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LOOSELEAF

A Publication of the Howard County Master Gardeners

3300 NORTH RIDGE ROAD, SUITE 240 ELLICOTT CITY, MD 21043

(410)313-2707 FAX (410)313-2712

http://www.extension.umd.edu/mg/locations/howard-county-master-gardener

October 2016

Program Update from Georgia

Judging from the numerous conversations and high level of

human voices during our luncheon on September 20, it ap-

pears our annual meeting was successful! Great news! Sixty

seven people attended -- a little tight in the classroom but

our group is very adaptable and gracious. Thanks to Jon

Traunfeld, Extension Specialist, Director and State MG Co-

ordinator, we received information regarding new HGIC

staff: Alicia Bembenek, Advanced Training Coordinator,

and Beth Bukoski, Program Administrative Assistant. Jon

mentioned the new MG Volunteer Policy which is online as

well as future plans for creating educational videos for

online teaching and use of social media. I want to extend my

personal thanks to Elaine Kielman who took on the hostessing/management tasks on my behalf for the luncheon-in ad-

dition to securing the table cover she took care of placing all the food set-up tasks. What great help!

Reports from MG Program Coordinators were given by Linda Decker, Bay-Wise; Greg Jones, AAMG; Aylene Gard,

Conservation Stewardship; Kathy Hartley, Website Manager and Volunteer Data Support; Holly McFarland, Bay-Wise

Garden Tour; Jo Ann Russo, Howard County Conservancy; Carol Spencer, Susan Bishop, Elaine Kielman, Fair Exhibit

designers; Janice Winter, Youth Education; and Darcy Bellido de Luna, Looseleaf and Composting. This seems to be

popular event and a good way to learn about our various programs and community involvement. It also give us the op-

portunity to catch up with each other!

Be sure to participate and attend the Central Maryland Research and Education Open House, Saturday, October 8,

10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It's a fun event and a good opportunity to interact with the community. See you there!

- Georgia

Georgia Eacker 410-313-1913 geacker@umd.edu

MG Coordinator

WSA Liaison

INSIDE -

2 Continuing Education

3 Join the Conservation team

4 Whipps update

5 Landscape lessons:low maintenance

6 Latin for gardeners: Dryopteris

marginalis

7 Bay Wise Garden Tour

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 2

Calendar Highlights for October

View the MG electronic calendar in your

preferred format: Month, Week or Agenda.

Click here for the calendar. You’ll find times,

locations, and contact info for these events in

October.

3 Bay-wise meeting

11 Continuing Ed

15 Alpha Ridge Demo Garden

20 LooseLeaf deadline!

25 Conservation Stewardship

Work Days @

Enchanted Garden, Tuesdays

Whipps, Thursdays

HC Conservancy, Fridays

Ask a Master Gardener

Volunteer for a session or two

Click to check the MG electronic calendar for locations, times and contact info.

2016 Continuing Education Speaker Series

MGs, Watershed Stewards, Master Naturalists and their guests are welcome to attend. All sessions will be held at the UME office, except for the field trip on September 13. Check the MG electronic

calendar for updates.

For questions, contact: Karin DeLaitsch kdlaitsch@gmail.com; or, Joanna Cumbie rladywalking@msn.com

OCTOBER 11

9:30 - 11:00 am

Bringing It Together

Ann Coren, MG

Ann teaches how to garden for pollinators, birds, and water quality. She brings concepts from soil science, insect life cycles, songbird life cycles, native plant ecosystems, food gardening, along with simple "how to’s."

NOVEMBER 8

9:30 - 11:00 am

Upcoming Advanced MG Training, plus Overview of Other State MG Programs, Activities, & Training

Alicia Bembeneck, University

of Maryland Extension State Training Coordinator

Volunteer in the Garden at Howard County

Conservancy at Mt. Pleasant

We will start this month with the annual Fall Festival on

Sunday, October 2, from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. As

usual we will have a plant sale and compost demonstrations

as well as answering participants’ fall gardening questions

and questions about the historic vegetable garden.

Weather permitting, we will continue to have regular work

days each Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. through the

end of October. So far this year we have contributed 728

pounds of produce to the Howard County Food Bank.

Toward the end of the month we will prepare the garden for

the winter and plant additional crops to emerge in the

spring.

Come join us any Friday morning!

Jo Ann Russo, MG1997, jrusso1104@comcast.net

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 3

We will be working on annihilating autumn olive shrubs on Tuesday, Oct 25 from 9:00 am to 11:30 am.

The autumn olive is an unwelcome remnant of the game farm that once existed in this area. It is a

relentless invader, and we will be using a variety of control methods this month and next. Thankfully,

we are making headway in one small area that we will attempt to enlarge during our October work day.

Volunteers will be cutting down and digging up olives to make room for Howard County Recreation and

Parks staff to perform subsequent herbicide treatments. We hope to remove autumn olives to help

natives rebound in MPEA.

