June, 2014 Volume 18, Issue 6

Inside this issue:

Master Gardener Projects

Apprentice Gardens

Ask A Master Gardener

Bay-Wise

Composting & Native

Gardens at QWP

Dairy Farm

Hancock’s Resolution

Monastery Garden

2-7

June Meeting—Garden Tour at the Home of Janet Clauson

Our yard has many diverse landscape features: a vegetable garden, woods, lawn, and sun and shade borders and beds with trees, shrubs and perennials; a few annuals fill in planters and spaces. The house was built 50 years ago and some old dogwood trees and azaleas survive from the original landscaping. In our 20+ years, the yard accommodated growing chil-dren and is now making a transition to more native plantings. I tend to take an easy care/lazy-gardener approach. The yard and gardens have no over-arching design or structure, but have experienced more of an evolution as trees and shrubs grew and beds were enlarged. Recent plantings are primarily natives and perennial beds have ex-panded. The vegetable garden is all organic; it has been planted with a winter cover crop and no-till

gardening techniques have been used for the past 4 years. Welcome! 301 Kyle Road, Crownsville, MD 21032; in the community of Herald Harbor. Directions: From the north, take I97 Exit 5 (Crownsville/Rt 178), turn left at the second traffic light on Herald Harbor Road. From the south, take General's Highway/Rt 178 from the Annapolis Mall, turn right at the fourth traffic light after the light at Bestgate Road/Mall on Herald Harbor Road. On Herald Harbor Road, at the stop sign (T-intersection), turn left, still Herald Harbor Road. Follow HH Road into the village, turn left on Buttonwood Trail (road after

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The Coordinator’s Corner Mike Ensor, Anne Arundel County Master Gardener Coordinator

I first want to thank all for their hard work in coordinating the Plant Swap for the May Mas-ter Gardener Monthly Meeting. Also I want to thank all who were able to par-ticipate at the Maryland Master Gardener An-nual Training Day at the University of Mary-land. Once again Anne Arundel was well repre-sented and shines among the crowd. I also want to thank all for changing logos, letterheads, etc. to our parent organization title of UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXTEN-SION. As a reminder, this and the affirmative action statements need to be on everything that we do for the public. Also please remember to continue to state that we are University of

Maryland Master Gardeners in Anne Arundel County. It is most important for the public to see the connection with the University of Maryland. Take some “time out” to enjoy the summer with family and friends and last but not least: When all Master Gardeners educate, stand back! When all Master Gardeners help improve the quality of life, each person changes. The energy of Master Gardeners gives life to people. And isn’t giving a better quality of life the business we are all about?

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AAMG News

Anne Arundel County Master Gardeners

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

Apprentice Gardens Janet Clauson, MG, and Suzy Urick, MG, Project Co-Chairs

The new season for the Apprentice Garden program at Kinder Farm Park is well underway and meets each Wednesday at 6:30pm through September.

May was a busy month as fami-lies cleared the winter wheat cover crop and prepared their 3’ by 10’ plots for planting. Gardeners brought seeds and transplants as well as the seed-lings they started at Deb Ste-vens’ seed-starting workshop in April.

In the common spaces, pota-toes and onions planted early are doing well and strawber-ries are ripening; a few berries were picked (a bit early) this

past week and the children enjoyed sharing them. Many different kinds of lettuces and leaf greens have been planted; both yellow and red cherry tomatoes and cooking and eating tomatoes; bell, sweet banana and red chili peppers; zucchini, yellow squash and butternut squash; cucumbers, beans and peas. Plus herbs. We are looking forward to a productive season!

As the cover crop of winter wheat has been removed, plus few weeds, the children have been actively composting the cuttings in the compost bin in the Apprentice Garden and at the compost pile provided by Kinder Farm Park for all the community gardeners. Much of the winter

wheat has been saved for use as mulch around plants and for the pathways. The Apprentice Garden is an organic garden and no-till gardening techniques have been used to prepare for spring planting.

