AUGUST GARDENING

First Week in August:
 Now is the ideal time to take pictures and plan for next year’s vegetable and flower gardens.
 Order your spring flowering bulbs.
 Check your garden plants, shrubs, flowers and trees for diseases and insect pests.
 Begin planning and planting your fall vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, kale, spinach, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and peas.
 Pinch back to remove dead heads from annuals.
Mid-August:
 Collect materials for dried flower arrangements, including weeds, flowers, marsh grasses and foliage.
 Prepare lawn or lawn areas that are going to be seeded.
 Harvest ripened vegetables. Sweet corn is ready when ears feel full and firm and the silks have turned brown and dry; cantaloupes are ready to eat when stems slip or separate easily from the fruit.
 Feed roses for the last time.
 Check azaleas, if they are beginning to look pale green to yellow. This is called chloritic. Check soil pH. These acid-loving plants may need to be fed.
Late August:
 Grapes that are ripening now perish easily, so keep refrigerated after harvesting.
 Inspect trunks and branches of dogwoods and other trees for injured bark or fine dust pushed from burrows in trunk by borers.
 Plant new lawns or reseed bare spots in old lawns. This can be done until Sept. 30 in Delaware. If it’s dry, be sure to water newly seeded lawns daily.

Kent Co. Master Gardeners Award Scholarships

Three students have each received a $1,000 scholarship from the Kent Co. Master Gardeners. The scholarships, funded solely from profits from the annual Plant Sale in April, were awarded at a dinner meeting at the Paradee Center. Earning the scholarships were: Nathan Adamson from Dover, who will be a junior at the University of Delaware, studying plant science with a minor in biology and landscape horticulture; Lindsey Bethard from Magnolia, who will be a sophomore at the University of Delaware, studying Agriculture Education; and Amanda Fabi from Felton, who will enter the University of Delaware in the fall planning to major in Animal Biotechnology/Wildlife Biology. According to Kathleen Berhalter, chair of the scholarship committee, these students were chosen from “an impressive field of applicants.” They all came with high grade point averages and excellent recommendations.

Applications for Class of 2011 Kent/Sussex Co.

Applications are now being accepted−and some have already been submitted−for the next Master Gardener class that will begin in September 2011. The deadline for applications is June 1, 2011. The application form can be downloaded from the website http://ag.udel.edu/rec/Extension/MasterGardeners/MGTraining.html

GREEN THUMB GARDEN CLUB

The garden club at The Modern Maturity Center, Dover will open the classroom doors on August 25th in the West Conference Room at 9:30 AM. and again at 6 PM. The topic is:

GROWING GRASS FROM SEED
Tom Dix will give you his sure fire tricks for getting grass to grow even on poor soil.
The best time to plant grass in Delaware is from August 15th to September 15th.
This is a great class for a guy who cuts grass and knows very little about grass. It is being offered at 6 PM to accommodate the working population. Grass pests and diseases will not be covered during class. Bring pictures and samples for an after class session.


As the weather cools down it is the proper time to trim your shrubs and trees. You can take a class in:
PRUNING AND SHAPING
TREES AND SHRUBS
John Trivets will visit us from Sussex County for a class on the proper way cut trees and shrubs.
He likes to call it Pruning or Shaping! He will join us at the green house at 9:30AM on Sept 1st.
Bring pictures of your trees or shrubs.


We will meet in the west conference room on September 8TH at 9:30 AM to discuss:
FALL PLANTING OF BULBS FOR SPRING FLOWERS
Rexene Ornauer, a Master Gardener perennial expert, will take you through all the spring plants
we normally call bulbs. She will show and tell you all different ways you can plant these easy to grow plants.


Our last class for the year will be a bus trip to Wendy’s house to cover:
GATHERING SEEDS
&
THINNING OUT PERENIALS
Wendy’s garden near Killins pond is a total joy this time of year. Bring labels and small plastic
bags to carry all the cuttings. Listen to her tell you many stories about the various plants in the outdoor rooms of her garden. A most pleasant way to spend a few hours. Please join us by meeting the bus at the greenhouse at 9:30AM on September 15th. $2.50 transportation fee will be charged. This the last gardening class at Modern Maturity for the year.

If you have Gardening question, call the Master Gardener Hotline at 730-4000.
Please stay out of the hot sun from 11AM to 3PM. Or, garden on the few cloudy days!

We are charging a fee of $4.00 for the four classes. Those students that had previous registered
for the year are exempt from this fee. All others should go to the customer desk to register.

Thank you very much.
Tom Dix
302-674-7404