How to create a rain garden – August 25th

What: How to create a rain garden

When: Saturday, August 25th, 2012, 10:30 – 12:30

Where: Common Good City Farm, V Street NW between 2nd and 4th Streets, DC

What is a rain garden? A rain garden is a special type of garden  which includes a well-draining soil and preferably native drought  tolerant plants that can attract local pollinators. This workshop will  help give you an outline of how to design your own garden as an  attractive way to prevent water run-off from polluting our watersheds.

Teacher: Lili A. Herrera is a landscape architect and horticulturalist with a passion for plants. She worked in NYC at a small landscape  design firm and now works in DC for a landscape architecture firm  working on all scales of garden design. She is also a garden volunteer at Dumbarton Oaks and Common Good City Farm. For information contact lalhdesign@gmail.com.

Workshops fill up quickly, so register TODAY at
http://www.commongoodcityfarm.org/civicrm/event/info?id=152

Information for this post provided by Common Good City Farm.

Backyard habitat workshop, Saturday, August 25

What: Backyard habitat workshop
When: Saturday, August 25th, 1-4 pm
Where: Takoma Library

This weekend DDOE and DCPL with Audubon MD/DC are hosting a backyard wildlife habitat workshop at Takoma Library (416 Cedar Street NW, Washington, DC 20012). 

The workshop will be on Saturday, August 25 from 1-4pm.  Karen Mullin from Audubon MD/DC will be there to give a presentation on conservation gardening and creating space for wildlife and to give gardening advice.  After the presentation, they will be planting a native plant garden behind the library.   There will be freebies available to those who attend: birdhouse kits, books, native and invasive plant guides and plants. 

If you are interested in attending this event please send an email to backyardhabitat@dc.gov

Information for this post provided by: Damien P. Ossi, damien.ossi@dc.gov

Franklinia Trees in Full Bloom at Triadelphia Recreation Area

Now’s the time to see the beautiful white, camellia-like flowers of the blooming Franklinia tree. The state champion, Franklinia, is on the picnic grounds at Triadelphia Recreation Area, 2800 Triadelphia Lake Road, Brookeville.  Three other of these uncommon trees also have been identified near the picnic grounds.

Sometimes called a Franklin tree, this champion tree is recognized as the largest specimen of its kind within Maryland. 

This Franklinia is 26 inches in circumference, 32 feet in height and 32 feet in crown spread. By comparison, the current national champion, located in Pennsylvania, is one inch taller, but 10 inches longer in crown spread and 16 inches wider in circumference.  

These rare trees, now distinct in the wild, were discovered along Georgia's Altamaha River in 1765 by botanists John and William Bartram and named for their family’s friend, Benjamin Franklin. This beautiful landscape tree is now considered extinct in the wild.  Only trees that were planted still exist throughout the country. Franklinias need a rich, moist and well-drained soil and the warmth of the full sun.

In August, you can see the white, camellia-like flowers of the Franklinia and smell its lovely fragrance. In the fall, the leaves turn a yellow to a scarlet color to signal the season’s shorter days. 

In addition to the beauty of this tree, they are noted as a  favored perch for the birds that call Triadelphia home, including cardinals, Carolina wrens, robins and mockingbirds.

Information for this post provided by:

John C. White, jwhite@wsscwater.com 

To learn more about the Franklinia tree, here’s a great article entitled: America’s ‘First’ Rare Plant: The Franklin Tree by Lucy M. Rowland

District of Columbia Invasives Day, Sept. 8th

Saturday, September 8th, 2012

The DC Cooperative Weed Management Area

Cordially invites you to

Participate in DC INVASIVES DAY, which is aimed at increasing awareness and community efforts toward managing invasive plants and promoting native wildlife habitat in Washington, DC.

The DC-CWMA members, partners and others will host various sites around the District where residents can engage in invasive plant removal as well as learn about invasive identification and restoration. It’s a great opportunity to connect with the managers some of these parks to learn more about wildlife management efforts and take part in restoring areas to promote wildlife conservation. There are several sites throughout the city and we are still looking for more sites, leaders, community groups and residents to engage.

Sites (Include):

Rock Creek Park,  Dumbarton Oaks Park , Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Fort Dupont Park, C&O Canal Park,  Kingman Island,  National Arboretum

For more information and to RSVP contact: Laura.Washington@dc.gov

For more information on the DC Cooperative Weed Management Area - please click this link DC-CWMA. They are still looking for additional sites, community partners and residents to engage, please contact Laura if you would like to lead a group, suggest a site or learn more about the event.

