Washington Gardener Magazine October 2014

OCTOBER 2014 VOL. 9 NO. 5

WWW.WASHINGTONGARDENER.COM

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The magazine for gardening enthusiasts in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Ramps: Wild Leeks of Appalachia October Garden Tasks Local Events List

5 Flower Bulbs You Should Grow Meet Michael McConkey of Edible Landscaping Don’t Move Firewood Before-After of a Garden for an Orange House New Elderberry Introduction

Rhododendrons Disturb Soil Nitrogren Cycle

Winterthur: Last of the Wild Gardens

SAVE THESE DATES!!!

Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges 2015

• January 31, 2015 at Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD • February 7, 2015 at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA

Philadelphia Flower Show Trips 2015

• March 4, 2015 depart from downtown Silver Spring, MD • March 5, 2015 depart from Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD

Discounts for WG Magazine Subscribers!!!

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RESOURCESsourc

Need a Garden Club Speaker?

Washington Gardener Magazine’s staff and writers are available to speak to groups and garden clubs in the greater DC region.

Call 301.588.6894 or email wgardenermag@aol.com for available dates, rates, and topics.

Burtonsville, MD (301) 821-7777

RARE AND EXCEPTIONAL PLANTS FOR THE DISCRIMINATING GARDENER AND COLLECTOR

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Green Spring Gardens

www.greenspring.org

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A “must visit” for everyone in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. It’s a year-round gold mine of information and inspiration for the home gardener. It’s an outdoor classroom for children and their families to learn about plants and wildlife. It’s also a museum, a national historic site that offers glimpses into a long, rich history with colonial origins.

Located at 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria, VA. Information: 703-642-5173.

OCTOBER 2014

University of Maryland Extension Website Blog Facebook Twitter

extension.umd.edu/growit groweat.blogspot.com Grow It Eat It GrowEat

Ask HGIC your food gardening questions!

INSIDEcontents

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FEATURES and COLUMNS

BEFOREafter 6 New Garden for an Orange House BOOKreviews 8-11 Edible Landscaping/ Permaculture, Finding Good Farmland, Plantiful, Home Ground, Sustainable Market Farming, Backyard Foraging DAYtrip 18-20 Winterthur GOINGnative 21 Ramps NEIGHBORnetwork 12-13 Michael McKonkey, Edible Landscaping PLANTprofile 22 Minor Bulbs GARDENnews 14-15 October Task List, Blog Links, New Plant Spotlight, Don’t Move Firewood, Rhododendrons Change Soil Nitrogren Levels

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DEPARTMENTS

ADVERTISINGindex EDITORletter GARDENcontest LOCALeventlist NEXTissue RESOURCESsources

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ON THE COVER

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Merri Schipperiet and Cheval Force Opp play in the Tulip Tree House in the Enchanted Garden at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware.

In Our Next Issue: NOVEMBER 2014 Growing Leeks Dealing with Spider Mites Local Garden Events and much more...

Be sure you are subscribed to:

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EDITORletter

Credits Kathy Jentz Editor/Publisher & Advertising Sales Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: 301.588.6894 wgardenermag@aol.com www.washingtongardener.com Call today to place your ad with us!

Drena J. Galarza Staff Photographer photo@washingtongardener.com Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Proofreader Cover price: $4.99 Back issues: $6.00 Subscription: $20.00 Foreign subscription: $24.00 Address corrections should be sent to the address above.

Garden Touring Here I am with fellow garden communicators Leslie McDermott and Kate Copsey at the recent Garden Writers Association symposium. This year, the national meeting was in Pittsburgh, PA, and we had a wonderful time touring public and private gardens, attending talks, and networking. If we look a bit off-balance, it is not because of over-indulging, but because we are on the steep backyard garden of a private home overlooking the city.

One of the best parts about being a garden communicator is access to private gardens such as these. I glean so much from these “real” gardens that I can share in this publication and at my garden club talks. I also post photo albums of these garden tour visits to the Washington Gardener Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine) and invariably get comments asking about certain plant combinations and variety selections. We each cannot grow everything in our own gardens, but we can surely pool our knowledge and learn much from each other’s gardening failures and successes.

I hope you will take advantage of the Garden Conservancy Open Day in Washington, DC, on Saturday, October 18. See the event details on page 16 and read about one of the garden’s transformations detailed on page 4.

Happy gardening!

Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher, Washington Gardener Email: wgardenermag@aol.com 4

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• Washington Gardener Blog: www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com • Washington Gardener Archives: http://issuu.com/washingtongardener • Washington Gardener Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ WashingtonGardener/ • Washington Gardener Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/WDCGardener • Washington Gardener is a womanowned business. We are proud to be members of: · Garden Writers Association · Think Local First DC · DC Web Women · Green America Magazine Leaders Network · Green America Business Network Retail stores wishing to sell our publication should contact Kathy Jentz at the contact information above.

To order reprints, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877.652.5295, ext. 138.

Volume 9, Number 5 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2014 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published quarterly.

No material may be reproduced without written permission. This magazine is purchased by the buyer with the understanding that the information presented is from various sources from which there can be no warranty or responsibility by the publisher as to legality, completeness, or technical accuracy.

READERcontt

Reader Reactions Although I always enjoyed leafing through the paper magazine (especially the photos), I totally understand your decision to go all digital. The September issue was a treat.

In addition to the many virtues that you explained, it means that my back issues are now collectors’ items! :) ~ Sue Hauser, Kensington, MD Good decision, improved frequency, expanded information – smart girl. I read it online and even I could do it and LOVE it! Good job! ~ Nancy A. Burns, Gainesville, VA Washington Gardener is a wonderful magazine in any format. I’m glad you will still be able to publish it. ~ Martha Smith, Washington, DC All the best to you in your new endeavor. We will continue reading, ~ Linda Daisley, All Hallows’ Guild, WDC My favorite article in the September 2014 issue is the September Garden To-Do list, as this is always my favorite part of the magazine. I find this list to be extremely helpful and informative, although I may not always do all that I should be doing, at least I can aspire to doing more in a timely manner. I also find this list very helpful for guiding my husband, who loves to work in the garden, but does not always know what he should be doing when. I go through the list multiple times, both in the magazine and with the email items as well, and can mention specific items to him when he is heading outside to work. I think this is really great for new and intermediate gardeners who have good intentions, but may not always know what to leave alone when and what to tend to immediately. ~ Robin Yaure, Ijamsville, MD My favorite article in the September 2014 issue was “Dealing with Eastern Yellow Jackets.” Unfortunately, this was after I had recently been stung by several yellow jackets, which I had unintentionally disturbed while watering in my garden. ~ Cindy Haney, Falls Church, VA Much love to Kathy for continuing this informative magazine. I hate reading online especially as I grow older, but I can print it out on cheaper paper. So it’s OK by me. ~ Elzabeth Spar, Alexandria, VA

Share Your ReaderReaction

Send to Washington Gardener at wgardenermag@aol.com o

Reader Contest: Win MD Home Show Passes

For our October 2014 Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away five sets of passes to the Maryland Home & Holiday Show (retail value: $18.00).

To enter to win a pair of passes, send an email to: WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by 10:00am on October 17 with “MD Holiday Show” in the subject line and in the body of the email. Please also include your full name and mailing address. Tell us: “What is your favorite thing about gardening in autumn?” The pass winners will be announced and notified by email by October 18.

The Maryland Home & Holiday Show will be held at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, MD, from Friday, October 17, through Sunday, October 19, 2014.

More than 300 exhibitors: hundreds of knowledgeable contractors, landscapers, designers and house product gurus who will be showing off the latest trends in home improvement and answering questions about how to get started with, continue or add the finishing touch to home projects of any size. Visitors will walk through beautifully landscaped seasonal settings that incorporate hardscaping, native trees and shrubs, and fall flowers into breathtaking garden displays.

Tickets to the Maryland Home & Holiday Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds are $9 for adults, $7 for seniors, $3 for kids ages 6-12, and free for children under 6 years old. Free admission is also available for active military, police and fire employees with ID. The Maryland Home & Holiday Show is sponsored by M&T Bank.

For more information on the show, visit http://www.mdhomeandgarden.com/fall or

Y ou Can Make a Difference. . .

by Sharing Your Harvest

Plant an extra row in your garden and deliver the harvest to a local food bank or shelter. The need is great!

With your help, PAR can continue to make a difference for America’s most vulnerable.

Call our toll-free number (877.GWAA.PAR) or visit our website at www.gardenwriters.org/par for more information.

OCTOBER 2014

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BEFOREafter

A Garden for an Orange House with a Powder-Blue Deck When landscape designer Scott Brinitzer of Scott Brinitzer Design Associates stepped out of his car in 2010 for an initial meeting with a new client, he saw that the house was painted orange.

“This is not likely to be a traditional DC garden,” he thought.

Scott had been called because a recent storm had taken down some 20' Leyland Cypress in the back yard and the homeowners wanted their privacy back, as well as a new design that reflected their style more than what they had.

