It is almost 2023, but you can still do some chores in your garden this year. In this episode of The Garden Thyme Podcast, we talk about the winter garden chores Rachel has been doing, and Mikaela and Emily have been putting off. We also talk holiday plant care (16:00), including caring for living trees (19:00) and fresh-cut trees (28:10).
If you have any garden-related questions, please email us at UMEGardenPodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook. For more information about topics covered in the podcast, please check out the UME Home and Garden Information Center.
The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).
Can you hear them? Tiny little elves are softly singing carols. The holidays must be around the corner.
If you’re scratching your head for gift ideas for the gardeners in your life, the Master Gardeners and I can help. Here are a few suggestions to make smiles wider and green thumbs greener.
Tools are cool. Yes, we say we really don’t need yet another tool. We lie. Our eyes light up at the flash of steel and the smoothness of a wooden handle.
A Hori Hori soil knife – a multipurpose tool with a serrated edge and slight curve that digs, plants, cuts, weeds, and more – is a perennial favorite.
Used here to plant garlic, a Hori Hori knife also digs, cuts, weeds, and more.
Folding saws are a marvel for pruning in tight spots. Garden kneelers let you work sitting or kneeling with grips to give you a boost in getting up. If you’re over 50, you get it.
We gardeners are always looking for our next favorite garden glove. I have two: a waterproof glove and a sturdy but breathable pair with cushioned fingertips and palms.
A good pair of gloves is an indispensable gardening tool and a fine holiday gift idea.
Gardeners love books. Doug Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope and Bringing Nature Home top many Master Gardeners’ wish lists as do other conservation-minded books.
Magazine subscriptions make fine gifts, too. How about Horticulture, Fine Gardening or Birds & Blooms?
I treasure handmade gifts, both to give and receive. Gifts from the garden – such as pesto, jam, and herbal liqueurs – are especially welcome.
If you’re crafty, sew a garden apron, paint garden markers or make a hypertufa pot. If bigger is better, make a birdhouse, potting bench, or trellis.
Good things also come in small packages. Seeds make great gifts.
Botanical Interests offers blends for butterflies, pollinators, and more in beautiful, informative seed packets. The Hudson Valley Seed Company sells heirloom seeds in incredibly artful packets.
Bundle small gifts into a pot or gift basket. One Master Gardener fondly remembers an upcycled vintage bushel basket filled with bulbs, a bulb planter, and handmade plant markers.
Still stumped? How about a gardening calendar for year-round enjoyment or a garden-themed jigsaw puzzle that keeps twitchy gardening fingers busy in the winter months?
You can’t go wrong with a gift card to a favorite garden center or online store. I used to disdain gift cards, but now embrace them because the recipient can get just what they want and need.
Always welcome is the gift of time. Why not give a busy gardener a coupon good for a few hours of planting, weeding, watering, or tending? For many of us that is the best gift of all.
Among my many gifts are my Master Gardeners. Thanks to Master Gardeners Lori, Ann, Will, Chanelle, Marcia, Dusty, Michelle, Susan, Catherine, Karen, Judy, and Sharon for their suggestions for this column.
We hope we’ve given you some ideas to jump-start your holiday gift-giving.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
For some reason, I feel that every time I think about what to plant for pollinators, the list of plants that comes to me is one full of herbaceous ones… however, it is odd that this is the case, because it’s not like our region lacks larger plants (e.g., trees, large shrubs) that are both fully able to support pollinators while also supporting other biodiversity and even contributing to flood and rain management! And because if we’re interested in going the large(r)-plant path, we need a bit of planning, in today’s post I would like to present some native shrubs and trees that are great resources for our pollinators. This way, you can start planning where to get them for planting in late winter to early spring.
Why consider trees and shrubs for pollinators?
Large perennial plants such as trees and shrubs have many characteristics that make them very attractive to any pollinator-friendly person in our region. Indeed, while there are many of these plants that act as wonderful food resources for many pollinators (both adult and larval stages), these larger plants represent long(er)-term and abundant resources that can serve different aspects of our ecosystem: they provide shelter and food for birds, they can assist in managing stormwater runoff, retain soil, reduce surface temperatures by their shading abilities, and provide structural complexity to our landscapes. Trees especially are a key component of creating climate-resilient landscapes. In fact, one of Maryland’s climate change mitigation goals is to grow 5 million more trees by 2031!
