www.takomahort.org 1 August 2014
www.takomahort.org August 2014
August Event: Tour of Recent
MoCo Storm Water Gardens
How Do Big Stormwater Projects Work? Find out August 20 in Sligo Park Hills, where you'll see a brand new major neighborhood project: bioswales, pervious parking pads, tree boxes arrayed throughout the rights of way. These are no do-it-yourself projects as the stormwater is collected from major and hilly street runoff. But they are fascinating constructions, whose details will be revealed on the tours.
In addition, you can see how some of our native plants survive in among the most difficult circumstances, most looking pretty good in alternately drowning and droughty soil, on the roadside. Get some ideas!
Meet at 6:30 pm at the corner of Hilltop and Park Valley Roads, just off Piney Branch. Take the Ride-On from Takoma or Silver Spring, or park on one of those parking pads on Hilltop. Mary Travaglini from the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Kit Gage and Jenny Reed, Master Watershed Stewards, will guide the tours. At 8, we'll have a 'Stormwater Social' at Kit's nearby house, 8007 Park Crest Drive. RSVP to Carole to plan for tours and snacks ([email protected])
July Meeting: Mike McConkey Talk on Edible Gardening
Mike McConkey was the guest presenter for the Takoma Hort Club in July where he told us about many wonderful varieties of fruits and berries that will do well in our area. He discussed his propagation techniques at his nursery in Afton, VA, which is a great source
of fruit trees and shrubs. Mike is a great resource for fruit and berry gardeners in our area, regardless of their level of experience and his website, ediblelandscaping.com also has a great deal of information.
Mike McConkey Serenading the Crowd Photo by Carole Galati
Mike has been growing and testing fruit tree varieties since the 1970’s. What really made this meeting fun was that Mike started off his talk serenading us with some garden songs. Mike also brought along two tables full of fruit and berry sapplings and shrubs for sale. People who travel to Afton VA to visit his nursery say it is great fun and they never seem to return home empty handed!
Officers Coordinators: Carole Galati Diane Svenonius Secretary: Becky Lavash Treasurer: Taffy Turner
Committee Chairs and Contacts Membership: Carole Galati
Listserv: Anne Hardman Newsletter: Becky Lavash
Public Relations: Kathy Jentz Webmaster: Cynthia Walczak
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Vegetable Gardening in 2014
This summer has been cool and wet this year and the result is that my vegetable garden is producing large and beautiful fruits! I don’t have a very diverse collection of vegetables but most of the ones I have are healthy and productive - cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, greens, and herbs.
I have grown vegetables most of the 15 years I have lived in this house, with varying degrees of success each year. I have gotten tomato blight so bad some years that I had to remove all the plants, or a one week vacation away with no rain decimated the plants.
Cucumber and Tomato Plants Merging Photo by Becky Lavash
Cucumbers have been the biggest surprise this year. I learned that they love water, and the more water they get the less likely they will be bitter. When I first planted them I was very deliberate in guiding the vines to grow on my tuteur but they soon over-topped that and I strung together bamboo, plastic poles, and garden string to make a larger trellis. If it did not rain, I watered the plants with about
½ gallon of water per day near the ground. I have been harvesting 6-8 cukes per week for at least six weeks now and I have made many batches of ice box pickles and cucumber salads. I was very surprised that I have not seen ANY pests on the plants this year too.
Holy Basil – A Tomato Companion Plant Photo by Becky Lavash
I made an effort to use companion planting and I suspect that has some effect on that bug-free experience but I am also curious if the cold winter, cool breezes, and plentiful rain were also a factor. For the cucumbers, I planted lots of dill. For the tomatoes, I planted garlic in a ring around the tomato plants, using just one clove of garlic to get the green sprouts. I also planted digitalis and basil for the tomatoes, and those plants did very well. Holy basil was recommended as the best type for tomatoes and I planted several types. I also have Thai basil and the classic Genovese basil. I let it all go to flower so I get lots of bees and pollinators.
For the eggplant and peppers, dill and oregano were recommended, and again I let them go to flower for pollinators. The peppers did not do well, but I believe I over fertilized them. The plants grew tall but did not fruit at all. I used Espoma organic vegetable fertilizer for all the vegetables as directed (I used the specific Espoma tomato
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fertilizer for the tomatoes) but I will skip the fertilizer next year for the bell peppers.
Eggplant Growing with Oregano and Dill Photo by Becky Lavash
My hot peppers always do well and I get many more than I could ever use. Serrano peppers seem to do the best but I usually have jalapeno, Thai, and some other uncommon type of pepper too. I put out lots of parsley seeds and replanted rosemary to replace my big plant that I lost over the winter. All the herbs have been productive for my kitchen and I will do that again next year. The dill goes to flower and seed very quickly, like cilantro, so I will try to have a steady supply of seedlings to plant every few weeks next year.
I also have a giant rhubarb that has done very well despite the hot climate here in general. I replaced the sage I lost over the winter too.
Lemon Peppers (hots) Photo by Becky Lavash
My tomato plants are Syrian tomatoes that my neighbor started from seed. He has lots of people share-cropping his plants since his yard is too shady and these plants are impressive! The stalks are tree-like and the fruits are huge. They are just starting to ripen now and I look forward to picking the first ones in the next few days. I hope 2015 is as productive as 2014 has been.
Syrian Tomatoes Ripening Photo by Becky Lavash
www.takomahort.org 4 August 2014
We Keep Growing – Just Can’t
Help Ourselves!
Please welcome these new and returning gardeners into the THC: Susan Walker, Carolyn Mullet, Deborah Glassman, Cassandra Hostetler, Kelly Dooran, Meg Smolinski Fran Rothstein and Sherrell Goggin. Look for these members at our upcoming events. So glad they found us! We have lots of events coming up, including our very local Stormwater Tour on August 20, as well as our Summer Potluck and Potomac
Valley Nursery Tour (with lunch at Anne Brook’s) in September. These September events are for members only and require that you RSVP.
Please consider that many of you “current” members have not yet paid your 2014 dues. Check with me if you are not sure about your membership status and also check our website: www.takomahort.org to find our Calendar of Events. Thank you, Carole ([email protected])
