Monday Thoughts - Allan Armitage

"Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized." ~ Allan Armitage 

GardenDC Podcast Episode 58: Grafting Fruit Trees

In this episode, we talk with Hala Elbarmil, the Greenhouse and Gardens Coordinator at George Mason University, about grafting fruit trees. The plant profile is on Hardy Ferns and we share our upcoming events and local gardening news!

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month! See how at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/support.

The episode is posted at: 

https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/Episode-58---Grafting-Fruit-Trees-e10e3gn

The GardenDC podcast is also available on -

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gardendc/id1502631179
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• Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/gardendc
• Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/GardenDC-id2691161?country=us
• Listen Notes: https://lnns.co/VIfcBjWRnw6
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• YouTube: https://youtube.com/washingtongardenermagazine
• Google Podcasts at this link (note that currently, this link will only work on Android devices.)

We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

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Fenton Friday: Fava Flowers

This week's weather was up and down -- rain, winds, hot, and cold -- a little of everything.

I was pleased to see the fava bean plants have set flowers (see pic above) and the strawberries are setting lots of fruits.

All of the seedlings, except the carrots (no sign of them yet), are growing well and need another round of thinning soon.

We picked lettuces and radishes today. I also chase a fat rabbit out of the garden and into the nearby park. Call me "Mrs. McGregor," if you like, but that bunny is not getting plump on my produce!

Elsewhere in the plot, the potato plants put on a great growth and I am now letting the asparagus bolt.

The purple broccoli look like they may bolt any second too. So I may go back and cut the heads tomorrow to eat them then pull the plants to make way for all the seedlings I am buying at the Silver Spring Garden Club's GardenMart sale tomorrow. I already snagged a 'Sungold' tomato plant during set-up today and expect to pick up several more tomatoes and also basils, peppers, and maybe a few swiss chard plants too.

How is your edible garden growing?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Plant Profile: Hardy Ferns

Hardy Ferns, those ferns that are perennial to the Mid-Atlantic United States, come in a variety of green hues from the bright, yellow-green of Ostrich Fern to the dark blue-green of the Christmas Fern. Some ferns have dark stems like the Maidenhair Fern and others have rusty-brown parts like the Tassel Fern or Cinnamon Fern. The Japanese Painted Fern practically glows with its silvery highlights.

Ferns can have many garden uses from edging plants to groundcovers and even featured in containers.

They are deer-proof and have few pests. They thrive in consistently moist, well-draining soils with lightly dappled to full shade. Most ferns also appreciate a top-dressing of composted leaves.

Colonies of fern can spread and clumps expand over time. They are fairly easy to dig and divide in spring once the new growth has emerged. Speaking of the new growth, is there anything cuter than the newly emerging fiddleheads in early springtime?

Ferns are low-care. Some may die-back entirely in the winter time in our region, while others hold on to their fronds during the cold months. By late winter, you will want to cut them back though as they will look a bit ratty and tattered.

From the Lady Fern to the Royal Fern, there is sure to be one that works well in your garden. Once you start collecting ferns, you may find it hard to stop.

Hardy Ferns  - You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Khloe Quill
Audio by Kathy Jentz

 

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Summer Garden Book Club Selection: American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic

For our next Garden Book Club selection, we will be discussing American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson.

"One goal drove Hosack above all others: to build the Republic's first botanical garden. Despite innumerable obstacles and near-constant resistance, Hosack triumphed when his Elgin Botanic Garden at last crowned twenty acres of Manhattan farmland by 1810. 'Where others saw real estate and power, Hosack saw the landscape as a pharmacopoeia able to bring medicine into the modern age' (Eric W. Sanderson, author of Mannahatta). What remains today of America's first botanical garden lies in the heart of midtown, buried beneath Rockefeller Center."

You can order it new or used at our Amazon link - https://amzn.to/38LMppD.

Our Summer 2021 club meeting will be on Thursday, July 15 from 6:30-8pm ET via Zoom.

