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Vol. 4, No. 9 ? September 15, 2008
In This Issue:
Top Trees for Fall Foliage
Magazine Excerpt: Autumn Edibles - What to Plant Now
September To-Do List
Spotlight Special: Melon 'Lambkin'
Reader Contest: Remodeling and Home Decor Show Passes
Local Gardening Events
Welcome to the
Washington Gardener Enews!
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The September/October 2008 Washington Gardener magazine is available now. If you subscribe by October 25, you can start your subscription with this issue. Single copies of this issue can be purchased directly from Washington Gardener. The issue is also on sale at area Borders, Barnes and Noble, and B. Dalton book stores plus many independent stores like the USNA's Arbor House. This issue's cover story is "Dealing with Dry Shade." It also includes stories on Epimediums, Labybugs, Meadowlark Gardens, Autumn Olive, and, much, much more.
Top Trees for Fall Foliage
There is no need to settle for drab browns and fading yellows in your home garden when the temperatures start to drop. If you have ever taken an autumn drive in the Shenandoah Valley and marveled at the blazing leaf colors, you know what an amazing display is possible in our Mid-Atlantic region. However, you don?t have to travel far to see examples of beautiful fall color, you can easily put a mixed planting of fall foliage in your own yard. To help you with your selection here is a list of our Top 10 Trees for Fall Foliage in the Mid-Atlantic:
- Shadblow Serviceberry (Amelanchier Canadensis) is a slender, clumping tree that can grow to about 20 feet. It has red-orange-yellow fall color and small white flowers in early spring. It grows in full sun to shade and prefers moist, well-drained soil.
- Franklinia Tree (Franklinia alatamaha) grows to 15-20 feet. It has orange, red, and purple glossy folaige in the fall and fragrant flowers in late summer. It grows in full sun to light shade and prefers consistently moist soil.
- Gingko or Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba) grows to 40 feet. The fall foliage is a brilliant gold. It prefers full sun and does not like over-watering. Ginkgo trees are disease-resistant and tolerate urban pollution.
- Black Tupelo or Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica) is a great native specimen tree that grows to about 30 feet. The fall foliage is spectacular in many shades of yellow, orange, bright red, purple, or scarlet that may appear on the same branch. It prefers well-drained, acid soils, and full sun to partial shade.
- Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) has over 300 cultivars and generally stays under 20 feet tall. Fall color depends on the cultivar, but most have deep amazing red color. It prefers part-shade and moist, well-drained soil. It is insect and pollution-resistant.
- Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) can reach 75 feet or more in height. Sugar maples have a fall foliage color range from yellow to orange to red. They are the quintessential autumn interest tree. The leaf color will vary from year to year and place to place, depending on many factors. It tolerates some shade and likes a well-drained, moderately moist, fertile soil. Do not plant it in confined areas or where salt is a problem.
- Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kous) grows to 20 feet in a vase-shape. The fall foliage is an interesting purplish-red to scarlet. It also has red berries in fall and flowers in late spring. It grows in full sun to partial shade and prefers moist, well-drained, but can take dry, compacted soils.
- Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) can reach 20 feet in 20 years and matures to about 40 feet. The foliage all growing season is colorful and unique then in fall it turns a bright apricot-orange. The fall leaves also give off a pleasant spicy scent. Grows in full sun to part shade and prefers well-drained soil.
- American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) grows 45-60 feet tall. The star-shaped leaves in fall are yellow, purple, orange, or red, The brownish fruits stays on through the winter. It likes full sun and it is best to avoid polluted sites.
- Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea) is a large tree a large, deciduous tree that reaches 75 feet tall. Unlike many oaks that turn ugly brown n autumn, the scarlet oak has russet, scarlet or red fall foliage. The early spring foliage is often red as well. It needs full sun and tolerates a wide range of soils.
The great thing about most of these trees is that the fall foliage colors are just one of their many benefits. Several sport spring flowers and interesting winter bark as well. Plant a few of these selections this season to give you viewing pleasure for years to come.
Happy Growing!
Kathy Jentz
Editor/Publisher
Washington Gardener
P.S. Use these balmy summer days to start saving your seeds for our Fourth Annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange on January 31, 2009 at Brookside Gardens.
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Local Gardening Events
Here is a selection of upcoming events (September 16-October 15) in the greater DC area of interest to gardeners:
DC
Homeowner Workshop: Designing Your Yard With Trees
September 23, 6:30-9:00pm
Casey Trees, 1123 11th St., NW, #3, Washington, DC
Design a treescape for your yard. Bring photographs or drawings and measurements of your yard with the location of existing trees, buildings and power lines. Learn the principles of selecting tree species and identifying appropriate planting locations. Each participant will receive a tree appropriate for their site. This workshop and tree give-away are presented with the support of the DC Department of the Environment as part of its River Smart Homes program that encourages residents to plant trees on their property and adopt other stormwater reduction landscaping enhancements.