Stepping into the back yard, Scott saw that not only was the house orange but a deck had been painted powder-blue.

Clearly this homeowner’s taste and style were different than any other he had encountered in his 26-year career.

He soon learned that the colors were a reference to the country the owners came from, The Netherlands.

The existing yard was sloping, with a 10-foot drop from the house to the back property line and formed almost a perfect square. Slicing across the middle parallel to the house was a deteriorating timber retaining wall with some steps.

The design that Scott came up with rejected the linear plan. Instead, he created terraces with curvaceous stucco retaining walls in Aztec gold, a color that wouldn’t fight with the orange house. A second lower deck in powderblue was added to visually complete the form of the existing upper deck. Friends could be entertained there, in (not above) the garden. Pea gravel was chosen for the paving material, which Scott calls a “palette cleanser,” a neutral note in a sea of high color.

The planting design was simple: • Steeplechase Arborvitae to replace the missing Leyland Cypress screening.

• Three Yoshino Cherry trees to balance the size of the Arbovitaes and provide spring color.

• Three Summer Snowflake Viburnum as accents.

• Knockout Roses for bright summer color.

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by Carolyn Mullet

Before

During

BEFOREafter • Hummingbird Clethra at the base of the lower deck for summer fragrance.

• Walker’s Low Nepeta & Spicata Liriope as ground covers.

Final touches were the addition of a powder-blue ladder to enliven the blank part of the house’s orange back wall and placement of the homeowners’ redand-yellow painted furniture.

“This project is a little bit of a Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” Scott says thoughtfully. “Not trying too hard. Not formal.

Just comfortable. A garden meant to impress the homeowner and no one else.”

This garden has been chosen to be part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days, which return to our area on Saturday, October 18, after a four-year hiatus. Four private gardens of various styles will be open to the public. For Garden Conservancy details, visit www. gardenconservancy.org. o Carolyn Mullet is a landscape designer and owner of Carex: Garden Design by Carolyn Mullet in Takoma Park, MD. She can be reached at camullet@gmail.com or http://carexdesign.com.

Note: Scott Brinitzer Design Associates is based in Arlington, VA, but services the entire DC metro area. You can contact Scott on his company’s web site at http://www.brinitzer.com. To see more of his recent work, visit his Houzz profile, http://www.houzz.com/pro/scottbrinitzerdesign/scott-brinitzer-designassociates.

After

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BOOKreviews makes growing mushrooms look not only doable and safe but also fun, with the added benefit of creating excellent compost. As for fruit, he showcases several attractive varieties that are well suited to growing in our local zones, and how to train or prune them for the home landscape. His earthen ovens are works of art! The descriptions make them look like a project that could actually be achievable by the layperson; very tempting indeed. Perhaps “accessibility” is the main strength of this book.

Edible Landscaping With a Permaculture Twist: How to Have Your Yard and Eat It Too

By Michael Judd Published by Ecologia Design List Price: $24.95 Reviewer: Martha Sykora If you think edible landscaping and permaculture are concepts best suited to large rural homesteads and scientists, think again! In this informative and attractively illustrated how-to manual, Michael Judd shows suburbanites “how to have your yard and eat it too.” True homesteaders and urban dwellers will also benefit from Judd’s practical instructions.

Self-taught from experience gained in Central and South America and an ecovillage in North Carolina, the author has a clear and accessible writing style.

(He currently resides in Frederick, MD.) Three of his chapter topics were previously incorporated in my own property (Herb Spiral, the Ultimate Raised Bed; Rainwater Harvesting, Swales and Rain Gardens; and Hugelkultur, Mounds of Fertility) and I can confirm that his explanations and illustrations do an excellent job of first explaining the concepts with just enough and not too much detail. Before going into clear step-by-step how-to mode, Judd next provides lists of materials and suggestions for where to find them inexpensively or repurposed, and he completes each chapter with a helpful resource list for further information.

Additional chapters include Fungi; Food Forests; Uncommon Fruits; and Earthen Ovens. Various recipes are included as appropriate. This author 8

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The number of published works on the trending topics of edible landscaping and permaculture is increasing, and some good ones are already out there. Do you really need this book? Yes! The title already in my library I used for comparison is Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden, A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. It is a wellknown classic and a wonderful reference.

But for joyful inspiration that comes from being helped to realize that yes, you too can try these things at home and expect success, go first to Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist. It is clear, encouraging, and humorous, not only a good reference but also a how-to book you will take out in the mud with you. Enjoy.

Martha Sykora has been lucky to try gardening in climates as diverse as Maryland, Colorado, and England. She currently lives in a LEED-certified homestead-wannabe in Annapolis. The bees haven’t survived a full year yet but the vermiculture composting operation is doing well. Next addition: insectary gardens!

Finding Good Farmland: How to Evaluate and Acquire Land for Raising Crops and Animals

By Ann Larkin Hansen Published by Storey Publishing List Price: $9.95 Reviewer: Liz McGuiness “This book assumes that you are looking for rural property to use as your primary residence with the intention of engaging in small-scale organic farming of some type…”

This is a small, no-nonsense book that delivers what it promises: how to find and purchase good farmland.

While the book is written for those who wish to enter into organic farming, it is also appropriate for anyone who is new

to purchasing land or even an old farmhouse in a rural area.

The book concisely covers a wide range of subjects starting with Location — where to look for land and how to begin the search. This chapter provides practical advice about what is needed to farm successfully to clarify your ideas while you look for available farmland. Chapters two, three, and four deal with aspects of specific properties: water, good land, and buildings and utilities. These chapters provide useful guidance on what to look at and how to assess critical parts of a farm.

Illustrations of key infrastructure such as wells and septic systems are provided to support the discussion. As someone who has not lived in a rural area, I found these chapters very informative.

In fact, based on the information provided, I helped a relative who is in the process of purchasing a farmhouse learn about the quality of the land they are buying.

The next two chapters cover important topics that may be overlooked in the initial excitement of selecting farmland: neighbors and government regulations. However, overlooking these two subjects, which will affect the quality of life on your farm, could lead to disappointment or worse farther down the road. As the author points out, meeting the neighbors is like meeting your in-laws. In these days of “fracking,” it is even more important to learn in advance of purchase, who the neighbors are and what they are doing. The

BOOKreviews chapter on government regulations reviews the various types of regulations that could be in place, such as building codes, land division and zoning ordinances, etc., and what they mean. It also covers government services such as roads.

Chapters seven and eight cover how to finance the purchase of farmland and alternative ways to acquire land without purchasing it. Although brief, these chapters provide references to sources of farm financing, farming education, mentorship or apprenticeship opportunities, and alternatives to purchasing farmland.

This book is designed to be read in it’s entirety before making an offer on any farm property. The book is like an annotated checklist of the important (and there are many) elements one needs to consider when looking for and purchasing farmland. One of its strengths is the vast number of references to resources online or elsewhere.

The small size makes it an easy read and even easier to carry around while shopping for land. One small quibble with the book is that, even though it is recently published, it does not mention Kickstarter.com. New or would-be farmers are now using this site to crowd-source financing for farmland.

Additionally, one of the links provided in the book went to a non-functioning web site. This suggests that the services for start-up farmers are evolving.

Other than those two small issues, I would highly recommend this book for those who are inexperienced with rural life but who wish to purchase farmland or an old property in the country.

Liz McGuinness is training to be a master gardener in Washington, DC.

Plantiful: Start small, grow big with 150 plants that spread, self-sow, and overwinter

By Kristin Green Published by Timber Press List Price: $24.95 Reviewer: Kathy Parrent Plantiful promises to help us save money and time on plants, quickly creating a diverse and flourishing garden by choosing spreading plants and selfsowers, collecting seeds, propagating by various means, and overwintering.

It’s a cleverly written and engaging book, full of practical advice, particularly on propagation and overwintering.

It includes a helpful directory of flowers and shrubs, with photos to identify them, describing each plant’s needs and how to reproduce it.

A horticulturist at Blithewood Mansion, Gardens, & Arboretum in Bristol, Rhode Island, Kristen Green has compiled a list of 150 plants that will spread vigorously without demanding supplemental watering, fertilizers, or pesticides. Throughout the book, she encourages gardeners to be playful — experimenting with serendipity — to see what plants thrive, while taking “editorial control” by transplanting and cutting back.

It is an appealing premise, but when dealing with spreaders, it is important to distinguish between handsome groundcover and an invasive menace that will disturb the ecology of an area. Yet Green soft-pedals the risks of tenacious spreaders and disregards which plants are invasive in what locations. Her view is that “…each of us has a different tolerance threshold.

One person’s devil is another’s favorite groundcover.”

To her credit, she devotes an entire chapter to the question “Opportunistic or Invasive?” In it she writes: “…the most insidious invasives destroy habitat not only by taking over wild areas but by having inedible chemistry, depriving native insects, and consequently the rest of the food chain — our favorite songbirds and other wildlife — with the energy they need for survival. Invasive species are a bad, bad thing. But I cry

foul whenever a plant that is easy to control within a well-tended garden is called invasive. We can enjoy rambunctious plants while maintaining an intolerance and healthy fear of the truly invasive ones.”

