren Toomey, who is the chairperson for the new project at the Bee Lab. Lauren would like to have a Bumble Bee survey at the Dairy Farm. We have so many native flowering plants, that the Bumbles just love. Anyone interested in helping with this, please contact Lauren. Lauren also would like to add more native plants to some of our areas. These are propagated at the Bee Lab.
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If you are interested in the Dairy Farm Project, please feel welcome. All are invited, including interns.
Our next scheduled work session is Saturday, April 9, from 9:00 – 11:0
We have tools, but please bring your own as well as gloves, water, etc. There is hand sanitizer and bleach in the shed. Large pruners, loppers, shears, etc. will be helpful.
NOTE REGULAR SECHEDULED WORK SESSIONS ARE THE SECOND SATURDAY AND THE FOURTH THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH FROM 9:00 -12:00
If you have any questions, please contact one of us.
Main Gardens, Malcolm Doying, oldcelt100@aol.com
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Hancock’s Resolutions Historic Farm Park celebrated the opening of its Barn/Visitor Center over the March 25-27 Maryland Day Weekend. On Friday, March 25 (Maryland Day) Recreation and Parks orchestrated a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception with County Executive Steuart Pittman, dignitaries, Friends of Hancock Resolution volunteers and members of the business community in attendance. Inside there are displays relating the stories of European and African American truck farming at Hancock’s and nearby areas.
Below is the link to video footage that aired on Channel 2 news.
https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/celebrate-maryland-day-with-events-activities-across-the-state
Master Gardeners Loretta Gerbrick, Neva Leigh, Opie Owen, Elaine Stroshane, myself, Intern Marike van der Veen-Box, and 2022 trainee Linda Elliott helped ready the gardens for the opening. Special thanks to Loretta for her work with the outdoor hotbed demonstration. The exhibit will remain in place for a while so Master Gardeners can visit and learn about this period of our County’s agricultural past.
Public visitation is limited to Sundays from 1:00-4:00 except on days when hours are extended for special programming. The farm will host a Spring Festival from 10:00-4:00 on April 10th, Spring Plowing with Horse Teams and Herb Sale on May 1 and Mother’s Day Tea and Historic Women’s Clothing Demonstration on May 8.
Master Gardeners can volunteer any Sunday from 12:30-4:00. If you have flexibility there may be impromptu work events scheduled during the week as well as opportunities to provide tours for school children and other interested parties. RSVP so I can let you know what tools to bring and what to expect. This year we are going to experiment with lavender propagation from cuttings. If you have experience with this or are interested let me know.
Nancy Allred, Hancock’s Resolution Project Chair
willnancy3@verizon.net 410-952-9554 (mobile)
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March was a good month for our team of Master Gardeners and Watershed Stewards as we prepared and planted over 300 flats with seeds and started approximately 250 different species of plants for our native pollinators. The Native Plant Nursery is located at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Bowie Maryland. We meet every Thursday from 3:00pm to 6:00pm and sometimes on Saturday mornings.
As we wait for our seeds to germinate and sprout there is another exciting opportunity for members in our community to obtain a native perennial seed mixture for your projects. These seeds were collected last Fall, refrigerated, stratified and will be ready and must be planted on April 9th.
