GOOD Magazine has an amazing illustration of the White House vegetable garden.

It not only shows the layout of the First Garden, but also compares the number of home gardens in 2008 and 2009. According to GOOD, gardens are up 7 million this year. Not sure what their data source is, but it's still good news!

The illustration also has space for the White House's smallest First Family member:

Bo, who seems to be planting a ... BlackBerry?

Posted by Maryann James at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday.

A couple of weeks ago, lovely commenter Felicia volunteered her gardening stats -- second-year gardener, first-time commenter, -- and admitted to a problem in her abundant vegetable garden:

Last year I had so many tomatoes, cukes, cilantro, mint and a few okra. This year I was much more adventurous and planted peas, green beans, cukes, tomatoes, basil, habanero peppers and oregano that bloomed from last year. Anyway, I am so excited, but I found that the rabbits and squirrels are eating away at my veggies!! I am so bummed out! any ides how to get rid of the critters? (in a humane way of course)

Word is that the White House is having similar problems. Their solution: natural pesticides and fine netting. Garden Variety readers have also weighed in on the squirrel issues before. Their suggestions? Get a dog (or at least, spread neighbors' dog hair around). Use mothballs. Sprinkle coffee grounds or pepper.

Brent Staples at Slate wrote about his fight with squirrels a few years ago and ran through a laundry list of non-working solutions, at least for him:

+ Galvanized mesh and canvas.
+ Red pepper.
+ Fox urine and mountain lion urine. (Like pretty much everything else, you can get this off the Interwebs.)
+ Importing a family of hawks. Yeah, you read that right.

Hawk importing aside, I'd recommend trying garden guards such as netting or mesh around your plants. A good sprinkling of red pepper probably wouldn't hurt either -- hot pepper plants are known to be natural pesticides themselves.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun staff

Posted by Maryann James at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

How cunningly Nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Not wholly in the busy world, not quite beyond it, blooms the garden that I love. --  Tennyson

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: The English Garden

My neighbor Bob, who is one of my gardening mentors, told me after several failed attempts to grow foxglove and delphiniums that I did not have an English garden and there was nothing I could do to grow one in the heat and humidity of Maryland.

I gave in and planted Echinecea and Russian sage instead, but that did nothing to dampen my desire to have the kind of garden you find in the countryside of England - or in the Pacific Northwest for that matter.

That's why this coffee table book, The English Garden, published by Phaidon Press, is so wonderful.

It is a collection of pictures from 100 English gardens - from a painting of Sir Thomas More's family, against the backdrop of a classic Tudor garden, to the National Lottery Garden, decorated with colorful steel spheres inspired by the numbered balls in England's National Lottery.

The perfect book for a rainy Sunday afternoon - and a cuppa tea.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden books
        

You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is. --  Will Rogers

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Baltimore's Cylburn Arboretum Association has begun its fund-raising bulb sale, offering a catalog of spring and fall bulbs chosen by volunteers from among those that do best in our climate.

 Visit the Arboretum Web site and print out the catalog and order form. The bulbs will be available for pick-up during the Arboretum's Bulb Bazaar, Oct. 9 and 10.

 Some, but probably not all, of the bulbs in the catalog will also be available for sale at the festival.

There is a 5 percent discount on orders placed before Aug. 5. All the bulbs are from Brent and Becky's Bulbs.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

A revised version of the USDA Hardiness Zone map will be released later this year, according to Randy Schultz, who publishes Garden Cuttings newsletter.

The color-coded map, found on the backs of seed packets and in garden magazines and on web sites, shows the average annual minimum temperatures for the United States.

Across the country, those average minimal temperatures have been slowly rising.

For an interesting visual on how the zones and general warming patterns have changes between 1990 and 2006, take a look at the interactive map on the Arbor Day Foundation Web site.

Among other things, it shows that much more of Maryland has become Zone 7.

That still doesn't mean your dahlias can winter-over in the ground.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden news
        

Advice on dandelions: If you can't beat them, eat them. --  Dr James Duke

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

All this rain has sure been good for the tomatoes.

Maybe too good.

My plants, heirloom Brandywine, are almost 6 feet tall, and there are more than a dozen tomatoes on each plant, with dozens more blooms.

