Fenton Friday: Harvest for the Hungry

I'm back from the Garden Writers Association meeting in Quebec and fear my Fenton Community Garden plot is woefully neglected at this point. I did manage to get over a few times this week and water plus pick the always prolific okra and a few tomatoes.

Several of us plot owners gathered as a group on Tuesday evening and harvested the excess from our plots to donate to the hungry at Shepherd's Table. Here is the list of what we gathered:
~ Beans 1 lb 3 oz
~ Garlic 3 oz
~ Okra 3 oz
~ Cantaloupe 3 lbs 8 oz
~ Eggplants 1 lb
~ Dill seed 3 oz
~ Carrots 9 lbs
~ Sweet Peppers 3 lbs
~ Hot Peppers 1 lb
~ Squash/Zucchini 3 lbs 9 oz
~ Tomatoes 20 lbs
~ Flowers (nonedible) that we are not counting in our weight total.

The food donation TOTAL in weight was 42.8 pounds! I think this is great for a first-time event and hope next year we get an even bigger turnout.


Adopt A Plot




GUEST POST BY  Daniel Holcombe,Grounds Conservation Manager, Historic Congressional Cemetery

About a month ago we started a new program here at the Congressional Cemetery.  Volunteers are stepping forward to “adopt” family plots by gardening and maintaining the plantings throughout the year.  Our new adopt-a-plot project will both restore part of Congressional’s historic landscape as well as enhance the overall beauty of the grounds.  The Cemetery was once called “gardenesque” by George Watterson, the third Librarian of Congress.  He described the Cemetery as a place that “the stranger as well as the citizen would feel a melancholy pleasure.”  This project is designed to replace some of the lost horticultural beauty of the Cemetery.

Volunteers will choose a family plot to maintain throughout the year, and with only a few exceptions, all family plots that use stone coping around their perimeters are up for adoption.  You are free to work whenever you would like and we will have tools, water, and mulch available for you.  We have a list available of suggested plants, including those historically appropriate as well as plants aimed at providing for our bees.

We have already had more than a dozen plots adopted, and a few have already been gardened.  The plots range in size from about ten square feet up to around five hundred.  Some are shaded, some are full sun; and our only rules are no vines, vegetables, invasives, or trees.  If you think you’d be interested in helping us with this project, please contact me at dholcombe@congressionalcemetery.org and feel free to look around for a plot you might want to adopt!


Video Wednesday: Montmorency Falls

 

Montmorency Falls in Quebec, Canada. I was there last week for the Garden Writers Association annual meeting. The falls are 98 ft higher than Niagara and can be accessed from the bottom by cable car or staircase. I shot part of this looking down over the falls from the suspension bridge the spans over it.

We had a great time visiting gardens in and around Quebec City. I will be sharing several albums of photos from the trip on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine.

Join Us at the Heritage Harvest Fest at Monticello!


I'm ecstastic that Washington Gardener Magazine will once again be the part of the 7th annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello this year. It is a celebration of gardening, sustainable agriculture, and local food, held on the breathtaking West Lawn of Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. Taste heirloom fruits and vegetables and learn about organic gardening and seed-saving at this fun, family-friendly festival talking place Friday-Saturday, September 6-7, 2013.

We'll have a table in the Tasting Tent all day Saturday where you can sign up for subscriptions or buy current and back issues. I'll also be talking on "Local Gardening Challenges" and "Regionally Adapted Plants" on Friday and Saturday in Classroom 6, Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center. My talks are part of the premium workshop track and you must register separately for those. I urge you to do so soon at
http://heritageharvestfestival.com/premium-workshops/ since they sold out last year in advance.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some of my friends and colleague there as well as participating in the old-fashioned Seed Swap on early Saturday morning.

I hope you will join me for all or part of the festival!

