Are you in the garden looking for elusive signs of spring buds and blooms? We have been planning spring activities, but it takes the calendar turning to March to make us believe it’s just around the corner. (I write this as I look out at the March 2nd snow scene!)
The Home Gardeners’ School brochures are out, and registrations are coming in daily. If you haven’t mailed yours yet, send it today! We’re looking forward to a great program. We have flyers and brochures available in the office if you have contacts who may be willing to display our information.
Thanks to those of you who have completed the Master Gardener Survey. The deadline has been extended so that if you still have it on the ‘to do’ list, your input can be entered until the middle of March.
Thanks to Gayla McCluskey, many of our Master Gardeners were able to attend the Flower Show as volunteers at the PHS Information Desk. Penn State no longer purchases space at the Flower Show, so our MG committee is not a volunteer opportunity.
We are ordering ‘green bags’ through the state coordinator. They will be here in mid-June. The cost to us is $1.25 each. Bags will be imprinted with the Penn State Logo on one side, and Master Gardener on the other.
We will receive our last shipment of compost bins in mid-April. DEP will no longer provide them. The bins will be delivered to Smedley Park, but because of the size of the delivery truck, they cannot be delivered to the office area. We must move them ourselves from the parking area near the trolley stop. If you are able and willing to help move the bins, please let me know. I should have a firm delivery date by April 3rd.
Terrace Garden Cleanup
Volunteers are asked to help clean up the Terrace Garden and mulch it in preparation for spring planting. If you can help, please bring wheelbarrows, rakes and shovels. Work will begin at 9:00 am Saturday, March 28, 2009. If you have any questions please call Carl Pfeiffer or Marion Nelson.
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RAIN GARDENS AND RUN-OFF
There’s an excellent article in the April issue of Garden Gate about how to set up and plant a rain garden. This works well with moderate run-off, but how about sporadic torrents, which is what I encounter. Back in the day when builders just built with no constraints or regard to run-off, my little old house was flanked by new construction, elevated two story homes. As my house sits lower I got run-off from both houses, plus the driveway of one house which runs on the property line was slanted toward me and had no riser to block street water from coming so, in torrential downpours, I get the additional overflow from the three houses across the street.
The basement would flood whenever there was a downpour as the water cascaded against the house and all the manual “brooming” to push it away could not stop it.
I began my defense. I crawled under the porch and dug a trench 5 feet from the house and heaped dirt, house side, so no water that got under the porch would get near the foundation. I dug a trench next to the hedges along the property line. These measures worked well if I kept the hedge trench clear.
Then a real breakthrough. I had a mortared brick path along the side of my house and out to the street that had fallen into disrepair and had to be replaced. The people who replaced the path were marvelous. I told them my problem and they dug the foundation of the new path a little deeper. They laid stones, then crushed stones, sand and then set the bricks, very close together and slanted ever so slightly away from the house. Sand was brushed over the top to fill the tiny spaces. There has not been any lapping water against my house since!
This shows the real advantage of allowing water to permeate into the ground and not run away or be wasted. It was a real learning experience for me. Next, there was the sloping ground next to the porch, which now carried the water away. I dug a pit two feet deep, 1 foot wide and three to four feet long and filled it with stones. This has really worked well too. Next, I would like to dig my hedge edged trench deeper, fill it with stones and then put up a little wall on top of it and back fill dirt for the hedge roots which really need help. Do you think that would work? Do you think I am negating the trench with the soil and the soil would just wash away? Let me know what you think.
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A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET SOME UNUSUAL PLANTS
The Providence Garden Club of Pennsylvania will hold its 61st Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 2, at The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, 106 South Middletown Road (Route 352) Middletown Township from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
If you pre-order between April 1st and April 25th, you have an opportunity to come on Friday, May 1, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. where you can pick up your order and purchase additional plants for your garden. Order Forms will be available at the March meeting and in the Extension Office, will be e-mailed to you, will be at the Home Gardeners’ School or call Susie Leonard, Chair.
