M A Y 2 0 1 8 V O L U M N E 1 9 , I S S U E 5

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

MG Meetings 2

Chestertown Tea

Party

3

Labeled

Continued

4-5

May Tips 5

Plant Sale

Updates

6-7

Bake Sale Updates 8

Ask A Master

Gardener

9

Bay Wise 10

Demo-Garden 11

Exotic Ticks 11

Pollinator Party 12

Galilee Garden 13

Volunteer

Opportunities

13

Calendar 14-15

The Importance of Being Labeled

Have any of these happened to you? (They have to me.)

You sow some Very Important Seeds in a flat or container, and don’t mark them in any way, because they are Very Im-portant and of course you will never forget what they are. Next day: what were those?

You transfer some seedlings into larger pots, put the pots into a tray, and decide that it’s only necessary to mark the row since the seedlings are all the same variety (the next row is another variety, also marked). Something happens: a shift in the fabric of the universe, a decision about how the pots fit under the lights, a cat. You no longer know which pots are which.

You sow some seeds directly in your garden, and because you’ve seen other people do it, you stick the empty seed packet on a stake at the end of the row. It is a dark and stormy night. The seed pack-et blows away.

You transplant seedlings into your gar-den and put the proper labels next to each plant. Sun and rain do their work; one day, you look at the label and it is blank. Which tomato is which? Help!

Your flower beds become full of those little plastic sticks which look lonely and sad in the wintertime. Small children, ani-mals, and Mother Nature move them around at will.

Let’s talk about labeling!

We’re all busily planting our gardens now that it is finally warm enough, so it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the importance

of labeling. (Back in March when we were starting seeds would have been a good time too, but never let it be said that I con-sider matters in a timely fashion.) But label-ing, you say – how restrictive, how limiting! People shouldn’t be labeled, so why should we tell plants they can’t be whatever they want to be? Well, a) genetics, b) they can’t talk back, c) your garden is one place you get to be in control. Up to a point. But cer-tainly knowing which plant is which is most-ly not beyond us. We all have labeling acci-dents (the time I had to brake hard, driving to the demo garden, and all my labeled pots of cucumber and melon seedlings fell onto the floor of the car and lost their la-bels, and I ended up having to give them away to MGs as Mystery Cucurbits, comes to mind). But we can all up our game, too. I’ll start with why and how we label in a demonstration garden, and then go on to why it’s useful in home gardens. A demo garden, like other public gardens, exists to show visitors what plants grow well in a region and therefore what they might like to try at home. Not all related plants look the same, behave the same, or work well in a particular climate, so it’s important to distin-guish, sometimes to the level of a species or subspecies, and sometimes down to a variety or cultivar.

Most public gardens will have labels show-ing, at the least, a plant’s scientific name and common name. Common names are easier to relate to, but can be applied to multiple plant species and therefore be confusing. Latin is the universal language of gardening, which is why, speaking very little Italian, I still felt at home touring the world’s first botanic garden, the Orto Botan-ico in Padua, a few years ago, where I took this photo of a familiar, carefully designated plant:

Which brings up a topic near to my heart:

Taken from the Maryland Grows Blog marylandgrows.umd.edu

Continued on Page 4

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Hello Everyone! Everything’s gearing up for a busy spring/summer with lots of programs. We need ALL Hands on Deck— It’s going to be a busy Spring

The Plant Sale is on Saturday, May 12th OUR BOOTH AT THE CHESTERTOWN TEA PARTY IS AT RISK OF BE-

ING CANCELLED WE NEED VOLUNTEERS (SEE PAGE 3) We need a speaker for our September Meeting. Please let me know if you

have any suggestions. Our May meeting is on Thursday, May 17th at 5:30 PM Save the Date: Our Picnic will be on June 20th in the evening at Liz & Bob

Hammonds house in Centreville All of our volunteer activities are on: http://signup.com/go/QdpYbQP Best, Rachel

COORDINATOR’S CORNER

Meeting Date Topic Time Place

May 17, 2018 Topic: Native Foraging Speaker: MG Shane Brill

5:30-7:30 p.m.

Centreville Library

June 20, 2018 Picnic 5:30 p.m. Liz & Bob Hammonds (Centreville)

July 18, 2018 MG Business Meeting & MG Intern Project “Tools”

5:30-7:30 p.m.

