M.C. Fairgrounds Demonstration Garden

Montgomery County Master Gardeners Have a Long History with the Demonstration Garden at Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg

Montgomery County Master Gardeners originally established a demonstration garden at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg in 1994. The current site (above) is the third location occupied within the fairgrounds. Although the County Fair is the high point of the gardening year the Master Gardener team works throughout the year, planning, planting and maintaining the garden, making it an attraction for people attending the many other shows held at the fairgrounds. This year the Master Gardeners are working to prepare it for the 2010 County Fair, to be held August 13-21, 2010.

Located at the corner of Poplar and Hickory Avenues, within the fairgrounds, the Master Gardener site is right across from both Old McDonalds Barn on Hickory and diagonally across from the 4H building on Poplar, making the Demonstration Garden as easy to find as it is enjoyable to visit.

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Each year, hundreds of fairgoers visit the Demonstration Garden to learn how they can improve their own gardens. Master Gardener volunteers are on duty each day during the County Fair to answer questions about the Demonstration Garden and the Master Gardener program. They also conduct tours through the garden, and provide helpful gardening information including composting techniques, proper use of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides (referred to as Integrated Pest Management or IPM), and proper use of fertilizer to protect the water table and the Chesapeake Bay.

tithonia

TITHONIA

The award-winning garden has won many kudos over the years, including the official "Bay Wise" certification, and several "Keep Montgomery County Beautiful" awards.

The Demonstration Garden includes a rain garden with a bioswale and a rain barrel to demonstrate how easy and eco-friendly Bay Wise gardening can be. The rain garden was developed with a grant from the Keep Montgomery County Beautiful organization.

In the Demonstration Garden are a wide variety of native plants and shrubs, as well as non-natives from around the world. The native plants attract many butterflies and hummingbirds as well as ladybugs and other beneficial insects and pollinators that reduce the need to treat gardens with toxic chemicals, and also provide both food and shelter for native fauna that non-natives may not. .

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HELENIUM (Sneeze Weed)

In the raised beds of the garden there are xeric (drought-tolerant) native plants such as such as Coreopsis, Solidago, and Yucca, that can stand up to the hottest, driest DC-area summers. In another bed, a fragrant array of cooking herbs are showcased, backed by Crape Myrtles and an exfoliating River Birch. Beds also display shade loving ferns and hostas, typical plantings of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants as well as blueberries. Malabar spinach is shown climbing a trellis intertwined with Royalty purple beans. Another popular attraction is the "salad table," which demonstrates salad greens growing in a waist-high wood-framed earth-box such as a patio-gardener with limited space could use.

Master Gardener volunteers have also started the renewal of the beds at the nearby Heritage House, expanding the beds and adding compost and mulch in anticipation of moving, pruning and adding to now-crowded shrubs, perennials and annuals in the smaller beds there. These improvements reflect the close cooperation of the Master Gardeners with the fairgrounds organization which has provide us so much assistance, and will create a more attractive approach to a facility used for many 4-H and public events throughout the year.

The Master Gardener Fairgrounds Team includes current Co-Chairs Tom Stanton and John Zeglin, as well as past Co-Chairs Frank Lostumbo and Sheryl Freishtat, and many new and veteran Master Gardeners, many of whom are shown here.

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Last updated: 07/9/2010