April 2020 Update

Hello fellow Gardeners,

First the latest Museum news: The Strawberry Festival has been postponed to September 12-13
Mary and Andrea are sheltering the plants that were started for the Strawberry Festival in the greenhouses of Century and Sherwood High Schools. A drive-thru plant sale is being discussed for mid-May. Details will be available in early May.

Mary's Greenhouse

See videos from our own members:
Amy shows her beautiful fairy gardens on Welcome to My Fairy Garden, here.
Kathy and Betsy talk about an invasive plant Hairy Bittercress, here

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Hope you are all staying safe and healthy, enjoying your gardens and the time you spend in them. There are so many benefits to gardening:

Exposure to Vitamin D, which benefits your bones and immune system.
Gardening could lower your risk of dementia by 36 percent.
In a recent study gardening lowers the level of the stress hormone cortisol.
Pulling weeds, reaching for various plants and tools, and twisting and bending as you plant will work new muscles in your body and help with strength, stamina, and flexibility.
It can lower your blood pressure.
Mindful presence is tied to a long list of positive effects like relationship satisfaction and less emotional reactivity.
Studies have found evidence that being in a green space is linked with better recovery from surgery, less anxiety and depression, and better stress management.
And we all know that sharing our joy of gardening with others brings many friendships.

(Sources 1 , 2

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Do you have a favorite gardening tool, a new cool tool you have found or an old standby?

Mary Dominique, an active Garden Club member and Master Gardener has some favorites:

The hori hori, a Japanese digging tool that is great for weeding, transplanting and dividing plants.

She also recommends the HERS shovel, which comes in three lengths and is ergonomically designed to maximize women's strengths and minimize strain.

The expanding rake is also great in the fall and spring to get leaves out from between plants.

Another popular tool is the cobra head weeder, a curved steel rod with a flattened tip.

The loop hoe is a versatile hand tool used to remove weeds like a traditional hoe, but with a thin steel loop that is 3 inches wide.

Other garden necessities include:

Plant stakes for those floppy flowers like peonies.

Plant markers like these from Dollar Tree.

Bulb markers - Anita is putting a cut up garden hose around tulips so she doesn't dig into them later.

And Anthony has made these moveable planters out of water troughs.

Daphne Genkwa

Some beautiful Spring blooms from Mary's garden:

Trilium

Magnolia

***********************************************************************

"Flowers can't solve all problems, but they're a great start."

Since we can't go on Garden Tours, spend some time looking at gardens of the world and learning about gardening in your own backyard. (Click on highlighted items)

Search Results

Web

Virtual Garden Tours
Newsletter of the Home and Garden Information Center

Please feel free to add a comment below or send photos and articles to
Jan Baweja, janbaw2@gmail.com.
Also follow us on Facebook - facebook.com/sandy spring museum garden club
Gardening has NOT been canceled.

March 2020 Update

Welcome to the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club Update

This blog update is an endeavor to keep us all connected and informed; visit member and regional gardens through photos, advice and recommendations; and highlight articles and websites about gardening and wildlife. Happy Gardening!!

The April 19th Program has been postponed until 2021.

===========================================================

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL PREPARATIONS

We are in a time of unprecedented flux. A great stress reducer is getting out into your garden. Spring is bursting forth with its hopeful flourish. Time in the garden is well spent just nurturing the beds, adding the yearly compost, pulling those tenacious weeds. And if you find you have unwanted upstarts of perennials, or need to thin out a hearty bunch, we ask garden club members to pot those extra plants to benefit the Museum.

So, look a daffodil in the face and take a deep breath. Together we will get through this.

Sincerely,

Your co-chairs for the Strawberry Festival

Kathy Ramienski and Anita Gilbert

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GARDENING WITH FRIENDS

In the next few issues we will be highlighting the garden of one of our members. The first is Anita Gilbert. Those of you who helped with or enjoyed the 2019 Garden Tour may have seen this well-planned garden and the beautiful artwork by Anita and her husband, Anthony Vodraska. As spring vegetables and flowers arrive, she eagerly awaits the perennials and self-sowing annuals to emerge, some to be moved to other locations or to be potted up for future plant sales and exchanges.

This Spring's blooms-

Photos from May, 2018

How to Identify Insect Pests in Your Vegetable Garden

by Maryland Grows

Mike Raupp, "The Bug Guy" for the University of Maryland Extension, explains how, like a crime scene investigator, you can use clues to find out what types of insects are causing damage in your garden. Look for telltale signs like chewed leaves, discoloration, distortion, dieback, and insect products.

Read more of this post

Video to see:
The Gardener - Created over 75 years and three generations, Les Quatre Vents stands as an enchanted place of beauty and surprise, a horticultural masterpiece of the 21st century. See how Frank Cabot gave birth to one of the greatest gardens in the world.
On Amazon and Hulu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Garden Club

While being responsible for planning, landscaping, and maintaining the museum’s Courtyard Garden, the Garden Club offers quarterly programs, trips, and interactive and creative workshops. Some of the fun activities include the Plant Booth at the Museum’s annual Strawberry Festival, the Holiday Greens Sale, and the bi-annual Garden Tour, featuring beautiful local, private, and historic gardens.

Garden Club Membership

Membership in the Garden Club is open to all Museum members; in other words, anyone is welcome to join. Guests are welcome to attend any function. By becoming a member of the Garden Club, you have the opportunity to meet new people, have a great time while learning, and support the Museum, all while expanding the community’s knowledge of horticulture. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Garden Club, please e-mail us at gardenclub@sandyspringmuseum.org or call 301-774-0022 (x 104) for more information.
=====================================================================

Please feel free to add a comment below or send photos and articles to
Jan Baweja, janbaw2@gmail.com.
Also follow us on Facebook - facebook.com/sandy spring museum garden club
Gardening has NOT been canceled.