Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

Promoting environmentally sound gardening practices for over 35 years!

Ice covered sedum in the Simpson Park Demonstration Garden tufa bed. Photo © Mary Free

Climate Change

A Climate-Conscious Gardening Checklist and Next Steps

For the past eleven months, we’ve explored the topic of climate change and practical actions gardeners can take in their home landscapes in response: from managing water wisely and building healthy soil to thinking differently about lawns and making informed choices regarding plants. To help home gardeners remember some of the mitigating and adaptive techniques discussed, we have summarized them in this handy printable “Climate-Conscious Gardening Checklist.”

Read moreA Climate-Conscious Gardening Checklist and Next Steps

Gift Books for Gardeners 2021  

For many gardeners, reading about gardening and plants is the next best thing to working in their own garden or tending their containers or houseplants. If you are looking for a special book to give your favorite gardener this holiday season, consider one of the following Extension Master Gardener favorites.

Read moreGift Books for Gardeners 2021  

Planting Trees

No discussion about how we can help cope with climate change would be complete without addressing the critical importance of trees. Trees offer habitat, nesting sites, and a variety of food to wildlife and the life functions of trees provide many other beneficial ecosystem services.

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Making Wise Plant Choices, Part 4: Are Southern Species Best?

The new trend toward hotter summers and warmer winters is necessarily changing the way we garden. While the DC metropolitan area has previously been designated as Zone 7 on the USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map, our current lowest average temperature of 14 degrees now would place our region in Zone 8, which is presently located around Virginia Beach, a little over 200 miles further south.

Read moreMaking Wise Plant Choices, Part 4: Are Southern Species Best?

Making Wise Plant Choices, Part 3:  Cultivars

Native plants may be best suited to environmental conditions and provide critical support to wildlife. Some categories of natives may fulfill these functions better than others. An important consideration in selecting native plants is whether to purchase so-called “straight species,” the forms that are found naturally in the wild, or cultivars, plants that have been produced by horticulturists through selective breeding for certain ornamental traits.

Read moreMaking Wise Plant Choices, Part 3:  Cultivars

Making Wise Plant Choices, Part 2: Keystone Plants

Studies have shown that the particular selections gardeners make can have a tremendous impact on the diversity of life in our yards. Years of observations and research by University of Delaware entomologist Dr. Douglas Tallamy and his assistants have revealed that certain species of native plants, which he terms “keystone plants,” are especially supportive of a garden’s food web.

Read moreMaking Wise Plant Choices, Part 2: Keystone Plants

Adaptive Vegetable Gardening

Learn about adaptive approaches necessary as response to climate change for home vegetable gardening. These include general steps for reducing the garden’s carbon footprint, such as minimizing the use of power equipment and purchased fertilizers, building soil health, and conserving water as well as responding to increases in invasive weeds and insects.

Read moreAdaptive Vegetable Gardening

Rethinking Your Lawn

The care of our lawns takes a heavy toll on our time and money as homeowners try to meet the unattainable goal of the perfect, unblemished expanse of green. The average household spends $1,200 and 70 hours annually on lawn care, although many individuals consider mowing to be an onerous chore. Learn about the number of actions that climate-conscious gardeners can take to make their lawns more environmentally friendly.

Read moreRethinking Your Lawn

Building Your Soil

Learn about adaptive strategies that gardeners can take to improve their soil.

Maintaining the health of our soil is the primary strategy for climate resilience. As the second largest ecosystem after the world’s oceans, soil not only provides physical support of our plants, but also is crucial in the cycling of water and nutrients. In addition, it provides habitat for a multitude of living things, including beneficial microbes that develop special relationships with plants.

Read moreBuilding Your Soil

Insects Make My Food and . . .

Recent studies are documenting dramatic declines in the number and diversity of insects around the world. Entomologists, ecologists, and other scientists are expressing shock at the speed and scope of these losses, and they are pointing to these steep declines as a sign of broader ecosystem collapse.

Read moreInsects Make My Food and . . .

Ready, Set, Adapt! Climate Change: 2018 Notes from the Field

Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia manage the Organic Vegetable Garden at Potomac Overlook Park in Arlington. Each year, this demonstration garden produces hundreds of pounds of produce which it donates to the Arlington Food Assistance Center. These Notes from the Field, compiled by Judy Johnson and Judy Salveson, highlight some of the challenges the garden faced in 2018 due to record-breaking weather.

Read moreReady, Set, Adapt! Climate Change: 2018 Notes from the Field
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