Fee: $0/Free. Preregistration is required.
For more information: www.caseytrees.org or call 202.349.1907.
Beautiful Lawns Grown Organically
September 27, 1:00-2:30 pm
Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K St. NW at Mt. Vernon Square
Paul Tukey is on a mission to reduce pesticide usage across the country, one lawn, and garden at a time. During his talk at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., in collaboration with D.C. Urban Gardeners, Paul will present alternative solutions to chemically dependent lawns. "Americans are spreading millions of tons of toxic materials on their lawns, all in the name of having a beautiful lawn. Our mission is to show people that you can have that nice lawn without the toxic and wasteful side effects," says, Tukey. Paul is the author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual and the founder of the not-for-profit organization, SafeLawns.org.
Fee: $0/Free. Preregistration is not required.
Details at www.historydc.org or call 202.383.1828.
Medicinal Plant Traditions of the KwaZulu-Natal
Through November 23, 10:00am?5:00pm
U.S Botanic Garden, National Mall, Washington, DC
In South Africa, more than 80% of the people rely on the local flora for their medicine. Although
some medicinal plants are cultivated, most are collected from the wild, which is an unsustainable
practice that is beginning to threaten the survival of some plant species. The Medicinal Plant
Traditions of the KwaZulu-Natal exhibit presents a traditional Zulu market scene, where whole plants
and fresh or dried fruits, seeds, stems, roots, leaves, or bark are offered for sale. Learn about the
medicinal plants of the KwaZulu-Natal region and the need to protect both plants and the traditional
ways of life.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.usbg.org or call 202.225.8333.
MD and PA
Children's Day - Growing-up Green
September 20, 11:00am-4:00pm
Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallan Ave., Wheaton MD
Learn about different ideas and choices to make helping to preserve the earth and our natural resources. See demonstrations and exhibits from the Poolesville High School Global Ecology Team, Sidwell Friends School (certified green middle school), and the Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste. Children will enjoy hands-on activities like learning how to recycle newspaper into a pot and then planting it with a new seedling that they may take home. Sculptural insect costumes worn by performance dancers will mingle and interact with our visitors. Check in at the information tent to obtain your "passport" highlighting the day's activities and times.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information, call 301.962.1400 or go to www.brooksidegardens.org.
Magic in the Meadow - an enchanted evening to benefit Adkins Arboretum
September 20, 6:00-9:00pm
Adkins Arboretum, 12610 Eveland Road, P.O. Box 100, Ridgely, MD
Spend an enchanted evening at Adkins Arboretum. As twilight falls, mingle in the meadow, under a tent, or beneath the stars, surrounded by the Arboretum?s 400 acres of native meadows, wetlands, forests, and streams. Entertainment, food, cocktails, live and silent auctions.
Fee: $75 per person. Registration is required.
For more information: www.adkinsarboretum.org or call 410.634.2847.
Green Home Tour
October 5, 11:00am-5:00pm
Various locations in and around Takoma Park, MD
Come explore a wide range of energy saving and green construction in local homes -- from small-scale energy efficiency retrofits, to green additions to new construction. Also see gardens with bio-retention systems, rain gardens, wildlife habitats, and native plants. The focus of the tour is to demonstrate changes everyone can make in their homes and yards, especially as it relates to saving energy. Washington Gardener Magazine?s headquarters will be part of this tour.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: saveoursky.com or call 301.891.8891.
VA and WV
Virginia Garden Festival
September 20, 9:00am-4:00pm
Garner Pavilion (located between the Science Museum of VA and Children?s Museum of Richmond), 2500 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA
Talented individuals from all facets of the Virginia Green Industry are on site to make this rain or shine event an educational and fun-filled family experience. Hear well-known speakers share home, garden, and landscape strategies, visit vendor display booths and receive earth-friendly tips, stop by and ask the experts, tour green living exhibits, watch tree care and lawn demonstrations, hear Andre Viette broadcast live his radio show IN THE GARDEN, sample some of Virginia?s Finest foods, listen to music in the garden, purchase "plants that wow" as well as eco-chic garden d?cor; and participate in activities for sprouts in the Kids' GoGreen corner.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For details: visit www.virginiagardening.com or call 804.864.1400.
Fall Festival and Plant Sale
September 27, 8:30am-3:00pm
4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria, VA
Support one of Virginia?s most innovative and exciting public gardens. The Fall Festival is a FROGS (Friends of Green Spring) fundraiser filled with adult and family activities, including a lecture (Remarkable Trees of Virginia) by author Nancy Hugo, a tea program on the subject of wood, a silent auction, and an expanded plant sale, including many herbs and local artisans specializing in garden art and crafts. Proceeds help acquire plants for the garden and add to Green Spring?s educational efforts. Co-sponsors include: Virginia Native Plant Society and Washington Gardener Magazine.