But the rain has encouraged more than the fruit to grow. The leaves and branches are close to choking the cages around the plants.

I know all about pinching off the "suckers" that appear in the joint between the branch and the trunk. They grow into branches that never produce fruit and only sap the plant of energy.

But for a more detailed look at how to prune your tomatoes - as well as an explanation of why you should - take a look at this article and video on the Fine Gardening  mazgazine web site.

The goal is to reduce the leaf surface, which draws energy and sugar from the production of fruit.

Keep reading and you will see some drawings that illustrate how to prune your tomatoes.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jerry Jackson

In simple pruning, remove the entire sucker at the base. In Missouri pruning, pinch out the tip of the sucker.

Early pruning encourages strong stems. Remove all suckers and leaves below the first flower cluster. Let a second stem arise from the node just above the lowest flower cluster. Let a third stem arise from the second node above the first flower cluster.

Illustrations: Susan Carlson

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

All gardeners need to know when to accept something wonderful and unexpected, taking no credit except for letting it be. --  Allen Lacy

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

The seeds for Baltimore's City Hall vegetable garden, donated by Meyers Seeds of Baltimore, were germinated in the city's greenhouses.

Tiptoeing through the tulips: The hardest part of planting the City Hall garden? Trying not to disturb Mayor Shelia Dixon's beloved tulips.

A Master Gardener volunteer begins to harvest the spring crops from Baltimore's City Hall vegetable garden.

 The lettuces created a dramatic striped pattern before they were harvested.

 Photos courtesy of Ursula Scheffel

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Baltimore's City Hall Garden
        

In today's gardening column in The Sun, I write about creating a container garden with succulents.

The appeal of these plants goes beyond their drought tolerance. The colors, the shapes and the textures rival anything in the garden.

If you are thinking about delving into gardening with succulents, let me recommend a book by Graham Charles, Cacti and Succulents: An illustrated guide to the plants and their cultivation.

With dozens of photos, as well as step-by-step instructions on cultivation, propagation and display, the book will help you decide which plants too pursue. And gardening centers such as Valley View Farms have dozens of varieties for sale as succulents get more attention in gardening magazines.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Plant Wish List
        

Saturday, National Capital Daylily Club Show and Sale, 1:30 to 5 p.m., Brookside Gardens Visitors Center, Glenallan Avenue, Wheaton.

Through Oct. 4, National Arboretum, 8 a.m -4:30 p.m. Living Garden Catalog. Explore the latest trends in ornamental gardening in a unique exhibit of what's hot in horticulture. Begin in the photo gallery in the Administration Building lobby and continue outside to the gardens and find theplants growing in designed beds. Free.

Photo credit: The Baltimore Sun/Jerry Jackson

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden events
        

We had better find a way to grow things in asphalt before we cover the world with it. --  Rodger B. Swain

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

The "green" blog Ecorazzi, which posts the latest in ecological gossip, is reporting that the White House will be installing a trio of compost bins to help amend the soil in the White House vegetable garden next year.

First Lady Michelle Obama's garden, which grew to Jack and the Beanstalk proportions this spring, was no doubt given a boost by the compost that was worked into the soil before the vegetable plants went in.

But that compost was trucked in - from New York celebrity chef Dan Barber, according the U.S. News and World Report.

As any gardener knows, it is easier to generate compost on site, and certainly there will be enough state dinner scraps (no meat, no dairy) and enough grass clippings and leaves to generate a heaping helping of compost for next year's garden.

Why three bins?

Gardeners with room often have three bins and move the compost from one to the next as it ages. (Check out the cute composite photo that Ecorazzi created to illustrate.)

No doubt, rumors will fly that it is fake compost.

Already, there is concern among Ecorazzi readers that the compost bins will draw flies and, since snatching flies out of the air is a new presidential sport, Mr. Obama will be too distracted to get to the business of running the country.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Garden news
        

Queen Elizabeth inspects her new vegetable garden with Prince Philip and garden manager Claire Midgely. Credit: PA/Telegraf UK

Photo of Mrs. Obama and Queen Elizabeth/AP

It looks like Britain's Queen Elizabeth and First Lady Michelle Obama have more in common than rank.

