LooseLeaf€¦ · Planning for the 2021 MG training has begun- indeed we have already received several requests for applications. ... We want to try to make the process a little easier

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LooseLeaf

A publication of the University of Maryland Extension

Howard County Master Gardeners.

3300 North Ridge Road, Suite 240 Ellicott City, Md 21043

(410)313-2707 FAX (410)313-2712

http://www.extension.umd.edu/mg/locations/howard-county-master-gardeners

July/August 2020

No change in the UME schedule for re-entry! Faculty and staff are expected to return to UME on June 29. There have been no changes in policies and directions, though as far as I know the re-entry procedures must be followed prior to return.

My thanks to Roy Heath who charted the UME VMS policy regarding volunteer hours and continuing education for certified MGs and interns. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions, especially about the concept for interns to carry out a project of interest- do something of benefit to you which could be shared with our MG colleagues. Of course, please make sure it is relevant to the MG mission!

Planning for the 2021 MG training has begun- indeed we have already received several requests for applications. The issue we have to consider is whether it will be a virtual or in-person program or perhaps a combination. So in spite of operating challenges, on we go!

Keep in mind those pollinators in your landscape, and don't forget the milkweed and monarchs! My milkweed crop has doubled this year so I’m hoping for an increase in monarchs. I will keep you in touch with UME events via our Yahoo system since I won't be communicating via Looseleaf again until September. Here's to a gratifying and productive gardening season. Best wishes. 410-313-1913.

Georgia

Georgia Eacker MG Coordinator WSA Liaison

INSIDE

2—Howard County Fair?

3—Creating a Garden Atlas

4—Backyard Bees July: Melissodes - The Speedy Longhorns

5—Book Review—Ground Rules

6—Latin for Gardeners St. John’s Wort

9—Grow it Eat it - Spring to Summer

10—Backyard Bees August: Amazing Leaf Cutters

11—Certification Requirements Clarified for 2020

Program Update from Georgia —

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 2

Dragonflies of Maryland

Darner by Tony DiTerlizzi

The life cycle of the dragonfly be-gins with the adult laying eggs in water. The larvae live under water until it is time to molt to adult-hood. The flight of the dragonfly is unique. It has four wings instead of the standard two on most in-sects. The wings create a back and forward stroke giving the drag-on fly great maneuverability. It hovers and can fly long distanc-es. The dragonfly makes incredi-ble migrations that rival the mon-arch. This ancient insect is fasci-nating.

There are 7 main families of drag-onflies in Maryland. These in-clude:

Petaltails (Petaluridae) Darners (Aeshnidae) Clubtails (Gomphidae) Spiketails (Cordulegastridae) River cruisers (Macromiidae) Emeralds (Corduliidae) Pond Skimmers (Libellulidae) Elaine Kielman, MG 2016

Putting the Garden to Bed for the Winter

Before we put away our garden gloves at the end of the growing season, there are some important chores to be completed. Our board will cover some of these chores (clean garden tools, drain hoses, dispose of annual vegetable plants, etc.) but will also offer tips to help wildlife overwinter. Some ideas we’ll share: Don’t be a per-fectionist! Leave some leaf litter for insects and seed heads for the birds. Leaving some perennials standing allows native bees to overwinter inside the hollow stems. We’ll also discuss planting spring-blooming bulbs.

Susan Bishop, MG 2016

Our Vanishing Birds

For decades citizen scientists (aka amateur bird-watchers) have been submitting their observations to databases such as Cornell and the Audubon Society to help carry out surveys of bird populations each year. In the past 50 years, less than a single human lifetime, 2.9 billion breeding adult birds have been lost from the United States and Canada, across every ecosys-tem. In other words, we’ve lost more than a quarter of our bird-life. This board will discuss some of the reasons for this decline and will offer suggestions that we as individuals can do to help reduce this threat. It will also include sev-eral of the best sites and apps for making bird watching more enjoya-ble.

Carol Spencer, MG 2006

Master Gardeners are always ready to meet the needs of others. That’s why we are going ahead and preparing our Howard County Fair Project for display in August. If the fair is cancelled because of Covid 19, we will just postpone using our posters until 2021. The following themes (boards) will be on display and up for discussion with our public.

Howard County Fair? We are ready!