Before choosing a spreader, she recommends doing some research on www.invasiveplantatlas.org, www. invasive.org/species.cfm, www.plants. usda.gov, or www.issg.org/database/ welcome.

I also find it troubling that she focuses on “pushing the zone” as opposed to using native plants to preserve habitat for the native species they serve. She encourages us to “borrow exotic contrasts from Asia and Africa, super-saturated late-summer colors from central and South America, and succulent sculpture from the American Southwest.” While many of us find plants that are not native to the Washington area to be very alluring, we strive to create a mostly native garden. In its lack of awareness of the importance of natives, Plantiful could have been written before the first Earth Day in 1970!

Aside from these criticisms, the book will no doubt be a helpful guide to beginners and old hands alike. Most valuable are the sections on using spreaders as fillers, managing volunteers, dividing, taking cuttings, seed collection, and sowing, and the summaries of the 150 plants.

Kathy Parrent is a writer and gardener in Silver Spring, MD. She runs “Green Thumb to the Rescue” on Facebook.

Home Ground: Sanctuary in the City

By Dan Pearson Published by Conran/Octopus List Price: $29.99 Reviewer: Teri Speight Dan Pearson is known for his excellent and award-winning taste when it comes to designing, planting, and maintaining gardens. With a London-based practice and a busy life, Dan Pearson is a writer as well — quite a good writer in my opinion. With television appearances, several books, and five Chelsea Flower Shows gardens on his list of accomplishments, Dan draws you in with his Book Reviews continued on next page OCTOBER 2014

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BOOKreviews Sustainable Market Farming

By Pam Dawling Published by New Society Publishers List Price: $34.95 Reviewer: Erica H. Smith Two things must be said before I begin this review. First, do not stop reading here if you are not currently, or interested in becoming, a market farmer.

Second — and I am neither of those, just an enthusiastic food gardener who wants to learn more — this is the rare book I went straight from reviewing (while making lots of indecorous “ooh!” noises) to ordering for myself. It is just that good, and that useful.

Pam Dawling knows farming. For more than 20 years, she’s been growing at the Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, words while sharing his personal garden providing food for 100 people on 3 ½ acres. Although she has many insights journey. for farmers who grow for CSAs, farmer’s Upon realizing that he was not the markets, or supermarkets, this is not a type of person who was an apartment book about the business of farming; it dweller, Dan and his partner Huw set does cover, in detail, the management out to find the perfect place away from the city. When they happened upon what of everything from planning to planting would end up being their place of peace, to harvest. Her plans and charts relate to the small-scale farm she knows well, Dan instantly saw, amidst the overbut most could be scaled up for use on grown pathways, sunken terrace, and bigger farms, or scaled down to a large abandoned compost piles — his vision garden. And backyard hobbyists will became their reality... an oasis in the find much valuable information in this midst of the untamed, neglected home and garden. This book shares how, upon book, even if they’re not feeding anyone recognizing his desire to actively garden but their own families, and not building in his own yard, the couple moved in and hoophouses, working with shifting crews Dan began this awesome journey of cre- of volunteer labor, or investing in large amounts of seed or row cover. ating his personal space.

Why is this book so valuable? To begin This book invites the reader to be a with, it’s based in real-life experience, part of Dan’s thought processes and and the author never generalizes, but shares experiences of the tools he likes provides lots of detail and many specific to use and, the plants he likes, dislikes, examples from her years of growing and isn’t too sure about. His success, vegetables.

This does make for a long failures, and changes of mind are very book, at over 400 pages, but it’s wellmuch like many gardeners that we know, organized and the reader can flip easily but the pictures are absolutely wonderto the part of the book that’s of most ful. A great read for seasoned and begininterest.

The experiences presented ner gardeners or even for those who are of particular value to Washington dream of vicariously gardening through Gardener readers, as Dawling, like us, Dan Person’s experiences. grows in zone 7a, and deals with many Teresa Speight is a native Washingtonian, of the same climate and pest issues. It’s who resides in District Heights, MD. She owns also a very readable book, and — this is Cottage In The Court Landscape Consulting. strangely unusual in gardening books — She owes her interest in gardening to her demonstrates a gentle sense of humor. father and the Central Rappahannock Master I also appreciate that, when Dawling Gardeners, who taught her how to be a true doesn’t know something, she says so, “steward of the land.” She can be reached at and when she thinks there’s a better cottageinthecourt@gmail.com. book out there to explain a topic, she 10

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Don’t be fooled by the title, food gardeners.

This book is for you. (And if you are starting a farm, it’s for you, too.) recommends it. No one book on food growing can tell you everything (though this book tells you a lot).

The text is divided into two major sections: techniques and crops. The techniques section covers planning (topics such as crop rotation, scheduling, buying and storing seed, and general organization), planting (transplantation, sowing, germination, succession planning, and other tips), sustainable crop protection (season extension, hoophouse growing), soil and crop quality (soil fertility and cover crops, as well as sustainable disease, pest, and weed management), and harvest (including storage). The crops section is organized by general type and then by specific vegetable crop, and provides plenty of pertinent information about growing each; with the minor exception that Dawling doesn’t see a lot of squash vine borer, I found this one of the handiest summaries I’ve seen, and the most relevant to my experience.

I’d recommend this book mostly for readers who’ve been growing vegetables for a year or more, but it would probably be useful as well for beginners who are not easily overwhelmed by massive amounts of detail. This is a book I’ll take with me to demonstration garden planning meetings, and pore over while I’m deciding what to plant in my own community garden plot. I couldn’t possibly list all the golden nuggets I know I’ll be referring to, but here are a few

BOOKreviews have an interest in expanding your edible palette, this could be a great book to add to your collection. I know I’m going to be out there next growing season picking bee balm and spicebush for tea, sampling my hostas and stonecrop sedum, making pesto out of garlic mustard, and trying some Japanese knotweed shoots (if I can find a stand that isn’t exposed to car exhaust). And since I have to thin the daylilies anyway, the tubers might as well become lunch.

samples: a list of the soil temperatures various seeds prefer for germination; a list of killing temperatures for hardy and non-hardy vegetables; ideas for a field manual; a cover crops chart; a plan for sowing lettuce year-round; a chart of storage temperatures for various crops.

And so forth. There are pages I won’t read again, because they deal with farmscale activities I’m not engaged in, but those are few and far between.

Don’t be fooled by the title, food gardeners. This book is for you. (And if you are starting a farm, it’s for you, too.)

Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat

By Ellen Zachos Published by Storey Publishing List Price: $16.95 Reviewer: Erica H. Smith Gardeners often divide the plant world into two categories: ornamental and edible, the latter including the common garden vegetables, fruits, and herbs that are usually grown in segregated areas and possibly behind a fence. Some of us subscribe to the concept of edible landscaping, planting our blueberries in the front yard or peppers in the flower bed.

But few of us think of making a meal from our ornamental flowers, groundcovers, shrubs, or weeds. Backyard Foraging’s aim is to show us how.

The book is a fun and fascinating read; a short, but fairly detailed introduction to the idea of eating from the land, whether that means cultivated private property, parks and public areas, or woods and fields. As a gardener who’s researched a fairly wide range of edibles, I already knew that many of the plants Zachos discusses could be eaten (which doesn’t mean I’ve actually tried them), but there were surprises: I had no idea that the young shoots, leaves, and flowers of spiderwort could be added to my dinner, or that many parts of milkweed are good to eat.

If you’re concerned about the safety of gathering plants to consume, rest assured. Literally the first words in this book are “But how do you know it’s safe?” and Zachos repeatedly emphasizes that pickers should be 100% certain of the identity of plants, should avoid foraging from polluted areas, and should try each new food in moderation

in case of allergies or other adverse reactions. She also outlines methods for picking from the wild (or our backyards) while assuring that we won’t harvest plants into extinction, and reminds us to always ask permission before foraging on land we don’t own. I also appreciated the advice specific to certain plants, for example, to harvest fiddleheads only from ostrich ferns and to only pick fronds that are still tightly furled, and to choose mushrooms with pores or teeth, not gills, if you’re unsure of your identification abilities (which I certainly am!).

The book begins with general information about where, when, and how to harvest, including a list of tools one might want to own, and then continues with entries on particular plants, divided by edible part (leaves and stems; flowers and fruits; nuts and seeds; roots, tubers, and rhizomes; fungi). Each entry contains photos; details on where to find the plant; how and when to harvest it (with additional notes if the plant is likely to be rare, in which case harvesting should be done with caution, or invasive, in which case you can take all you want); and how to prepare it. Finally, the book covers preservation and cooking ideas, with a few recipes, and sources for further study.

The selection of plants includes North American natives and introduced species. A few of the entries are irrelevant to DC-area residents (unless we’re traveling) because they won’t grow in our zone, but most of the edibles mentioned will be familiar to local readers. If you

Erica Smith is a University of Maryland Extension Master Gardener for Montgomery County, but has yet to master the groundhogs and weeds in her own Germantown, MD, garden. She is lead gardener for vegetables at the Master Gardeners’ demonstration garden in Derwood, MD; runs and writes for UME’s Grow It Eat It blog; and, has her own blog, Rogue Eggplant.