Please register at -

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvcuygrz8jGtOMTJL6gnbXgZ5gGB8c2o61

to have the Zoom link sent to you. 

The Washington Gardener Magazine's Garden Book Club is free and open to all. We meet quarterly on a weekday evening usually near a metro-accessible location in the DC-area (when COVID is not a factor). We will announce the details of each upcoming meeting about two months in advance. Please check back on this blog for schedule updates and announcements.

Want to read ahead? The next book club selections are:

• Fall 2021 - The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso

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Monday Thoughts

 

“Gardening: It’s not only a good workout and relaxing, but you get to eat if you do it right."
~ Tiffany Haddish

Top Local Spots for Azalea Viewing: Best Bloom Displays in the DC-MD-VA Region

What is a spring in the Mid-Atlantic without abundant azalea blooms? Masses of bright blossoms make for a wonderful sight after a long, cold winter. Sure, they can be over-used at times, but the reason we love them so much is because they are so successful and reliable in our gardens.

   Azalea season runs from April through June with early-, mid-, and late-season blooming shrubs. (Though technically, with the new re-blooming varieties, the flowering season can extend through fall.) Be sure to re-visit some of these locations through-out the several weeks of bloom so you can enjoy the changing mix of colors as different varieties wax and wane.

   A few years ago, Washington Gardener Magazine asked local azalea fans for their favorite bloom viewing spots in our region. “I’ve always enjoyed the ride along Prosperity Avenue between Little River Turnpike and Route 50 in Fairfax County, VA. Many homes have beautiful, mature azaleas,” said Rick Bauer, president of the Northern Virginia Chapter, Azalea Society of America.

   “My first place vote will always go to the National Arboretum,” said Mike Welsh, retired city gardener for Takoma Park, MD. “It has everything: a great collection, many different forms and varieties, wonderful lay of the land for viewing, and a central location. By far, a fascinating lore and history. It gets better, year after year. All one needs do is to go and look at the faces of whose visiting and witness first-hand their expressed pleasure and their interaction with those beautiful azaleas.”

   Mike’s professional gardening domain was Takoma Park, MD, which is well-known for its many beautiful azaleas, in both private and public gardens. The location is the former home of Benjamin Y. Morrison, the famed horticulturalist who was the founder and first director of the U. S. National Arboretum. Morrison is noted for cross-breeding different strains of azaleas to produce the Glenn Dale azaleas, which are prevalent today throughout the eastern United States. Morrison lived near Piney Branch Road and many of his Glenn Dale introductions can be seen throughout the city’s private home gardens and public parks.

   “Azaleas have a glamorous presence that few other plants have; beautiful azalea viewing can be anywhere and everywhere,” added Mike.

Azaleas at the USNA bonsai collection. Photo courtesy of DCGardens.com

   Indeed, most all of these azalea-viewing suggestion are free and open to all. A few are on private property and we ask you to respect the home owners by not trespassing and staying in the public right-of-way to take any photos.
• Brighton Dam in Brookeville, MD, has more than 20,000 azaleas and is provided by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
•  Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, features more than 300 varieties of azaleas represented by 2,000 plants.
• Landon School in Bethesda, MD, hosts an annual Azalea Festival on the first weekend of May. The Perkins Gardens include 15,000 azaleas.
• The U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC, is where thousands of azaleas cover the flanks of Mount Hamilton in a blaze of color. 
• McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, MD, was the private collection of an azalea gardener before being given to Montgomery County parks in 1978.
• Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC, features a hillside of azaleas in its 40-acre grounds.
• Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens in Washington, DC, includes hundred of azaleas sprinkled throughout the many garden rooms.
• Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA, has a small collection of natives and some Asian varieties.
• Rachel Carson Conservation Park, in Olney, MD, is known, in part, for Rachel Carson’s famous wild azaleas (pinxters), which are in full bloom in mid- to late-May.
• Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, VA, contains an azalea collection with more than 50,000 plants representing more than 550 species in full bloom. They also host an annual Azalea Celebration Week in early May.
• Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore, MD, is known for its Azalea Trail and offers guided walks on occasion.
• Maymont in Richmond, VA, includes a Japanese Garden with spectacular combinations of azaleas, Japanese Maples, and spring-flowering trees.
• Annmarie Garden in Solomons, MD, has about 500 shrubs in its Glenn Dales collection established in 1997 and tended by volunteer gardeners.
   Did we leave any of your favorite local azalea viewing spots off this list? Let us know where you go to be amongst “the royalty of the garden.”  

