Takoma Area Green Homes and Gardens Tour, Oct 2

It stands to reason that those interested in adding solar power to their homes might also be interested in environmentally friendly gardening.

As part of the regional DC Solar Homes tour, the Takoma Area Green Homes and Garden Tourhas a handful of solar homes, but will have several additional homes and sites highlighting other green building features – from energy efficiency and conservation, to non-toxic and salvaged materials, to corn stoves, biodiesel furnaces and cars, to green roofs, rain gardens, storm water management and native landscaping.

Since many of these homes are within a 1-2 mile radius, it will be easy to see many of them by walking or bicycling all in one afternoon.

Download the guide for the DC Solar Homes tour at: http://www.solartour.org/

Virginia Native Plant Society Wildflower Sale, Oct. 2

The Virginia Native Plant Society will hold a wildflower sale on Saturday, October 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria .

Visitors will be able to buy native plants and get free advice about the benefits of using native plants in a landscape.

Proceeds support education and conservation efforts of the Virginia Native Plant Society

Here are some nice resources from the Virginia Native Plant Society website

Wildflowers for Butterfly Gardens (pdf file)

Wildflowers for Woodland Gardens (pdf file)

Stopping stinkbugs without poisons

Every now and then, a bug will come along that is so annoying, that you are tempted to turn to toxins, no matter how eco-friendly you are trying to be. If stinkbugs have made it into your home, you may be ready to pick up the poison and let them have it.

But before you start filling your home with a bunch of unhealthy chemicals, here are some tips from the local extension services about how to handle stink bugs in a more environmentally friendly way.

I emailed the Home and Garden Information Center of the University of Maryland Extension and this was their reply:

You are so ahead of the game in looking for eco-friendly ways to deal with stink bugs and we are happy to help. Getting the word out on the environmentally friendly ways of control is important, as we are hearing from homeowners who are indiscriminately spraying all kinds of pesticides, and even herbicides, ignoring labels. 

As background, the stink bugs that you are bothered by are not native, but an invasive species which has arrived here from Asia. They are congregating in large numbers to try and find a warm place to overwinter, and our homes look pretty good to them for this purpose. Now would be the time to make sure that doors and windows are tightly fitted with good screens and sweeps. Look closely for gaps in your home, and fill any with caulk.

If they do get inside, using a vacuum to collect them (and then throwing away the bag) works, as well as fitting the hose end w/a rubber-banded piece of pantyhose to collect them. A shop vac with some soapy water in the bottom works well too. The shop vac is great outside as well. They tend to drop straight down when disturbed, so sweeping them from around doors with a bucket of soapy water underneath works. We have seen people fashion a 'catcher' with a rectangular container with an inch or two of soapy water in the bottom attached to a broom handle to pole. It should be mentioned that these bugs do not bite, and are not reproducing or feeding inside our homes, just resting.

Here is more information from our website: hgic.umd.edu/content/timelytips.cfm

The reply I received from the Virginia Cooperative Extension was very similar, but did contain this extra tidbit of advice:

Do not use any indoor house foggers. They will kill them but then you have just created food for all of the predators that are feeding on insect such as carpet beetles.

More about the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug can be found on the Invasive Species page from the University of Maryland Extension.

As always, I highly recommend contacting your local Extension System office for answers to your gardening question. Be sure and let them know if you are looking for an environmentally friendly option!

Where to find answers.

Top 10 Rookie Gardening Mistakes

Saw this great blog post on planetgreen.com called Top 10 Rookie Gardening Mistakes (and how to avoid them). The detailed list (with photos), which was written by Colleen Vanderlinden, lists things that a lot of gardeners do wrong.

Here's a brief synopsis of the list. Be sure to read her full blog post for the details of "How to Avoid them"

1) Clueless watering

2) Wrong plant, wrong place

3) Not giving plants enough space

4) Not knowing your zone

5) Haphazard fertilizing

6) Not mulching

7) Half-a**ed soil preparation

8 ) Sun/shade fairy tales

9) Not knowing your site

10) Listening to Experts

And visit my blog post, 12 Relationship Rules for Gardeners , to learn more ways to do things RIGHT in the garden.

