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J U L Y 2 0 1 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
Queen Anne’s County Master Gardener Newsletter
The Watering Can I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Coordinators
Corner
2
June Picnic 2
Monthly Meetings 3
Advanced Training 3
Ask a Master
Gardener
4
Galilee Garden 5
Volunteer
Opportunities 6
QAC 4-H Fair 7
Community of
Gardens 8
Mentoring
Updates 8
Bay-Wise 9
Demo Gardens 9
Native
Happenings 10
False Blue Indigo 11
Dogbane Leaf
Beetle 11
Calendar 12-13
Insect Hotel Workshop The Queen Anne’s County Master Gardeners Pollinator
Team held an Insect Hotel Workshop on Monday, June 12th
at the Centreville Library. Attracting Native Pollinators and
good bugs are the major focus for many gardeners. Some
of our smallest bees only fly a few hundred feet. By provid-
ing nesting and foraging sites in the same habitat allows
them to conserve energy and allow for more efficient use
of resources by insects of any size. Providing overwintering
sites for these pollinators and good bugs significantly in-
creases nesting opportunities. Here are some steps to in-
sure pollinator populations benefit the most from your home landscape:
Provide nesting and egg laying sites for a variety of pollinator species
Clean and replace artificial nests regularly
Don’t move native bees or previously used nest materials outside of their native ranges
Leave some bare, unmulched ground.
Hang nesting blocks in a pro-tected location with light shade
Make sure that nesting blocks or “insect hotels” are mounted firmly and do not shake or move in the wind
P A G E 2
T H E W A T E R I N G C A N
COORDINATOR’S CORNER
Hello Everyone! I hope that you are enjoying your summer. As per usual, the July heat wave has hit and without water most of our plants are sad. Just a few updates to remember for the upcoming month. We will not have a July Meeting. If you would like to help plan our Holiday Party please let me know. I need 1-2 people to help in the office one day a week for the next few
weeks. If you are available please let me know. One of our biggest outreach events is the Queen Anne’s County Fair in
August. Please make sure that you sign up, it’s a great opportunity to meet different people.
Best, Rachel
A very special thank you to Carol and Joe Jelich for opening up their home and property for the Annual MG picnic on Wednesday. The Jelich's well thought out property was the perfect back drop for our annual get together. We had delicious food, a great group of Master Gardeners, and per-fect weather. If you weren't able to join us this year hopefully you can for next year's event. I do have a stash of dishes that were left behind and a set of camping chairs. Please claim your items.
June Picnic
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
Date Topic Time Place
July No Meeting
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Topic: The Itsy Bitsy Spider Speaker: Emily Zobel
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Centreville Library
Wednesday, October 18, 2017 Topic: State of the Bay Speaker: Eric Buehl, UME Sea
Grant
9:30am to 11:30 am Centreville Library
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Topic: Aronia Speaker: Chester River Aronia
9:30am to 11:30 am Centreville Library
Wednesday, December 13, 2017 * Week early due to Holiday*
Holiday Luncheon TBD TBD
Event Name Event Date Location
Plant Identification/Taxonomy (link is external) Wed, July 12, 19, 26 Anne Arundel Co
Vegetable Plant and Pest Diagnostics (link is
external) Wed, July 19 Cecil Co
Vegetable Plant and Pest Diagnostics (link is
external) Thur, July 20 Dorchester Co
Shade Trees (link is external) Tues, August 8, 15, 22 Cecil Co
Understanding and Controlling Invasive Plants
(link is external) Thur, August 24 Baltimore Co
Ornamental Plant Diseases (link is external) Thur, September 14 Wicomico Co
ADVANCED MG TRAINING
T H E W A T E R I N G C A N
P A G E 4
The June Plant Clinic at the Kent Island Farmer’s Market was a great suc-cess. The theme was a display about herbs – usual (sweet basil, oregano, pars-ley) and unusual (bay leaves, Cuban ore-gano, pineapple sage), along with several live pots to entice visitors to stop by. Karen Wimsatt put together a great display board, and we had approximately 30 people stop by to look at the display and chat with us. Also, we had a lot of