The new BFFs - they hit it off during the G20 Summit in the spring and the Queen gave Michelle and the girls a rare tour of Buckingham Palace on a return trip for Sasha's birthday - also share a new interest in vegetable gardening.

There's a new vegetable garden at Buckingham Palace planted with tomatoes, runner beans, onions, leeks and carrots. The garden measures about 33 feet by 13 feet and is being cultivated without chemicals. It is called "The Yard Bed."

 Claire Midgley, the palace's deputy garden manager, told reporters, "We're not only helping to keep old varieties alive, but we're also preserving heritage and history."

It's the first time vegetables have been grown at the palace since World War II.

For more details on the Queen's garden, check out the Obama Foodorama blog.

The Obama kitchen garden seems to be quite a hit in Europe.

Two weeks ago, a replica of the White House Kitchen Garden was on display at Bloom 2009, the largest horticultural festival in all of Europe. Thousands of visitors flocked to see it during the four-day event at Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland.

Photo courtesy Bloom 2009 Facebook page

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden news
        

Photos by Susan Reimer

Eastport, a community cheek-by-jowl with Annapolis, is known for its expensive waterfront homes and its stubborn separatist traditions. (It wants to be considered a separate municipality, not just an Annapolis neighborhood.)

It is also known for its postage stamp-sized yards.

Gardeners in Eastport - and there are many very serious ones - have to make the most of small, narrow spaces.

These are pictures of Nancy's garden. And of the window boxes she created for an Eastport cottage that she and her husband renovated.

No one has told Nancy that if Eastport isn't Annapolis, it isn't England, either, because her garden brims with English cottage charm.

Don't be shy. Send pictures of your garden and a couple of paragraphs about its joys and frustrations to us sun.gardenvariety@gmail.com.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Your garden
        

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a gardener is to think you're in charge. --  Janet Gillespie

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

As we've noted here on Garden Variety, there are those who believe that the White House kitchen garden is contaminated with toxic levels of lead as the result of a supposedly sludge dump in the early 1990s that was designed to encourage the grass on the South Lawn to grow.

(It was actually ComPRO that was used. It is a commercially available soil amendment that was, indeed, made from recycled waste, although it has been reformulated since. No one arrived at the White House with a dump truck from the nearby sewage treatment center.)

This controversy, which we are calling "Watercressgate," was given added momentum last week when Mother Jones magazine reported that "the national Park Service disclosed that the garden's soil is contaminated with toxic lead."

The editors of the blog Obama Foodorama, who keep track of the "Obama foodscape, one bipartisan bite at a time," went the extra mile and contacted three soil experts, all of whom agreed that a lead level of 93 parts per million, as recorded during soil testing of the proposed garden site before planting, is "ridiculously low," especially for an urban area where lead levels easily can be something like 2,000 parts per million.

Dr. Gabriel Filippelli, chair of the geology department at Indiana University and associate chair of the Center for Environmental Health, told Obama Foodorama 93 ppm was "ridiculously low."

Another expert, Dr. David Johnson, professor of environmental chemistry, environmental science and forestry at the State University of New York, said that the only way a lead contamination of 93 ppm could be toxic would be if the dirt itself were being eaten in large quantities.

Even concern that microorganism in the sludge might be harmful are unfounded since any such organisms are long since dead.

We here are Garden Variety would like everyone to take a deep breath and relax.

The Obamas are not growing lead paint chips on the South Lawn.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday.

I hope your vegetables are growing well, intrepid gardeners! The response last week to the veggie challenge was amazing -- I'm excited to hear about the progress of your arugula, cucumbers, herbs, peas and green beans. Keep me updated.

As promised, I got two new vegetable plants to hold up my part of the vegetable challenge: I'm trying cucumbers again and testing out a hot pepper plant. The cucumber plant has been nestled amongst the boisterous, nosy nasturtiums; I may have to move them if they distract my cucumber plant too much. I love the fuzzy feel of the cucumber leaves; I'm excited to watch more of its prickly leaves unfurl.

I discovered, a bit too late, that I bought too seedlings, not one. Where's the other seedling, you ask?

It went to that great cucumber garden in the sky.

Lesson learned, now that it has happened twice? Cucumbers hate each other. As soon as they sprout, separate them. Put them far, far away from each other.

