Obey Your Master Gardener
By Anne McNulty
There’s nothing like crouching down in your very own vegetable garden and picking a sun-ripened tomato from the vine. But the health of the Bay has far-reaching impact, affecting essentially everyone in the Bay watershed whether through industry, leisure, or health. Trained volunteers of the Master Gardener program ensure that the beans, cucumbers, and squash you've grown in your garden aren't compromising your children's opportunity to eat a fresh Choptank oyster on the half-shell.
The Master Gardener program came to Maryland in 1978, six years before its nationwide introduction. Existing under the umbrella of the Maryland Cooperative Extension of the University of Maryland, the program has been in Talbot and Queen Anne's Counties for three and 11 years, respectively.
"Our mission statement is to educate the public in sound environmental practices," says Heather Buritsch, Master Gardener coordinator and urban horticulturist at the Talbot County Cooperative Extension. After competing a 40-hour basic training course and contributing 40 hours of service in their first year, volunteers earn Master Gardener certification. Twenty hours a year of service and 10 hours of avanced training are required to maintain certification. Buritsch currently coordinates a corps of 80 volunteers, four of whom have taken the time to answer a few questions on Bay-Wise landscaping.
HOW CAN I GROW A GOOD VEGETABLE GARDEN?
Ask Jack and Annie
Photo Courtesy of Heather Buritsch
"Lasagna gardens" create ideal conditions for a successful vegetable garden.
“The secret of a vegetable garden is planting what you like to eat and what’s easy to grow,” says Queen Anne’s County resident Jack Doub, who has been active in setting up the Grow It! Eat It! program, developed by the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension office, on the Eastern Shore. Doub says, “You need to have the right soil, the right nutrients, and be able to manage those nasty garden pests”—otherwise known as Integrated Pest Management. He stresses having a soil test done to determine your type of soil. “You don’t want it to be too loose or too hard. For example, water and nutrients can’t soak down into clay, and you’ll want to have the proper ratio of nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. You can’t just aimlessly throw fertilizer on a garden and hope it’s right.” Doub, who uses horse manure, certainly wouldn’t want to throw that around. Sunshine is also vital in growing good gardens. If you’re worried about deer or rabbits gobbling up your garden goodies, try fencing your garden. “You can always have a sacrificial garden, planted with cabbage or lettuce, to help distract them from your main one,” says Daub.
Annie Ittu, Queen Anne’s County Bay-Wise Coordinator, plants vegetable gardens that are in tip-top shape. When she lays them out, she first shapes an outline. “You can use spray paint, yarn, or raised brick,” she says. Next, using a method called “lasagna gardening,” she covers the ground with six or more layers of newspaper, hoses them down, and covers the area with mulch. “After letting your plots sit for a few months, add some compost, till it up, and you can get right in there and start planting,” says Ittu. When the plants begin to grow, she covers them with floating row covers, which are like cheesecloth. “Your beans and squash can still breathe, they’ll get sun and rain, and you’ll have fewer weeds.”
HOW DO I MANAGE THOSE NASTY PESTS?
Ask Heather and Annie
Photo Courtesy of Heather Buritsch
Beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, deter the pressence of undesirable insects like mealy bugs.
Heather Buritsch, Master Gardener Coordinator and Urban Horticulturist with the Talbot County Cooperative Extension, recommends using environmentally friendly pesticides such as horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps whenever possible. “For tomatoes with hornworms, we advise picking off the worms by hand and putting them in a bucket of soapy water to kill them,” says Buritsch.
Another pest-control method is using plants that draw beneficial insects, such as ladybugs and lacewings, to control aphids and mealy bugs. Buritsch recommends using native plants, such as butterfly weed and milkweed, whenever possible. They’re more resistant to drought and disease, and also sustain the native wildlife that are dependent on them.
Ittu takes an original approach to get rid of slugs. She offers them beer. “Put beer in a pie plate and set it down next to your plants,” she advises. You can also “slug it out” with slugs by putting crushed eggshells or copper pennies around your hostas. “They won’t cross copper,” Ittu adds. “To help your green peppers grow, insert two wooden matches, tip down, on either side of your seedling. Not only will this prevent cutworms, but peppers like the sulphur.”
HOW DO I CONTROL RUNOFF AND EROSION
Ask Nancy and Annie
Photo Courtesy of Heather Buritsch
Raised garden beds create buffers that help control erosion.
Photo Courtesy of Heather Buritsch
Rain barrels help control runoff and erosion by collecting rain.
“We recommend making buffers next to waterways by using grasses and woody plants to stop erosion. Raised garden beds are also helpful,” says Master Gardener Nancy O’Connor. “A rain garden, which soaks up runoff to the Bay and filters water as it runs through the water table, is another good idea.” You can plant your rain garden with native plants such as cinnamon fern, coneflower, and ginger. It’s also a perfect habitat for birds, butterflies, and dragonflies.
Speaking of water, rain barrels and cisterns are a great way to collect rain. “It’s easy to run a line to your gardens by attaching a hose to the spigot on the barrel. Slowly trickling soaker hoses will take care of evenly watering your plants where it’s needed most—at their roots,” adds Ittu.
HOW CAN I LEARN MORE?
Ask Jane
The Bay Wise gardening program is a homeowner education program conducted by certified Master Gardeners.
You can learn all the answers to your questions at Queen Anne’s County’s Second Annual “It’s a Garden Affair” Open House on Saturday, May 16, from 10 a.m.–2 p.m, in Centreville. Planning Coordinator Jane Smith and her team are creating displays for both adults and children.
Other gardening questions can be answered at regularly scheduled Master Gardener Plant Clinics and by taking advantage of the popular Bay-Wise program, where Master Gardeners Nancy O’Connor and Annie Ittu, among others, will visit your home for both an initial as well as follow-up consultation and explain how you can become eligible to be certified as a Bay-Wise Master Gardener. For immediate help, call the state’s Master Gardener office or your local Cooperative Extension office.
For gardening questions, call the Maryland Master Gardener program office’s Home and Information Center at 800-342-2507 or 410-531-5556.
Maryland Cooperative Extension offices on the Eastern Shore: 410-758-0166 (Centreville); 410-822-1244 (Easton).
Websites: MasterGardener.umd.edu or HGIC.umd.edu.
To apply to be a Master Gardener: In Queen Anne’s County, call Linda Doub at 410-827-8613 or send an e-mail to jackd@toad.net; in Talbot County, call Heather Buritsch at 410-822-1244 or send an e-mail to buritsch@umd.edu.
Anne McNulty is working on her brown-thumb problem.
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