Ask a Master Gardener
Kent Island Farmers Market
Submitted by: Liz Hammond & Deane
Horowitz, KI Plant Clinic Chair
Chestertown Farmers Market
master gardeners and interns help out with manning the booth and participating in June. In addition to Dean and myself, Karen Wimsatt, Chris Mourse, Marty Ap-pel, Dora Hanna, Carol Romano and Chris-ty Little gave us a hand! Visitors really seemed to enjoy the live pots of herbs es-pecially the fragrant Sweet Annie. The July Plant Clinic will feature “What’s Bugging/Biting You?” and will be on Thursday, July 13 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Please come out and join us! For further information contact:
Liz Hammond 410-758-
2992 [email protected]
Deane Horowitz 410-604-0969
Kent Island Farmers Market “Ask a
MG” Schedule:
Thursday, July 13 (Need 2 People)
Thursday, August 10 (Need 2 People)
Thursday, September 14 (Need 2 People) Thursday, October 12 (Need 2 People)
Thursday, November 9 (Need 2 People)
Thursday, December 14 (Need 2 People)
Chestertown Farmers Market “Ask a MG” Schedule: Usually 2-3 people per plant clinic is ample. The Chestertown Plant Clinic is held at the Farm-ers Market in Fountain Park, every other Saturday from 8 am until noon. Please make sure that you bring a camping chair to sit in and water to drink. Saturday, July 8th: Leona Dalton, Need one person Saturday, July 22nd: Pam McClean & Merry Guben Saturday, August 5th: Leona Dalton, Need one person Saturday, August 19th: Pam McClean & Merry Guben Saturday, September 2nd (Depending on weather and interest)
Submitted by: Sabine Harvey, Chestertown Plant
Clinic Chair
P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
Galilee Garden at Harbor View Submitted by: Nancy O’Conner
Mission Almost Accomplished!!!! Galilee Garden at Harbor View has moved a long way from a year ago when we start-ed dreaming and planning. Fifteen raised beds have been built, 10 as a result of a Boy Scout Eagle project and five more by the garden advisory group. The four trial beds from last year were lined with garden timbers and all the walkways were laid with cardboard and covered with wood chips. The original ten beds have garden-ers who now are beginning to reap the harvest of their labors. One of the new beds has a gardener with two more peo-ple interested. The four flat beds have 4 separate gardens in them. The pollinator bed has been set up by Cindy Riegel. Ka-ren Wimsatt has been working on the herb bed. Nancy O’Connor continues to work with the perennial bed she started last year. The last bed will be used as a teaching bed, but has been planted with Sunflowers and watermelons to add inter-
est to our project for the remainder of this year. All of this has been accomplished with money we collected from Seed Money and other donations and hard labor of the Boy Scouts and our garden advisory committee. We have a shed being built by QA Co. High School and a bridge across the ditch to the parking lot is in the planning stage by anoth-er Boy Scout as an Eagle project. If the beds are not taken they will be planted with the intensions of sharing with the local food bank on Kent Island. Now that the garden is functional, we need to work at community activities involving the gardeners and the others who live in the community. Being planned is a “Meet, Greet, and Eat” time where all the gardeners can meet those they have not met or seen at the garden yet. We will be working on other get-togethers that will share information on other facets of gar-dening and eating healthy. Thank you, Mas-ter Gardeners for your support!
T H E W A T E R I N G C A N
P A G E 6 Volunteer Opportunities
Centreville Library Demo Garden: If you would like to participate in any of the times please remember to bring your gardening tools, gloves, and water. All are welcome!!!
July: Thursday, July 20th 8 A.M. August: Tuesday, August 1st 6-7 P.M. (2-3 people needed) and Thursday, August 17th 8 A.M. September: Tuesday, September 5st 6-7 P.M. (2-3 people needed)and Thursday, Septem-ber 21th 8 A.M.