Trade in Your Mower - Mow Greener!

Want to be a little more environmentally friendly when you mow? Trade in your gas mower for a battery powered one!

When: Saturday and Sunday, October 9 and 10, 11am to 3pm only.

Where: Front lot of the ABF Terminal, 6720 Washington Blvd, Elkridge, MD (follow the Neuton signs)

How: You must drop off a gas mower. You’ll receive a voucher for a new Neuton Battery-Powered Mower.

Hurry, only 300 vouchers are available!

Call the toll-free number on the voucher by October 31st to place your order. Your mower will be delivered to your door!

Details: No registration required. Proof of Maryland residency is required to participate (valid driver’s license or utility bill). Mowers must be drained of gas and oil before drop-off. Your gas mower will be scrapped and cannot be returned to you. Vouchers will be available for the first 300 participants only.

Questions: Please call the Maryland Department of the Environment at 410-537-4210.

September 26th is Johnny Appleseed Day - Share some garden love

On September 26, 1774, Johnny Appleseed was born.

Here are a few suggestions to celebrate the life, love and kindness of this generous fellow gardener.

1) Buy some locally grown apples. Maryland Apple Orchards, Virginia Apples

2) Play Johnny Appleseed with your own garden seeds (and cuttings) by sharing them with others. Northern Virginia Plant Exchange

3) Buy a decendent from a genuine Johnny Appleseed planted tree - If you have never visited the Historic Tree Program pages of American Forests, you are missing all sorts of fun. They sell trees that are direct decendents of trees owned by famous presidents, environmentalists, adventurers and others.

Rose's are read - reading about Rose's garden

I found this post about a neat woman named Rose when I was wandering around the internet today. The post is called Rose's Sustainable Gardening Tips and was written by Rachel Grad back in 2008.

Rose seems like such a neat person, that I encourage you to read the blog post about her, as well as the linked one to information about her solar home in McLean, Virginia.

Here are some of Rose's cool sustainable gardening tips from the post:

1) Garden organically , 2) Make sure the soil is good, 3) Choose appropriate plants, ....6) collect rainwater.

And this is one of my favorites:

7. Use your garden to build community, for example, plant a pumpkin patch in your front yard and then have the neighborhood children come to pick a pumpkin for Halloween.

Take a few minutes to read the whole post. You'll love it!

Take a child outside week - Sept. 24 - 30th

If you are like me, you learned much of your love of gardening from your parents or someone else who took you outside to share the wonders of gardening, nature and wildlife with you when you were a child.

Unfortunately, with our busy lifestyles and so many electronic gadgets that keep us indoors, many of today's children spend very little time outside.

Take A Child Outside Week is a program designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from discovering the natural world. The Take A Child Outside Week website has many wonderful suggestions to help get your kids outdoors, from lying on blankets examining the trees to teaching a child to whistle using blades of grass (remember doing that as a child?)

Or here is a suggestion of my own that can be used in any yard or landscape:

Have a scavenger hunt in your yard (can also be carried out at a local park): Wake up early and take a quiet walk around your yard with a notebook in hand. Look for at least ten wonderful, curiosities of nature that aren’t easily noticed and make a list of them. Perhaps you will see some caterpillars dining on a host plant or a beautiful spider web stretched across two tree limbs or a tiny little tree frog hidden in the leaves of a flower. Make a list of your finds (but not their locations). Give a copy of the list to each of your children or other participants and have a scavenger hunt in your yard. Whoever finds all the items first wins!

Whatever you do to celebrate Take A Child Outside Week, make sure you let the child in YOU come out and play!

Happy First Day of Autumn - My Favorite Season!