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 3

We’ve all had a time when someone says, “Can you just tell me the answer please?”. Setting up a new garden can be intimidating to our clients. As MGs, we often wish we had an easier way to provide more guidance to questions like “What should I plant where?”. We want to try to make the process a little easier and match the desire for more organized, on-line content.

The Pollinator and Native Landscape committee has put together some tools to create a simple garden atlas. The atlas is tailored to the particular garden, has information about specific pollinators, links to credible re-sources like Missouri Botanical Garden, Maryland & Virginia Plant Atlas, Butterflies and Moths of North Amer-ica, etc. The program was designed to be as visual as possible. We’ve built in sections that highlight the host and phenology ties of plants and pollinators as well as a gardening guide and local nativity information.

We start with a list of plants and a hand sketch, and with a little effort come up with the guides you can find on our ‘Garden Templates’ tab under ‘Resources’ on the UME Pollinator and Native Landscape site: https://extension.umd.edu/mg/locations/howard-county-master-gardeners

The information behind the templates are based on over a year’s research of local nativity and plant-insect interactions. We’ve grateful for all the help we’ve been given by our committee and especially Drs. Droege, Tallamay, Fowler, Frye, Moreman, Weakley; Kerry Wixted, Judy Fulton and Joyce Jadik.

If you’d like to share a garden plan or learn more about your garden, please let us know. We’d be happy to help.

Much thanks for all that you do!

John Jadik, MG 2018

Creating A Garden Atlas for Pollinators and Natives Just Got Easier

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 4

Life for male native bees always seems fairly easy, with plenty of time to sleep while they await the appearance of fe-males. Male long-horned bees, named after their long antennae, sleep in communal ‘bee roosts’ clinging to leaves with their legs and mandibles. Once they do wake up though, the Melissodes are one of our fastest bees. Males can be seen zipping above sunflowers as they patrol for foraging females. In comparison, as single moms, the females have all the household chores. She must first dig a stepped tunnel into bare soil and add horizontal chambers to create each nest cell. Cells are then lined with a layer of waterproofing wax. By visiting flowers all day, a female long-horned bee can collect enough pollen to provision one nest. Once their day’s work is done however, the girls go for one final flower trip just to enjoy a sweet sugary drink for themselves before tucking in for the night in their nest. Pollen is carried on special long hairs on their rear legs that could be described as yellow legwarmers. Take a close look at a sunflower or coneflower first thing in the morning or in early evening when cooler temperatures slow them down, and you might see one of these bushy legged moms.

Attracting long-horned bees to your yard:

Mellisodes bees are mostly specialists, visiting only flowers in the Asteraceae plant family. To attract them to you yard include plants such as sunflowers, coneflowers, echinacea, Joe Pye weed, ironweed, goldenrods and native asters. As these bees dig their nest in bare soil, it is important to leave small areas of bare, untilled and relatively weed free ground in your yard.

Clare Walker, MG 2015

Backyard Bees July: Melissodes - The Speedy Longhorns

Group of male bees sleeping- notice their extremely long antennae. Debbie Ballentine CC BY-NC 2.9 Female long-horned bees can be identi-

fied by their ‘leg warmers’. John Baker CC BY 2.0

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 5

Ground Rules: 100 Easy Lessons for Growing a More Glorious Gar-den. Kate Frey, (2018). A perfect summer reading book--wedding practicality with aesthetics. A fascinating and easy read but not one with-out heft. The author, Kate Frey, is a world class sustaina-ble landscape designer with a focus on bio-diverse and ecological garden practices for both the professional and novice gardener. It is her goal to offer practical sugges-tions to create and maintain a garden that ‘fits,’ is healthy, and brings joy. Frey does this by offering 100 “rules” for gardening, each less than a page in length and accompanied by illustrative photos. She divides these into six sections which build on each other. She begins with Plan-ning, then offers The Joy of Plants, The Real Dirt, Be Wise with Water, How to be a Good Garden Parent, Birds, Bees, and Butterflies, and concludes with A Garden of Earthly Delights, tying together her 100 rules into a cohesive whole. If the suggestion of “rules” sounds daunting or off-putting, relax. The rules are suggestions of what she has found to work and not work in her gardening life. These include planning for a long season of garden interest and diversity and suggests some plants to consider. Think carefully about where you plant your garden paths, straight lines or curves, pools and eddies, stone or mulch and the like. Frey cautions about plants in containers, how to keep then drained but moist, watered but not drowned. She explains how not all mulches are equally beneficial and attractive. Soil is a recipient of a number of her rules. She discusses deadheading, attracting local life to the garden, mixing the fragrances of differ-ent plants. And thoughts on designing a paradise conclude the book. Use the garden for therapy, community, to elic-it emotion, to renew. For Frey, gardening is not a chore, it’s a way of life. It’s an expression of self, a font of joy, a balm for soothing and healing, a conduit to letting our thoughts and dreams flourish. I think we can all agree with that! For more information: http://freygardens.com