MPEA (Middle Patuxent Environmental Area) is approximately 1,000 acres with nearly six miles of

hiking trails. I invite you to spend a few hours to help with Conservation Stewardship activities.

We’ll start from the South Wind Circle Entrance. From Route 29, go west on Route 108 toward

Clarksville (or from Route 32 go east on Route 108). Turn onto Trotter Road. South Wind Circle is

approx. one mile. Enter the circle and proceed to the trailhead (opposite Misty Top Path). Parking on the

street is plentiful. Wear long pants and long sleeves. Bring your garden gloves.

Alyene Gard, 1998, kgmerger@verizon.net

Join the Conservation Stewardship Team on October 25

Need a Few More Hours?

Here are some Ideas!

Drop by Whipps on Thursday morning to add a few volunteer hours. Or go to the

Enchanted Garden at Miller Library on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11:00 to assist with a

variety of projects. The demonstration garden at Howard County Conservancy, Mt.

Pleasant is looking for help on Friday mornings. Mark your calendar to join the

Conservation Stewardship team at MPEA on Oct 25.

There are upcoming Continuing Education sessions that you may want to attend. Or

read a book on your favorite gardening activity. Think about writing a book review for

the next issue of LooseLeaf to share what you learn with your MG colleagues.

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 4

The plants at Whipps Garden Cemetery are thriving with only a minimal of stress thanks to the water

squad, including Dorothy Moore, Wes Phipps, Paul Kozjar, Robert Glascock and other weekly

volunteers. The leaves and walnuts are beginning to fall and will give the gardens a new fall look.

No matter how careful we watered and cared for the roses, the black spot got the best of them. David

Walsh, president of Maryland’s Rose Society, and Nick Webber, Maryland’s local rosarian from

Heritage Rose Gardens, came to our rescue. Black spot disease cannot be easily eradicated. The shrub

roses were pruned to approximately 18 inches and the climbing roses were thinned out and reattached to

the trellises. A generous cup of Rose Tone and alfalfa mill was worked into the soil followed with deep

watering. Within a week new leaf growth and a few roses appeared.

What a year for handling problems. A large acuba was attacked with a fungus and died almost overnight.

We also lost a huge walnut branch, which took out several front shrubs. The open space was filled with

“Miss Kim” lilac shrubs, a fragrant, dwarf Japanese lilac that blooms shortly after the early lilacs and

should continue all summer.

The Eagle Scout project of a 30-foot retaining wall completed by Steven Mitchell was landscaped with

an assortment of hosta, ferns, and croscomia.

Again this year, Whipps received and potted registered day lilies from Fred and Sue Briscoe. These pots

were sunk in the ground and will be offered at the annual plant sale on May 19- 20, 2017.

Fall crocuses and colchicum bulbs have been planted. These early bulbs will be followed with a new

daffodil project created by Bob Glascock. Bulbs representing each of the daffodil divisions will be

planted in our first Daffodil Demonstration Garden and highlighted at our 2017 Daffodil Day on

Saturday, April 1.

If you need volunteer hours to complete your Master Gardener requirement, drop by Whipps! Whipps

will soon have about a zillion leaves that need to be raked. Help will be appreciated as the removal of a

few layers make the spring gardens more attractive. My help at the cemetery will be cut back as I

recently had spinal canal stenosis surgery. I am taking my recovery seriously so I can continue with the

spring project without pain.

Thanks to all volunteers who have gone far and beyond your call of duty to help keep

Whipps Garden Cemetery looking its best. Happy gardening!

- Aleta Gravelle, 2009, agravelle@verizon.net

Dedicated Volunteers Keep the Gardens at Whipps In Top Shape

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 5

Last issue we talked about the various meanings of "low" maintenance in the landscape and why the

term makes me cringe. In my view, when people say "low" maintenance they really are thinking "NO"

maintenance, which we all know does not exist. I promised to give my own definition of easy

maintenance.

My definition is not very precise but generally means that an easy maintenance (EM) plant generally

does fine on its own but will require occasional attention (shearing, pruning, fertilizing) to continue

growing well and looking good. Roses, for example, are very high maintenance in that they need

almost daily spraying, feeding, watering, pruning etc. A densiforms yew, on the other hand, will grow

quite happily with minimum attention. The point is that I ask my clients to accept my definition and

agree to perform this minimum maintenance before I will do a design plan for them.

So what kinds of plants do I recommend or select for this kind of scenario? Generally, my EM plans

include a mix of shrubs, trees, and perennial flowering plants so I will break the discussion into two

parts. This month we will do trees and woodies (with perennials next issue). I generally don't work

large trees into my plans unless the customer specifically asks for them, preferring small trees or tall

shrubs instead as part of a unified area. There are only a few that I consider easy maintenance. They

are crepe myrtle, serviceberry, Chinese dogwood, and Rose of Sharon (as a tree form or tall shrub).