Planting trees is not necessarily expensive
From a financial perspective, although these plants may be costlier to obtain than the smaller herbaceous ones, there is a multitude of incentives, state vouchers, and programs that strongly reduce or sometimes completely cover the costs of obtaining them. In Maryland, for example, the state provides incentives through the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (discounts to be used at nurseries; all details here), the PG County Rain Check program or the TreeMontgomery program, city incentives, and free tree plantings (e.g., see College Park’s here). In all of these programs, a lot of trees native to our region are covered. If you would like to participate in any of these programs, make sure to check the specific tree lists covered by each (also, see this list of recommended native trees for the state of Maryland). Note that these programs I mentioned here are just a few of the many that exist; if you’re interested in this, make sure to check your city, county, and state resources!
What to plant?
I hope by now I have at least made you curious about the idea of choosing trees and shrubs for pollinators. Below, I made a very small selection of a couple of plants that appear in the native lists, and that are great for pollinators. Let’s take a look at them.
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Tulip trees are a great native plant that can serve as a great pollinator resource. This tree is in the same family as Magnolia trees. It can reach a large size and it displays stunning yellow and orange flowers. This tree grows fast and is large (considered the tallest native tree in the eastern USA, along with sweetgums), so it can be a good choice for large spaces where a canopy is wanted relatively quickly. The flowers produce a lot of nectar, which attracts a massive number of pollinators. This makes it kind of fun to stand under the tree on warmer days during the blooming time: the buzzing coming from the tree is pretty impressive. Here are some more details on the conditions preferred by this tree.
Tulip trees are among the tallest trees in the eastern USA and have wonderful resources for pollinators that they carry in their stunning flowers. Photo: W. Cutler CC.
American linden or basswood (Tilia Americana)
This tree can reach relatively large sizes, and when it grows to full size it has a very rounded canopy. I personally love this tree, because of the fact that I feel it’s a “social” tree: one can sit with friends under its shade on hot summer days, and just enjoy the life it hosts and the cool breeze it forms under it. Once the season is coming to an end, this tree’s leaves turn a lovely yellow. The flowers of this tree are small and not very colorful, but they are extremely fragrant and full of nectar, which makes them a great magnet for pollinators. You can learn more about the requirements of this tree at Virginia Tech Dendrology.
The American linden has discrete flowers that are very attractive to pollinators. Photo: A. Zharkikh CC.
Hawthorns (Crataegus phaenopyrum and C. viridis)
These are mid-size trees that also sustain a variety of fauna through their flowers, fruits, and bird nest-friendly thorny branches. Their flowers are white, have a typical Rose-family structure (like those of cherry trees), and are attractive to bees, syrphids, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Besides being great for fauna, the two species do well in urban environments, because they both tolerate a wide variety of conditions. Here at pollenlibrary.com and on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center website you can learn more about each of these species.
Hawthorns have lovely white flower clusters. Photo: F. D. Richards CC.
Fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus)
This small tree/tall shrub is a great addition to green spaces, and is ideal for hedgerows or just as a stand-alone plant. I am always surprised by the super cool shape of the flowers of this plant, which have very elongated petals that create long white fringes. These flowers attract bees and other pollinators, which come to collect some of the nectar that is produced. This plant is usually dioecious, meaning that one individual plant harbors either male or female flowers, but rarely both. This plant is ideal for areas that receive a lot of sun, because it is under those conditions that it will do best (although it can do fine in less-sunny areas as well). You can learn more about this plant by visiting this website.
The whimsical flowers of fringe trees are not just attractive to us, but also to many pollinators! Photo: 阿橋 HQ CC.
Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
Although all of them can provide very good resources for pollinators, I picked this one to showcase because this species grows relatively fast and does not get too large. This is indeed a larger shrub that has beautiful white flowers, and later on, delicious small berries. Because of all this good stuff, the flowers are visited by many insects, and the fruits are favorites of birds (so you’ll have to win over them if you want to get at the fruits! 😉 ). Here and on the University of Maryland Extension website, you can learn a bit more about this cool plant.
Serviceberries make everybody happy: pollinators in the spring with their flowers, and birds and humans in the summer with their berries! Photo: Henna K. CC.
By Anahí Espíndola, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. See more posts by Anahí.
Anahí also writes an Extension Blog in Spanish! Check it out here, extensionesp.umd.edu, and please share and spread the word to your Spanish-speaking friends and colleagues in Maryland. ¡Bienvenidos a Extensión en Español!
Brown marmorated stink bug, one of the little stinkers that try to get into the house in autumn. Photo: Kristie Graham, USDA ARS, Bugwood.org
Q: The bugs trying to spend the winter in my home aren’t a hazard, right? I’m going to try to seal up where they may be getting in, but there are already some that have managed to appear inside that would be hard to track down.
A: They don’t bite, aren’t attracted to indoor plants (though they might be drawn to grow lights, as they are to any light source), and are generally just a nuisance. If not easy to find, you can let them wander around until they expire, then dispose of them. Live bugs can be vacuumed or caught and released outside to meet their fate. Boxelder bugs, brown marmorated stink bugs, and multicolored Asian lady beetles are the trio of common culprits here in Maryland. Crickets, pillbugs, and millipedes come inside too, but at least they don’t fly.