Providence Garden Club is working closely with local growers to offer many hard-to-find species of annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs. A selection of choice plants for containers is included in the sale. Be sure to mark your calendar for this date and plan to come early, as many varieties sell out early in the day. We are being conservative as we order this year so you may want to get your plants reserved by pre-ordering.
Another feature of the sale is the opportunity to purchase a wonderful selection of time-tested perennials that come from the gardens of club members. If you are looking for reasonably priced plants that are sure to do well in your garden, then be sure to visit the “Hort Table,” where you’ll find these plants.
As you know, the excitement of this sale is not only the unusual plants the club is able to order because of its long-term connections with suppliers, but also the special items that come from the gardens of club members. Two weeks in April are spent potting up those special plants that have been heeling in their gardens or are in need of division so you can choose plants that you know will thrive in your garden. Friends who are older and depend on the club to help with the division of the plants in their gardens also contribute wonderful selections. Members will also share some of the secrets for growing these plants.
If you have some perennials in your own garden that are in need of dividing and that you’d be interested in donating to the Providence Garden Club Sale, please call Sallie Anderson. Donations are tax-deductible.
All proceeds of this sale benefit local non-profit organizations, including The Helen Kate Furness Library, The Thomas Leiper House, The Scott Arboretum, Tyler Arboretum and others.
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Landscape History
and Woodworking Show
at Haverford College
Haverford College Arboretum is hosting several events during March in conjunction with a very special (well, it is to me because I’m a co-curator) 175th Anniversary Exhibition, Gardens and Grounds: A Celebration of Haverford’s Landscape. The show displays not only a photographic history of the oldest planned college landscape in the country, but also the work of four craftsmen who through their furniture, bowls and vessels have given new life to trees that once grew at Haverford.
As part of the month-long exhibition, Marty Kromer, former instructor at Longwood and consultant with the Philadelphia Zoo, will give a talk on “The Legacy of Trees” on Sunday March 22 at 1:30 p.m. The program, in Sharpless Auditorium, is free and open to the public.
A reception will follow at 3 p.m. in the gallery and give you another chance to see the Gardens and Grounds show.
On Sunday, March 29, the closing day for the show, I will be hosting a campus walk, along with my co-curator, college horticulturist Mike Startup. We’ll start at 1:30 p.m. with a quick look at the old photos and maps in the show, then head outside to see how today’s arboretum has changed over 175 years.
The college art gallery is in the Whitehead Campus Center with a parking lot directly across the road. Campus entrances are on College Avenue past Haverford Road, or on Lancaster Avenue across from the Haverford Post Office. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 11 to 5; Wednesday until 8; Saturday and Sunday 12 to 5 except for the week of March 9 when it will be closed for spring break.
All programs are free; come out and enjoy!
~ Martha Van Artsdalen
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ES Committee Tip of the Month
Avoid monocultures like vast lawns and rose gardens. Grow a wide variety of plants to support biodiversity and reduce the need for chemical controls.
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We have about two and a half inches deficit rainfall already this year so these reminders are again valid:
Turn off the water as you brush your teeth for two minutes.
When you rinse your vegetables, save the water and use it to water house or outdoor plants. Run the water in a narrow stream if you must keep it running.
Run the dishwasher and washing machine with full loads.
Buy shower heads that give you a good rinse but with a much reduced flow, saving water and the cost of heating it. If you can, buy one that also maintains the temperature you have set for your shower, even when someone is using water in another part of the house.
Reduce the temperature on your hot water heater. Be sure that the dishwasher has a booster to keep its hot water at the 140° necessary to clean dishes properly.
When all the snow and slush are gone give yourself a treat. Have your car washed at a car wash. They use much less water than washing the car at home.
Wanted: Blooms from Master Gardeners. Do you have any Forsythia, Redbud, Flowering Almond or Quince you would be willing to cut and force into bloom for use in decorating at the Home Gardener School venue on April 4th? If you have a container to display them in bring it along too, please. Any help you could give to decorate at Neumann on Friday late afternoon will be appreciated. Thanks.
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There has been much discussion and research by Penn State and scientists about the recent Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybee hives that I thought I would share some bee facts this year. We are planning a visit at our July meeting to the Grange in Havertown to see and hear about honeybees from the beekeeper. A few facts that you may already know or have heard about are:
Q: How many honeybees normally live in a colony?