Love Reading?

These books were reviewed by volunteer members of the Washington Gardener Reader Panel. We are looking for a few additional volunteers who live in the greater Washington, DC, region to serve on our Reader Panel. This will consist of about two email exchanges per month. Reader Panelists may also be asked to review new gardening books and test out new garden plants, tools, and seeds.

To join the Washington Gardener Volunteer Reader Panel, please send an email with your name and address to: wgardenermag@aol.com.

We look forward to having you be a vital part of our local publication and its gardening mission. o OCTOBER 2014

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NEIGHBORnî‚şwork

Q&A with Michael McKonkey

by Kathy Jentz

We caught up with Michael McKonkey of Edible Landscaping at the recent Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. Almost 30 years ago, Mike gave up a career as a musician to start a nursery specializing in harvestable plants.

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Q: Tell us about yourself and your background. Are you native to the DC region?

A: There were no real gardeners in the family. I grew up, along with my brothers, in the DC suburbs in Prince George’s County in Adelphi near

Langley Park, MD. Our backyard bordered NorthWest Branch Park, which I loved as a kid. It was not developed and the creek and woods had abundant reptiles, fish, and plant species, but I never saw a deer.

I was born downtown at the old Sibley

NEIGHBORnwork hospital when it was on 9th Street NW and we moved to 18th Avenue when I was four.

Gardening came much later in life for me. In my twenties, I was making a living (sort of) in Canada, playing music.

Then the “back to the land movement” introduced me to real food and I kinda got zapped.

Q: How did you start your nursery Edible Landscaping?

A: After my music stint in Canada, I desperately wanted to garden. My brother offered his backyard, off of Cool Spring Road in Adelphi. I built a yurt and, for the next 10 years, planted every edible I could find. I had a few landscaping jobs, one in Baltimore and one in Potomac. I used some plants from my own collection for these jobs, since I couldn’t find the varieties in the area. So that was the beginning of a nursery of sorts.

Then, once upon a time, I met Dr. Elwyn Meader, a fruit breeder from Rochester, NH. I was at a natural living conference in Boston when I took a train 80 miles north and stayed a weekend with one of the finest horticulturalists ever. His collection of fruits was amazing and he introduced me to hardy kiwi, which he’d brought back from Korea while serving in the military years before. Since he was up in years, he asked me if I would propagate the plant, so he could tell other visitors where to obtain the plants. I agreed and I rooted 25 plants the following year. That same year, he was front cover of National Gardening magazine with a smile on his face and a kiwi in his hand, looking like the Quaker Oats guy, whom he resembled. The article focused on the hardy kiwi, where my name and address were mentioned for plants at the end of the interview. Soon my brother’s mailbox had $14,000 worth of orders for kiwi.

I went on to fill those orders as Edible Landscaping mail-order nursery. The plants were all grown in pots, so I could fill the orders as quickly as the plants were rooted. To this day, we still ship in pots.

Q: What is typical a workday like?

A: In 1987, I established the nursery in Afton, VA. It is nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains, west of Charlottesville. The

varieties were, I’d look at the not-so-popular varieties and they’d catch my attention with their ease of care. My ideals were high, all organic. So as I failed with nectarines and apricots, plants like gooseberries were easy, new, and interesting.

Now my favorite fruits to grow are natives like pawpaws, persimmons, juneberries, and muscadine grapes.

Asian persimmons plus the Chinese jujube, figs, and pomegranates. Adding to that parade of fresh food in the summer and fall, I’d include America’s favorites, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberry.

Asian Persimmons on an orchard tree.

phone rings, orders and questions and folks stopping by. Surrounded by the George Washington National Forest with several greenhouses and an orchard of abundance, the activity hums on a typical day, There’s plants to propagate and plants being delived by trucks. The web site is constantly updated, and for me, it’s up and down from computer to greenhouse or to a tour or just answering a question from a visitor. Weeds to be pulled and plants to water. The 14 ducks appear, then move on, rototilling (digging in the dirt with their beaks) in the ground as they go.

Q: What mistakes and triumphs have you encountered in fruit-growing in our region?

A: For 10 years, I’d given myself the opportunity to plant everything edible in my brother’s backyard. Everything interested me but, like most of us, I wanted to grow what I liked in the supermarkets most of all. As I watched and experienced how challenging some of these Paw Paw fruit cut in half.

Q: What fruits or plants would you advise others to avoid growing in our area??

A: Though there are certain varieties of the popular fruits that are diseaseresistant and adaptable, I would not be impulsive and purchase apples, cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and grapes, just because it’s spring. These generally can be challenging.

Q: Is Edible Landscaping open to visitors? Do you host any special events?

A: Besides being a year-round potted plant mail-order nursery, we encourage visitors. Touring our stock plant orchard can be fun, tasty, and educational. We have All About Fruit Day in the spring, (June 20, 2015) and Fall Fruit Festival every September. Persimmon Day is coming up this year on Saturday, October 25. It’s usually around Halloween.

We have Volunteer Work Days the second Tuesday of every month. Those are lots of fun. We meet interesting groups and individuals with a real flair for gardening.

Q: How can our readers reach you?

A: They can visit ediblelandscaping.com or write to info@ediblelandscaping.com.

Our phone number is 434.361.9134.

We are also on Facebook now and our mailing address is 361 Spirit Ridge Lane Afton, VA 22920. o Kathy Jentz is editor/publisher of Washington Gardener. She can be reached at wgardenermag@aol.com.

Photos are courtesy of Edible Landscaping.

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GARDENnews

Quick Links to Recent Washington Gardener Blog Posts

• Small-flower White Aster: Native Spotlight • Seed Saving is Easy Video • Time to Get Garlic in the Ground • How to Take Coleus Cuttings • Cool Enough for Kohlrabi See more Washington Gardener blog posts at WashingtonGardener.Blogspot.com.

October Garden To-Do List

New Plant Spotlight Award-winning Elderberry Red Rhapsody™ Hydrangea Vine Schizophragma elliptifolium ‘LaBaHe Blush’ USDA Zone 6–9

This extremely rare selection from the Dan Hinkley Collection makes a dramatic statement by virtue of its foliage alone. Its varnished-red new growth is stunning in spring, while its heads of flowers surrounded by large, cream-colored bracts are beautiful in contrast.

Six years ago, Dan was driving through a remote area of southwest Sichuan Province when he noticed some seed heads on a plant. The foliage was gone and, with only the dried flower head, he wasn’t sure if he had anything special. When the seedlings were two years old, he realized he had a very rare species that, to his knowledge, had never been successfully grown in Western cultivation.

Red Rhapsody will self-adhere, reaching 10 to 15 feet, and is best grown on the trunks of sizable trees, fences, or arbors in a shade to part shade in evenly moist soils.

This is a Monrovia exclusive that will be available in spring 2015. See www.

Monrovia.com for further updates.

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Here is our comprehensive garden task list for gardens in the greater DC metro region for October 15-November 16. Your additions to this list are most welcome: • Cover pond with netting to keep out fallen leaves and debris.

• Harvest sweet potatoes.

• Plant garlic.

• Force the buds on Christmas Cactus by placing in a cool (55-60 degree) room and 13 hours of darkness.

• Apply deer deterrent spray.

• Prevent the spread of disease by cleaning up all infected plants and disposing of them in your trash — not your compost pile.

• Plant cover crops in your vegetable gardens and annual beds (i.e., rye, clover, hairy vetch, winter peas).

• Set-up a cold frame, then plant lettuces, radishes, and carrots from seed.

• If you have a water garden, clean out the annual plants and compost them. Cut back the submerged hardy plants and group them in the deepest pond section.

• Leave seedheads on black-eyed susans, echinacea, goldenrod, sunflowers, and thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.

• Check for bagworms; pick off, bag, and dispose of them.

• Dig up and store potatoes in a cool, dark spot.

• Continue to divide and transplant perennials.

• Rake leaves and gather in compost piles.

• Pick pumpkins at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer’s market.

• Cut garden herbs and hang to dry in a cool, dry place indoors.

• Start feeding birds to get them in the habit for this winter.

• Attend a local garden club meeting.

• Mulch strawberry beds for winter.

• Turn your compost pile weekly and don’t let it dry out. Work compost into your planting beds.

• Plant evergreens for winter interest.

• Weed.

• Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

• Sow wildflower seeds, such as California Poppies, for next spring.

• Collect dried flowers and grasses for an indoor vase.

• Clean, sharpen, and store your garden tools.

• Lightly fertilize indoor plants.

• Pot up Paper Whites and Amaryllis for holiday blooming.

• Check that all vines are securely tied for winter’s cold winds.

• Collect plant seeds for next year’s planting and for trading.

• Pull out spent summer annuals.

• Plant hardy mums and fall season annuals.

• Water evergreens and new plantings to keep them hydrated this winter.

