Welcome to Charles County Master Gardeners Online

Orb Weavers Are Garden Friends

By Pamela B.King
County Extension Agent

Photo by Carole W. Butler

The spider pictured above is a Black and Yellow Argiope, a garden-dwelling orb weaver. These are big (about 1 inch long), conspicuous spiders that hang head down in the center of their large, beautiful webs.

The web usually has crossed zigzag bands. Interestingly, young spiders may construct more zigzags than the adults. This species is easily recognized by the showy color and pattern.

In general, spiders are amazing, beneficial organisms. All spiders eat insects that could damage crops or cause other problems for humans. They can all spin silk and some, like this garden orb weaver, can weave the silk into intricate, delicate webs. One web might have miles of silk.

Many spiders have interesting body shapes and colorful patterns. Some, like the wolf spider, care for their young and carry them on their backs to help them get off to a good start.

Spiders often get a bad reputation because a few spiders have venom strong enough to be dangerous to people. All spiders have venom. They need it to kill their prey. However, few spiders will bite, unless they feel seriously threatened.

Some people may have an allergic reaction to the venom of a spider bite, while others may not. In the United States many more people become seriously ill from wasp and bee stings than from spider bites.

The Black Widow is the only dangerously poisonous spider found in Maryland, and it is very common. They are about ½ inch long with a beautiful, shiny black body and a large, round abdomen with a bright red hourglass on the belly.

Black Widows are not aggressive, and prefer to live in places where they will not be disturbed, like sheds and woodpiles. They will bite when touched or pressed, so one should be careful when working in areas where these spiders may live. Just take simple precautions—wear gloves and watch what you are doing—and bites can almost always be prevented.

For more information, contact Marcia A Wakefield

Last updated: 05/28/2009

4th Annual Plant Sale Sells Out

The Charles County Master Gardeners fourth annual plant sale was held May 2 at two locations this year. With our volunteers providing great plants from their gardens to stock the sales, promoting the sales, tagging and pricing the plants, and selling the plants, these events met our goals and exceeded our expectations.

Photo by Cindi Barnhart

The La Plata Plant Sale was held at the Charles County Courthouse parking lot on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. "We were selling plants before opening, and we were selling plants after we closed," said La Plata Project Leader Gale Kladitis. "How cool is that?"

Comments from customers were: the plants were well labeled, reasonably priced, questions were answered with knowledge, plants were very healthy, a large variety, and they would try to get to the sale earlier next year.

Photo (at top and above) by Carole Butler

Also on Saturday, at the same time, the Waldorf Plant Sale was held at the Hampton Inn parking lot at 3750 Crain Highway (US 301), thanks to the Inn's management who graciously offered us a large area just off the highway to set up our sale.

"Thanks to our volunteers, we made a lot of new friends at this sale," said Carole Butler, Waldorf Project Leader.

Many of the customers were interested in learning about the Master Gardener program, and Ronda Goldman presented her Bay-wise container vegetable garden to a number of customers. Plus a photographer from the Maryland Independent stopped by and took a lot of pictures of our Master Gardeners in action.

We erected our brand new plant sale banner, pictured above, created by Teresa Ambol, and customers took note. We also made and installed signs leading to our site and on the southbound side of US 301. Our beautiful canopy, borrowed from Charles County Master Gardener Mary Gaskins, also made a great presentation.

Even the weather cooperated for the sales event, not sprinkling the predicted rain on us until we were packed up and leaving.

The sale in La Plata brought in $762 and the new sale site in Waldorf brought in $431.25, for a grand total of $1193.25 to promote horticlture education in Charles County, including our annual training held each February.

The few remaining plants were donated to the horticulture classes for inmates at the Charles County Detention Center.

Got Deer?
Grow It Eat It blogger, Dale Johnson, has advice for excluding deer from your gardens. - posted Jun 18, 2009

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