Centreville Library

September 19, 2018

Topic: TBD 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Centreville Library

October 17, 2018 20th Anniversary Celebration Evening Prospect Bay Country Club

November 21, 2018 2019 Planning Meeting 9:30-11:30 a.m.

TBD

December 11, 2018 Trip to Longwood Gardens 8-5 P.M.

2018 MG Meetings

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Ask A Master Gardener Booth at the

Chestertown Tea party Festival

We need YOU at our MOST POPULAR booth! Yes, this is our

most popular “Ask a Master Gardener” booth of the year.

Over the course of the day, we can easily talk to 150 people.

It is a great day and a great day to show off our program. Consider making a display or handouts that

highlights the history of plants/herbs/vegetable garden. However, we cannot do this without you! Please

contact Sabine Harvey, greenbien@hotmail.com to sign up.

8:30-10:00am : Merry Guben

(1) Volunteer needed

10:00 – noon: Louise Shearer

Jim Persels

Noon – 2pm: (2) volunteers needed

2:00-4:00pm: (2) volunteers needed

Parking: There is a shuttle bus that runs by a number

of parking lots

Food: LOTS!!

Parking options and shuttle route

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Submitted by: MG Sabine Harvey

T H E W A T E R I N G C A N

the unfair distinction be-tween ornamental and food plants in public la-beling. Food plants de-serve Latin names too! For one thing, it’s useful to know how they are related, because those in the same family have similar pest and disease problems, and may re-quire similar growing conditions (although po-tatoes and tomatoes don’t, so this is not uni-versal).

At Derwood, we use cheaper plastic labels for our annual plants, including most vegeta-bles, because what we plant often varies from year to year and season to season. Our resident labeling expert, MG LeeAnne Gelletly, works very hard providing labels for all parts of the garden.

She uses a more informal, hand-lettered style for annuals, whereas the garden label-ing team has generally made more durable, computer-printed labels for perennials. Some public gardens use higher-quality, more expensive labels – or colorful, funky ones; it all depends on their purpose and style. These days, you will even see QR codes on a lot of public garden labels, linking visitors

to websites where they can find more information. So how does all this relate to what we’re doing in our home gar-dens? Of course most of us aren’t trying to educate visitors (except possibly along the lines of DO NOT EAT: POISONOUS),

and we know what a squash looks like, and that there’s a bunch of echinacea there and some roses over here, and maybe we don’t care to be more specific. Which is fine. But I support the idea of accurate labeling, wheth-er it’s in the realm of indoor seed-starting, direct seeding in the garden, or putting in transplants; whether it’s the vegetable gar-

The Importance of Being Labeled

Continued from Cover

den or the ornamental beds. Here are some reasons:

If some of your plants die, you need to know which ones. Were you counting on that sauce tomato? You won’t know whether it was the one that croaked until the survivors fruit.

Hot pepper or sweet one? Sometimes they look alike. Surprise!

Um, which was the winter squash? When do I harvest this guy?

Yes, I have planted two kinds of seeds in the same place. Have you?

Yes, I have also transplanted a perennial plant in the fall into the same spot where a spring ephemeral is lurking. Ditto bulbs.

Let’s face it, none of us have enough spare memory to keep track of variety names. But they are useful to know in case we want to buy another of the same plant.

I do have a few hints to throw at you, as well. These are mostly about annuals (vegetables in particular) because my ornamental label-ing game is poor. I think the solution in orna-mental beds is really to make maps, because labels that come with plants, informative as they often are, don’t last and look awful after a while, though I find them useful in the be-ginning if only to remind myself which plants will need the most watering while they settle in. Those maps: I keep meaning to make them. Meanwhile I save the labels in a file indoors. But otherwise:

Label from the beginning, in whatever way works best for you. Have a system and stick to it.

If you are transplanting from seed-starting flats into bigger pots, label each pot

The sign provides the potato’s Latin

name, family, continent of

origin, and func-tion (“food”)

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May Monthly Tips

Veggies:

Did your garden get overtaken by weeds last year? Take action now, before weeds become un-manageable. Consider the following options around plants and between rows: dried grass clip-pings, sections of newspaper covered with straw, black landscape fabric or black plastic mulch.

