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MGFKC Newsletter – The Foundation Connection
Read all about what’s of interest in the July 2021 issue!

• Save the Date: Sept 12-Cool Plants & Hot Tips
• Cultivate More Knowledge: Peonies by MG Bruce Bennett
• Finn Hill Demo Garden Breaks Ground
• 2021 Washington MG Advanced Education Conference
• Meet the Board: MG Steve Hiday
• Ask a Master Gardener Plant Clinics Update
• WA Dept of Ecology Drought Advisory
• CDC: Staying Safe in Hot Weather
• News Shoots: Message from the Program Coordinator
• Miller Library Selection: Peony
• Continuing Education Opportunities: BDG Workshops and more
• Events & Coming Attractions

…more …

This newsletter is sent monthly to King County Master Gardeners. Look for it in your email. Miss a past issue? Find it here.

Newsletter of the Master Gardener King County Diagnostic Lab

Read in the Mid-Season 2021 issue:

• Mommy Dearest ??
• Beneficial Garden Insects
• Fruit Tree Woes or Why Did I Ever Plant That Tree?!?
• Funky Friends
• Rascally Root Weevils
• Nerd’s Corner: Sweet Cicely
• Fruit Tree Resources
• Useful Web Resources
• Twigga Mortis: Yucky Yucca
• Pop Quiz! Is it a Sign or a Symptom?

This newsletter is sent monthly to King County Master Gardeners during the active garden months from March to October. Look for the current issue in your email.

Miss a past issue? Find it here.

WSU MG Advanced Ed Conference
This year our statewide conference is going virtual from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Registration is now open and you can save by registering before July 31. There are over 30 class sessions to choose from for CE, visual tours, keynote speakers, and even the marketplace. Learn more & register at  https://mglearns.org/

International MG Conference
If you want to wander farther from home, try the International MG Conference from Sept. 12-17. It is a virtual conference this year as well with six days of workshops and programs. If you can’t make six days in a row, the recordings will be available for 6 months post conference for you to view at your convenience.
Learn more & register at https://www.internationalmastergardener.com/.

Photo Credit: F D Richards

Spring is a good time to divide established plants, and many herbaceous perennials need to be divided every few years anyway to stay healthy.

Plan to dig on a cool morning, preferably one with cloud cover – not too hard around here.  Learn about:

• Dividing Fibrous-rooted Plants
• Dividing Fleshy or Woody Crowned Plants
• Dividing Suckers from Plants
• Dividing Plants with Rhizomes
• Dividing Plant with Tubers
• Dividing Plants with Offset

Continue Reading »

You don’t have to strike out with Tillandsias.  These epiphytes stand out in many shapes, sizes and psychedelic colors.  My local nursery tells me they are a big favorite of the people living in all the new developments in the area because they can grow indoors so easily.   DispIay them creatively: glue a cluster of them to a piece of wood or a single one onto a small piece of driftwood, pop one in a teacup or hang them in various houseplants.

The best location to keep them is in a room with bright, filtered light.  I had a cluster of them for many years playing hardball and refusing to bloom.  I started experimenting with putting a small one outside in the summer hanging on a nail on my east-facing front porch.  It received some early morning sun (on the days the sun came out.)  Otherwise, it just got a good dose of bright light.

Read the full article by Wendy Lagozzino as published in the December 2014 The Dirt, MGF newsletter

Cedar flagging is a natural process that is often confused with a disease.  Evergreen plants, including conifers and broad leaf types, naturally shed some old foliage each year. Stress factors, such as insufficient water, hot winds, construction damage or other root disturbance, poor planting procedures, or recent planting can promote flagging.  It is being seen more often this year because it is more common when there is hot weather followed by cold weather.

Continue Reading »

See additional resources at the bottom of this post.

From 3/8^th inch Plywood – “Cut and Assemble

2 ea 9X8           Sides

1 ea 12X8         Back

1 ea 12X13       Top

1 ea 9X13         Bottom

This “box” will hold “six – ½ gal plastic milk cartons (just cut off the top, making a six inch plastic container)”.  This box will hold about 450 “Roll Your Own” paper Nesting Tubes, enough for about 4000, “Pollinating Bees”.  These Mason Bees pollinate your trees, March-May/June – when nothing else is out to pollinate.  They only live about 100 days, then die, but have laid their eggs for next year’s crop. Continue Reading »

Planting fava beans at Shorewood High School Culinary Arts Garden – a Youth Education Garden in Shoreline, Washington.

Gardening is a year-round activity in western Washington. That may be a bane or a blessing, depending on your perspective.  The garden year doesn’t end when we pick the last tomato at the end of summer. This quarterly feature will highlight what’s going on in gardens in King County. Our gardens can be productive year-round, yielding vegetables and herbs well into fall and through the winter. During October, November, and December we harvest remaining summer produce, clean up the yard and garden to prepare for winter, and plant cool-weather and cover crops for winter and spring.

Continue Reading »

Pollination of food crops is essential to society, for without this pollination service, most fruits, nuts and other foods would simply disappear off our dinner tables.  Today, the world depends on a variety of pollinators to perform this task from a variety of sources: Honeybees and a number of other insects – and the hard working Mason Bee. [Originally posted June 2011]

Continue Reading »