“The purpose of this seed collective is to help interject a more biodiverse mix of pollinator plants back into disturbed, urban, agricultural environments; at low cost (essentially no cost), but with a much higher success rate (without herbicides) than the traditional spread of dry seed in the fall on a plot treated with herbicides. Native bees require plant diversity because native bees and native plants each are in specific complex relationships, that is, native bees only go to some plant species and native plants recruit only a select set of native bees. Consequently, the traditional "wildflower" mixes available are not adequate to support the entire bee community. We do not claim that the seed mix will support everybody, but it will support a greater diversity and it is a step in the direction of creating more complex and customized mixes in the future. You are essentially part of an experiment and a diversity of sites, people, practices are important and welcomed.” (Sam Droege) sdroege@usgs.gov
The goal is to distribute these seeds to as many people as possible, to learn what works best to support our native pollinators. Seeds must be planted in the ground on a site that is prepared and ready on (April 9th). Also, theses seeds can be planted in pots and flats and grown out to be repotted and planted later. If you are interested in obtaining some of these seeds, please contact Lauren or Jim at webeehelpful@gmail.com. We will provide more details to you after you contact us if this is something you would like to do to support the RePollinate Anne Arundel County
Jim Mac Nicholl and Lauren Toomey, Project Chairs
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Several presentations were reviewed at the extension office – birds and binominal nomenclature by Nancy Allred, Pam Ildefonso, Virgil Davis and Ginny Klocko office for readability with a projector in anticipation of uses at an in person venue. It was decided that several were ready for prime time. Several more presentations are ready for an extension office for review. Ann Sawyer shared her outline for three potential presentations targeting a beginner gardener audience. She is planning on adding to the initial outline and copies of her outlines will be sent to the group for further review. We reviewed Kim’s pollinator presentation for suggestions. Several power points were sent to Ginny from a former master gardener. After reviewing the three mulch presentations by Noreen Krispin, it was decided to let all mulch presentations continue with Annie Hillary. Carin Pearson has agreed to look at the houseplant presentation. Noreen Krispin and Virgil Davis will look at herbs to see if this can be modified for our use. Nancy introduced the new requirements from the University of additional slides needed for our presentations.
Ginny Klocko (bgklocko@verizon.net)
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The 2022 SEED SWAP was a wonderful success! | |
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The 2022 Seed Swap took place on Saturday, March 26th at Odenton library! Due to Covid, we were unable to have an in-person Swap in 2021, so we were very happy to be able to have one this year. We had 125 participants (adults and kids), offered over 7,500 free packets of seeds, and gave away 40 terrific door prizes! Additionally, the public received the gorgeous new MG Projects flier that Petey Kitzmiller created, saw Elaine Heilman’s presentation on Winter Sowing, and Petey Kitzmiller’s presentation on Seed Starting, heard from Jim MacNicholl about the Bay Wise and Native Plant Propagation programs, heard from Lauren Toomey about the RePollinate Anne Arundel County project, learned about composting from Bill Rappoport, and heard from Caroline Donovan about the South County Senior Center Garden project. Participants also got a chance to ask general gardening questions and were able to peruse the lovely Seed Binder and MG Program Binder (wonderful reference volumes created by Linda Parker). I’d like to thank all the members of the Seed Swap Committee for their tireless work, as well as the additional MG volunteers who showed up to assist: without all of them the Swap would not have happened!
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Work at the Tawes Garden is finally slated to start on Thursday, April 7th! We can't wait to get back into the garden. Working hours are 8am-12noon and volunteers are welcome to come anytime during that time. Bring a photo ID to enter the DNR building plus your own small tools. Masks are not required. We hope to see all of our Tawes veterans plus any new MG's or interns who would like to explore all that Tawes has to offer.
But if Thursdays are not possible for you, Tuesdays are also an option. Our work schedule is generally the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays and the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month (except when that results in two work days in one month, in which case we switch to the 3rd and 5th Thursdays). It sounds complicated but we send out notices before each work day. April work days are April 7, 14, 19 and 28.
Whether you plan to volunteer or not, now is an excellent time for ALL gardeners to drop by Tawes to view the wonderful display of Virginia bluebells in the Western Maryland section of Tawes' 5 acres. They line the path and in fact spill over into the pathway and are very pretty. Tawes also includes many flowering trees plus bulbs and the lack of foliage affords nice vistas of the streams that wander through the property. Tawes is a quiet little garden right in Annapolis.
Hope to see you on April 7th. Contact Cindy or Kathy if you have any questions.
Cindy Wells and Kathy Devine, co-chairs
cwells5953@cs.com and kathy.j.devine@gmail.com
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2022 is the Year of Soil Health!
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