Particular thanks to Ap-prentice Garden volun-teers, George Lambert, Elle McGee, and Teresa Rosello for their assis-tance.

We again thank all the Master Gardeners who signed up to volunteer in the garden. MG help is appreciated to work with the parents and

children, to help maintain the common planting areas and the outside edges of our community garden plots, and to pro-vide extra garden checks. Your participa-tion can be on your own schedule and you can bring your children!

Please join us any Wednesday at 6:30pm at the community gardens at Kinder Farm Park in Severna Park.

Chaired by Suzy Urick and Janet Clauson

Suzy: scurick@gmail.com and 410.923.6776

Janet: janetclauson@hotmail.com and 410.987.2027

Ask a Master Gardener Joe Marsala, Project Chair

May has been a very active month for our group! This month

we conducted 17 plant clinics, bringing our year-to-date total

to 24 among our four venues.

This month we completed 683 client educational sessions. This

brings our year-to-date total to 1,050! At this point we are well

ahead of our 2013 totals.

Our education programs coupled with the experience lev-

el of our volunteers continues to be the source of our suc-

cess. Our team leaders just get better and better! I think

the future continues to look very bright for these amazing

folks.

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

Bay-Wise Jim MacNicholl, Project Chair

The public’s interest in protecting the Chesapeake and its Wa-tershed is growing; and the Bay-Wise Committee is meeting the demand and setting new records as a result. This is en-couraging news for the state of the Bay!

We’ve continued our public outreach effort presenting to 8 more garden clubs this year including: Crofton Village, Chart-well, Severn River, Annapolis Roads, Gib-son Island, and Shipley’s Choice, as well as at Federated Garden Clubs of Mary-land, District II’s Annual Meeting.

Reaching out to new audiences, we spoke about bay-friendly gardening to the ‘Adults Loving Life’ group at Severna Park Methodist Church in April. Members Nancy Landers, Brenda Darr, Marietta Schreiber, Robin Gill and Jim MacNicholl presented to these clubs and group. To date we have contacted 481 individuals from this outreach effort.

Last year Sharon Schroer and Robin Gill spoke to Shipley’s Choice Garden Club about “Bay-Friendly Gardening Practices” and mentioned the importance of rain barrels in the garden. The garden club invited us back this year to talk about that subject. Jim MacNicholl developed a new presentation ‘Controlling Storm Water Runoff with the use of Rain Barrels,” and instructed the members on how to install a rain barrel.

Anne Biddle led a group to design an interactive exhibit for use at public events. Team members Denise Elliott, Mary Yee, Kay Stringfellow, Jean Aden, Judy Thompson, Marietta Schreiber, Christine Scee and interns Liz Seabrook and Pat Mitchell. We hope we've included everyone who helped make this such a big hit. Denise Elliott, Mary Yee, Kay Stringfellow, Jean Aden, Judy Thompson, Marietta Schreiber, Christine Scee and In-terns Liz Seabrook and Pat Mitchell developed and used the

exhibit at the Davidsonville Green Expo on March 15th. Also, thanks to Joe Marsala for placing his black widow, Mabel, in our care for the event. With the new exhibit and Mabel’s help, our team garnered 15 requests for Bay-Wise yard visits that day.

On May 9, Kay Stringfellow, Judy Thompson, Carolyn Keenen and Cherie Loustaunau rep-resented Bay-Wise at the Senior Fo-rum: Pascal Center Garden Party in Glen Burnie. Their efforts encour-aged another 13 people to invite us for yard visits for a total of 28 visits gained from these two events.

Currently we have 84 requests for visits and have certified 23 yards so far. We have contacted 504 resi-dents through our presentations and visits.

This spring more Master Gardeners pledged to take the right steps to clean up the Bay and become Bay-Wise Certified. They include Serena Boyd, Julie Brown, Janet Clauson, Marthena Cowart, Sheila DeLaquil, Pat Mitchell and Mary Yee. We now have 122 Bay-Wise Certified Master Gardeners in our Anne Arundel County program. We welcome these newly certified Mas-ter Gardeners to our ever-expanding community of sus-tainable gardeners. We appreciate every Master Gardener who displays their Bay-Wise sign as a source of inspiration and information for their neighbors and friends.