• Fertilize your lawn and re-seed if needed.

• Dig up bulbs from your Gladiolus, cut off foliage, dry for a week, and then store for the winter.

• Transplant trees and shrubs.

• Gather seeds and carefully label them. Store in a dry location.

• Keep an eye out for the first frost date and insulate plants as needed. In Zone 6, it is expected between September 30-October 30 and in Zone 7 it is predicted between October 15-November 15.

GARDENnews

Native Rhododendrons Invade and Conquer by Disturbing Nitrogen Cycle As fall turns into winter, people across the country buy or gather firewood to heat their homes, campsites, and cabins, and many aren’t aware that moving firewood more than 50 miles can increase the risk of new invasive pest infestations that kill trees. A recent study, “Economic Impacts of Non-Native Forest Insects in the Continental United States” by Aukema et al., estimates that the costs of damages associated with these pest infestations in both urban and rural areas are nearly $1.7 billion in local government expenditures and approximately $830 million in lost residential property values, totaling more than $2.5 billion dollars annually.

According to this research, more than 450 non-native forest insects are established in the United States. Many of the insects featured in this report, including the emerald ash borer, red bay ambrosia beetle, and thousand cankers disease, are known to move frequently on infested firewood. Other pests that move on firewood have cost local and federal authorities tens of millions of dollars to control and eradicate in just the past five years.

Invasive insects and diseases can even lurk in dry and seasoned firewood, hidden in the layers of wood beneath the bark, which makes them difficult to detect. While these pests cannot move far on their own, when people move the firewood that harbors them, they unwittingly enable these pests to start an infestation far from the current range.

Past invaders have devastated native species of trees such as the American chestnut, hemlock, and American elm — tree species that had been part of American forests and city streets for centuries until the invasion of foreign pests decimated them.

By buying locally harvested wood, individuals can help protect themselves and their communities from decreases in property values, the high expense of removing diseased or infested trees, and the loss of attractive landscapes.

Another good reason to buy wood locally is that, in many regions of the country, it is illegal to move firewood over county or state lines. o

How important is the soil beneath our feet to what grows above it? The short answer is very, according to Virginia Tech’s Mahtaab Bagherzadeh of Annandale, VA, a senior majoring in biological sciences in the College of Science and a 2014 Fralin Life Science Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow. Bagherzadeh recently participated in a study that discovered invading rhododendrons affect the nitrogen cycle and surrounding plants.

In recent decades, rhododendron, an evergreen shrub that grows in large, thick patches, has expanded in areas where there has been loss of other plant species. These species, which include hemlocks and chestnuts, have died off due to invasive pests. In particular, the rhododendron beats out other species because of its control over nitrogen, a chemical element essential for plant growth.

“What we have seen is that rhododendron acts like a native invader because it comes into places where hemlock has died off, and it takes over the soil because of its influence on the nitrogen cycle,” said Jeb Barrett, associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science, Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, and Bagherzadeh’s fellowship advisor.

“We found that there is less available nitrogen in sites with rhododendrons because these plants release carbon from their degraded foliage, which then offsets the nitrogen cycle by limiting how much nitrogen is available for uptake by other plants, and rhododendrons release complex proteins, which bind up nitrogen in large organic compounds that are very difficult for microbes to degrade,” said Bagherzadeh.

Soil microbes regulate the cycling and availability of nutrients. In soils under dense rhododendron stands, microbes consume the available nitrogen for their own use to sustain metabolism and fuel growth.

“Rhododendrons are prepping the soil in such a way as to enhance their competitive nature,” said Barrett. o

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In Our Next Issue NOVEMBER 2014...

Growing Leeks

Dealing with Spider Mites Garden Event Wrap-up

If your business would like to reach area gardeners, be sure to contact us by November 10 so you can be part of the next issue of our growing publication! oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Be sure you are subscribed!

Send a check or money order for $20.00 payable to Washington Gardener magazine to: Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 OCTOBER 2014

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TOP AREA GARDENING EVENTS DC-Area Gardening Calendar ~ Upcoming Events ~ October 16-November 15, 2014 • Thursday, October 16, 6:30-8pm Garden Book Club Fall Meeting For our final 2014 selection of the Washington Gardener Magazine Book Club, we will be reading: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. We will meet at La Madeleine at 8435 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, MD. (Please plan to purchase some food and drinks while there, since we will not be paying them for this meeting space.) The book club meetings are FREE and open to anyone who would like to attend. RSVP to “WG Book Club” at WashingtonGardener@rcn.com.

I will be limiting attendance to 20. If you need to cancel, let me know ASAP so we can give your spot to someone else, should we have a wait-list.

• Friday, October 17 through Sunday, October 19 Maryland Home & Holiday Show Redecorate the halls this holiday season with cheerful and inventive ideas from the Maryland Home & Holiday Show in Timonium, MD. This three-day event gives homeowners the opportunity to meet with hundreds of contractors, shop the latest home improvement trends, and purchase seasonal gifts for friends and family. For more information on the show, visit http://www. mdhomeandgarden.com/fall or call 410.863.1180.

• Saturday, October 18, 10am-4pm Garden Conservancy Open Day DC Four private gardens in DC/MD will be opening their gates (so to speak) to the public. Open Days is a fund-raising and educational outreach event for the nonprofit Garden Conservancy in support of its core mission to save and share outstanding American gardens. Throughout the year, hundreds of gardens across the country are opened to the public in support of the Conservancy’s important work. For details: www.gardenconservancy.org.

• Saturday, October 18, 1-4pm, and Sunday, October 19, 9am-4pm Science Into Nature Equals Art: A Standard Flower Show Presented by National Capital Area Garden Clubs, 16

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Inc. in partnership with the United States National Arboretum. Open to the public – free at the United States National Arboretum, 3501 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002.

The flower show is free, open to the public, and educational with an emphasis on growing, showing, and designing.

Judged entries include floral designs, flowering annuals and perennials, evergreens, container-grown plants, grasses, fruits, vegetables, photography, and educational exhibits. U.S. National Arboretum staff members present different lectures daily at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

See the flower show’s schedule at: www.ncagcardenclubs.org.

National Capital Area Garden Clubs, Inc., is a member of the Central Atlantic Region of National Garden Clubs, Inc. National Garden Clubs provides education, resources, and national networking opportunities for its members to promote the love of gardening, floral design, and civic and environmental responsibility. www.ncagardenclubs.org.

• Saturday, October 18, 9am-12noon Dumbarton Oaks Park Meadows: Site Visit with Larry Weaner Meet at Dumbarton Oaks Park, located in the 3100 block of R Street NW, WDC, in the field with Larry Weaner, followed

by Q&A and a complimentary lunch.

Tour the Urban Meadows of Dumbarton Oaks Park with designer and meadows expert Larry Weaner, nationally renowned for combining ecological restoration with garden design traditions.

Weaner has partnered with Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and Rock Creek Park National Park Service to revitalize the first two of five meadows designed

by Beatrix Farrand. On this site visit, Weaner will lead a tour of native meadows in varying stages of development.

Participants will have the opportunity for hands-on engagement in restoration practices and to learn about the design, implementation, and management of native meadows. Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urbanmeadows-methods-practices-andprotocol-with-larry-weaner-tickets12621588511.

• Sunday, October 19, 2-4pm The Secret is in the Soil Seminar by Daniel Schwartz, Soil Scientist with the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. Learn how to prepare your soil for roses in winter and spring. Merrifield Garden Center-Fair Oaks hosted by Arlington Rose Foundation. Free. Light refreshments. Door prizes. 703-371-9351 or arfoundation@cox.net.

•Wednesday, October 22, 7:30pm Japanese Art of Flower Arranging The Beltsville Garden Club will meet in the multi-purpose room of the James Duckworth School, 11201 Evans Trail, Beltsville, MD. Featured will be a workshop on Ikebana, a Japanese art of flower arranging. Presenter Angelita Castro will explain the history of Ikebana and the philosophy that informs it.

She will guide participants as they create their own arrangements of simple forms that reveal the beauty of the flowers.

Please join us for this informative, hands-on workshop experience. There is no fee, the public is welcome, and refreshments will be served after the meeting. Please bring a plant or plantrelated item for the door prize table.

For additional information visit www. beltsvillegardenclub.org.

• Friday, October 24, 5:30-8pm Ar-BOO-retum! Fun for All! Come after dark to Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore, MD, and celebrate the Halloween season in the shadow of the historic 1860s mansion! Inside, we’ll have seasonal treats, Halloween crafts, a fortune teller, and an atmosphere that only an old mansion can provide!

Visit different locations on the grounds as part of our Trick-or-Treat Trail. Check out the spooky garden, see the amazing pumpkins that have been entered into our contest, and watch the announcement of the winning pumpkins. Wear your costume and participate in our children’s costume contest (at 7pm). Enjoy the party that celebrates the most enchanting holiday of the year with your friends and family.