Here are some tips for growing great azaleas in YOUR garden: 

• Azalea Plant Profile https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2018/05/plant-profile-azaleas.html
• All Things Azalea https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2020/05/gardendc-podcast-episode-9-all-things.html
• Azalea Society of America https://www.azaleas.org/

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DIY: Strawberry Rocks

These little strawberry rocks are meant to fool creatures that attack your berries just as they start to ripen. The theory being that birds and squirrels try to bite into the "ripe strawberry" and find it rock-hard and then move on.

I don't want to net my strawberry bed for fear a bird or other creature will get caught in the netting and die. So, when I heard of this option, I thought it was worth a try. Whether they work or not, we shall see. If nothing else, they are cute and add to the garden decor.

Level: easy   Cost: inexpensive   Use: garden

Materials:

- a few small rocks

- Acrylic Paints

- Craft Brushes

- Marker

- Sealer

Step 1: Select a few small stones that are approximately strawberry-sized and shaped. Then, clean and dry your rocks.

Step 2: Pain a base coat of red paint. Let dry thoroughly, Then paint a second coat. Let that dry too. Then decide whether you may need a third coat or not.

Step 3: Paint the stem and leaves on with green paint. (I only needed one coat on the green parts, you might need a second one.) 

Step 4: Use a marker to dot on the "seeds."

Step 5: Apply a sealant. I used a clear nail polish base coat as I wanted my rocks to be really shiny.

Step 6: Place your rocks in and among your strawberry plants right before your berries start to ripen.

Step 7: You can leave them out all year or store them after the berry season is done. They may need an annual paint touch-up.

Decoys in place!

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a few pennies from Amazon.

This is a monthly blog series on DIY projects for the beginning home gardener. Look for the other installments in this DIY blog series by putting "DIY" in the search box here at washingtongardener.blogspot.com. 

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GardenDC Podcast Episode 57: Green Roofs and Walls

In this episode, we talk with Louise Clarke of the Morris Arboretum about green roofs and walls. The plant profile is on Bleeding Hearts and we share our upcoming events and local gardening news!

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month! See how at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/support.

The episode is posted at: 

https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/Episode-57---Green-Roofs-and-Walls-evv067

The GardenDC podcast is also available on -

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gardendc/id1502631179
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AsWArNpQo8OlzHoMDMSI8
• RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/gardendc-G2ql5V
• iHeartRADIO: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-gardendc-73615877/
  
• aCast: https://play.acast.com/s/gardendc
  
• Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/776561ca-75d6-4c63-833b-7dafedf57a72/GardenDC
• Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/GardenDC-Podcast/B08JJNZBMX
• Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/gardendc
• Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/GardenDC-id2691161?country=us
• Listen Notes: https://lnns.co/VIfcBjWRnw6
• Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/gardendc/
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• PocketCasts: https://pca.st/9phvd8bk
• Podlink: https://pod.link/GardenDC
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• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1502631179/gardendc
• TuneIn: http://tun.in/pj7Sb
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/washingtongardenermagazine
• Google Podcasts at this link (note that currently, this link will only work on Android devices.)

We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

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Plant Profile: Strawberry

Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) -- Sweet. Luscious. Juicy. No wonder this fruit is blushing! Strawberries are one of the most-loved edibles. They can be eaten straight from the plant; used in jam or dessert recipes; or frozen and enjoyed in mixed drinks and shakes throughout the year. Not only is it versatile in the kitchen, it is also amazingly easy to grow.