Living in a place that cares

One of the really great things about the Metro DC area is the abundance of information available to anyone who wants to learn how to take care of the environment. If you have lived here for very long, that may be something that you just accept as “the norm”, but there are many parts of the country….many states….and many counties that don’t provide any information to their residents on how to conserve water, create compost or install a rain barrel. To me, providing this knowledge to people shows a great commitment to the area and to the people who live here.

In case you haven’t gone out searching for any of this info lately, I wanted to remind you about the great Eco-Friendly Resources page that we have here on the Metro DC Lawn and Garden Blog. I had to fix some of the links from when I created it, but there is still a WEALTH of information for any budding green gardener.

Click on the tab for : Eco-Friendly Resources

Enjoy!

Rain Barrel Workshop – September 23

Every time it rains, I am reminded that we still have two downspouts coming off of our home that don’t empty into rain barrels. We do have long plastic, flexible hoses at the ends of our downspouts, so we can direct the water  where we want it, allowing it to soak into our yard rather than adding to stormwater runoff. But I would much rather capture as much of that rain as I can, since we use water from our rain barrels to do most of our watering.

My husband and I already know how to make rain barrels, so we will probably run out and buy the parts and make our own. But for those of you who haven’t made one yet, there is a rain barrel workshop coming up on September 23 in Reston (and another one on October 13th in Annandale). Registration is required so click on the link below to register.

What: Rain Barrel Workshop

When: September 23, 2012, 1-3 pm

Where: Walker Nature Education Center, 11450 Glade Drive, Reston, VA 20191

Click here to learn more or to register: Rain Barrel Workshop

Read this post to find out more about rain barrels, as well as how to make your own: The Rain Barrel Response

Bay-wise landscaping program

I love the Master Gardener program. For those who don’t already know, Master Gardeners are volunteers who are trained through the local Extension Service to help people with their gardening questions and problems.

So I really enjoyed reading this article about Melina Meshako,  a Prince George’s County Master Gardener who made some big changes on Joint Base Andrews, a military facility in Prince George’s County.

What was most impressive to me was that Ms. Meshako suggested MD Bay-Wise certification for all the common areas around on-base housing.

MD Bay-Wise Landscaping is a pretty extensive certification program for properties that adhere to certain specification that make their site more eco-friendly, which of course, makes it friendlier to the Bay.

But despite the many requirements of the program, Joint Base Andrews was able to succeed with their certification.

“It was a lot of work. There is a huge list, a 50-point system for becoming Bay-Wise certified, and we did it,” said Liberty Park at Andrews Community Outreach Director Greg Ramirez. “There are 394 acres we’re responsible for, including the common areas and landscaping around housing and Belle Chance, the historic home on Andrews.”

To get your property certified, you have to meet all of the requirements for the appropriate “Yardstick” for certification. You complete “The Yardstick” and contact the Master Gardener program in your county.

I checked out The Yardstick for Homeowners. There are various eco-friendly landscaping practices and you check all of them that apply to your property. Each practice has an “inch” value of 1 – 9 inches. Your property much achieve 36 inches to be certified. For example, you can add one inch for every rain barrel you have installed, 5 inches if you don’t use pesticides, and 9 inches if you don’t have a lawn.

Very cool program! If you want to see how your yard ‘measures up’, you can download the brochure for homeowners here: Bay-Wise Maryland Yardstick

Master Gardener Grows Plants, Awareness

Maryland Bay-Wise Landscape Management

Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail

Technically, this isn’t about gardening. It is about farmers. And ice cream.

But its pretty hard to not want to spread the word when you hear about something called Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail. I mean, come on, its about fresh, homemade ice cream. In fact, it’s like a scavenger hunt with 7 different stops, all providing mmmmmmmm ice cream. Add them up, and they create the nation’s first farm-based ice-cream trail.

Here’s a little blurb from their flyer:

“Maryland has seven dairy farms that offer fresh, delicious on farm ice cream. Together, they make up the newly minted Maryland Ice Cream Trail. Visit each creamery between June 20 and September 7, and you may be named. . . Maryland’s 2012 Ice Cream Trail Blazer!”

Driving around Maryland eating ice cream……sounds like a win-win situation to me. A win for you, a win for the farmers…and who WOULDN’T want to be named Maryland’s 2012 Ice Cream Trail Blazer?

Here are some more instructions about blazing the trail, with a link to the full pamphlet:

How You Can Be a Trail Blazer! As you travel from creamery to creamery this summer, enjoying Maryland’s Best dairy on a cone (or cup), have this Maryland Ice Cream Trail Passport stamped with each creamery’s Official Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Stamp.

