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
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sussex County Summer-Fall Workshops
Seven workshops are slated on the Sussex Co. Master Gardener Workshop schedule. All are free, except where noted, and will be inside the
Hydrangeas – Vickie Thompson –
Tuesday, July 13 at 1 p.m.
Herbal Vinegars From the Ground Up – Susan Trone, Emily Peterson, Donna Fellows –
Tuesday, July 27 at 1 p.m. – Held in the
Cost is $10. Class size is limited to 30.
Attracting Songbirds & Other Wildlife Using Native Plants – Brent Marsh –
Tuesday, Aug. 24 at 1 p.m
Growing Greens – Ingrid Hetfield –
Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. in the
Color for All Seasons – Lisa Arni –
Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m.
Beauty and the Beets – Tracy Mulveny –
Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.
Hands-On
Tuesday, Nov. 30 at 1 p.m. – Cost is $8. Class size is limited to 30.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
WORKSHOPS SUMMER 2010
Make a Hypertufa Pot
Thursday, June 10, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Raindate: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Location: SORC Smyrna Outreach and Resource Centerh
Hypertufa expert and Master Gardener,
Carolyn Donahoe, will lead a small class in
making the lightweight and attractive
alternative to heavy stone and cement
planters. Make your own hypertufa planter
which is excellent for growing garden
oddities such as succulents, cactus or alpine plants.
To protect your hands, please bring a heavy pair
of dishwashing gloves with you to class.
$15.00 Fee Class size is limited to 15.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Raindate: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Location: SORC Smyrna Outreach and Resource Centerh
Hypertufa expert and Master Gardener,
Carolyn Donahoe, will lead a small class in
making the lightweight and attractive
alternative to heavy stone and cement
planters. Make your own hypertufa planter
which is excellent for growing garden
oddities such as succulents, cactus or alpine plants.
To protect your hands, please bring a heavy pair
of dishwashing gloves with you to class.
$15.00 Fee Class size is limited to 15.
Make a Rain Barrel
Thursday. June 24, 2010 1:00 p.m. Location:
Catching and using rainwater is beneficial to the
environment and your plants (especially if you
have a water softener) while also saving you
money and energy. Master Gardener, Paul Myers,
will lead the class through the process of making
a rain barrel so you can catch and use rainwater in
your yard and around the home!
$ 62.00 Fee Class size is limited to 14.
Fall Vegetables
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 1:30 p.m Location:
Join Master Gardeners, George and Marion
Brewington, to learn about delicious fall
vegetables that will extend the gardening season
well after earlier crops have finished. Find out
about the many cool weather vegetables that
produce their best flavor & quality, while maturing
during cool weather!
Protect Our Streams
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:30 p.m. Location:
Gardeners love what they do but they also
need to know their effect on the
environment and what they can do to
protect natural resources. Ginger North
from the Delaware Nature Society, will talk
about the health of our streams and what
each one of us can do, as gardeners, to keep
our water healthy.
Garden Bouquets
Thursday, August 19, 2010 6:30 p.m. Location:
Did you grow flowers in your garden this
year? Do you have some in your yard?
Bring a few flowers with you to the class
along with an empty fruit or vegetable can
that is color coordinated. After a
demonstration on the principles of arranging,
by Master Gardener Wendy Aycoth, you will
make your own beautiful arrangement!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
MAY GARDENING CALENDER
§ Prune your spring flowering shrubs (lilacs, forsythias, spireas, etc.) after they have finished blooming. You also want to thin these out by removing up to one-third of the older branches at or near ground level.
§ Check your trees, especially wild cherry, for tent caterpillars: remove and destroy tents (they look like a white cotton-candy mass on branches).
§ Keep newly planted trees and shrubs watered (unless it’s a rainy month). Do not let the soil dry out.
§ Plant gladiolus, dahlias and other summer bulbs.
§ Stay out of your garden when plant foliage is wet. Walking through a wet garden spreads disease from one plant to another.
§ If you are having a problem with earwigs and sow bugs, try trapping them with rolled up newspapers that have been moistened with water. The insects will hide in the paper by day. Gather up the traps and dispose of them frequently.
§ Closely examine your ornamental plantings for disease and pests. Check your dogwoods for borers; boxwood, holly and birch for leaf miners; evergreens for spider mites and aphids.
§ Mulch flowers, established vegetables and evergreen shrubs. Grass clippings are great and easier to handle if allowed to dry first. Remember, never use clippings from a lawn that has been treated with an herbicide.
§ Allow leaves on tulips and daffodils to mature; do not cut off until brown. Fill in spaces in your flower beds with annual flowers.
§ Pinch annuals when 4-6 in. high to promote bushy growth; for example, zinnias, petunias and salvia.