Win 7 False Solomons Seal Plants courtesy of Sunshine Farm & Gardens

For our August 2013 Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away 7 False Solomons Seal (Smilacina racemosa or Maianthemum racemosum) plants courtesy of Sunshine Farm & Gardens to one lucky winner. (Value: $35+.)
   False Solomons Seal is a long-lived, easy-to-grow, almost shrub-like in appearance, perennial plant. It will bring you, your friends and your visitors decades of pleasure in your garden. It typically grows in average soil in all types of light conditions from deep shade to filtered sunlight. The deep green, glossy, arching foliage is persistent all the growing season long and the attractive, long-lasting, elegant, feathery, creamy-white blooms light up the whole garden in early to mid-spring.
   Sunshine Farm and Gardens (www.sunfarm.com) is the brainchild of Barry Glick, who takes full responsibility for all of the chaos and havoc surrounding the incredible palette of rare and unusual, but mostly idiot-proof plants. In the past 32 years, they’ve managed to amass a diverse collection of well over 10,000 different, hardy to zone 5 perennials, bulbs, trees and shrubs from every corner of the Earth on their 60-acre mountain top at 3000 feet in beautiful Greenbrier County WV.
   To enter to win the set of 7 False Solomons Seal plants, send an email with “Sun Farm” in the subject line to WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by 5:00pm on Friday, August 30. In the body of the email please include your full name, email, address, and tell us: What has been the Biggest Garden Pest this year and why. The winners will be announced and notified by September 1. Some of the entry responses may be used in future online or print articles.

Red Cherry Almost Upsets Incumbent, but Sun Sugar Wins Tastiest Tomato Again!

Tomato Taste 2013 Results

We had over 250 come to today's Washington Gardener Magazine 6th Annual Tomato Taste at the FreshFarm Silver Spring Market. Here are the results of the more than 250 ballots submitted.
  1. Sun Sugar from Spiral Path Farm
  2. Red Cherry from Chicano Sol Farm
  3. Cherokee Purple from Three Springs Fruit Farm
  4. Yellow Brandwine from Perry County Land and Cattle
  5. Pink Brandwine from The Farm at Our House
  6. Black Cherry from Mock's Greenhouse and Farm 
Marian Katz of Silver Spring, MD, won the prize drawing of a gift bag full of gardening goodies and $25 FreshFarm market dollars.

Most of the taste attendees were local, though we also had many who came quite a distance. About half live in Silver Spring. Another third live close by in Washington, DC or the towns of Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Hyattsville, Rockville, Bethesda, and Wheaton in MD. Some were from farther afield in Maryland -- Baltimore, Frederick, Hanover, etc. From across the river in Virginia, attendees came from Alexandria and Charlottesville. From outside of the local area, we had attendees from New York, South Carolina, California, Wyoming, Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota, West Virginia,  Illinois and even as far away as Israel! 

Two young gentleman, Isaac and David, were the stand-out artists in our tomato coloring and art display area.

See many more photos from the event at http://www.facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine.




Thank you to all who came and participated. A BIG thanks to the farmers for growing great tomatoes and to FreshFarm Markets staff for hosting us. Special thanks also to volunteers Doree and Martha for helping with all the tomato sample cutting and helping greet all the tasters in the short, intense two-hour event.

See you next August!

Connect with Washington Gardener Magazine

Washington Gardener Magazine is at the annual Garden Writers Association symposium until 8/23. While we are away recharging and networking with our peers, you can also catch up on past posts from  Washington Gardener Magazine and connect with fellow local gardeners at our online resources:
• Washington Gardener Blog: www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com
• Washington Gardener Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/WDCGardener
• Washington Gardener Instagram Feed: http://instagram.com/wdcgardener
• Washington Gardener Pinterest boards: http://pinterest.com/wdcgardener/
• Washington Gardener Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WashingtonGardener/
• Washington Gardener Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/washingtongardenermagazine
• Washington Gardener Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/WDCGardener
• Washington Gardener Web Site: www.washingtongardener.com

 
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