Ask a Master Gardener: Kent Island- Please come out and join us from 3:30-6:30 at 830 Romancoke Rd, Ste-vensville, MD 21666. The plant clinic booth is usually located inside. To sign up contact: Liz Hammond 410-758-2992 [email protected] or Deane Hor-owitz 410-604-0969 [email protected] Thursday, July 13 2 people needed) Thursday, August 10 (2people needed) Thursday, September 14 2 people needed) Thursday, October 12 (2 people needed) Thursday, November 9 (2 people needed) Thursday, December 14 (2 people needed)
Chestertown-The Chestertown Plant Clinic is held at the Farmers Market in Fountain Park, every other Saturday from 8 am until noon. Please make sure that you bring a camping chair to sit in and water to drink. To sign up please contact Sabine Harvey [email protected] Saturday, July 22nd: Pam McClean & Merry Guben Saturday, August 5th: Leona Dalton, Need one person Saturday, August 19th: Pam McClean & Mer-ry Guben Saturday, September 2nd (Depending on weather and interest)
20th Anniversary Planning Committee: The Queen Anne’s County Master Gardeners will
be celebrating our 20th Anniversary in 2018 and will need to develop a guide and plan for the coming year. Our first meeting will be on Thursday, August 3rd at 10 A.M. at the Extension Office. Join the committee and help us plan for next year! If you are unable to make the meeting but would still like to partici-pate let me know!
Kent County Middle School Garden: Every Monday morning from now until school starts around 8:30-9:30 (weather dependent). Please bring your favorite tools for weeding and harvesting. Of course, do not forget to bring some water as well. Kent County Middle School is located at 402 East Campus Avenue in Chester-town. You can get to the garden via the parking lot that is located BE-HIND the school (not visible from Campus Ave). Just drive around the building, going past the first parking lot. Once you see the tennis courts, you know you are heading in the right direction.
Queen Anne’s County 4-H Fair: We have a small garden at the 4-H Park that needs to be worked on so that it looks its best for the County Fair. This garden is located at the flag pole on the Rt. 18 side of the park. On Wednesday, August 2nd at 6 P.M. we will be there to make sure it’s pretty in time for the fair. 2-3 Volunteers to help would be much ap-preciated! Let me know if you plan to help out!
Sudlersville Elementary School Garden: We have been asked by the Mid-Shore project leader for the Food Supplement Nutrition Education program to help plan and assist in putting in a school gar-den. If you would like to help please let me know.
P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS! Each shift should have 2-3 people to staff the
booth. We will also need 3 to 4 volunteers
for the set-up Monday morning and pack up
on Saturday evening.
Monday
August 7th
Bay-Wise
Tuesday
August 8th
(Crab Cake Dinner)
Grow It Eat It
Wednesday
August 9th
(Chicken BBQ
Dinner)
Pollinators
Thursday
August 10th
(Pork BBQ
Dinner)
Ask a MG
Friday
August 11th
(BBQ Beef
Dinner)
What’s
Bugging You
Saturday
August 12th
Natives
4-6:30pm 4-6:30pm 4-6:30pm 4-6:30pm 4-6:30pm
6:30-9pm 6:30-9pm 6:30-9pm 6:30-9pm 6:30-9pm 3-6pm
http://queenannescofair.com
P A G E 8
T H E W A T E R I N G C A N
Smithsonian Gardens celebrates the launch of Community of Gardens, a website for sharing and pre-serving the stories of gardens and the people who make them grow. Community of Gardens is a digital archive hosted by Smithsonian Gar-dens and created by public input. Since the time of the “founding gardeners,” gardeners and gardens have played an important role in shaping American cul-ture. American history can be traced through the gardens of Gilded Age estates and the Victory Gardens of World War II to the community gardens of today. Gardens are ephemeral by nature, often only surviving the decades in photo-graphs and memories. Community of Gardens seeks to preserve America’s shared garden heritage by collecting stories contributed by people about the green spaces in their communities and backyards. Smithsonian Gardens is seek-ing stories, images, videos and interviews related to gardens and gardening in the U.S. Public participation in this project will contribute to the documenta-tion of American garden history and enable historians, landscape architects, designers and garden enthusiasts to learn more about how gardens and gar-deners of all backgrounds have shaped America’s landscape. Visit the website to submit gardening stories and photos.