MOLES ARE RUINING MY LAWN…OH, MY
One pest that I get telephone calls and e-mails on almost all year long is moles. Moles are small mammals that create underground tunnels that are evident by mound-type (runways) across lawns, gardens, pastures and woodland areas. These are used as travel lanes and cause damage to grass and other plants by disturbing and sometimes destroying roots, tubers and bulb systems. Moles create the tunnels in search for food, which consists of mature insects, snail larvae, spiders, small vertebrates, grubs, and earthworms. The last two are their favorite foods. Because they eat many “bad” insect pests, they could be considered beneficial.
The common mole found in
Moles have one litter of two to six young a year. Gestation lasts about six weeks and the pups are born anytime from mid-April to the end of May.
There have been many unsuccessful “home remedies” to control or rid lawn and garden areas of moles. Some of these include moth balls, chewing gum, castor oil, pickle juice, red pepper, human hair, ultrasonic devices and bleach. These don’t work because moles are meat eaters (insectivores.)
If moles have become a nuisance, the two methods recommended are trapping and reducing the insect populations in your yard. Remove their food source and they will forage another area for their food supply.
There are two types of traps: the harpoon and choker loop traps (read and foolow manufacturer’s packaged instructions.) Trapping is more successful in the spring and fall, especially after a rain. In the summer and winter, moles are active in deep soil and harder to locate. Also, you will need to select a frequently-used or active tunnel. To locate an active tunnel in your lawn or garden area, use your foot and step on it to cave in short sections of several runways. Remember to mark these areas with a stick. Moles are very smart, so don’t disturb the tunnels more than necessary. The following day, check each tunnel to see which ones are reopened. The re-opened ones are active tunnels, which is where you want to place your trap. If there is no catch within a day or two, move to a new location and reset the trap.
Using insecticides to reduce food supply (the soil insect population) is also an option. The best time to control grubs is when they are actively feeding close to the soil surface in late
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Blooming Sanseveria
Janis Greene a
Searching the net for information I found that many people have had plants for 30 years and never saw a bloom. They are native to
Saturday, April 3, 2010
GERMINATING OLD SEEDS
April is here and many of us will soon have our gardens amended and prepared for the new growing season. And if you are like me, you have seeds left over from last year, the year before and some seed packs dating back four or more years. When you have old seed packs, you have to ask yourself, “Should I plant these, throw them out or test them for quality and germination rate?” My answer would be to test them. I remember my dad testing seeds in our kitchen before he would make any decisions on their fate.
To do a germination test, count out 10 to 20 seeds. Then spread the seeds out on several layers of moistened paper towels. Carefully roll them up in the paper towels so that the seeds do not touch one another. Place the roll in a plastic bag (this keeps the moisture in), twist-tie it shut, and keep it in a warm spot. Remember to label the roll or bag with seed variety and mark the start date of the test. Then, every three or four days, carefully unroll to see what is sprouting (evidence of a root or cotyledon structures protruding from the seed.) Keep in mind, some seeds take three or more weeks to germinate. After a week has passed and no additional seeds have germinated, it is time to count the germination rate.
If you started with 20 seeds and 10 have sprouted, you have a 50% germination rate; if 5 seeds germinated from the 20, then you have a 25% germination rate. Let’s say you start with 10 seeds and only 2 have sprouted; then you have a 20% rate. If 5 of the 10 sprouted, you have a 50% germination rate. You can now decide what to do. If I had a 50% germination rate, I would still use the seeds, and just plant twice as many.
So how long are seeds good or viable? The following chart is a guideline of seed viability stored under dry, cool conditions.
| Seed | Years | Seed | Years |
| Beans | 3 | Muskmelons | 5 |
| Beets | 4 | Mustard Greens | 4 |
| Broccoli | 5 | Okra | 2 |
| Cabbage | 5 | Parsnips | 1 |
| Cabbage, Chinese | 5 | Peas | 3 |
| Carrots | 3 | Peppers | 2 |
| Cauliflower | 5 | Pumpkins | 4 |
| Celeriac | 5 | Radishes | 5 |
| Collards | 5 | Rutabags | 4 |
| Corn | 2 | Spinach | 5 |
| Cucumbers | 5 | Squash | 4 |
| Eggplant | 5 | Tomatoes | 4 |
| Kale | 5 | Turnips | 4 |
| Kohlrabi | 5 | Turnips | 4 |
| Leeks | 3 | Watermelons | 4 |
| Lettuce | 5 | | |
If you are like me and have retrieved your seed storage box for planting this year’s garden only to find leftover seeds that you think may have to be discarded, why not test their germination rate first? And if you are lucky, they will germinate and grow for you again this gardening season.
Maggie L. Moor-Orth
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