I also bought a hot pepper plant. Being the end of the robust spring seedling season, there were few sprightly plants outside of the cucumber and pepper genres. So, hot pepper it was.

I didn't do my research before picking my plant, and it seems I committed a cardinal sin. According to Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, you should not pick plants that already have small fruits. They don't produce well.

Oh well. I'm happy to be the poster child for Gardening Dos and Don'ts, heavy on the don'ts. How are you vegetable gardens growing? I want to see pictures! (You can e-mail to maryann.james@baltsun.com or post them on Baltimore Sun's flickr group, and I'd be happy to share.)

And any veterans have tips for cucumbers and peppers?

Posted by Maryann James at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them. --  Chinese proverb

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

More on the conspiracy behind the White House kitchen garden.

 A reader of my op-ed column in today's Baltimore Sun e-mailed me with details of how President Obama faked his birth certificate, allowing him to run for president despite the fact that he was not a native born citizen.

 "I guess growing your own Birth Certificate isn't that hard if you have knowledge of Quantum mathematics and the ability to understand photon streaming and the sensitive computer technology it takes to create a Birth Certificate without any pixel flaws which occurred in the Internet copy of Barry's. His phony document is like the poor little petunia in the onion patch," wrote Bonnie Sisson Stilwell of Concord, N.C.

 She also said the White House used the wrong mulch on the vegetable garden and I should contact Martha Stewart and find out what she uses.

This ties in nicely with another e-mail from someone at "Sludge Watch," that said that White House South Lawn was used as a toxic sludge dump, and the Obama family, and everyone else who eats from that garden, is in danger.

Please, Garden Variety readers, someone send me a pretty picture of their garden before I completely lose my perspective here.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, An eternity in an hour. --  William Blake

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

As a child, he called it "the Ranch."

Those who lived in San Simeon, at the bottom of the hill, called it Hearst's Castle.

Its formal name was La Cuesta Encantada, "The Enchanted Hill.

It was the result of a collaboration between William Randolph Hearst and architect Julia Morgan that lasted 30 years.

In Hearst's San Simeon: The Gardens and The Land, author Victoria Kastner and photographer Victoria Garagliano focus on the formal and informal gardens from the beginning of their construction to the present. It is the story of one of California's unspoiled treasures.

The estate features two spectacular swimming pools, 120 acres of luxuriant gardens, and 450 square miles of pristine coastal landscape. From the 1920s through the 1940s, Hearst and actress Marion Davies hosted the country's elite here, encouraging them to enjoy the outdoors.

Kastner, San Simeon's historian, calls on original drawings by Morgan and previously unpublished correspondence between her and the wealthy publisher to tell the story of the meeting of two great minds - and great imaginations - in the mountains above the California coast.

Anyone who has seen the film "Citizen Kane" and recalls the forbidding Xanadu, which was to represent San Simeon in Orson Well's dark biopic of Hearst, will realize just how wrong he got it when they open the pages of this beautiful book.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden books
        

Gardeners are generous people and perennials, which grow and multiply, help foster these instincts. --  David Scheid

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: Susan Reimer

It was like dancing between raindrops.

I took advantage of the 10 minutes of sunshine we have had this month and took some pictures of my garden.

There has been explosive growth and blooming. I almost didn't recognize it.

The flowers are very happy!

So are the slugs, I think. And the weeds.

But so much of my garden just drank up the rain and lifted its face to the sky.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: My Garden
        

A small garden, figs, a little cheese, and along with this, three or four good friends-such was luxury to Epicurus. --  Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: AFP/Getty

There's a lot of chatter out there about Michelle Obama's choice of garden attire Tuesday when she harvested vegetables in the White House kitchen garden with her fifth-grader helpers.

She wore a pair of salmon-colored Levis and a striped top and flowered sweater from The Gap. And a pair of tennis shoes.

"Randy" wanted to know who wears a sweater in the garden in the summer. And where were her ratty old gardening clothes? He said she wasn't setting the right example.

Coupla things.

First. I was there. It was chilly and breezy. I wore a jacket. Sweater seems appropriate.

Second, if the national press was coming to my house, I wouldn't be caught dead in my old gardening clothes.

Third. She doesn't weed. Sam Kass, associate White House chef, told us he and the pastry chef and some White House volunteers do one big weeding every week to keep the garden in shape.