Pinch the blooms off flower and vegetable trans-plants before you set them out. This will help di-rect the plants’ energies to root development and will result in more productive plants.

Lawn

Always mow cool season grasses, like tall fescue and bluegrass, at a height of 3 inches. Mowing the lawn too close weakens the grass and permits many weeds to invade your lawn.

Keep your mower blades sharp to prevent turf damage. Dry white or tan colored grass blade tips are an indication that the mower blade is dull. Dull mower blades tear turf grass and can lead to dis-

The Importance of Being Labeled

Continued from Page 4

individually. (And if you have to move them, stabilize them in the car.)

If you use clever codes and abbreviations for variety names, make sure you remember what they mean.

Some people label the outside of the pot, which is a good method for plant sales, but means you have to create another label when the plant goes into the ground.

Use a outdoor permanent marker for writing on plastic labels. “Sharpie” is not enough. “Industrial Sharpie” holds up against weather. There are other brands too: check their claims.

Small wooden labels don’t last well in the garden (nor

Colorful signs painted by kids at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, CA

does the writing on them), but they do make a good addi-tion to mulch. Plastic labels can be reused for a while, but then they break and get lost in the soil where they do no good.

Don’t use seed packets to mark rows unless you are prepared to glue or staple them on. Even so they fade and rip. Also, it makes you feel you need to empty the packet when you don’t.

Please be clever, inventive, and artistic in labeling! And use just the amount of distinctive plant information that works for you.

Enjoy your garden planting and labeling!

ease problems.

Leave grass clippings where they lay. Grasscycling eliminates bagging labor and costs, adds organic matter and nitrogen to your soil and does not contribute to thatch build-up.

Wildlife

Snakes, turtles, and toads are all very active now. These are all very beneficial creatures. They are very sensitive to pollutants such as pes-ticides. Their presence in the landscape is a sign of a healthy environment.

No permit is required to trap a groundhog. How-ever, permission is required from the landowner before releasing into suitable habitat. Considera-tion should be given to relocating groundhogs during spring while the young are in the den or in the autumn immediately before hibernation when there may not be time to establish a winter den.

T H E W A T E R I N G C A N

P A G E 6 Plant Sale Committee Updates Submitted by: MG Laura Klingler & MG Cathy Tengwell

signing up to help with the bake sale by touching base with MG Sharlotte Beecher at nannysharlotte@gmail.com. Whichever you choose to make, please make sure that they are packaged in two per bag. On Page 8 you’ll find the recipe for biscotti or you can make lemon bars (the box variety is 100% ok!!).

Parking- Please park off site along Tilghman Terrace. We will be using the area in front of the extension office as well as along the side of the building for our plant sale that morn-ing. There will be cars coming and going from the sheriff’s office as well as cars com-ing to our plant sale and parking in the lot. We should plant on parking off site to free as many spaces as possible. MG Name Tags: Please remember to wear your MG Name tag. If you don’t have MG apparel, our red aprons will be available. Sign Up: There is still time to sign up to work at the plant sale if you haven’t yet. Here are ways you can volunteer: · Shade Plants/Ground Cover: 9-noon

· Checkout: 9-noon

Please send Rachel (rjrhodes@umd.edu ) an email if you’d like to sign out for any of these spots.

If you have signed up, this week you will be emailed a reminder of your volunteer job and time. We are attempting to be a well orga-nized operation this year and have appoint-ed lead MG’s to oversee the various tasks. When you receive your email, you will be asked to fill a lead position or given the name of who is in charge of your position/spot for the plant sale.

We are in the final countdown to our plant sale on Saturday, May 12

th!