Community of Gardens Submitted by: Jon Traunfeld
Mentoring Committee Updates Submitted by: Nick Stoer
Calling all Mentors and Interns— It’s time to check in and see how the 2017 mentoring process is working so far. The notion for the survey is simply pre-cautionary just to make sure as little as possible falls through the cracks. We don't want to lose momentum over the summer. All responses will be anonymous. Here’s the link for mentors: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GGJ55VH Here’s the link for interns: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JH9SGYD
P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
Centreville Library Demo Garden Updates Pictures submitted by: Debbie Pusey
Bay-Wise Committee Updates Submitted by: Debbie Pusey
Whew! We’ve had a busy spring and a backlog of visits to schedule! That should keep us busy through the summer. We have certified two public properties – Adkins Arboretum and the student garden at Washington. A video was made by Shane Brill for the certification at Washington College which can be viewed at http://www.washcoll.edu/live/news/10129-gardening-wisdom .Great job Shane! We have also had a record number of different MG’s taking the lead for and participating in the consults and certifica-tions we have completed. Thank you to Joyce Anderson, Shane Brill, Jane Chambers, Kit Foster, Pat Gannon, Marga-ret Gardner, Liz Hammond, Deane Horowitz, Laura Klingler, Christie Little, Betty McAtee, Ruth Menefee, Chris Mourse, Lois Noonan, Cindy Reigel, Susan Seth, Jane Smith, Nick Stoer, Elaine Studley, and Joyce Woodford. We hope to get even more MG’s involved in the Bay-Wise
program so starting this month, any time a consult or certi-
fication is scheduled with a homeowner, an email will go
out to the entire Master Gardener group, not just the Bay-
Wise committee. Participants will be limited to 5 MG’s
(unless it’s a public space or another MG’s property) and
based on first response. Bay-Wise visits are interesting and
fun and take about 2 hours. It’s a great opportunity to see
Master Gardener Intern Christy Little received her Bay-Wise Certification. Way to go Christy!!!
what others are doing in their yards and to offer sugges-
tions that can ultimately help the Chesapeake Bay. If
you would like to schedule a Bay-Wise consult please
contact Rachel ([email protected])
We get a lot of comments from people going to the Centre-ville Library about how beautiful and lush the rain garden is. That’s wonderful for those viewing it, but for us it some-times feels more like managing a jungle. We are constantly weeding, of course, but we also need to constantly cut back plants to open up the pathways. It has been a difficult pro-ject to manage when meeting only once a month. But now, there will be two work sessions! Laura Rocco will lead a group that will meet the first Monday evening of the month at 6:00pm. This will enable some of those who work during the day to be able to get some volunteer hours. We will continue with our third Thursday morning work days as well. This should help considerably to keep things under control. Thank you to those who helped in June: Judy Geg-gis, Cheryl Huyck, Jackie Kelly, Laura Klingler, and Chris Mourse. Here is the maintenance schedule for the rest of the summer. We hope that you can come out and lend a
hand!
July: Thursday, July 20th 8 A.M. August:
Tuesday, August 1st 6-7 P.M. Thursday, August 17th 8 A.M. September Tuesday, September 5st 6-7 P.M. Thursday, September 21th 8 A.M.
P A G E 1 0
In June, we had two hefty fe-male Maryland Terrapins stop by on separate visits. Not the same one twice. At least one of them was observed by a neighbor de-
positing eggs near our woodpile. Each of the Terrapins also took a dip in our pool. They swim very fast but cannot climb out of the pool. Each grum-bled when lifted out
of the pool by the net we use for leaves, bugs and such. They seemed happy when we re-turned them to Kirwan Creek. This is more or less an annual ritual in our neighbor-hood. We will see baby Terrapins in a few weeks.
In addition, the Wrens have set up a nest in one of the flower container pots on our deck. Their names are Christopher and Christine but
both go by Chris. The Kingbirds al-so are here all day every day. Their favorite perches are the cucumber trellis and a tall water sprin-kler. The Cardinals have nested in the Oak Leaf Hydrangea. They wait for the Finches to scatter sun-flower seeds from the window mounted feeder. The Mocking-birds have nested in a Japanese Maple and another pair are in the Forest Pansy Redbud. A whole flock of Swallows have built their nests under our boat dock. We feed them mosquitoes and they return the favor with an exciting airshow over our lawn every after-noon and evening. We have Rob-ins, Redwing Blackbirds and lots of waterfowl, they just don't live here. We have two different neighbors on our creek who report seeing a family of otters on the creek, but I won't bring that up until we seem them firsthand. If you enjoyed this "article" in the least, you can send fresh para-graphs to Rachel in future months.