I am guessing Mrs. Obama doesn't do the housecleaning in the White House, either. But that doesn't mean she is somehow setting a bad example for the rest of us.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Garden news
        

 Photo credit: Chicago Tribune/Bill Hogan

My colleague Frank Roylance, the blogger over at Maryland Weather,  says this incessant rain should end with Saturday's afternoon thunderstorms. Sunday - and going forward should be sunny and clear.

If you are like me, you are dreading what you will find in the garden after all this wet weather: mildews, blights, slugs, bugs, weeds and wind damage.

Kathy Huber of the Houston Chronicle offers this list of important chores to do in the garden after a heavy rain.

1. Cover exposed roots

If  water has washed soil and mulch from garden beds, cover exposed roots with compost-enriched soil and mulch.

2. Replenish nutrients

Water leaches nutrients from the soil. To replenish, treat garden soil with fish emulsion or seaweed extract. Replenish container nutrients with a slow-release fertilizer.

3. Empty containers of water

Overturn wheelbarrows, buckets, pot saucers or any container holding rainwater. These are mosquito breeding grounds.

4. Eliminate snail and slug hiding places

These plant-damaging creatures like cool, moist, dark places such as overturned pots, under bricks or boards.

5. Weed

Roots come up more easily in moist soil. Mulch to discourage others from sprouting.

6. Aerate lawns

Do this when the soil is no longer soggy. Apply an organic-based fertilizer. Apply liquid iron to pale or yellowish areas that have developed due to prolonged wet conditions that decrease oxygen supply in the soil and slow nutrient and mineral uptake.

7. Watch for fungal and bacterial diseases

 Some are encouraged by wet conditions. For example, wilted tomatoes that do not revive may be infected and need to be removed.

8. Water garden cleanup

Water gardens contaminated by floodwaters should be drained and cleaned. After cleaning, replace water and plants.

9. Note areas in your garden that were slow to drain.

Consider a swale (rocky creek) that will channel and carry water away, or a system that will carry heavy rain toward the nearest city drain. Beds raised 6 or more inches help prevent prolonged wet conditions that suffocate plant roots.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

I think the Sweet Pea is a frivolous flower and leads a butterfly's life, it wanders anywhere, and clings to anything, and has not any definite aim or ideal. --  Helen Milman

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Saturday, 9:00 a.m. Valley View Farms,  Whimsical Summer Container Gardens:

Saturday, 11 a.m. Valley View Farms, Bugs, Slugs and Other Garden Thugs: We’re willing to share, but not with these creatures. Find out who the good bugs and who the bad bugs are in the garden and how to encourage the former and discourage the latter. This visual presentation will be presented by our staff and any “friends” participants want to bring along for identification. We will show earth-friendly techniques to keep our gardens healthy and alive. For children and adults.

 Photo courtesy of Valley View Farms

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Gardening classes
        

 Eastport, the charming community that is neighbor to Annapolis, is hosting its 4th Home and Garden Tour Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

“Our home and garden tour gives folks a chance to step inside and see the surprises behind the doors of Annapolis’ most diverse neighborhood, ” says Phyllis Emmett, tour chair.

“Participants will stroll through an array of unique homes and gardens including the old Eastport firehouse circa 1910; the former residence of Capt. Herb Sadler, a waterman who sold his catch in front of his home back in the ‘olden days;’ and the first house on the Eastport Peninsula to have an indoor bathroom. Homes like these highlight the extraordinary maritime culture of our historic neighborhood.”

This year’s tour will have a new twist. More than 20 artists from the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association will attend to paint the scenes along the tour route en plein air, creating works in oil, watercolor, acrylic or pastel. At the end of the tour completed works will be available for purchase.

The "show and sale" will take place at the tour headquarters on 222 Severn Ave between Second & Third Streets between Chesapeake and Severn Avenues.  

Tickets are $20. To purchase tickets, go to the Eastport Civic Association Web site

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

Photo credit: Susan Reimer

While at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, getting lessons from education coordinator Gene Sumi on how to safely grow my own bean sprouts, I decided to try my hand at microgreens while I was at it.

Talk about your kitchen garden....I grew both "crops" on my kitchen counter.