Potting your plants - We could use per-ennials, flowers, herbs (none of our basil germinated), natives, trees and shrubs! Attached is a list of our green house plants if you’d like to take a look. Thank you in advance for your donations. Plant labels - Just email or phone in your plant information (to Ra-chel rjrhodes@umd.edu ) including the number of each variety of plant you plan to bring and we will make labels for you. Information to include: botanical name, common name, size at maturity/ height, light requirements, other special infor-mation like color of flower, bloom time, etc. We need plant information be-fore Wednesday in order to print and lam-inate labels. When you drop off your plants at the extension office, your labels will be waiting for you. Special thanks to Christy Little and Louise Shrearer for help-ing with the labels

Dropping off Plants-Plants can be dropped off any time Thursday & Friday. However, if you are dropping off plants on Saturday, please make sure that they are at the Extension Office by 8:30 AM. Green Elephant Items- Cleaning out your garden shed? Have gardening books that are gathering dust? If you have something that needs a new home or garden, the plant sale is the perfect opportunity to do-nate your items. The “Green Elephant” table will be back under the direction of Sue Goward. All donations from garden-ing books, pots, houseplants, tools, seeds, bee boxes, garden gnomes…. are welcome. Bring in your items with you or drop them off at the extension office this week before the event. Bake Sale - If you are a baker, consider

P A G E 7 V O L U M N E 1 9 , I S S U E 5

Plant Sale-Labeling Plants Before Plant Sale

We have labels covered this year! Christine Little and Louise Shearer have volunteered to make labels for all the plants donated for the plant sale this year. The self adhesive labels that were made available last year were great until plants were watered and some labels washed off and non permanent ink smeared and bled making labels illegible. Another challenge was noted when the labels were adhered to the plastic pot and arranged in rows on our sale tables. The la-bels became hidden by surrounding pots and could only be read if picked up. Other challenges are those inevitable plants dropped off with a label on one plant but none on the other 6 of the same variety. And then there are always some mystery plants with no labels. The plant sale committee decided that creating a uniform label, one that would be waterproof (at least for the duration of the plant sale) and durable was needed. This will make it easy for all MG’s who wish to donate plants but find making labels tedious. This is our plan: Once you have decided what plants you will be donating to the plant sale, email the information to Rachel with the subject line: “plant labels”. In the body of the email, please include following: Your name__________ the plant name ____________/ quantity______ Other helpful information to include would be basic: for perennial plants -common name, botanical name, height/size, sun/shade for annuals: herb/flower/vegetable, name, color/height Christie and Louise said that they would look up the rest of the label info if you don’t include it. Christie and Louise will format the labels which will then be printed out, cut into squares and laminated. The labels will then be stapled to a stake (cut from donated venetian blinds) These labels will be bundled together with your name and ready for you when you drop off plants. When plants are dropped off on May 11th, the day before the plant sale, our sorting volunteers will be on hand to help put the labels on your plants.

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T H E W A T E R I N G C A N

MG Linda Doub will be

years being a Master Gardener to put into our past 20 years portfolio. It can

messages that

or just what being a

Updates Submitted by MG Sharlotte Beecher

Lavender and Orange Biscotti 1/2 cup sugar 3 Tlbs of butter softened 1 1/2 Tlbs chopped fresh lavender leaves 1/2 tsp grated orange rind 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 large egg whites 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp salt cooking spray Step One preheat oven to 325 Step Two Beat the first 5 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer until well blended. Beat in egg whites. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating until blended. Step Three Turn Biscotti dough out onto a baking sheet with cooking spray, with lightly floured hands, shape into a 10 inch long roll; flatten the roll to a 1 inch thickness. Bake the roll at 325 for 30 minutes. Remove the roll from baking sheet and cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Step Four Cut roll diagonally into 14 (1/2 inch) slices using a serrated knife. Place the slices upright on a baking sheet. Bake the slices at 325 for 15 minutes ( the cookies will be slightly soft in cen-ter but will harden as they cool). Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely on wire rack.

This year for the bake sale the committee agreed to keep things nice and simple. For starters we would like to have everyone either make biscotti with the recipe provided or lemon bars. Both are easy to make and would make a great mothers day gift along with flowers from the plant sale. If you’d like to volunteer to help with the bake sale please sign up via http://signup.com/go/jcdxUOs and touch base with MG Sharlotte Beecher at nannysharlotte@gmail.com. Which-ever you choose to make, please make sure that they are packaged in two per bag.

