House and Grounds

The Towson UUC Grounds Council will present information on projects, opportunities to volunteer and other news on this page.

Integrated Pest Management at TUUC

Integrated Pest Management is a philosophy of pest control that involves the use of many tactics (biological, cultural, physical, and chemical). The concept is applied to both outdoor and indoor plants. It is a sustainable approach that is used to minimize health, environmental and economic risk. A core concept of IPM is pest identification, determining what approach to use for a particular problem, determining the threshold (amount of damage) that requires a pest control action, monitoring pest activity, and, if chemicals are used to treat a problem - following the labeled instructions and safety precautions, mixing and applying the chemicals properly, and cleaning up the equipment safely.

At the April 17th work party the following IPM actions were taken:

1. Treat the stem blight on the Vinca Minor with cultural action - e.g. deepen the drainage area around the down spout, fill the hole in with sand and rocks. This should eliminate the damp condition that fosters the development of the disease. Monitoring will continue.

2. Racked lots and lots of leaves and picked up twig debris; picked up trimming and pruning debris from bed near front sign. This will eliminate breading grounds for insects and fungal diseases.

3. Applied Round-Up with a paint brush to specific weeds that are out of control.

Additional tasks accomplished: deadheaded daffodils, pruned Cherry Laurel and Nandina, filled and cleaned out the waterfall, swept or blower sidewalks and memorial garden pathways. At the last Work Party, trees were trimmed (winter damage from storms), and liriope were trimmed, along with regular maintenance chores.

All this work could not be accomplished with the dedicated support of MANY TUUC members and friends. A big THANK YOU goes out to all who have participated. Future Work Parties are held on the Third Saturday of each month from 9 AM to noon. There is still a lot of work to be done before the weed problems are under control. All people above the age of 12 are welcome; age appropriate activities will be assigned to younger participants.

TUUC and the people helping maintain the grounds are committed to sustainable gardening practices.

If you would like to talk to Louise about your garden problems or the IPM approach being taken at TUUC, you can contact her at louiseharmony@verizon.net. If I get a lot of questions about the same topic, I will do a special article on how to handle the particular problem.

Happy gardening!