You can read about the results of the bean sprout experiment in my gardening column Thursday in The Sun. The mung bean seeds exploded, but the chickpeas and the sunflower seeds were a disapointment.

There was no disappointment in growing the microgreens.

I picked up a growing kit that included two trays, a bag of seed-starting medium, two plastic, vented domes and a drainage tray. It cost about $15. Plus three bags of microgreen seeds for $3.29 each: broccoli, purple radish and amaranth red army.

After soaking a teaspoon of the broccoli seeds and a teaspoon of the radish seeds overnight, I poured some seed-starting material in the trays, wet it down and gently spread the seeds on top of the mixture. Then I closed the vents on the tops of the domes and covered the trays.

Every morning, I misted the seeds with a spray bottle. They germinated almost instantly. In less than a week, I was able to snip off a couple of handfuls of greens. The radish was spicy, as you might expect, and the broccoli was pretty flavorful.

I thought about making a salad, but decided on sandwiches instead.  Just as I did with the sprouts, I put the greens together with some avocado, tomato and some crusty bread.

The perfect summer sandwich.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Sheesh.

Matt Drudge, editor of the blog Drudge Report, has posted a pair of before-and-after photos of the White House kitchen garden which seem to suggest that the garden couldn't have grown so much between April and June.

Me? I think the First Lady is involved in a vast left-wing conspiracy to get people to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden news, White House Kitchen Garden
        

 Photo credit: AFP/Getty

I guess all politics is vegetable.

I should have seen this coming - Garden Variety readers who are not fans of the current administration think the First Lady's kitchen garden is a fake.

They believe the garden was "installed," planted with mature vegetable plants in order to fool the public.

(Fool the public into believing what, I don't know. Believing that there were weapons of mass destruction there?)

Indeed, the garden did look very mature on my visit there Tuesday. But not that mature.

The snap peas and the greens were ready to harvest - but that's no surprise for Washington, D.C., and a spring as rainy as ours has been.

And the soil was amended with compost before it was planted. When I did that in a new bed I installed, the plants went crazy.

The kale, chard and lettuces look exactly as they do at the Farmers' Market in Annapolis that I visit each Saturday.

But there are no cukes yet, no peppers, mostly tomato flowers, and one tiny eggplant. The sweet potatoes and okra are just seedlings.

Garden Variety readers are entitled to their opinions. But let's talk gardens, not politics.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

Here's a look at the White House kitchen garden -- on paper.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

Not exactly a state dinner, but it probably ought to be.

Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama invited her fifth-grade friends from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington to harvest some of the vegetables they planted on the South Lawn in April, and stay for a picnic made from the harvest.

It is a challenge to get children to eat vegetables, the First Lady admitted during her remarks. It helps if they taste good. And fresh tastes good.

Here's the menu for Tuesday's picnic:

Salad made of lettuce (and, boy, was there plenty!!!) carrots, cucumber, fresh herbs, salt and pepper. The dressing was made with honey (not from the White House hives. That honey isn't quite ready yet), lemon, oil and a little mustard.

 Boneless, skinless chicken, coated with beaten eggs, flour and bread crumbs and baked.

 Brown rice, dressed with salt and a little butter after cooking.

Peas, stir-fried with a little garlic.

Oh. And cupcakes. Decorated with fresh fruit instead of icing.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

The White House kitchen garden is one any vegetable gardener would envy.

L-shaped and nestled in some trees in the South Lawn, it is perfectly manicured and incredibly bountiful.

White House chef Sam Kass, who has become something of a rock star since the garden was planted in April, said he and members of the White House staff do one big weeding every week to keep the garden in shape.

No signs of insect damage or disease, but Kass said no pesticides or chemical fertilzers are used.

"It isn't certified organic, but it's organic," he said.

 Once the turf was lifted by Michelle Obama and her grade-school helpers, the soil was amended with crab meal, green sand, compost and powdered lime before the seeds and seedlings were planted.

The rainy spring is the reason the garden is so bountiful, Kass said. "Kale, collard greens and chard have been non-stop. The snap peas are going crazy."

Some of the lettuces were planted with seeds handed down from Thomas Jefferson's gardens and have been allowed to bolt and go to seed this spring. The children will harvest the seeds and learn that even plants have history, Kass said.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

Talk about your summer picnic.