Cash bar, and Gypsy Queen Food

TOP AREA GARDENING EVENTS DC-Area Gardening Calendar ~ Upcoming Events ~ October 16-November 15, 2014 Truck will be here for guests to purchase dinner. Fee: $10 for adults, $5 for children. Cylburn Arboretum Association, 4915 Greenspring Avenue Baltimore, MD, www.cylburn.org.

• Saturday, October 25, 10:30am12noon Fall Vegetable Gardening VCE Master Gardeners of Arlington/ Alexandria will present a program on Fall Vegetable Gardening at Burke Branch Library, 4701 Seminary Road in Alexandria, VA. The program will focus on how to extend the growing season with crops that can be grown in the fall, putting the garden to bed, tool clean-up, and planning for next year. The program is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested. To register, email mgarlalex@gmail.com or call 703228-6414.

• Saturday, October 25, 9am-5pm.

The Baltimore African Violet & Gesneriad Club’s Annual Fall Sale The Baltimore African Violet & Gesneriad Club will hold their annual fall sale at The Shops at Kenilworth, 800 Kenilworth Drive, Towson, MD. Hundreds of beautiful African violets and other exotic houseplants will be offered for sale, plus leaves, cuttings, soil mix, plant rings, self-watering pots, and much more.

The club will hol a plant clinic from 1-3pm. Club members will repot your troubled violets and discuss any growing problems you have. Bring in that plant with the long neck or a violet that hasn’t bloomed in years. Expert growers are ready to assist you. Of course, they will answer questions all day long, but this will be your chance to have “hands on help.” This event is free. For additional information, please contact Shirley Huffman 301.854.2021 or bshuffman2@aol.com.

• October 25-November 23 Longwood Gardens Chrysanthemum Festival More than 80,000 colorful chrysanthemums take center stage during the Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, PA.

Longwood’s four-acre conservatory transforms into a vibrant visual feast of colorful chrysanthemum blooms.

Giant mum baskets hang in the Exhibition Hall and Orangery, and more than 80,000 chrysanthemums trained into colorful cascades, shields, towering 6-foot-tall specimens, tiny bonsai, and more await around every turn.

The show-stopper of the display is the elaborate “Thousand Bloom” mum, which boasts more than 1,300 perfectly placed, uniform blooms on one plant.

Longwood is one of the few places in the world where this growing technique is still practiced.

In addition to the Chrysanthemum grandeur, guests can enjoy the newlyexpanded 86-acre Meadow Garden which is in its most colorful season, as late blooming goldenrod, native asters, and meadow grasses color the landscape. Chrysanthemum Festival and Meadow is free with Gardens admission. For more information, visit www.longwoodgardens.org or call 610.388.1000.

• Sunday, October 26, 2pm Growing Roses the Organic Way Special Guest Speakers Gary Rankin and Monica Valentovic are husband and wife Ph.D.s, who are professors at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University. Their research area is toxicology, so they are uniquely qualified to discuss the dangers and benefits of fertilizers and pesticides.

Over the years, Gary and Monica’s rose garden has expanded from about 25 to currently around 300 rose bushes. Both are Master Rosarians and past presidents of the Huntington Rose Society.

This meeting is hosted by the Potomac Rose Society. Important: the location has changed to Behnke Nurseries Co., 11300 Baltimore Avenue (Rt. 1), Beltsville, MD. • Saturday, November 1, 6-8pm Museum Moonshine The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and Smithsonian Gardens present an exclusive after-hours, behind-the-scenes experience in the museum’s rooftop terrace garden natu-

ralists will discuss the flora and fauna of Washington, DC, after dark, while specialists from the museum’s Phoebe Waterman Haas Observatory guide telescopic stargazing. Bloomery SweetShine of Charles Town, WV, will provide samples of moonshine cocktails crafted from local botanicals. Capitol Hill creamery Sona will offer cheese pairings and discuss the process and history of cheese-making. Tickets are $35 ($30 for National Air and Space Society members) and include two moonshine samples, cheese pairings, and a tasting of light harvest-inspired fare.

All participants must be 21 or older.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the museum’s web site at airandspace.si.edu. This event will be held rain or (moon)shine.

The National Air and Space Museum is on the National Mall in Washington.

SAVE THE DATE: •Sunday, December 7, 12-4 pm Gardeners Holiday Open House Treat yourself to a day of holiday fun in the garden featuring trackless train rides, the annual gingerbread house contest, children’s puppet show, holiday bread sale, and free refreshments. This festive day is for gardeners of all ages.

Admission is free to the open house, and the puppet show is $3/child.

Hosted by Friends of Green Spring. For more information, call 703.642.5173 or visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/ greenspring.

Still More Event Listings

See even more event listings on the Washington Gardener Yahoo discussion list. Join the list at http://groups.yahoo. com/group/WashingtonGardener/.

How to Submit Local Garden Events

To submit an event for this listing, please contact: Wgardenermag@aol. com and put “Event” in the email subject head. Our next deadline is November 12 for the November 15 issue featuring events taking place from November 16-December 15.

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DAYtrip

Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library Last of the Wild Gardens

by Cheval Force Opp

Creator Henry Francis du Pont (18001969) spent a lifetime obsessing over his beloved estate of steep Delaware hills, thousands of acres adorned with forest, fields, springs, and streams.

Today, Winterthur, named for a city in Switzerland meaning door of winter, welcomes visitors to his gardens, which are considered a masterpiece of naturalism. Early in his garden career, du Pont was influenced by two British horticultural visionaries, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll. Their writings introduced du Pont to the radical concept of a wild garden. In contrast to the High Victorian patterned gardens with contrived displays of tropical annuals, raised in greenhouses each season, the wild garden is groomed “in a pictorial way” to show the best of locally adapted winter-hardy plants. Winterthur is considered one of the last remaining “Wild Gardens.”

The Wild Garden, written by William Robinson in 1904, has been recently expanded with new chapters and photography by Rick Darke. This timeless garden bible cites both Winterthur and 18

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Mount Cuba Center as modern-day examples of Robinson’s 1870 low maintenance landscape.

than straight, following the contours of the land, passing around trees, drawing walkers into the garden.

March Bank

Winterhazel Walk

Begun in 1902, when du Pont was 22, the March Bank is the oldest surviving garden area at Winterthur and is heavily influenced by Robinson’s The Wild Garden. Inspired, du Pont began naturalizing miniature daffodils and by the 1940s had planted thousands of snowdrops, snowflakes, crocus, squills, glory-of-the-snow, winter aconite, adonis, squills, Italian windflowers, Greek windflowers, crocus, iris, grapehyacinths, species tulips, puschkinia, and others as he found them. This past spring, I made a special trip to visit the March Bank in its “purple” phase. I wish I could have returned again for the next phase of white bloomers. It is an amazing sight made even more enjoyable by the walks positioned to “disappear” from view during the stroll.

The more than 10 miles of walks and roads circle artfully through the gardens. The paths are an integral part of to the overall design, curving rather

Coming into bloom just at the end of the March Bank, the pale yellow winter-hazels and the lavender and pink Korean rhododendrons were just breaking bud along with the lavender corydalis. Below them, white and burgundy lenten rose crowd like tinted shadows.

The colors pop against spring grass, vibrant green under the dark vertical bare trees.

At Winterthur, nearly 1,000 acres of farmland surround the 60-acre garden.

The land at Winterthur is under a conservation easement so the property will never be commercially developed.

The garden encompasses the entire estate; the views in every direction are important to the whole; the woodlands, hay fields, and meadows are as crucial as the more formally planted areas.

The garden is managed as though H. F. du Pont were alive and his vision still advises all garden decisions.

DAYtrip

Pinetum

The Pinetum topping a hill began in 1918 by du Pont’s father, Henry Algernon du Pont, who fought with distinction in the Civil War. Here towering trees, including many species of fir, spruce, pine, hemlock, and other conifers, provide a multi-hued green background for the surrounding blooming collections.

Two beautiful Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica glauca) keep company with dark columns of Thuja plicata, the Giant Arborvitae, and Libocedrus decurrens, the Incense-Cedar. There are several Oriental Spruce (Picea orientalis), and the elegant Nikko Fir (Abies homolepsis) is a state champion. The Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) along Garden Lane near the east entrance to the Pinetum is also a state champion. Seven of Winterthur’s trees are listed in the most recent edition (4th) of Big Trees of Delaware, published by the Delaware Forest Service.

At Winterthur, “color is the thing that really counts more than any other,” said du Pont. Each planting is calculated to display blooms in seasonal waves that billow with color in an ocean of green.

to eye level so blooms undulate over the sculptural hills. White drifts are underplanted with white trillium giving a cathedral look under the high tree canopy. Shades of pink pearl azaleas (Rhododendron [Kurume] ‘Pink Pearl’) dominate but lavenders, deep reds, and even orange are used to surprise the eye. Underplantings of Spanish bluebells and lavender dame’s rocket vibrate with contrasting colors.

Marian Cruger Coffin and du Pont began a lifelong friendship while du Pont was studying horticulture at Harvard’s Bussey Institution. Coffin was pursuing a degree in landscape architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the only professional program open to women at the time.

