President's Letter - June 2025

Hi everyone, 

In March, we started recording the monthly MG meeting announcements and presentations. These recordings can be accessed using the Monthly Meetings and Events page on the MCMG website. 

On June 5, we’ll have our annual spring potluck picnic at Derwood. Please be sure to bring a potluck item to share for lunch at noon. If you were recognized at the May MCMG meeting for your 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years of service, we’ll distribute Years of Service pins before the picnic.

Also on June 5, we’ll hold our first organizational meeting for a Spring 2026 Grow It Eat It educational event. We will meet in the Multipurpose Room at 2:00 pm. The Derwood Demo Garden will be a focus of the event; we’ll likely have a plant sale and several information tables. 

Our new intern class will begin on Monday, June 2. Classes are in person on Mondays and online on Wednesdays from 9 am – 3 pm. The Intern Job Fair is on Monday, June 23 from 1:50 – 2:50 pm.  Committees will create informational displays and interns can sign up for activities for which they want to volunteer. 

I appreciate everyone's commitment to MCMG's mission and hope you’ll volunteer for upcoming activities. I look forward to seeing you soon!

Linda

What's our Style?

 

By MG Betsy Wooster

Communicating in writing, whether on paper or online, can present challenges that we don’t always think about. Some might argue that it doesn’t matter that much. After all, people will get the idea and know what we mean. And while there’s an element of truth in that, it’s also true that consistent usage across our communication channels reflects the careful approach we take to all that we do as MGs. 

Have you ever referred someone to the monthly newsletter published by Montgomery County Master Gardeners (MCMG)? It’s one thing if you’re talking about it at a Plant Clinic or other event. But if you’re writing about it, do you know: Should we be referring to the SEED, “the Seed,” the SEED, or The Seed? 

If you’re preparing a list of the demonstration gardens managed by MCMGs, do you know their correct names? What about local gardens: Is it Brookside Gardens or Garden? US Botanic Garden or U.S. Botanical Gardens? As far as the plants growing in those gardens, we all know the value of using their Latin names. But do you know what’s supposed to be italicized? And what about the special punctuation rules regarding periods and commas, and use of cultivar names? (It’s okay if you don’t. Speaking personally, I have to look that one up often!)

If you’re in charge of recruiting MG volunteers for an upcoming event, have you ever wondered whether you need to create a “sign-up sheet” or a “signup sheet”? What if you want to develop a flyer about a program for elementary school students, say 1st- 3rd graders? Or is it first through third graders? And what time is that event: 10am or 10 am? Noon-2 pm or 12 pm to 2 pm? Have you thought about the critical elements that should be included in those program announcements? 

The answer to these and many more such questions can be found in the new MCMG Style Guide. (If you can’t figure out the answers, or if you think there's something missing from the guide, please contact MG Betsy Wooster.) As MGs, one of our primary roles is communicating with each other and with the public. Doing so consistently helps ensure that our messages are delivered clearly and accurately. The Style Guide can help us do that. 

Six MGs Complete Pilot Composting Course

By MG Intern Cally Neely

In March, six Montgomery County Master Gardeners (along with five non-MGs) completed the pilot Montgomery County Extension Composter Course program, which entailed 12.5 hours of virtual coursework and in-person training. The program required that participants:

• Pass a 3.5-hour Community Composting 101 prerequisite course;

• Pass both a pre- and post-assessment test; and 

• Attend 3 days in person at Derwood Demo Garden’s Composting Education Hub (9 total hours).

The MGs helped build a compost pile from scratch using a toter full of food scraps donated by Manna Food Center. They practiced safely recycling organic waste of the county and facilitating the natural process of turning it into a viable soil amendment for Derwood Demo Garden use. They learned best management composting practices to reduce pathogens and strategies to test metrics of the compost pile (moisture levels, bulk density (air space), O2 levels, and more). Learn more about the course in a separate article from this month.

