Behnkes Gardening Blog

Master Gardeners revamping their Demonstration Gardens - 8 vegetable beds, 12 herb beds, a butterfly garden and a gourd garden.

Master Gardener training in Prince George’s County is starting soon – March 5 – and there ARE openings for this upcoming class.  Act soon, though – it’ll fill up.  Note that unlike other counties, Prince George’s training is given in the evening, so people with full-time jobs CAN get involved.

Purpose:  Maryland Master Gardeners are trained as volunteer horticultural experts, who go on to help Maryland residents grow food and beautiful gardens, and to do it in ways that protect and enhance the environment.

The Training:  Participants receive 50 hours of basic training from U. Maryland faculty staff and Master Gardeners, and then must complete 40 hours of volunteer service during the first year to become certified Master Gardeners.

2012 Spring Master Gardening Basic Training

Dates:  Monday, March 5th and every Monday and Wednesday until May 9th.

Time:   6:00 to 9:30 -p.m.

Place:  4-H Center, College Park, Maryland

Cost:  $200 for Prince George’s County residents.  $300 for non-county residents.

If you’re interested, contact Esther Mitchell at estherm@umd.edu or 301-868-8781 for an application.

Working with students from Robert Goddard Montessori School on Earth Day Projects. They talked about the water cycle and the students made water bottle terrariums.

After Becoming Certified:  Active Master Gardeners do 20 hours of volunteer service on approved projects and 10 hours of education each year.   It’s a great group of gardeners who provide training/workshops/talks at the libraries, Watkins Nature Center, Prince George’s Community College, government agencies and community groups, plus youth groups and schools.  They don’t do maintenance work, but will show clients how and when to do it.   They help schools put in a garden and get them started.  Coordinator Esther  Mitchell says that her motto is if you are not having fun, then you are in the wrong program.

In addition to their many demonstration gardens, the PG Master Gardeners are involved with these great teaching gardens:

• Sheridan Street Community Garden.   Located at the newly remodeled Center for Educational Partnership next to William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale, the garden has space for families to have their own plots to grow healthy food, as well as a youth garden where students from the neighborhood can learn how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables.  They also host trainings for Master Gardeners and the general public, and are holding an an event called Growing Community Gardens on March 24.  If you would like to get involved, contact Christie Balch at 301/779-2806, ext 706 or cbalch@umd.edu.  Here’s their website and here’s their Facebook page.

• Riverdale Mansion – The gardens and adjacent orchard feature many flowers and herbs, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables representative of the crops needed to support the large family, workers, and livestock living at Riverdale in the early 19^th century. If you would like to get involved please email Sarah Urdaneta at sycamoreaz@yahoo.com.

See their Events Calendar  to learn about the many, many talks and demos they’ll be providing in local libraries in March and April.  Teaching goes outdoors during the growing season.

Advanced Training

To further Maryland Master Gardeners knowledge and to complete the requirement of 10 hours of advanced training each year, advanced training courses are offered periodically on subjects such as plant pathology, plant identification, landscape design, methods promoting sustainable gardening practices, and other areas of horticulture.

For more information about Advanced Training Classes/Schedules.

Maryland Master Gardener Annual Training Day

This is an all-day event designed specifically for Maryland Master Gardeners. There is a keynote speaker and several training classes on various topics. A sale area is available where MGs can purchase plants, MG products, and other items.

Master Gardeners doing a Bay-Wise yard certification. The Master Gardener in the green is Franchella Kendall, the Bay-Wise Master Gardener Coordinator for Prince George’s County.

Posted by Susan Harris.

We had a big turn-out on a brutally cold day for Lincoln Smith’s talk and slide show about Forest Gardening – thanks for coming, everyone!  And if you couldn’t make it, hopefully  these fast notes and links to more will turn you on enough to pursue this fascinating topic.

So what IS Forest Gardening?

Not what I thought – not woodland gardening, which refers to ornamental plants, not productive (edible) ones.   A subset of permaculture, it’s sometimes called “food forestry” or “agroforestry”.  And contrary to expectations, it’s not just about shade gardening, but assumes patches of sunlight, so a mix of sun and shade.  Unlike most edible plants, the ones in forest gardens last at least two seasons and usually many more.  Plants are in layers – at varying heights, like fruit trees underplanted with herbs.  But importantly, the plant mix is diverse, nothing like the monocultures of conventional agriculture.  And if you mix the plants correctly, as a group they feed themselves and share space efficiently – both underground and aboveground.  That’s a lot to ask but it’s how it happens in nature, so it can be done.

Plants that need lots of nitrogen, like apples, can get what they need from “Nitrogen-fixing” plants growing near them.  Prime Nitrogen-fixers (plants that turn nitrogen in the air into nitrogen in the soil that plants can use) are clover, sweet fern, groundnut, false indigo, New Jersey tea, American wisteria, and vetch…. Larger plants that produce their own Nitrogen include black locust, alder and bayberry.