P A G E 9 V O L U M N E 1 9 , I S S U E 5

Every month Liz Hammond faithfully has been hauling all the somewhat heavy containers holding all the items needed for the monthly plant clinic from Centre-ville to Kent Island for over a year now, since She and I took over from Nick and Cathy. As happens a couple times during the year one of us just cannot be there for one reason or another. This month was my turn to provide for the setup, made easy with a convenient trip to the extension office to transfer the containers to my vehicle. And Liz already had Sheila print out a bunch of the April Gardening Tips for handouts to take with me. I might add that at the same time Sheila helped me load the large composting bin in my truck to be taken to the Galilee Commu-nity garden, saving a separate trip.

This month’s theme was Grow-It Eat-it. Getting things set up … being that we on-ly appear once a month at the KI market, finding the right location is sometimes daunting. Although now one or two ven-dors setup outside, maybe preferring the extra space they could use, most prefer the indoor area … no wind … no possible wet conditions … indoor temperatures. The market officially starts at 3:30 PM but by 3 PM only one 8 foot table was left in the closet for vendor use, now taken by us. But where to setup. It seems to me that every month they have a new ven-dor, this month a flower vendor. First set-up near the entrance which changed to set up next to another vendor inside. TAKEN by another vendor!! But no one in the very middle, PERFECT!! While setting

Ask a Master Gardener

Kent Island Farmers Market

Submitted by: MG Liz Hammond &

Deane Horowitz, KI Plant Clinic Chair

up I decided to put the large Seed Starting poster next to the table on the folder box-es for additional height, freeing up space on the table (see the pic with

our three wonderful volunteers of the day) Nancy, Barbara, and Carol, I was so glad to have such great help! Keeping our roughly 25 visitor s to the booth informed with some for quite lengthy discussions. On the table were displayed the April Gardening tips, free seeds (always a good attraction), Galilee Community garden handouts. With these handouts Nancy engaged some interested parties about the gar-dens. Also on the table was my soil blocking tool with one squash and one cauliflower seedling and our other handy gar-dening handouts.

By 6:15 PM, the customers were down to just a few late stragglers, and vendors started to pack things up. We had about 25 visitors listed in the log book and two people added to the bay-wise consult list. This was a very busy market day, even without traditional locally grown produce being in sea-son. We encourage any of you who have not yet volunteered to join in on this experience on any of the second Thursdays of the month from 3:00 to 6:30 PM at Christ Church, Stevensville, 830 Romancoke Rd.

Liz Hammond 410-758-2992 er93hammon@aol.com Deane Horowitz 410-604-0969 deanoch@yahoo.com Upcoming Plant Clinic Dates: (at the Kent Island Farmers Mar-ket-unless otherwise noted) 6/14/18 7/12/18

8/9/18 9/13/18

10/11/18 11/08/18

12/13/18 To sign up for a particular day email Liz, come to an MG meeting or clink on this link: http://signup.com/go/qWhYAOw

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We had our first Bay-Wise consult of the year on May 4th. Pictured L-R: Homeowner, Christine Morgeson, MG Larry Lorenz and MG Deane Horowitz

BAY-WISE Submitted by: MG Debbie Pusey

April was only a little better than March; no Nor’easters, but colder than normal temper-atures. Consequently, we just started doing Bay-Wise visits around the end of April. We have a lot of catching up to do. On Saturday, April 14th, Pat Gannon, Nancy Robson and Debbie Pusey participated in a workshop sponsored by the ShoreRivers As-sociation. Their organization received a grant to develop a program called “river friendly yards”. Master Gardeners will part-ner with them when possible. The purpose is to educate homeowners in specific targeted neighborhoods on how to introduce bay friendly landscaping in their yards. Approxi-mately 17 to 18 homeowners in a Galena neighborhood on the Sassafras River attend-ed. We stressed the importance of soil testing and proper fertilizer use and an-swered numerous questions about a variety of topics. We also handed out soil test bags and information on online resources. The

program was followed by a walk down to the river of the property we were at to answer on site questions. We also visited two other yards in the neighborhood and helped answer ques-tions about storm water management as well as planting suggestions. A number of homeowners signed up for a Bay-Wise consultation. It was a very productive day, albeit a chilly one. We continue to get interest through the Kent Island Farmers Market with several more home-owners signing up in April. Their display for May will feature our Bay-Wise program. We now have a list of about 10 homeowners we are in the process of contacting and setting up ap-pointments. When a visit date is determined, a message will go out to all MG’s with the appro-priate information. Our next Bay-Wise meeting is scheduled for

Tuesday, May 15th at 1:30pm at the Extension

Office. All MG’s and Interns are welcome to join

us.