To date, a total of 363 landscapes have been certified since the Bay-Wise Program began in Anne Arundel Coun-ty in 2000. Thanks to our dedicated, hard-working Com-mittee, Anne Arundel leads the state in these efforts.

Dairy Farm Elizabeth Matarese, Project C0-Chair

The season is now underway, as orders for plants come in and organization specifics get finalized. Carole Fullagar obtained cop-ies of the in-ventory availa-ble through American Na-tive Plants (ANP) and put a copy in the shed for pe-rusal by all. Sue Owens has plants coming from the Carolina native Nurse-ry, and these are scheduled

for the Xeri-

scape Garden. This might be challenging this year, if we keep getting several inches of rainfall. One of the most visited gardens at the National Arbore-tum in the Nation’s Capital is the Herb Garden, because the fragrances are irresistible. Our DF garden should be an attraction, too, and Linda Russell is purchasing the herbs for it. Four of the spicebushes were transplanted from the VG to the Holly Glen to join the spice bushes from the Water-shed Academy that were put in last year. These are doing nicely as the conditions seem right for them. Thanks to Ginny Klocko, we now have some spiderwort and summer phlox. Debbie Werre and Sue Owens also planted Penste-mon and Liatris, nice additions to the native plants we have been showcasing to the public. The core group of DF Committee members en-courages every-one who signed up for Dairy Farm to come on up and help, as we ready the Village Gar-

Composting & Native Gardens at Quiet Waters Park Pam Dennison, Project Chair

The members of the Quiet Waters Park Composting and Na-tive Gardens project have had a busy spring! Susie Blackwell, Ginny Klocko, Cherie Loustaunau and Terence Wright staffed a table and Malcolm Doying and I gave a compost demonstra-tion at Quiet Water Park’s Earth Day Open House in April. At the Bodkin Environmental Fair in May, Ginny worked the table and gave a compost talk. Along with Cherie and Sue Owens, Ginny staffed the table at Downs Park Family Day, also in May. At all of these well attended events, we answered questions and handed out literature promoting home composting. We had an exceptional turnout at our first regular demonstra-

tion at QWP on May 14th,. Thanks go out to Susie, Mal-colm, Cherie, Ginny and Catherine Salam for making it a productive day. Susie and Anne Van Allen began this season’s school visits by teaching composting to 3rd graders at Maryland City Elem in April. If you haven’t been to a compost demonstration in a while, please consider attending one of ours at QWP. For directions and dates, please contact me.

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

The Village Garden comes to life! On one end, the Four

Season Garden, the fragrant Herb Garden, the demon-

stration Xeriscape and Native Plant Gardens, and, below,

the Grow It Eat It Garden provide testimony to the skills

and dedication of the DF Committee’s hard work.

Come and enjoy!

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

Dairy Farm Elizabeth Matarese, MG, Project Co-Chair

den and the Holly Glen for the season. Mal-colm Doying, Pat Shema, Susan Smouse, Mai-da Bilson, Sue Owens, Carole Fullagar, Barbara MacNemar, Rosemary Council, and Debbie Werre have been signature presences for the past couple of months. They can identify some weeding and planting that have to be done, and now that the weather is finally more cooperative, it’s time to enjoy the Dairy Farm’s beauty and peacefulness. Workdays are Thursdays and Saturdays 9AM - 12Noon. Often various members of the Com-mittee free lance as well, so send any one of us an Email if you are available and can come up to work. The Extension Office is open , and hospitality abounds. The amenities make working at the DF an enjoyable experience.

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You, too, will be greeted by the native Columbines that grace the entrance to the Extension Office.

As the newly planted specimens begin to grow into the “gardenscape,” we will document their

growth throughout the coming months. You can watch with us, as the gardens mature and come

into their fullness. It’s going to be a great time!