We congratulate these MCMG affiliates on completing the Montgomery County Extension Composter Course (pictured left to right above):

• MG Eniko Csikos

• MG Carol Hayes

• MG Celeste Houser Jackson

• MG Intern Elina Sarkisova

• MG Melissa Spence

• MG Maxine Glazer (not pictured)

Earth Day in the Literary Garden

The Literary Garden
Photo: MG Alison Edwards

By MG Amy Henchey 

I spent Earth Day greeting and dispensing gardening advice to visitors to the Literary Garden at the Kensington Park Library. I volunteer regularly at the Literary Garden, helping to keep it planted, weeded, and pruned. I’m sometimes joined by another Master Gardener, Montgomery College horticulture students, or high school students seeking service hours. Master Gardener volunteer hours aren’t available for the monthly weeding time, but it’s a pleasant place to spend a few hours.

The garden is the brainchild of Karin Reber (pictured here). She designed and built the garden as part of her work for a master’s degree in horticulture at George Washington University. The mostly native plants are carefully labeled with common and scientific names, and their benefits to pollinators are described.

I can’t think of a better place to have spent a day celebrating environmental protection!

Below are some more photos from the Literary Garden:

Clockwise from upper left: Penstemon digitalis, bee house,
Iris versicolor, Lonicera sempervirens, Tradescantia virginiana
Photos: MG Alison Edwards

Montgomery County’s Pilot Extension Composter Course

Photo: Montgomery County
Office of Agriculture

By MG Intern Cally Neely

As food waste becomes a major contributor to methane production and pollution when thrown into landfills and incinerators, the need to get involved in composting safely to divert community-generated food scraps and support the soil becomes more and more important. 

This past March, six Montgomery County Master Gardeners (along with five non-MGs) completed the pilot Montgomery County Extension Composter Course, which entailed 12.5 hours of virtual course work and in-person training at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood, Maryland. The course drew together 11 participants from across Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Howard Counties) as well as DC for three Saturdays in a row to learn about and make compost together with a host of speakers and the compost trainer Thomas Fazio (Compost Manager at ECO City Farms).

The program was hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in collaboration with University of Maryland Extension (UME), MCMG, the Montgomery County Office of Agriculture (OAG), and Thomas Fazio. Three in-person training days allowed participants to build competency via hands-on practice, and receive the basic training needed to support the Composting Education Hub (CEH) while learning how to serve composting needs across their residential communities.

The course began indoors with an orientation session, followed by speakers Eileen Kao and Kathy Vasquez from Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), who provided information about composting rules, regulations, goals, and existing programs in Montgomery County and Maryland, as well as the pros and cons of the DEP-recommended backyard composting systems. The day ended with a brief tour of the CEH.

The first day of the hands-on practicum began with home composting basics led by ILSR’s Composting for Community Initiative Director Brenda Platt, followed by an in-depth introduction to the CEH’s three-bin Knox compost system, led by instructors Thomas Fazio and Natalia Salazar (OAG). Fazio guided the participants in building their own hot compost pile with food scraps provided by the local Manna Food Center, and demonstrated ways to get important metrics such as bulk density and moisture levels, as well as methods of troubleshooting a pile.

Three-bin compost system
Photo: Montgomery County
Office of Agriculture

The final day of the hands-on practicum included taking the CO2 measurements of the week-old pile, and mixing it with an older pile to build volume to achieve temperatures that would destroy most pathogens. Fazio ended his portion with a sensory exploration of compost of different stages, getting participants to see, smell, and feel different stages of compost samples taken from ECO City Farms. This was followed by speakers from Baltimore’s Hidden Harvest Farm (Aleksandra Mihailovic & Dana Rushovich) explaining other methods of running an all volunteer-run composting operation, and the session finished up with teaching tips for engaging the audience and volunteering using your strengths led by MG Susan Eisendrath.

The participants, who ranged from MCMGs to unaffiliated individuals interested in composting in their own communities, brought lively questions and dove into creating compost together, with many expressing interest in volunteering at the CEH. All 11 students passed the post-course knowledge check, earning them a certificate of completion. 

To support the replication of this training in other counties as well as in other state Extension programs, ILSR developed a toolkit to be made available to the UME and MG volunteers which will include a description of the CEH site development; the 2025 pilot course curriculum and schedule; various checklists for supplies needed to run the program with best management practices (including health and safety considerations); and form templates (media release, pre- and post-assessments, liability waiver, feedback form).