As for shrubs, the selection often depends on the sun situation. For shaded areas, spring-blooming

azaleas are generally easy to maintain. Andromeda is also fairly self-sustaining. For sun or partial sun

areas, my recommendations include densiforms yews (they recover nicely from snow), blue prince holly,

Prelude andromeda (expensive), and abelia. If the client wants something fast growing, I will include

cherry laurel with a warning that if not kept sheared it will suffer snow damage.

Next issue we will discuss color in the easy care garden.

Roy Heath, 2011

therents2001@yahoo.com

Landscape Lessons

Low Maintenance in the Garden, Part Two: Plant Recommendations

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 6

Latin for Gardeners: October’s Native Maryland Plant

Dryopteris marginalis (dry-OP-ter-iss) (mar-jin-AL-iss)

Dryopteris marginalis (marginal wood fern) takes dry conditions like no other fern I have seen. We’ve

had a very dry September which has taken a toll on many of my plants - but not the lovely green

Dryopteris marginalis growing on a shaded slope in my garden.

Dryopteris marginalis is a clump-forming evergreen fern that you can use as a groundcover to fill in

your garden, to prevent weeds and to offer color year round. Nurseries offer this plant in flats so you can

cover a large area quickly. Ferns come in a variety of shapes and sizes; this one is of moderate stature.

The fern body consists of 3 major parts – the rhizome, the fronds and the sporangia. The rhizome is the

stem which produces roots and new fronds. It can grow under or along the ground or even up a tree; this

rhizome forms an erect crown which is visible in the winter landscape. A frond is the leaf of a fern.

They are called fronds to distinguish them from the leaves of flowering plants. Leaves in flowering

plants are purely concerned with photosynthesis whereas fern fronds have both a photosynthetic function

and a reproductive function. The sporangia is the reproductive structures on the underside of the frond.

Each sporangium is a capsule that contains spores. They are usually grouped into clusters

called sori. This fern is easily identified because the spores (light green in spring turning brown into

summer) are located along the very outermost edges of the rather ovate 18”-30” fronds.

continued next page

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 7

The genus names comes from the Greek dryas meaning oak and pteris meaning fern in reference to the

presence of these ferns often seen in woodland areas populated with oaks. The specific epithet, margin-

alis, comes from the sori being located at the margins of the frond undersides.

~ Alison Milligan – MG 2013

ali_milligan@yahoo.com

Bay-Wise Garden Tour Recap

MG's hosted our annual Bay-Wise Garden Tour on

Saturday, Sept 17th at the beautiful landscape of MG

Eva Roswell. We have been hosting these free tours

for almost 20 years. Many thanks go to my fellow committee members for all the work they did to make

this happen: co-chair Bev D'Vuono, Pat Hooker, Betty Rice and Beth Blum-Spiker. For those unfamiliar

with the tour, this is not your ordinary 'beautiful garden' tour. Although the landscape we choose to high-

light is always lovely, our goal is to help educate people to make wise choices in their own landscapes. One

can be BOTH Bay-Wise and beautiful! We had about 200 visitors walk the gardens this year.

Our objective is to educate individual homeowners that simple choices they make in their own backyards

can have a great impact on our ecology, environment and the quality of the water flowing into the Chesa-

peake Bay. We try to educate the public about sustainable landscape practices they can incorporate into

their own backyards. Does one landscape make a difference? Probably not. But collectively we can make a

HUGE difference in our environment, ecology and the quality of water flowing into the Chesapeake Bay,

hence the term, 'Bay-Wise.' Residential landscapes are the largest non-point source of pollution running

into the Bay… every resident in our county lives within 1/4 mile of a storm drain, stream or river, all of

LooseLeaf October 2016 Page 8

which end up in the Bay. Choices we make in our backyards DO have an impact!

Learning stations were positioned throughout the gardens to educate residents about the importance of

pollinators, awareness of their needs and what to plant to support them (thank you, MG Carolyn Dunmire), how

to manage mosquitoes without resorting to chemical sprays, the importance of using native plants, examples of

invasive plants and which native plants might be better substitutes for them, sustainable and responsible lawn

care, backyard composting, and ways to manage stormwater in residential landscapes. Howard County

BeeKeepers were also on site to educate us about the importance of bees, their needs and what we can do to help

their survival.

Overall, it was a great day! The weather cooperated, we had wonderful volunteers to help answer questions and

guide visitors through the landscape (thank you all!) and I think we all had fun. If you weren't able to come this

year, hope you can join us next year!

Holly McFarland, MG2001, hcm7249@gmail.com

Controlling mosquitoes in our land-

scapes (photo by Bev D’Vuono)

Beekeepers, Pollinators, and Native

plant displays (photo by John Hubbs)