N E W S L E T T E R T I T L E
Native Happenings Submitted by: Nick Stoer
P A G E 1 1 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
The scientific name Chrysochus auratus means “made of gold” and refers to the fantastic me-tallic hues of blue, green, gold, and red on the surface of the beetle. This beetle has no accept-ed common name, but it is often referred to as the dogbane beetle due to its habit of feeding almost exclusively on plants in the ge-nus Apocynum, herbaceous plants we refer to as dogbane. Dogbane grows along roadsides and trails near the forest edge. It is a perennial with clusters of small white flowers. If you dam-age a leaf or stem, it oozes a white sticky sap. There in full view of all you will find the dog-bane leaf beetle. It is a wonder that an insect so conspicuous can survive in a world where birds, toads, and mice dine on insects with gusto. There is a secret to the dogbane beetle. The dogbane plant, like its relative milkweed is full
If you enjoy unique, out-of-the-ordinary flowering peren-nials in your gar-den, blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) is worth consider-ing. From it’s latin scientific name, “bapto” means “to dip” or “to dye.” Ear-ly Native Ameri-cans used blue
Blue False Indigo Submitted by: Betty McAtte
false indigo flowers for blue dye. This perennial is native to eastern N America and the mid-west, and so is generally trouble free - deer re-sistant, tolerant to drought, and rarely subject to serious pest damage. It’s spectacular purple-blue lupine-like flowers and unusual blue-grey foliage do well when cut for a floral arrange-ment. Blue false indigo grows 3-4 feet tall into a shrub-type plant, and is a magnet for numer-ous pollinators, especially butterflies. Numer-ous butterfly caterpillars are attracted to its foliage for food. It prefers full to partial sun. It’s large seed pods eventually turn black, and provide winter interest if left uncut. These are also used in decorative dried arrangements. Seedlings of blue false indigo need about 2-3 years to produce blossoms, but established plants can remain for decades. Easily propa-gated by seeds from its pods, it’s definitely a favorite of mine.
Dogbane Leaf Beetle Dr. Mike Raupp, UMD
of highly poisonous compounds known as cardenolides. These compounds are toxic to a variety of animals, including humans.
Photo credit: Rachel Rhodes, UME
P A G E 1 2
T H E W A T E R I N G C A N
July 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1Plant
Clinic, Chestertown
2 3 4 5 6 Galilee Gar-
den Meeting 7 P.M.
7 8 Plant
Clinic, Chestertown
9 10 11 12 13 KI Plant
Clinic, 3:30-6:30pm
14 15
16 17 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
18 19 20 Centreville
Library Rain gar-den cleanup, 9 am Veggie Plant Ad-vanced Training (Cambridge)
21 22 Plant
Clinic, Chestertown
23 24 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
25 26 27 28 29
30 31 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
P A G E 1 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 7
August 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 Centreville
Library Rain gar-den cleanup, 6 P.M.
2 4-H Garden
Cleanup, 6 P.M. 3 20th Anni-
versary Planning Meeting-10 A.M.
Galilee Garden Meeting 7 P.M.
4 5 Plant Clinic,
Chestertown
6 7 Kent Coun-
ty Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
8 Advanced
Training-Shade Trees (Cecil Co.)
9 10 KI Plant
Clinic, 3:30-6:30pm
11 12
13 14 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
15 Advanced
Training-Shade Trees (Cecil Co.)
16 17 Centre-
ville Library Rain garden cleanup, 9 am
18 19 Plant
Clinic, Chestertown
20 21 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
22 Advanced
Training-Shade Trees (Cecil Co.)
23 24 25 26
27 28 Kent
County Middle School Garden 8:30 AM
29 30 31
University of Maryland Extension
Queen Anne’s County
505 Railroad Ave.
Suite 4
Centreville, MD 21617
Vision Statement: A healthier world through environmental stewardship
QACMG Website: http://extension.umd.edu/
queen-annes-county/master-gardener-home
-gardening
University of Maryland Extension
505 Railroad Avenue, Suite 4
Centreville MD, 21617
Phone: (410) 758-0166
Fax: (410) 758-3687
JULY Newsletter Deadline:
Monday, July 23rd
It is the policy of the University of Maryland and University of Maryland Extension, that no person shall be subjected to
discrimination on the grounds of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital or parental
status, or disability. Equal opportunity employers and equal access programs.