Our homes must look like giant boulders to them, basking in the waning sunlight and retaining relative warmth, riddled with inviting crevices in which they can wait out the winter. Our abodes might be especially attractive since our groomed landscapes don’t have as many natural tree cavities, fallen logs, brush piles, or layers of leaf litter to tempt them instead.
If anyone is still puzzled by how they’re getting in, check your door and window weather-stripping for degradation or gaps, look for torn window screening, and inspect vent covers and conduit or pipe entry points on the exterior of the home. Seal any gaps and cracks that you can. If you use a window air conditioner, take it out for the season or plug up any access points around it.
By Miri Talabac, Horticulturist, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center. Miri writes the Garden Q&A for The Baltimore Sun and Washington Gardener Magazine. Read more by Miri.
Have a plant or insect question? The University of Maryland Extension has answers! Send your questions and photos to Ask Extension. Our horticulturists are available to answer your questions online, year-round.
In the days after Thanksgiving, I was casting around for something to write about in this blog post, when my husband surprised me at dinner with this masterpiece:
(From a Washington Post recipe; he used pine nuts instead of almonds because that’s what we had.)
So I began to think about the idea of vegetables as centerpieces for the table. We are not vegetarians and this meal did include meat, but it was off to the side, not the focus of attention. Now, anyone who reads my posts here knows I love growing, cooking, and eating vegetables. When I go out to a restaurant, the kind where vegetables aren’t “sides” but a part of a constructed meal, I generally read the menu descriptions backwards and often choose the entree I’m ordering based on the vegetable accompaniment, deciding that I’m in the mood for parsnip puree or butternut squash risotto and that delicious-sounding salsa, and only afterwards acknowledging that the meat it comes with is just fine. (I’m also a sucker for unusual produce; I once ordered a meal at a restaurant in Oregon that was… probably fish? I don’t recall, but what sticks with me is asking the waiter what sea beans were, and when he was unsure, placing the order anyway and then pulling out my phone to search. They were great; can’t grow them here, alas, because they require a salty environment.)
But the point of those restaurant meals, and most of the ones we eat at home, is that the meat is in the middle. Even many vegetarian meals center a protein element that explicitly substitutes for meat, from plant-based burgers to Thanksgiving Tofurky. Many meals don’t, of course; pasta, pizza, and stir-fries are a few of many examples that combine elements from different food groups. But don’t we tend to describe them in terms of the protein, unless they’re a side dish themselves? How often do we talk about, yum, that dish I made with Chinese broccoli and those wonderful little peppers, oh and by the way I also put in chicken?
I think this is very much a cultural thing, and this is not the place to try tracing it through American history and sociology and noting the influences of and changes in various immigrant communities. I also don’t have the expertise to tell you exactly how much protein you need in your diet based on what food choices you make, and where you can find that protein. I do know, however, that it’s possible to eat healthily while thinking of meals in the way we’ve come to consider inside-out, that is with the vegetables first. This doesn’t have to involve spectacular centerpieces that take hours to cook; the pumpkin stuffed with onion, apple, fennel and cornbread, with maybe a little bacon for fun, can be relegated to the big holiday meal. But vegetables can at least be first in our meal planning part of the time. Maybe even all of the time.
Tamar Haspel, who writes for the Washington Post about larger perspectives having to do with diet, had a recent article about which plant foods are most and least impactful on our climate. (All plant foods are usually better climate choices than meat.) She concluded that fruit, nuts, and row crops such as grains and beans are better in an environmental sense than vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes, because the latter use more fertilizer and pesticides, go bad quicker and so contribute more to food waste, and provide fewer calories per acre. What this doesn’t account for, of course, is growing your own. Your home-grown veggies have zero crop transportation costs, and you will likely be using a lot less in the way of inputs. So I think you can eliminate climate guilt from the equation if you plant a garden. (Buying locally-grown produce would be the next best option.)
What are the best crops to grow if you’re trying to center vegetables on your table? Anything you like and will eat, basically, but if you’re going for the big centerpiece, think about squash or peppers that can be stuffed, beefsteak tomatoes (especially colorful heirloom types), or indeed cauliflower, though you’ll have to keep up with the fertilizer and water to achieve big, fully-formed heads, especially for a spring crop. Also think about ingredients you’d like to add to savory pies, galettes, or other pastries, or quiches and frittatas, or casseroles. Greens make a great base for many other dishes, or can star on their own mixed in with pasta or grains. And there’s always a big salad filled with lettuce, arugula, herbs, cucumbers, etc. – oh, and maybe some meat or fish too.