Pattee Fletcher, MG 2014

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 6

July’s Native Maryland Plants

Hypericum densiflorum Pursh.

(hy-PER-ee-kum den-see-FLOR-um)

Common Name: Dense St. John’s Wort

Hypericum prolificum L.

(hy-PER-ee-kum pro-LIF-ih-kum)

Common Name: Shrubby St. John’s Wort

This month, with the merging of July and August newsletters I decided to compare two plants that are in the same Genus. These Hypericum spp. bloom all summer long, are native to the Mid-Atlantic states and are often confused with one another. Four years ago I planted a single specimen of each so I could learn to dif-ferentiate them; I sited them near each other along my driveway where they get blazing afternoon sun and no additional maintenance. They have been blooming profusely since early June and because of their prox-imity to one another are easily distinguished.

(Continued on page 7)

Latin for Gardeners

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 7

At first glance you notice that both the flowers and the leaves of H. densiflorum are noticeably smaller than those of H. prolificum and there are more flowers to each inflorescence. True to its name, the habit and flowering of H. densiflorum is a much denser shrub with flowers that are tightly clustered. H. prolificum has a more open habit with slightly larger flowers that grow in less crowded clusters on a stem. The stems of each plant are worth a closer look: H. densiflorum is smooth and copper colored while mature H. prolificum appears woody and exfoliates in winter, exposing a light brown to orange bark.

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 8

Each plants’ flower has five petals and countless long yellow stamens that give the flower a frilly look -they can even obscure the petals. These flowers contain pollen but no nectar so bees are common visitors, butterflies are rare. Both shrubs are a host plant for the gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus).

NOTE: Foliage contains a phototoxic chemical which deters deer and other herbivores. Rutgers rates this plant a B: Seldom Severely Damaged by deer: https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/

Alison Milligan, MG 2013

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 9

Spring into Summer Garden

Spring turnover of the spring garden has begun. Super sugar snap peas have been pulled and replaced by okra. Broccoli and cauliflower were somewhat of a disappointment with small heads, caused probably by the cool early spring and rapid onset of heat. Lacinato kale was a great producer and is still producing. Last year’s garlic was also a disappointment. All of the spring crops have been pulled, except for the kale and replaced with second plantings (succession planting) of Jade green beans, Pantheon zucchini, Iznik cucumbers, Touchstone gold beets and Romance carrots. The first planting of these vegetables should be ready for initial harvest as you are reading this month’s newsletter. Hopefully, you have successfully planted some warm weather crops when you removed your cool season crops.

In the basement, I will be starting my fall broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and lettuces under my fluorescent troffer. A troffer is a drop ceiling fixture that is approximately 4’ by 2’. It holds 4 T-32 fluorescent tubes and allows me to raise four flats of plants at one time.

The April newsletter talked about making two bucket containers and container gardening in general. Since Mary’s raised beds only have 112 square feet of growing space, we have decided to try container garden-ing on her back deck which gets sun from 9:00 am until almost sun-down. We’ve gone a little overboard and have three container tomatoes (a Sun Gold cherry and two Little Mama’s which are a small Roma to-mato that Mary likes to roast) in 25-inch diameter pots. This picture doesn’t do the tomatoes justice, since they are over 4’ tall.

We are also growing Galine egg-plants, Gypsy peppers, Touchstone gold beets and Romanced carrots in double 5 gallon buckets.

We decided to grow all of our herbs in pots also. Shown are Red Rubin, Nufar, and Thai basil, French tarragon, rosemary and mint. As you can see, all of the containers are doing great. They are filled with soilless mix and fertilized every two weeks.

