Pruning Shrubs and Trees ~ Washington Gardener Enews ~ January 2013

The Washington Gardener Enews ~ January 2013 issue is now sent to all current Washington Gardener Magazine subscribers. It is also posted and archived online at: http://issuu.com/washingtongardener/docs/wgenews-jan13.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
~ Pruning Shrubs and Trees
~ WashingtonGardener Magazine Seed Exchange Details and Registration

~ Magazine Excerpt: Growing Icebox Watermelons
~ WashingtonGardener Magazine Photo Contest Entry Details

~ Mid-Atlantic Garden To-Do List for January-February
~ Reader Contest: Win Passes to the WashingtonGardener Magazine Seed Exchanges

~ WashingtonGardener's Recent Blog Post Highlights
~ Spotlights Special: Lifeberry® Goji Berries

~ WashingtonGardener Magazine Philadelphia Flower Show Trip Details
~ Top Local Garden Events Calendar for January-February
~ Washington Gardener Magazine Back Issue Sale!
and much more...

You can access it as well as all of the other Washington Gardener Enews back issues online now and anytime in the future at http://issuu.com/washingtongardener/docs/.

Community Garden Plot Season

If you are thinking of signing up for a plot in a local community garden, waiting until spring is TOO LATE! NOW is the time when folks are renewing their plots and garden managers are noting what plots will be open for newcomers. Sign up ASAP to get on wait lists and/or apply for plots. Here are a few links to get you started in locating community gardens in the DC/MD/VA region near you:

~ http://www.washingtongardener.com/index_files/CommunityGardens.htm

~ http://www.communitywalk.com/map/1707
~ http://www.sharingbackyards.com
~ http://fieldtoforknetwork.org/community-gardens/


Good Luck and Happy Gardening!

Video Wednesday: Seed Starting Indoors

Master Gardener Kent Phillips gives us a timeline for how to start your seeds indoors. Kent will be one of the featured speakers at our upcoming Washington Gardener Seed Exchange at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD on January 26. He will talk to Seed Exchange attendees about "Starting Vegetable and Flower Seeds Under Florescent Lights." To sign up and join us at this Seed Exchange or the one of February 2, see the details here.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: Viola Verve

Viola - Sorbet(tm) series 'Orange Duet'

 It is a dreary Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the Washington, DC/Silver Spring, MD border here in Zone 7. It is raining and cold. A gray winter so far, but a fairly mild one.

My false "window boxes" I put in several years ago along my neighbor's fenceline are still looking good with these pretty Viola (pictured above). Also in one of the window boxes is a pale yellow snapdragon, which rarely bloomed all last year, and that set one bloom this week!

Also in bloom outside now are Christmas Hellebores, Winter Jasmine, Encore Azaleas, Alyssum, and Primroses. Still holding on to a few roses as well.

Inside I have Peace Lily, Begonias, and a few Violets.

What is blooming in YOUR garden today?

A Personal Note

Some of you may be aware of the situation, but many of you are not, so I thought I'd post this to my blog and elsewhere to let folks know. After a three-and-a-half year battle with cancer, my father, Thomas L. Jentz, passed away on December 29. His memorial service took place this past weekend.

Initially, 3.5 years ago, the doctors gave my father an estimate of just a few months to live and he started to prepare for it at that time. Due to interventions and treatments from specialists at Georgetown Hospital and John Hopkins, he was able to far outlive those initial projections. But in the last few months of 2012, his liver started to fail and he ran out of treatment alternatives.

His wish was that his work on WWII German tanks be continued. His business partner, Hilary L. Doyle, will continue on publishing the Panzertracts publications. You can find out more at: http://panzertracts.com/.

He elected to be at home with hospice care for the last weeks of his life. In that period, many colleagues, friends, and family members were able to visit with him and say their good-byes.

While this was happening, I tried to keep the Washington Gardener publications and events mostly on schedule and will be playing a bit of catch up with some of our back paperwork in the coming weeks. Thank you to all who have sent their condolences and support to me and my family.

Video Wednesday: Create a New Garden Bed Without Digging

Wondering what you can do now to get your garden ready for spring? From the Washington Gardener Magazine video vault at Monkeysee.com. here is: Create a New Garden Bed Without Digging. In this video, Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine, demonstrates how to create a new garden bed without digging.

Washington Gardener Magazine Book Club 2013 Dates

With the success of our first Washington Gardener Magazine Book Club meeting last fall, where we discussed Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf, I have set a schedule of four book club selections/meetings for 2013 using the suggestions from our first meeting attendees.

For our first 2013 selection, we will be reading The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean. (Bonus points for also watching the film, “Adaptation.”)

I have reserved a meeting room at the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library
Room in the CPK Second Floor Large Meeting Room on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. (We will move the location around to various DC library locations near public transit for each meeting pending library staff approvals, the location will be confirmed to you when you RSVP.)

The room allows food and drink and you may bring your dinner and/or snacks to share.

I have made sure that the DC library and other local library systems currently have several copies available for borrowing of The Orchid Thief.

The book club meetings are FREE and open to anyone who would like to attend.

Please 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.

In case you like to read ahead, the other book club selections for 2013 are:

Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes by Judith Tankard

I will announce the date for the next book club meetings after each previous meeting. We will meet roughly once each quarter.