Then, mail your completed passport by September 7, 2012 to Maryland’s Best Ice Cream (address in pamphlet).

All completed passports will go into a large, chocolate covered waffle cone. If we pull yours out, you will win a $50 gift certificate to the creamery of your choice. And incredible bragging rights! Enjoy the trail!

Who (or what) influenced you to be “green”?

I’ve often mentioned on this blog why I started being more eco-friendly in my landscape. The primary reasons are: wildlife and my husband.

I have always liked having birds and butterflies in my yard but until I really started doing some research, I didn’t realize that I would attract a lot more of those critters by getting rid of chemicals (although that one seems really obvious now) and planting native plant species.

As for my husband’s role, he has always been very concerned about the environment, primarily because he likes to fish. He is the one that explained the whole groundwater connection to me. How everything that goes into the ground can end up in the local water supplies, etc.

My husband isn’t a scientist or anything. He’s a builder. And a hunter. And a fisherman. Before I met him, I thought I was the great Bambi-loving environmentalist and he was “the enemy – the hunting/fishing/building destroyer of the environment.”

The first time I saw him nurture an ailing plant, or gently release a fish back into a stream, I realized how dumb it was to ever categorize anyone by their habits or their occupation.

Between the influence of hubby and the hummingbirds, once I started to be a “green gardener” I was pretty much hooked.

Our gardens give us so  much joy, juicy food, fragrant herbs, beautiful birds and butterflies, that just want to keep learning more and more ways to keep things “green”.

So, who (or what) helped influence you to make “green” changes to your yard? Who talked you into your first rain barrel? Or taught you the joys of native plants? Or the pleasures of gardening for butterflies? I would love to share some of your answers.

Favorite Native Plants – A few from our readers

A few more responses trickled in for my request for Favorite Native Plant recommendations. These last few are from some of our Facebook and Twitter friends. I think every one of them mentioned the great value to pollinators of these preferred plants:

Donna Williamson, author of The Virginia Gardener's Companion: An Insider's Guide to Low-Maintenance Gardening in Virginia, mentioned several of her favorites. "Mountain mint is just the best - what a world of pollinators enjoy it! I am growing Pycnanthemum muticum but there are other species that I am not familiar with. And wild senna (Cassia marylandica) and  of course Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) and all the goldenrods!"

Samantha, from the Pollinator Plates project (check out their website) said “One of my favorites is Milkweed (Asclepias sp.) . Obviously, the Monarchs need it, but when it's in bloom, it's a real pollinator party! Mine is always covered in bees."

Brent Bolin, a fellow wildlife lover, listed several favorites: Milkweed (Asclepias sp.) for the monarchs. Ironweed (Vernonia  noveboracensis), because it looks great & wildlife loves it. Various Phlox for color. Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) looks great & attracts birds/bees . Our yard is NWF certified & also certified monarch waystation. Not sure if my white turtlehead (Chelone glabra) is attracting checkerspots yet.” You can learn more about Brent by visiting his blog

Sue Dingwell, who says she has been a native plant nut for years, (and who was also kind enough to share some photos for this post)  mentioned these favorites: "Native flowers to love: columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), golden ragwort (Chrysogonum virginianum), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), bee balm (Monarda didyma & Monarda bradburiana). Showy fern: cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnomomea). Must have native shrubs: serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea), sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus), viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) and American beautyberry (Calicarpa Americana). The mountain mint is a spreader, but not aggressive and not hard to contain. You will definitely love the energized layer of pollinators that cover this wonderful plant when blooming." In addition to her “native plant nut” monicker, Sue is a Master Naturalist, Master Gardener, member of the Virginia Native Plant Society, and volunteer at River Farm, headquarters of the American Horticultural Society. And she has a really beautiful blog called: cleangreennatives.info

Thanks to everyone who offered their favorites. Hopefully, these suggestions will help you make some of your own decisions when it comes to native plants.

Previous posts in this series:

• Favorite Native Plants – Alex Dencker
• Favorite Native Plants – Thomas Rainer
• Favorite Native Plants – Kathy Jentz
• Favorite Native Plants – Alison Gillespie
• Favorite Native Plants – Steve Bates
• Favorite Native Plants – Marlene Condon
• Favorite Native Plants – Peggy Bowers
• Favorite Native Plants – Keith Tomlinson
• Favorite Native Plants – James Gagliardi & Christine Price-Abelow