Azalea Woods

The dazzling azaleas have survived since 1918 intact and are kept trimmed

Sundial Garden

Make a special trip to the Sundial Garden, a room made of flowers such as white spirea, flowering quince, and early lilacs. In spring, a deep-pink crabapple tree draws the eye to the edge of the Pinetum with a beautiful drift of paleblue starflower nearby. In autumn, the burning bush (Euonymus alata) lights up the space in a blazing fiery red.

The plant collection is managed through Winterthur’s plant records system and documents woody plants and other taxa that are part of the designed landscape. There are currently 7,508 accessioned taxa in this “living collections.”

Peony Garden

The exuberance of early peonies in soft ivory, salmon yellow, and red, backed by pink weigela and beauty-bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis), confirms spring’s true arrival at Winterthur. This garden is planted with both woody and herbaceous peonies. Take the alternating steps and ramps to wind uphill so the flower forms can be enjoyed up close.

One of du Pont’s last projects and one of his most spectacular is Sycamore Hill. Striking in fall colors, it also has one of the best of Winterthur hilltop vistas, well worth the climb. The tram is a good way to access some of the further out gardens, be sure to pick up a map.

The Quince Walk

Designed to draw visitors up to the Pinetum, the Quince Walk gives two weeks of riotous colors in late March to early April. It is an allée in shades of red from pastel to brick to blood, pierced with yellow centers. Orange blooms crowd salmon, carmine, pale pink, and white. Leavened between are the pinkish hues of white viburnum such as V. carlesii. The vistas are dotted with yellow forsythia and pink flowering cherries, and pink and white magnolias, accented with sweeps of daffodils.

The azaleas, first planted in 1918 by du Pont, were to replace gaps left by blighted American chestnuts. That May, he discovered the hardy shrubs blooming in his favorite colors. Using cutting, from the original plants, the Azalea garden evolved.

Marian Coffin (1876–1957) designed the 1928 landscape to accommodate the first of many additions to the original house. Coffin and du Pont continued to design the expanding gardens together until her death.

Sycamore Hill

Quarry Garden

The star of this garden in spring is the Asiatic candelabra primroses (Primula x bllesiana) in shades of pink, lavender, and soft yellow are massed between dark-green foliage. An unusual orange primula is carefully added every season to pique the palette. Wild columbines, Lobelia cardinalis, L. siphilitica, ligularias, anemones, and chelones are understudies added to give blooms through the summer.

June is this garden’s bloom peak, with kousa dogwoods displaying their star-like white blossoms, pink spirea, white deutzias, and lavender lilacs.

In 1956, after he had gardened at Winterthur for 70 years, the Garden Club of America awarded Henry Francis du Pont its Medal of Honor, proclaiming him, “One of the best, even the best, gardener this country has ever produced.”

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DAYtrip

Enchanted Woods

In a three-acre plot of the Winterthur Garden sits the first newly created garden at Winterthur in 30 years. Tucked among tall, old oaks with a panoramic view of the surrounding gardens and fields, this fairy village offers magical thatch-roofed, child-sized huts and a room-sized nest with egg. Situated on Oak Hill, where Winterthur Museum founder H.F. du Pont’s daughters once played, the tiny village takes its theme from the German legend that “faerie folks live in old oaks.”

A Wild Garden Vision

The gardens and landscape surrounding the museum are not a botanical collection maintained for scientific purposes, but an artistic composition that captures a significant period in the history of American horticulture. This landscape is a significant cultural artifact and its components — plants, architecture, and decorative objects — are preserved and managed as a collection.

Jekyll advised “try for beauty and harmony everywhere, and especially for

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harmony of color.”

Henry du Pont’s romantic vision gives us a magical naturalistic garden that blooms with watercolor vistas in every season. Stroll the many pathways to enjoy plants in his favorite colors of blue, purple, lavender, white, and pink, all lushly combined. The wild garden spreads joyfully before us like a multihued green canvas on which du Pont has embroidered blooming perennials.

Plan Your Visit

Winterthur is located at 5105 Kennett Pike (Route 52), Winterthur, DE. It is six miles northwest of Wilmington.

The Museum and Garden hours are: Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–5pm Last tour tickets sold at 3:15pm. Last tour is at 3:30pm. It is closed Mondays (except during Yuletide), Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. To get tickets by phone, call 800.448.3883 or 302.888.4600 (TTY 302.888.4907) or purchase tickets or make reservations in person at Winterthur. General admission tickets may be purchased online at www.winterthur.

org. (Same-day online sales are not available.)

Be sure to save time for a visit to the museum collections. The “Costumes of Downton Abbey” exhibit is a stunner, displaying the exquisite designs from the award-winning television series.

Approximately 40 historically inspired costumes from the television show are supplemented by photographs and vignettes inspired by the fictional program and by real life at Winterthur, through January 4, 2015. o Cheval Force Opp lives and weeds in Dunn Loring, VA, with her husband Dana and corgi Marzipan. This May she visited Paris for the first time and was very excited to stroll through France’s classic gardens. She is available to share her garden day trips with groups and organizations. Contact her at gardentours@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Liz Farrell, communications manager, and Carol Long, associate curator, Garden, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. Liz and Carol gave generously of their time and insight on our visit.

GOINGnative

Ramps (Allium tricoccum) companion planted with Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).

Ramps: Wild Leeks of Appalachia

by Barry Glick

The “Cat Is Out Of The Bag”! The “Word is on the Street”! Well... there are a lot of ways to say it, but you get my drift.

I’m referring to the same news that I learned over 42 years ago when, as a young, naive lad, I moved to the mountains of Greenbrier County, WV, from the streets of Philadelphia. The local folks were enthralled with us, the “Back To The Land,” “Hippie Homesteaders” influx, and were very eager to teach us the ways of the wild. They would take us out into the woods to educate us about edible wild plants like Rock Lettuce (Saxifraga micranthidfolia), Creasy Greens (Barbarea verna), Poke Salad (Phytolacca americana), Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), Purslane (Portulaca oleracea), and many other edible wild “weeds.”

However, the most cherished and prized edible “native” of all was Allium tricoccum or what they introduced us to as Ramps. The word Ramps is a corruption of the old Anglic word “Ramson,”* in case you’re wondering how this seemingly strange common name originated.

Now, decades later, it seems that every five-star gourmet restaurant in the U.S. has a Ramp dish on the menu.

Ramps are really wild leeks. They combine the taste of garlic (Allium sativum) with the taste of onion (Allium cepa), although that’s really somewhat of an oversimplification, as the taste of Ramps is bursting with so many other flavors and nuances that they leave

their actual essence difficult to verbalize.

Only your culinary imagination will limit their possibilities in your own kitchen. I use the leaves in salads and stir fries, and chop the bulbs for Miso soup and many other dishes.

But besides being delicious, they’re also a highly interesting and desirable landscape plant for the shade garden.

They emerge from bare ground in early spring with very supple medium green foliage and stand about 6–12" tall. When these leaves disappear, you get 8–12" sturdy flower stems topped with lovely white flowers. These flowers eventually get pollinated and reveal their attractive, shiny black seeds.

Ramps” are very easy to grow from seed, and the bulbs usually double and form new bulbs that you can pull apart and replant.

Here in West Virginia, Ramps are celebrated like saints and holidays.

There are many “Ramp Suppers” run by various chambers of commerce and volunteer fire departments in late April.

These woodland treasures are becoming so popular that even Martha Stewart put up a page of 15 recipes for cooking with Ramps. Would you believe that Arianna Huffington has her own Ramp recipes? I even found quick and easy

directions for making Ramp Butter.

And if all that weren’t enough, Ramps have a huge store of vitamins and minerals and, like garlic and onions, have many nutritional values and medicinal benefits.

Ramps are super-easy to grow and have no insect, pest, or disease problems. All you need is some shade.

Of course, the richer and moister your shade is, the better they’ll grow.

Serious, detailed cultivation information can be found at the NC State web site (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/hil/hil133.html). o *Ramson is a broadleaved garlic (Allium ursinum) common in European gardens.

Barry Glick, the selfproclaimed “King of Helleborus,” grew up in Philadelphia in the ’60s, a mecca of horticulture. Barry cut high school classes to hitchhike to Longwood Gardens before he was old enough to drive. In 1972, he realized there was just not enough room for him and his plants in the big-city environment, so he bought 60 acres on a mountaintop in Greenbrier County, WV, where he gave birth to Sunshine Farm & Gardens (www.sunfarm.com), a mail-order plant nursery. Contact him at 304.497.2208 or barry@sunfarm.com.

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PLANTprofile 3. Fritillaria aka Checkered Lily (pictured at left) grows in flood plains in Europe and is one of the few bulbs that tolerates, even prefers, moist soil. The dainty, bell-like blooms are exquisite and the mottled patterning is fascinating. They are deer-resistant and do not have an entirely pleasant odor, so plant away from your front door or bedroom windows.