Kent Phillips, MG 2009

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 10

Backyard Bees August: Amazing Leaf Cutters

If you look carefully at leaves in your yard you might ponder the mystery of who has been punching out circles from the edg-es of the leaf. My young redbuds now look like they have been attacked by a crafter with a hole punch. These almost per-fect circular holes are, in fact, the work of special bees in the same family as mason bees, the Megachile. Unlike mason bees though, leaf-cutter bees are most active in summer not spring and use leaves to create nest chambers instead of mud. Like the mason bees, they make their nests in cavities – plant stalks, soft rotten wood or holes made by people (but they don’t drill holes like carpenter bees). Female bees collect pollen to provision each leaf lined chamber and lay a single egg in each until the cavity is filled. Bees can choose whether to lay a male or female egg – so eggs laid close to the cavity entrance, and most at risk from predators, are usually boys, as they are considered less important. Larvae spend the winter safely tucked inside the tubes before emerging as adults the following summer. Look for some of the common types of leaf-cutter bees on your flowers by noticing their tipped-up abdomens revealing the golden hairs that carry pollen grains on their ‘tummies’.

Attracting leaf-cutter bees to your yard:

Cavity nesting bees need shelter, leave dead stalks of hollow plant stems such as raspberry canes, elderberry, milkweeds, Joe Pye weed etc. Their favorite plants to cut leaf circles include redbuds and members of the rose family. As generalist foragers many native plants are great attractants including coneflowers, Black-eyed Susans, milkweeds, coreopsis, blazingstar and Joe Pye weed. Milkweeds have been found to produce more seeds when pollinated by leaf-cutter bees compared to other bees.

Clare Walker, MG 2015

Megachile are name after their large

mandibles used for cutting.

Cutting out a leaf circle. Jack Skipworth CC By-

NC 2.0

The bees use leaf circles to create individual nest chambers for their young within a cavity. Rob Cruikshank CC By 2.0.

Mechachile carry pollen on their ‘tummy’ – on special hairs on their abdomens. They often tip their abdomens upwards. JKehoe_Photos CC BY-NC 2.0.

LooseLeaf * July/August 2020 * Page 11

Go to the Howard County page of the Maryland MG website. Our calendar is in the upper right-hand column under the link to LooseLeaf. Click here to go directly to the MG Calendar. Look for dates, times, locations and contact information for MG activities in Howard County. Click on a specific listing for details.

Note: Many MG meetings, projects and activities have been postponed due to the Covid19. Please make a note to check the MG Calendar during the rest of the season.

Meetings, Events, Volunteer Options. Check the MG Electronic Calendar!

Certification Requirements Clarified for Calendar Year 2020

It has come to the editors’ attention that there’s a bit of confusion out there among our already certified MGs as to what will be required of them this calendar year to maintain certification and what should be recorded in the Volunteer Management System (VMS). We aren’t sure why, but there is a danger that folks might not realize that not all requirements have been waived. We offer this chart and clarification below as a way to capture and clarify who needs to do what to stay certified, and we include interns from this year’s sadly disrupted class. (Georgia has reviewed and approved this article.)

As you can see, Master Gardeners must complete their continuing education (CE) requirements and record

them in the VMS. Presumably, justification for this is that these hours can be easily acquired through virtual

media with no exposure to virus-laden environments. Actual volunteer hours have no minimum but we are

asked to record whatever we do for statistical purposes.

Interns have a slightly more complex situation. As always, any CE hours earned the year of training should be

written down but not entered into the VMS until the year following training (in this case starting January 2021).

They must complete a special project defined this way in a recent UME official document dated June 6:

“….Carry out an educational event by December 5. The concept is to do an activity, task, event of in-

terest to you related to the MG program and then write a brief summary of the task to be submitted to

the MG Coordinator [Georgia] by December 5. To help you in the decision regarding the task, please

submit the proposed activity to the Coordinator by Wednesday July 1.”

We hope this helps everyone understand the requirements for this year.

Roy Heath, MG 2011

Certification Requirements for CY 2020

Regular volunteer hours Continuing Education hours

Master Gardeners

No minimal hours but please rec-

ord anything worked in the VMS

Must earn and record in VMS the usual mini-

mum of 10 hours by December 5.

Interns (class of

2020)

No minimum but must complete a

special project and record related

hours by December 5 (see below)

Can earn hours but do not record them in VMS

this year. Hold them for entry into VMS after

Jan 2021.