I’m still trying to shift my thinking from saying, when making meal plans, “We’ll have pork chops and…” “We’ll have macaroni and cheese and…” to a vegetable-centered focus. Here is a big lovely winter squash, I might think—what meat goes with that? Or maybe cheese and nuts? Can they go inside? Those Yellow Cabbage Collards I grew and put in the freezer: great with a little ham and a high-protein grain. I mean, sometimes we’ll just want a steak and potatoes with the greens on the side, but it’s worth doing the vegetable mind trick several days a week. And when there’s a little leftover steak, it might add something to a stir-fry of broccoli and beans.
If you’re looking for recipes, either search online for the vegetable you want to feature and “main dish,” or use a cookbook, vegetarian or not, that makes vegetables or vegetable families one of its primary organizing principles. And when you’re browsing the seed catalogs that are starting to arrive, consider what you might like to grow next year that will feature as the center of your table.
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.
I love Christmas. My favorite part is decorating a real tree, bringing all that woodsy freshness and fragrance into my home. If you like real trees too, listen up for some shopping tips.
First, measure. If you’ve ever had to lop off the top to make it fit you know that eyes can deceive. So measure the space and get a tree that fits both the height and width. Yes, I’ve had to rearrange the furniture.
Next, visit a local tree farm or lot. Bundling up and strolling through a Christmas tree farm is old-fashioned fun. Cutting your own guarantees it’s fresh. Plus it’s a good excuse for hot cocoa.
But before you head out to a tree farm, toss some sturdy rope and a blanket or tarp in your car to secure and protect your tree and car. Most farms have maps, saws and helpful folks.
Local tree lots are a fine option, too. Most benefit a local business or nonprofit group so you’re doing good while having a good time. Raise your hand if you get overwhelmed looking at all those trees.
Should you get a spruce, fir, pine or cedar? It’s a tough choice, but here are some fast facts to help you.
The longest-lasting trees are Colorado and Norway spruce and Frasier fir. Concolor fir also last well and have a handsome blue tinge as do some Colorado spruce.
Balsam fir is the most fragrant. Pines have long, soft needles. And local tradition points to our native Eastern redcedar, often harvested on farms in days gone by.
Eastern redcedar Credit: Mira Talabac
Once you’ve settled on a type of tree, get up close and personal. Stroke a branch from trunk to tip. Few needles should fall. Gently bend a few needles. They should bend, not break.
If you’re buying a pre-cut tree, give it the gentle drop test. Lift the tree off the ground a few inches and let it hit the ground softly. Only a few needles should fall.
Tree farms and lots will offer to wrap your tree in netting. Spring for the extra few bucks if there is a charge. It’s good protection. If you have a short trip home, ask for a fresh cut on the trunk of a pre-cut tree to help it take up water. Or cut a half-inch off the base when you get home.
Your tree will travel best in the cargo area of your car if it’s roomy enough. Put down a tarp or blanket to catch any falling needles. If your tree is traveling in the back of a truck, wrap it and secure it with rope to minimize shifting and damage. The quaint image of a Christmas tree atop a car is all well and good, but trees should only travel on car roofs with roof racks to avoid damage.
Load your wrapped tree with the base forward and secure it with sturdy rope to avoid the unpleasant “opening umbrella effect” en route. Yes, trees can fly.
As soon as you get home, plunge the tree into a bucket or stand that holds at least a gallon of water. Trees are heavy drinkers, so check and top off the water daily. Check twice the first day.
The right Christmas tree tended well can give you a month or more of enjoyment. Make yours the centerpiece of your family’s holiday celebrations.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.
Our society wastes food at every point in the food chain from farms and gardens to home kitchens, restaurants, supermarkets, food service companies, and large institutions like universities that feed thousands of people daily. Last December I was astonished to lean about the extent of food waste at the MD Food Recovery Summit organized by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Surplus food is the term used to describe unsold and unused food, like crops that don’t go to market because prices are too low, perishable items tossed into supermarket dumpsters, and groceries and restaurant meals bought and not eaten.
In 2019:
35% of all U.S. food went unsold or unused
23% of all surplus food is fruits and vegetables
Only 15% of Maryland’s 900K+ tons of food waste was recycled
Why it’s a problem:
Huge economic and environmental costs of producing surplus food
1 in 6 U.S. residents are food insecure. Surplus food can feed hungry people
Surplus food is the #1 landfill material (24% of landfill space)
Food waste in landfills generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can trap 28X as much heat/mass unit as CO2
The value of wasted food at the consumer level is $161 billion/year
Food scrap collection at Maryland Day event at UM/College Park campus. Photo credit: Jon TraunfeldContinue reading →