4. Iris reticulata aka Dwarf Iris appears in early spring along with the daffodils.

The blooms come in pale blue to deep purple hues and it blends well with other bulbs or can be massed at the front of a flower border. It tolerates deer and drought. The bloom has a sweet, honey fragrance that attracts early pollinators.

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Flower Bulbs You Aren’t Growing, But Should Be

by Kathy Jentz

Are you stuck in a flower rut? Year after year, do you buy the same yellow daffodils and tall red tulips bulbs to plant in your garden each fall in anticipation of next spring? While these classic beauties certainly have their place in our landscapes, why not think beyond what you can get at the big-box store and explore the world of minor bulbs?

Minor? That is how all the springblooming bulbs, that are not tulips and daffodils are categorized in the horticultural trade. While not minor at all in their garden impact, they are but a tiny percentage of the bulbs that get grown and sold worldwide. Here are five of them that, in my humble opinion, should have a place in every MidAtlantic region garden.

1. Chionodoxa aka Glory of the Snow grows in full sun to part shade and comes in shades of pinks and blues. It comes up in late winter, just when we need a spot of color, and then disappears entirely after a few weeks, leaving no clean-up for you, the gardener. It is a tiny thing, but lovely in small groupings.

2. Ipheion aka Starflower sends up its strappy, grass-like foliage in the fall, then flowers in spring. This one gives you lots of bang for your buck as each bulb sends up multiple flower stems. The star-shaped flowers bloom in shades of white or blue and it has a sweet, spicey fragrance.

Photos are courtesy of Old House Gardens (www.OldHouseGardens.com).

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5. Camassia aka Quamash (pictured below) is a rare spring-flowering bulb that is native to North America. It can thrive where most others do not – in other words, this is the bulb to grow under Black Walnut trees, in clay soil, and in dry shade. The blooms are tall and a sky-blue color or white. It flowers later in the season than most of the other minor bulbs, so place it combined with tulips and shade perennials like hosta and daylilies, where the bulb foliage will be somewhat masked while it dies down for the season. o

Kathy Jentz is editor/publisher of Washington Gardener. She can be reached at wgardenermag@aol.com.

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MARCH/APRIL 2005 • Landscape DIY vs. Pro • Prevent Gardener’s Back • Ladew Topiary Gardens • Cherry Trees

MAY/JUNE 2007 • Roses: Easy Care Tips • Native Roses & Heirloom Roses • Edible Flowers • How to Plant a Bare-root Rose

MAY/JUNE 2005 • Stunning Plant Combinations • Turning Clay into Rich Soil • Wild Garlic • Strawberries

JULY/AUGUST 2007 • Groundcovers: Alternatives to Turfgrass • How to Pinch, Prune, & Dead-head •William Paca House & Gardens • Hardy Geraniums

JULY/AUGUST 2005 • Water Gardens • Poison Ivy • Disguising a Sloping Yard • Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007 • Succulents: Hardy to our Region • Drought-tolerant Natives • Southern Vegetables • Seed Saving Savvy Tips

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 • Container Gardens • Clematis Vines • Sponge Gardening/Rain Gardens • 5 Insect Enemies of Gardeners

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 • Gardening with Children • Indoor Bulb Forcing Basics • National Museum of the American Indian • Versatile Viburnums

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Backyard Bird Habitats • Hellebores • Building a Coldframe • Bulb Planting Basics

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 • Dealing with Deer • Our Favorite Garden Tools • Indoor Bulb Forcing Basics • Delightful Daffodils

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 • Garden Decor Principles • Primroses • Tasty Heirloom Veggies • U.S. Botanic Garden

MARCH/APRIL 2008 • Patio, Balcony, Rooftop Container Gardens • Our Favorite Garden Tools • Coral Bells (Heucheras)

MARCH/APRIL 2006 • Top 10 Small Trees and Large Shrubs • Azaleas • Figs, Berries, & Persimmons • Basic Pruning Principles MAY/JUNE 2006 • Using Native Plants in Your Landscape • Crabgrass • Peppers • Secret Sources for Free Plants JULY/AUGUST 2006 • Hydrangeas • Theme Gardens • Agave • Find Garden Space by Growing Up

MAY/JUNE 2008 — ALMOST SOLD OUT! • Growing Great Tomatoes • Glamorous Gladiolus • Seed Starting Basics • Flavorful Fruiting Natives JULY/AUGUST 2008 • Landscaping with Ornamental Grasses • Edible Grasses to Graze On • Slug and Snail Control • Sage Advice: Sun-loving Salvias SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 • Autumn Edibles — What to Plant Now • Beguiling Barrenworts (Epimediums) • Best Time to Plant Spring-blooming Bulbs • 14 Dry Shade Plants Too Good to Overlook

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 • Shade Gardening • Hosta Care Guide • Fig-growing Tips and Recipes

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 • Outdoor Lighting Essentials • How to Prune Fruiting Trees, Shrubs, Vines • 5 Top Tips for Overwintering Tender Bulbs • Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 • Horticultural Careers • Juniper Care Guide • Winter Squash Growing Tips and Recipes • Layer/Lasagna Gardening

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 • Compost Happens: Nature’s Free Fertilizer • Managing Stormwater with a Rain Garden • Visiting Virginia’s State Arboretum • Grow Winter Hazel for Winter Color

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 • Indoor Gardening • Daphne Care Guide • Asparagus Growing Tips and Recipes • Houseplant Propagation

MARCH/APRIL 2009 UT! • 40+ Free and Low-cost Local D O Garden Tips SOL • Spring Edibles Planting UT! Guide O LD for a Fresh Start • Testing Your OSoil T! S Selection and Care OUTree • Redbud OLD Viewing Spots for Virginia Bluebells • SBest

MARCH/APRIL 2007 • Stormwater Management • Dogwood Selection & Care Guide • Early Spring Vegetable Growing Tips • Franciscan Monastery Bulb Gardens

MAY/JUNE 2009 • Top Easy Summer Annuals for DC Heat • Salad Table Project • Grow and Enjoy Eggplant • How to Chuck a Woodchuck

SUMMER 2009 • Grow Grapes in the Mid-Atlantic • Passionflowers • Mulching Basics • Growing Hops FALL 2009 • Apples • How To Save Tomato Seeds • Persimmons WINTER 2009 • Battling Garden Thugs • How to Start Seeds Indoors • Red Twig Dogwoods • Unusual Edibles to Grow in Our Region SPRING 2010 • Community Gardens • Building a Raised Bed • Dwarf Iris • Broccoli SUMMER 2010 • Fragrance Gardens • Watering Without Waste • Lavender • Potatoes FALL 2010 • Vines and Climbers • Battling Stink Bugs • Russian Sage • Garlic WINTER 2010 • Paths and Walkways • Edgeworthia • Kohlrabi SPRING 2011 • Cutting-Edge Gardens • Final Frost Dates and When to Plant • Bleeding Hearts • Onions SUMMER 2011 • Ornamental Edibles • Urban Foraging • Amsonia/Arkansas Blue Star • Growing Corn in the Mid-Atlantic FALL 2011 • Herb Gardens • Toad Lilies • Sweet Potatoes • Cool Weather Cover Crops

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JOIN US FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL

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FEATURED SPEAKERS & TOPICS:

“Trees and the Built Environment” Wednesday, November 5, 7:30am-4pm �������������������������������������� 1 Veterans Place, Silver Spring, MD 20910 The third annual ���������������������� focuses on the health and welfare of trees in our increasingly developed landscapes. Learn from ������������������������������������������������������������������������� protect and preserve trees in urban and suburban settings.

Trees provide many benefits: they cleanse and cool our air, stabilize our soils, provide wildlife habitat and beautify our urban and suburban areas. We encourage all arborists, landscape industry and environmental/green industry professionals, engineers, designers, housing developers and interested citizens to take advantage of this opportunity to learn new techniques and concepts on what can be done to ensure the survival of trees in our built environment.

Approved for continuing education credits for members of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Certified Professional Horticulturist (CPH), International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and Society of American Foresters (SAF).

Additional support provided by:

PRESENTING SPONSOR

1. MELANIE CHOUKAS-BRADLEY Naturalist and teacher in the D.C. area, and author of several acclaimed books, including City of Trees

��������������������������������� �������������������� Choukas-Bradley will discuss the arborial history and botanic diversity of Washington, D.C.

2. DR. KEVIN T. SMITH Supervisory Plant Physiologist, USDA Forest Service

��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� Dr. Smith will discuss how to use the concepts of tree biology and tree response to promote and improve the trees of tomorrow.

3. GUY STERNBERG Certified Arborist, landscape architect, author, and owner of Starhill Forest Arboretum

���������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������ �����������������������

4. MATTHEW FOTI President of Matthew R. Foti Landscape and Tree Service, Inc. and featured arborist for �������This Old House Hour.

�������������������������������������� Foti will discuss innovative transplanting methods, revisions to planting specifications, and problems with conventional tree harvesting techniques.

For more information, visit MontgomeryParks.org/Trees Fee $65. Register at ParkPASS.org for course #300699 or call the registrar at 301-962-1451.

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