Fee: $0/Free to attend the sale. Note: Fees vary for individual activities. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.greenspring.org or call 703.642.5173.
Prince William County Farm Tour and Plant Sale
September 27, 10:00am-4:00pm and September 28, 12:00noon-4:00pm
Various locations in Prince William County, VA
VCE-Prince William's Teaching Garden is where staff and Master Gardener volunteers are putting research based information to work. Visitors will see low-maintenance gardening practices that apply to any garden setting. Tour theme gardens, the Benedictine Monastery's labyrinth and gardens, and learn how to prepare your garden for next season. Master Gardeners of Prince William will be selling their favorite plants at a Plant Sale held at the Teaching Garden at St. Benedict Monastery 9535 Linton Hall Road, Bristow, VA on Saturday only. Rain or shine.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is required.
For details, call 703.369.5253 or visit www.pwcfarmtour.com.
Special Washington Gardener Magazine Event
Fall Harvest Collection for the Hungry
September 28, 3:00-6:00pm
Washington Gardener Magazine?s headquarters, 826 Philadelphia Ave., Silver Spring, MD
Washington Gardener Magazine and the American Horticultural Society is hosting a fall harvest collection for Plant A Row for the Hungry. Clean out your summer garden and bring your excess edibles to help the needy in our area. Your donations will be sorted, weighed, and delivered to local area food banks for the hungry. Every donor who drops off excess harvest at the event will receive a pack of seeds and a special Plant A Row marker for placement in their garden next year so they can proudly mark a row in their garden they set aside for the hungry in our local community.
If you are in Virginia, you may find it more convenient to drop off your harvest donations at AHS River Farm on the Potomac River south of Alexandria, VA. The contact there to arrange a drop off time is Jessica Rozmus at jrozmus@ahs.org.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.WashingtonGardener.com or call 301.588.6894.
For even more area garden event notices than we can't possibly squeeze in here, become a member of our free online discussion group. To join the email list serv, just send an email to: WashingtonGardener-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
To submit an event for this listing, please contact: Wgardenermag@aol.com and put "Event" in the email subject head. PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS! Our next deadline is October 12 for the October 15 edition of this enewsletter featuring events from September 16-October 15.
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Spotlight Special: Melon 'Lambkin'
Melon F1 'Lambkin' is a 2009 AAS Vegetable Winner. The most important trait of this melon is the flavor. This is the reason to invest your time to grow 'Lambkin' in your garden. The oval shaped melon weighs between 2 and 4 pounds with a thin rind surrounding sweet, aromatic, white, juicy flesh. Another advantage is the earliness. Most other gourmet melons of this type mature much later than the 65 to 75 days of 'Lambkin.' Because of the early harvest, the vigorous vines can produce more melons. This results in more melons to share with close friends. It is classified as a Piel de Sapo melon a. k. a. Christmas type. The yellow melon skin with green mottling is unique and named, Piel de Sapo.
As a Christmas melon, 'Lambkin' can be stored longer than other melons. They should be stored in a cool place such as a refrigerator. 'Lambkin' was bred by Known-You Seed Co. Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Seed and plants of 'Lambkin' will be available in retail stores in 2009.
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Reader Contest
The September 2008 Washington Gardener Reader Contest is for passes to the Remodeling and Home Decor Show, produced by dmg world media, runs Friday, September 26 through Sunday, September 28, at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. Discover new products and hot trends in building, remodeling, decorating, and gardening! It features more than 500 exhibits, daily stage presentations, appearances by how-to celebrities/professional experts, and more.
To enter for the Remodeling and Home Decor Show, send an email with "Home Decor Show" in the subject line to WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by September 24. In the body of the email include your full name and address as well as how many passes you would like, if you win.
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September To-Do List
Here is our comprehensive garden task list for gardens in the greater DC metro region for September 16-October 15. Your suggestions and additions to this list are most welcome:
- Keep an eye out for the first frost date. In Zone 6, it is expected between September 30 and October 30 and in Zone 7 it is predicted between October 15 and November 15.
- Divide and transplant perennials - in particular, peonies, and iris.
- Pick apples at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer's market.
- Pot up rosemary and chives for over-wintering indoors.
- Take cuttings from your coleus to propagate and over-winter indoors.
- Look out for any Poison Ivy vines which will turn crimson in the fall and be easy to distinguish from other vines.
- Check your local garden center for end-of-summer bargains.
- Put netting over your pond to prevent the accumulation of falling leaves and debris.
- Start feeding birds to get them in the habit for this winter.
- Attend a local garden club meeting or plant exchange.
- Pick mature tomatoes and peppers to ripen on your window sills.