2018 Bay-Wise Meeting Schedule

Tuesday, May 15th at 1:30 pm at the Extension Office

Tuesday, July 17th

Tuesday, September 18th

Tuesday, November 20th

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DEMO GARDEN AT THE CENTREVILLE LIBRARY Submitted by: MG Debbie Pusey

Thank you to Judy Geggis, Cheryl Huyck and Susan Seth for braving the elements this month. Our first attempt on Thursday, April 19th lasted a half an hour. It started to rain so we decided to call it a day and come back Friday morn-ing. We were able to get a good amount of pruning done on Friday and some weeding. The violets have taken over a number of areas in the garden. They are so full, lush and perfectly shaped it looks like we intentionally planted them there. We will keep them as they are native, provide color, and are beneficial to pollinators. There is still a lot to be done before next May’s workday so we will be going back again on Thursday, April 26th at 9am. By the time you are reading this we, hopefully, will have the garden in much better shape. Running throughout the summer we will have clean ups on the first Monday of every month from 6-7 pm with MG

Laura Rocco as the lead and the 3rd Thursday morning, at 9:00am (weather permitting). The more the merrier. Please

remember to bring your gardening tools, gloves and water.

Library Rain Garden Clean Up Schedule

2018 Monday Clean Up Schedule

Thursday Clean Up Schedule During the summer if the weather is hot

we’ll start earlier than 9 AM an email will be sent out prior to notify everyone

Monday, June 4th at 6 PM Thursday, May 17th at 9 AM

Monday, July 2nd at 6 PM Thursday, June 21st at 9 AM

Monday, August 6th at 6 PM Thursday, July 19th at 9 AM

Monday, September 3rd at 6 PM Thursday, August 16th at 9 AM

Thursday, September 20th at 9 AM

Thursday, October 18th at 9 AM

Following initial identification by the Center for Vector Biolo-gy at Rutgers University and the Hunterdon County Depart-ment of Health, the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa confirmed on November 9, 2017 the finding of an exotic East Asian tick (Haemaphysalis longicor-nis), also known as the Longhorned tick or bush tick, on a farm in Hunterdon County. Until that time, this tick was not known to exist in the U.S. How it arrived in New Jersey re-mains a mystery. Steps were promptly taken to eradicate the tick from the index property and the animals in and around it. Tests on the exotic tick in November failed to reveal any tickborne diseases. Ongoing surveillance continued during the winter and on April 17, 2018 the NVSL confirmed the Longhorned tick successfully overwintered in New Jersey and has possibly become established in the state. For more information: http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/news/press/2018/approved/press180420.html

EXOCTIC TICK SPECIES

FOUND IN N.J.

The longhorn tick. The larval and nymphal stages are difficult to observe with the naked eye. Larvae can be found from late summer to early winter. (Photo courtesy New Jersey Department of Agriculture)

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P A G E 1 3 V O L U M N E 1 9 , I S S U E 5

Ask A Master Gardener Plant Clinic Chestertown Master Gardeners look at samples of ailing plants to make diagnosis, give recommenda-tions, answer questions, and provide printed infor-mation on a variety of gardening subjects Saturday, June 9th (2 volunteers needed) Saturday, June 23rd (2 volunteers needed) Saturday, July 7th (3 volunteers needed) Saturday, July 21st (3 volunteers needed) Saturday, August 4th (2 volunteers needed) Saturday, September 1st (3 volunteers needed) Sign up either by contacting Sabine Harvey

(sharvey1@umd.edu ) or you can sign up at http://signup.com/go/pYKeAfT

Pollinator Committee: The pollinator committee needs you! We are looking for two ambitious co-chairs to help mange the pollinator committee. The