Lincoln showed data from a California researcher showing that as much flour can be made from acorns as from the same space devoted to wheat.  Here’s the link (it’s a Word document) or you can Google: “Bainbridge Use of Acorns for Food in California.”  Wow.  Makes you totally rethink our assumptions about food production and understand a bit how people sustained themselves centuries ago in forested regions like ours. Sure enough, check out this website about cooking with acorns,  and this nursery in Michigan is growing oaks for food production.

An Easy Starter Forest Garden

Lincoln says to start small.  Just plant a fruit tree or two with clover beneath it and voila – a forest garden.

Best Fruits for our Region?

Lincoln recommends pawpaw, currants, hardy kiwis, pomegranates, figs, and blueberries.

To Learn More

Visit Lincoln’s website about the courses he gives in planning a forest garden, in nearby Bowie.  (I’ll be visiting his 10-acre site this spring to see the progress of his own forest garden and to chat with some of his students.  So stay tuned.)

The Apios Institute website is a great resource about forest gardening.

Posted by Susan Harris.

Why prune? Listen to Kirsten

I traveled to Arlington, VA last weekend for the winter pruning instruction given by Kirsten Conrad Buhls, Extension Agent, and her well-trained Tree Stewards. It was kinda cold for note-taking, but thankfully there were hand-outs.

The crowd - about twice this number - was cold but willing.

Pruning Tips

Tree steward demonstrates thinning of dogwood.

Teachers of pruning always tell us to have a reason to make any cut – like the ones listed above, although.

Kirsten talked a lot about rejuvenation pruning, which is sooo needed by sooo many plants, yet so seldom done.  She explained that new growth happens where we make the cut, which is why we should generally avoid making cuts at the outer edges of the plant.  Instead, we can reduce the size and generate new growth from the center of the plant by removing whole branches all the way to their origin.  For most plants it’s best (and always safest) to remove no more than one-third of the plant at a time.  So for large overgrown, underperforming shrubs, remove one-third of the stems each year over three years, for a totally  new plant that’s much more vigorous.

Another important pruning tip we learned is to cut just above a node or branch, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away.  That way, unsightly, unproductive stumps aren’t left hanging, and cuts are made where they can generate the most new growth – at those nodes where the growth hormones are.

Kirsten also suggested that for plants that are sheared, to then go back with hand pruner to “punch holes” in the outer edge of the plant.  By removing small clumps where the shrub is thickest, air, light and water are allowed to reach the interior of the shrub, thus stimulating growth there.   Click here for more tips about using this technique on boxwoods, from the experts at the National Arboretum.

More good pruning tips from the experts: the Morton Arboretum,  Colorado State, and the University of Georgia.

Shrubs to Prune in Winter (November through February)

Abelia, Arborvitae, Beautyberry, Boxwood (through July is fine), Butterfly Bush, Chastetree, Cherrylaurel, Clethra (Summersweet), Cotoneaster (both evergreen and deciduous), Crape Myrtle, Redtwig Dogwood, Thorny Eleagnus, Euonymus (evergreen and deciduous), Gardenia, Hibiscus, summer-blooming Hydrangea, St. Johnswort, Juniper, Nandina, Osmanthus, Photinia, Mugo Pine, Privet (both evergreen and deciduous), Smoke Tree, summer blooming Spirea, Sumac, and Yew.

Posted by Susan Harris.

The surprise hit gardening book of 2011 is this intriguing one by Jake Hobson, who explores the creative side of pruning and shows readers some awesome sculptural landscapes – boxwoods trimmed into Russian nesting dolls, hedges inscribed with words, and a tree snipped to resemble the toppling tiers of a wedding cake (below).  Pruning isn’t just a chore anymore – or just for formal estates, either.

The Arboretum is a great place to visit any time of the year.

Have you always wanted to garden, but didn’t know where to start?

Are you an avid gardener, but would like to learn new skills and information on gardening?

If you answered yes, then the Volunteer Gardener Training is what you are looking for! Come join the team of volunteer gardeners at the U.S. National Arboretum!

This February all current and prospective volunteers are invited to attend the Volunteer Gardener Training. The class is taught by the professional staff of the U.S. National Arboretum. Class topics include:
• Botany
• Pruning
• Plant Identification
• Weed Removal
• Soils
• Integrated Pest Management

The four week training will take place every Thursday in February starting February 2, 2012. Each class will run from 8:45am-1:30pm.
At the end of the training, volunteers will select in which gardens they would like to volunteer.

Volunteers are asked to commit to 4 hours of service per week for a yearlong commitment

Desired skills in a volunteer gardener are:
• A strong interest in gardening.
• Ability to withstand frequent walking, standing, bending, and kneeling while gardening.
• Exposure to sun, heat, cold, dust, & dirt.
• Ability to use a variety of hand tools.

To register for the training please call (202)245-4563 or email usna.volunteers@ars.usda.gov.

Photos from the Arboretum’s website.