Hancock’s Resolution Nancy Allred, Project Chair

The dooryard gardens at Hancock's Resolution are looking very good. May programs included an herb day, Mothers' Day Tea, spring plowing and musket firing. Be-sides the regular Sunday programs, which were well attended, we host-ed sixty 5th graders from Ft. Smallwood Elemen-tary School on Tuesday, May 20. Students were broken into four groups and rotated through docent-

led activities on the farm. During the farm rotation, Han-cock volunteer Joyce Martinek and myself guided the stu-dents in various planting tasks. Group 1 planted sunflower and marigold plants and okra seeds. Group 2 planted cucumber, bean, and radish seeds. Group 3 was guided in a 3-sisters' planting (corn, pole beans, and squash). The final group planted eggplant, to-matoes, and peppers. Students also harvested radishes and sampled kale. The radishes were a big hit! We talked about colonial farm practices, companion planting and plant diversity. To demonstrate plant diversity, students were given snack bags of potato chips donated by Jet Blue Airlines. Dr. Francis Gouin, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Bay Weekly Garden Columnist visited Han-cock's Resolution with his wife on Plow Day.

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

Hancock’s Resolution (continued) Nancy Allred, MG, Project Chair

June programs at Hancock's will include a visit from Dr. Alexander Hobbs (June 1); Hancock Family Day (June 8); Fa-ther's Day with musket firing, crosscut sawing and rail splitting with Hancock's 1923 Model-T on display (June 15); and remembering

Capt. John Smith's expedition through Bodkin Creek with his-torian Kim Nielson (June 22). Hancock's Resolution will open Sunday, June 29 but no special program is planned.

(Continued from page 5) Any MG or intern needing volunteer hours may come on Sunday afternoons 1:00-4:00 to answer visitor questions and pull a few weeds. There is usually some produce ready to harvest as a reward. You are also welcome to bring your family to visit the farm. Please call or email me if you plan to come work. Nancy Allred, Project Chair Hancock's Resolution 410-437-8776 Home or 410-952-9554 Mobile email: willnancy3@verizon.net

Monastery Garden Rose Love, MG, and Sue Lindsay, MG, Project Co-Chairs

Springtime views of the Monastery Garden, St. Mary's Church, Annapolis, MD

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ANNE ARUNDEL MASTER GARDENER PROJECT REPORTS

Monastery Garden Rose Love, MG, and Sue Lindsay, MG, Project Co-Chairs

Springtime views of the Monastery Garden, St. Mary's Church, Annapolis, MD

Photos courtesy of Richard Lynch

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The University of Maryland Extension (UME) conducts the Maryland Master Gardener Program.

The Master Gardener Program’s mission is to educate Maryland residents about safe, effective, and sustaina-ble horticultural practices that build healthy gardens,

landscapes, and communities.

We’re on the web! Visit us at - http://

extension.umd.edu/anne-arundel-county/master-

gardener-program

It is the policy of the University of Maryland, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, and University of Maryland

Extension that all persons have equal opportunity and access to programs and facilities without regard to race, color, gender, religion, national origin, sexual

orientation, age, marital or parental status, or disability.

Anne Arundel County

Master Gardener Program

Anne Arundel County Extension 97 Dairy Lane

Gambrills, MD 21054

phone: 410 222 3906

fax: 410 222 3909

The energy of the Master Gardeners breaks down walls, reaches the larger community and builds bonds. These wonders happen with the Anne Arundel Master Gardeners each and every day.

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The Coordinator’s Corner (continued) Mike Ensor, Anne Arundel County Master Gardener Coordinator

the Herald Harbor Community Center and across the road from the fire house). Buttonwood is one-way; in 1/4 mile, bear slight right onto Kyle Road. Follow Kyle to the roundabout at the end. 301 Kyle is a white brick house, last house on Kyle at the roundabout. Lots of parking on the street and on the vacant lot next door (in good weather).

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