   Strawberry growing can be as simple as a pot on your patio or hanging by your back door. Set aside a 3x3 foot bed in your garden and you can have strawberry crops for the next few years.

   Strawberries grow best in a raised bed of well-drained soil located in full sun. Mix in plenty of organic materials. Plant out strawberry crown divisions during the early spring. The first year may not yield much of a crop. Strawberry plants will then send out runners. You can cut them off or guide them back into the bed. Some experts recommend pinching off all flowers and runners during the first year to get big crops the following year.

   The plants peak at three-years-old. So you will need to add new stock every few years to replenish them. They are perennials in Zones 5 to 8.

   Put the new, bare-root plants in so the crown is just resting at soil level with the roots gentled fanned out beneath the surface.

   They need only about one inch of water per week and are prone to root rot, so don't over-do it.

   There are two main kinds of strawberries: ever-bearing and June-bearing. As per their names, ever-bearing and June-bearing fruit at different times. June-bearing from late-May to mid-June, while ever-bearing can have several waves of berries throughout the summer. Select June-bearing if you want one large crop for making jams or freezing. Choose ever-bearing if you want to throw some fresh berries in your cereal bowl every few days. Some popular varieties to try are ‘Earliglow’, ‘Northeaster’, and ‘Darselect’.

   Relatively disease-free, compared to other fruits you may grow, they are plagued by a few pests. Most notably slugs and birds. To combat slugs, sprinkle around the beds with Sluggo (iron phosphate), which is safe for use around edibles. For birds, put some shiny, moving objects nearby. You might also consider investing in screening or bird netting to cover the beds as the fruits ripen.

   In the fall, mulch the strawberry bed with straw (not hay!) or other materials such as pine needles to insulate the plants over the winter. Remove the mulch again in spring.

   The strawberry flowers themselves are pretty -- usually white or light pink. Some varieties are grown more for their decorative value than for their fruit. The 'Pink Panda' aka Strawberry Potentilla is especially attractive with its bright-pink blooms.

   Strawberry plants also make good border plantings. They stay low and fairly tidy. The runners are easy to pull up if they go astray. (If you choose Alpine varieties, you will not have a runner problem.)

So don't hesitate to plant a row of strawberries on the front edge of your flower beds for a sweet treat every time you pass by. 

Strawberries  - You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Khloe Quill
Audio by Kathy Jentz

➤ If you enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our Youtube channel (thank you!)

➤Remember to TURN ON notifications to know when our new videos are out

➤ FIND Washington Gardener Magazine ONLINE

~ WashingtonGardener.blogspot.com

~ http://twitter.com/WDCGardener

~ https://www.instagram.com/wdcgardener/

~ Facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine

~ Podcast: GardenDC

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Fenton Friday: Sailing Along

Another week of crazy winds and dramatic temperature shifts (highs of 85+ to 50+). The poor lettuces and taller plants are getting really beaten up. I went over to water all the seedlings twice this week, even though we had decent rain amounts, just because the winds are wicking away so much of that surface moisture.

The new-ish blackberry plants are flowering today and I think the blooms are quite lovely. (See the photo above.) I look forward to harvesting the fruits this summer. 

I picked more asparagus spears and lettuce to eat. I really need to do a good all-around weeding session, but there are not enough ours in the day. Maybe next week...

Aside from that, this week there were no big changes from last week, just nice progress all around. The radishes are starting to take shape and all the seedlings are getting bigger. The fava beans, in particular, are forming good-sized plants--waiting on them to flower soon too. 

And because I keep getting this question: YES, it is STILL TOO EARLY to plant summer (warm-season) seedlings and seeds outside in the garden. The soil is still not warm enough. Next weekend (Mother's Day) may be it. We'll see what the weather forecast and soil temp readings says around May 7.

How is your edible garden growing?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.