- Turn your compost pile weekly and don't let it dry out. Work compost into your planting beds.
- Take garden photos and update your growing journal.
- Remove rotting fruits from fruit trees and compost them.
- Plant evergreens for winter interest.
- Weed.
- Plant garlic bulbs.
- Collect plant seeds for next year's planting and for trading at the 4th Annual Washington Seed Exchange on January 31, 2009.
- Plant hardy mums and fall season annuals.
- Fertilize your lawn and re-seed if needed.
- Dig up bulbs from your Gladiolus and other tender bulbs, cut off foliage, dry for a week, and then store for the winter.
- Transplant trees and shrubs.
- Harvest your herbs often and keep them trimmed back to encourage leafy growth.
- Bring in house plants if you took them out for the summer.
- If your conifers start shedding their needles or your spring bulb foliage starts peaking out of the ground, don't worry. This is normal for our Autumn cycle.
- Leave hummingbird feeders out until October 15.
- Start bulb plantings of early spring bloomers at the end of the month.
- Watch your pumpkins and squash for harvest when their rinds fully
- Divide ornamental grasses.
- Cut herbs and flowers for drying indoors.
- Plant strawberries in a site with good drainage for harvest next spring.
- Look out for slug eggs grouped under sticks and stones ? the size of BBs and pale in color.
- Plant cover crops in vegetable gardens and annual beds (for example, rye, clover, hairy vetch, and winter peas).
- Begin conditioning the Christmas Poinsettias and Christmas cactus to get them ready for the upcoming holiday season
- Bring Amaryllis indoors before a hard freeze. Repot every other year at this time. Store in a cool, dark place and do not water until the flower buds or leaves emerge.
- Your summer annuals will be reviving now with cooler temps and some rain. Cut back any ragged growth and give them some fertilizer. They should put on a good show until the first hard frost.
Have a wonderful 2008 growing season!
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Magazine Excerpt: Autumn Edibles - What to Plant Now by Cindy Brown
If you?ve successfully navigated through the challenges of growing vegetables in a sultry Washington, DC summer, you?re ready to expand your gardening repertoire into a new season - fall. When the tomatoes stop producing, and wails of remorse roll over the Mall, fall vegetable gardeners can revel in the abundance of fresh produce still exciting their palates. Working out in the garden in cooler temperatures and enjoying the Technicolor display are extra bonuses. So sharpen your spade, order a new load of mulch, sift the compost pile and pull out the cookbooks. Your vegetable gardening journey is about to continue.
Planting Backwards - A fall vegetable garden is a repeat of the spring garden, but in reverse. Spring gardening starts with cool soil temperatures, lots of rain, and days that get progressively longer, hotter, and drier. Fall gardening begins with hot temps ? both soil and air ? a lack of moisture, and days that are getting progressively shorter and cooler. So a fall gardener should think of ways to keep the freshly planted seeds cooler, supply enough moisture for germination and growth, and determine if enough days are left on the calendar for vegetables to mature.
The third point is arguably the most important. Gardeners must carefully time planting dates so vegetables have enough time to get to the eating stage. As fun as the act of gardening is, most gardeners toil in the soil to produce an edible reward. When choosing what to grow, look in catalogs or on the seed packets to see how long it?s going to take to produce the final product. Then determine when the first killing frost occurs, count backwards, add two weeks, and decide if there is time to grow the crop. The two weeks are added because of the ?fall effect? of cooler, shorter days that lengthen the time it takes for plants to yield a harvest. If we have an Indian Summer, harvests may come earlier.
Timing is Everything - In the greater Washington metropolitan area, killing frosts usually occur towards the end of October. Living in the city, where the concrete holds more heat, may prolong the frost date even longer. Areas further out from the epicenter may experience frosts at an earlier date. A crystal ball would be handy, but don?t be afraid to gamble. The payoff is worth it. Quick mathematical computations show the ideal time to begin a fall vegetable garden is early in August. Don?t despair if the impulse doesn?t hit you until mid-September. Some vegetables will be impossible to grow to maturity, but there is an impressive list of possibilities that will have time to mature if planted in September. There are even vegetables that tolerate or improve their flavor with frosty
conditions. See our Fall Planting Chart on page 18 for a list of the many edibles you can grow at this time of year, when to plant them, their hardiness, suggested cultivars for our region, and days to maturity.
Replenish and Replant - After deciding what to plant, turn your attention to...
Want to learn more about the Autumn Edibles and which grow best in our Mid-Atlantic region? Read the rest of this article in the September/October 2008 issue of Washington Gardener magazine.
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Next Issue
The October 15, 2008 issue of Washington Gardener Enews will describe Growing Moss Gardens and Lawns.
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Edited by Kathy Jentz
Contact: WGardenerMag@aol.com or 301.588.6894.
?Washington Gardener 2008
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