Quotes about Autumn

• "Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." - Elizabeth Lawrence



• " I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air. - Nathaniel Hawthorne



• "Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot



• "Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all." - Stanley Horowitz



• "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus

Please don't poison my planet - eco-friendly options for weed control

I just saw a post on a “green” blog that started out by saying that now is a good time to “Spray lawn weed killer.”

My reaction: ACK!

In keeping with my personal “don’t poison the planet” rule, I went searching on the Internet for some non-toxic ways to control weeds. I haven’t tried most of them myself and I welcome input from anyone who has about what has worked for you and what hasn’t in your yard and gardens.

Hand pulling - Admittedly, not the easiest or most fun, but certainly the least toxic to the planet. Hand pulling weeds is also one of the many garden chores that help to burn calories. Weeds should be pulled before they go to seed and care should be taken that the whole tap root is removed, not just the weed tops. Weeding forks are excellent tools for getting the whole weed. There is a very extensive list of various weeds in a Chemical Free Lawn and Garden book that I own, listing control methods for the different weed species. I’m not sure why they took the time or the space in the book to provide the list of different weeds because as far as I can tell, every single weed says either “hoe, dig or pull”.

Corn gluten meal– Although it won’t kill weeds that are already present, corn gluten meal is a safe pre-emergent control, which means that it prevents weed roots from developing so the seedlings die before they can take over your lawn or garden. It is safe for people, pets, fish and wildlife. Products which are based on corn gluten as the main ingredient are available under many names, including WOW and Concern.

Solarization– If you have a specific area that you can leave alone for awhile, you can kill everything (weeds included) by wetting the area and covering it with clear plastic sheeting. The edges must be sealed to make the whole thing airtight. This process is called solarization and it works because the rays of the sun heat the soil to temperatures as high as 140 degrees at the surface and up to 100 degrees as far down as 18 inches. Keep in mind that while this method kills pests and diseases in the soil, it will also kill other plants and any insects, earthworms or other beneficial critters that don’t have the opportunity to crawl away to another location. For more information, read the fact sheet: Going Solar to Set Your Soil Straight.

Use boiling water - For weeds in sidewalks, driveways etc, you can pour boiling water directly on the weed. You can also use boiling water in gardens but keep in mind that it won’t be great for earthworms, plants that you want to keep or any beneficial creatures that are hiding out under the soil. For stubborn perennial weeds (including poison ivy) you have to expose the roots and pour on the boiling water. Don’t rebury the roots, as keeping them exposed helps speed their demise.

Weed torches – Small, propane powered torches are available specifically for burning weeds out of cracks and crevices in sidewalks and driveways and will even work in gardens and lawns. Keep in mind that it is the heat, not the flame, that will kill a weed and the heat can affect plants well beyond the visible flame. Also, anything that is too dry can catch on fire, including mulch, dry leaves, your sneakers, etc.

Household vinegar– A recipe that I found on the Internet said that you can control weeds by mixing 1 cup vinegar with ¼ cup lemon juice, pouring it into a spray bottle and spraying it directly on weeds. This mixture is said to control herbaceous broad-leaf and grass weeds, including chickweed, ragweed, plantain, crab grass, quack grass, and wild carrot and results are said to be obtained in as soon as two hours. I also found several sources that warned that vinegar and lemon will both upset the natural chemistry of the soil and make it difficult for other plants to grow.

Using mulch - Mulch can help to smother weeds in a garden by blocking sunlight. This keeps weed seeds from germinating and young weed seedlings are smothered.

If you have found eco-friendly products or methods that help control weeds, please let us know by leaving a comment. My husband and I are pretty tolerant of most weeds in the lawn (many visiting critters seem to like to eat them, including our neighbors goat that sometimes gets loose and wanders into our yard). In our gardens, we just hand pull and use mulch.

For more information:
Pesticide Alternatives, Montgomery County Watershed
A Corny Solution for Weeds (pdf file) about corn gluten
Going Solar to Set Your Soil Straight (pdf file)
Weed Control – Fairfax County

Online ources for purchasing products :
Gardens Alive
Planet Natural