A: In winter, there might be from 5,000 to 10,000 bees living in a colony. In early summer, there could be 60,000 or more. the population also depends on the colony's health, queen's age, availability of resources, and air temperature.
Q: What are the life stages of a honeybee?
A: The queen lays an egg in a cell of the honeycomb. The egg hatches in about 3 days, whereupon a larva emerges and develops for about 6 days. Then, a worker bee seals it in its cell, where the larva pupates and becomes an adult in 8 to 14 days. Queens develop in about 16 days, workers in 21, and drones within 24.
Q: Do all honeybees sting?
A: No, only female honeybees (workers and queens) sting. Honeybees are fairly docile, unless they or their nest is disturbed. A worker bee, which has a barbed stinger, will die after stinging an enemy once. A queen can sting repeatedly; she uses her smooth stinger to kill other queens in the hive.
To create a buzz in your garden this spring use some of the following plants to attract these and other pollinators:
Spring/ Perennials: ajuga (Ajuga reptans), borage (Borago officinalis), geranium,scented Pelargonium graveolens), rosemary (Rosmarinus)
Shrubs, trees and vines: blueberry(Vaccinium elliottii), carolina jessamine(vine) (Gelsemium sempervirens), clovers ( Trifolium ssp.), flowering cherry (Prunus), hawthorn( Crataegus spp.)
holly ( Ilex ssp.), Oregon grape holly ( Mahonia aquifolium), tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Bees are color sensitive; they gravitate toward lavender, blue, purple, yellow and white flowers. They are also attracted by fragrance. So be diligent this season and use more plants that attract honeybees and be part of the solution.
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BE POLLINATOR FRIENDLY—PART 1
Penn State University’s County Extension has given its Master Gardeners a mission for 2009—to teach pollinator friendly gardening practices to home gardeners. It’s a big job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
We were asked to accomplish this task for a very good reason--our pollinators are in deep trouble. Their numbers are dwindling fast enough to cause alarm. I’m talking all of them, not just honey bees.
Did you know that birds, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps and bats are pollinators too? We need them all—they perform the invaluable service of pollinating veggies, flowers, fruits and nut trees.
While Master Gardeners are busy teaching home gardeners how to protect pollinators, Penn State is pulling out all the stops on researching the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD is a mysterious disease that’s causing the loss of large numbers of honey bees.
CCD even has Haagen-Dazs concerned. The ice cream company has donated $150,000 to aid PSU’s CCD research. “The plight of the honeybee could mean many of the ingredients used in our top flavors, like Vanilla Swiss Almond and Strawberry, would be difficult to source," said Haagen-Dazs brand manager Josh Gellert.
CCD is a mysterious disease. Adult bees leave the hive in the morning and never return. No dead bodies are ever found—they just vanish into thin air. A number of reasons have been postulated for CCD, but research thus far has not given a definitive answer.
One of the latest theories is that chronic exposure to multiple pesticides has weakened the bees’ immune system, leaving them vulnerable to many diseases. Another theory is that pesticides have damaged their nervous systems, causing the bees to forget where they live.
Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate in entomology at Penn State, says "Some of these (chemical) compounds could react with each other to cause toxic effects or could combine with viruses or poor nutrition to weaken immunity and cause colony collapse. We also need to do more research to understand these chemicals' sub-lethal effects on bees."
Any way you look at it, our pollinators need our help! Next month, I’ll write about what you can do to protect pollinators in your garden. In the meantime, check out an excellent book on the subject --Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen. The book is fascinating reading and will give you a new perspective on the life of the bee.
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NEWSLETTER STAFF:
Editor: Barbara Smith
Web Designer: Kristi D'Amore
Committee: Linda Barry, Joe Daniels, Carolyn DiPaulo, Marianne Martin, Elsie Mueller, Marion Nelson, Cynthia Sabatini, Mary Sambor, Carl Pfeiffer & Arlene Pugh
Cooperative extension e-mail: DelawareExt@psu.edu
Blog Address: http://go.philly.com/gardenerjournal
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