Spring has arrived and seven gardeners and Master Gardeners showed up to do the first initial cleaning. Since that time several peo-ple have worked on their own and now all the beds are ready to be planted. Only the herb bed needs a bit of work and then we will need to figure out what needs to be replaced in it and the pollinator bed. We now have a compost area with a pallet composter and two different circle composters given to us from the Extension Office. We also have started adding plant labels in the herb, pollinator, and an-nual/perineal beds. The person who built vertical frames last year moved and said they were ours to use. They now are distributed to one on each of 10 beds. Hopefully the other beds will be getting one soon, so all 15 beds each have one. At this time, only 5 beds are left to fill. Six people have returned and we have added two new garden-ers and are getting requests for information and hopefully will have all beds filled soon. We are pleased to see some MG interns volun-teer to help with our project. If anyone loves to write, we would love to have them join our group and put articles on the garden into our local newspapers and other media sources. We are hoping that our grant application will be accepted by Chesapeake Bay Trust so that we can add a shed, a walkway from the bridge to the garden, and

improving our watering system. We have a donation of garden supplies coming to us this summer and really do need our shed soon. This year we are hoping to add education to our program. On June 21, from 6-7:00 p.m., we will be celebrating Pollinator’s Week. Our own MG pollinator people will be at the garden with activities and a bee keeper. All people are invited. The gardeners and advisory committee continue to meet on the first Thursday of the month, and are scheduled for May 3, June 7, August 2, September 6, and November 1. July falls to near the 4th of July, so will have to be rescheduled at our next meeting. We meet at Galilee Lutheran Church at 7:00 p.m. in the social room. All new people who are interested are welcome.

Galilee Garden Submitted by: MG Nancy O’Conner

Volunteer Opportunities….

major grunt work has already been accom-plished by the committee we just need a fearless leader! Please contact Rachel (rjrhodes@umd.edu) if you’re interested. House Call Fridays: Do you need volunteer hours but are unable to help at any of our other events? On Friday’s I block off the day to do house calls to Queen Anne’s & Kent County residents (as needed). Think of it as “Ask A Master Gardener” on wheels. Having an extra set of eyes is always welcome. This would be strictly as needed and not every Friday. Please contact Rachel (rjrhodes@umd.edu) if you’re interested. Sign up at http://signup.com/go/jcdxUOs

Work on the compost bins at Galilee Garden

T H E W A T E R I N G C A N

May 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 Plant Sale

Meeting 9AM at Extension Office

3 4 5 Chester-

town Plant Clinic 8-noon Fountain Park

6 7 8 9 10 Kent Is-

land Plant Clin-ic 3:30-6:30 P.M.

11 Drop

Off Plants for Plant Sale at Extension Office

12 Plant

Sale 9-noon at the Exten-sion Office

13 14 15 Bay-

Wise Meeting 1:30 PM at the Extension Office

16 17 Centre-

ville Library Demogarden 9AM. Master Gar-dener Monthly Mtg 5:30 PM @ Centreville Library

18 19

20 21 22 23 Pollinator Meeting 1:00 PM at the Ex-tension Office

24 25 26 Chester-

town Tea Party Plant Clinic Booth 8:30-4

27 28 29

20th Anniver-sary Meeting 1:00 PM at the Extension Office

30 31

P A G E 1 4

Newsletter Submissions Due

UME OFFICE Closed

P A G E 1 5 V O L U M N E 1 9 , I S S U E 5

June 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 Centreville

Library De-mogarden 6 PM

5 6 QAC

Flower

Show @

CBEC

7 8 9 Chester-

town Plant Clinic 8-noon Fountain Park

10 11 12 13 14 Kent

Island Plant Clinic 3:30-6:30 P.M.

15 16

17 18 19 20 21Centrevill

e Library De-mogarden 9AM. Pollinator Par-ty @ Galilee Gardens @ 6 PM

22 23 Chester-

town Plant Clinic 8-noon Fountain Park

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Rachel Out of Office Professional Development

Rachel Out of Office Professional Development

Newsletter Submissions Due

University of Maryland Extension

Queen Anne’s County

505 Railroad Ave.

Suite 4

Centreville, MD 21617

Vision Statement: A healthier world through environmental stewardship

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.

QACMG Website: http://extension.umd.edu/

queen-annes-county/master-gardener-home-

gardening

QACMG Facebook Page: https://

www.facebook.com/

QueenAnnesCountyMasterGardeners

University of Maryland Extension

505 Railroad Avenue, Suite 4

Centreville MD, 21617

Phone: (410) 758-0166

May Newsletter Submission

due on

May 24th