Monroe County Master Gardener Association

Hello everyone,

Just a short reminder that the two scheduled W & L sessions for October will be held on this Saturday October 8, 9-11 am and Thursday October 20, 6-8 pm. Jennie will be overseeing the work on these two days while I am taking a leave of absence to finish up some projects before winter.

• For tomorrow, I think we should concentrate on giving the beds a thorough weeding…particularly the ground cover beds.  There is the usual deadheading of the roses and some of the flowering shrubs in the north side native bed.  The barberry by the spruce needs trimming, as does the ground cover around it. The compost area needs some tidying up, particularly behind the bins.  The asparagus and some of that dead milkweed can also be cut back.  Pay particular attention to the clumps of bulbs, as most of these should be ready for cutting back.  The ground cover in the tree well near the knot gardens, looks poorly and should be cleaned up.  In the east side native shrub area, the rudbeckias need deadheading and the bed should be weeded before it is mulched.  Let Paul make the call which trees he wants to trim and the timeline.

The Deutzia in the hummingbird garden is now starting to throw out branches. If they are  long enough, maybe we can pin some of them in the ground and do some layering propagation.  Jennie can make a short presentation on how to do this easy to learn technique.

The Thursday night session will be a first for us and the blog, in that Sue will actually video Paul demonstrating lifting and dividing some peonies.  It is our plan to upload this short instructional video and add it to our growing archive of garden topics.  So…please do NOT cut back the peonies in the entry garden!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

•  Sunday October 9,  noon -5 pm.   Naida’s Milan Garden Club gardens will be on display at the upcoming Milan Fall Festival at the historic Hack House museum, 775 County Rd Milan.  Please show your appreciation for all the hard work Naida and her Milan crew have done around our exhibition gardens, by attending this event.
• Wednesday October 12, 6-8 pm.  By popular request Linda Welch will be repeating her Vertical Gardening and Living Art presentation at the Riverside Learning Center, 77 N Roessler St Monroe.  $5 at the door…see blog for details.
• Saturday October 15, noon-1 pm.  Following the general meeting, Georgeann will offer a class on Savory and Sweet Herbal Cooking…we should have a full house, so plan on coming early to reserve a seat.