Three dozen fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington had a picnic with First Lady Michelle Obama Tuesday.

But they had to work for it.

Before sitting down to salad, brown rice and baked chicken in the First Lady's flower garden, they had to put in some time in the First Lady's vegetable garden.

Working along side the First Lady and White House chef Sam Kass - and under a threatening sky - the school children cut lettuce and harvested snap peas - eating some right off the vine at Mrs. Obama's urging.

This is the same garden the school children and the First Lady planted in April and the abundance was impressive. Kass said the White House kitchen has harvested more than 90 pounds of produce already.

A handful of the students then followed the First Lady into the White House kitchen, where they shelled peas and prepared the boneless, skinless chicken breasts for baking by dredging them in flour and bread crumbs.

"It's the new fried chicken," said Kass.

Meanwhile, the rest of the children prepared the salad and dressing and decorated cupcakes with fresh fruit on damask-covered tables set up in the First Lady's garden.

The students then listened -- along with the gathered press corps -- to Mrs. Obama speak about health care and the importance of diet in maintaining good health before the press corps was shooed away and Mrs. Obama and the kids got down to eating and chatting.

You can view a photo gallery of today's White House harvest here.

Check back later tonight and tomorrow for more details.

Photo: Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday. 

My vegetable garden is boring me. They're all just sitting there, quietly growing. My basil -- which releases a heady scent every time I inadvertently brush its leaves -- is outpacing the tomato plant in its container. The parsley is holding its own in my other pot, but neither of my tomato plants have shown one hint of a flower.

And speaking of flowers, none of my flowers have flowered yet either. I'm ready to start a stare-down, me vs. plants.

They're all seemingly waiting for the word from God to start splashing color on my balcony. It's nearly July, and I'm worried.

If you couldn't tell, patience is not my strong suit.

Since I'm a container planter, I have few weeds to keep my attention. And being up on the 7th floor, I also have little by way of pests, except for this one ...

... who keeps trying to eat the visitors to my garden, some sweet pea and other plants that I'm babysitting for a friend.

So, in an effort to beat the boredom, I'm going to issue a challenge: To all you wanna-be vegetable gardeners, clinging to your begonias or even your lonely houseplant, it's time to plant. Last week, I gave you a list of not-too-late-to-plant, er, plants. Now let's get going!

I will photograph my start on cucumbers (I'm going to be a daredevil and try again) and ... another plant ... and share them with you next Tuesday. What should my second veggie be? What will you plant?

Posted by Maryann James at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

The woman on the other end of the phone identified herself and said she was from First Lady Michelle Obama's press office.

Yeah. Right.

It was after 4 o'clock last Friday afternoon, the end of the workweek and the end of my patience. I was sure it was a practical joke, but I am old enough and smart enough not to say something stupid. Well, most of the time, anyway.

It WAS Michelle Obama's press office. And they were asking if I was available to cover the harvest of some of the spring crops in her vegetable garden. She and her grade-school helpers were then going to go into the White House kitchen and cook up something healthy.

Was I available? You bet.

I immediately began to behave in a completely unprofessional manner -- I called everyone I knew to tell them. Even my Republican nephew was impressed.

Covering events at the White House isn't like covering events anywhere else. It can be a complete logistical nightmare.

You have to provide everything but your DNA, go to pre-determined gates that you can't find, hope against hope you are on The List, stand behind a rope line and simply watch what happens, hoping you can hear what's being said -- this isn't going to be the two of us in the Blue Room with tea - and then scramble to find a place to write and file your story.

I know all that. I've been in this business since the Nixon administration. But I'm thrilled anyway.

To a completely unprofessional degree.

The event begins at 2:30 today and is supposed to last until 4.

 I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. -- John Muir

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

I have five copies of Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart to give away here on Garden Variety and only two readers have stepped up to post a comment for a chance to win one of them.

Jump in, Garden Variety readers!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Garden books
        

In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.  -- Kozuko Okakura

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Those of us who garden on the Internet know Amy Stewart from the blogs Garden Rant and Dirt.

But she is also a gifted writer and her new book is a fun one: Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities.

Stewart has put together a list of menacing botanicals: from a tree that sheds poison daggers to a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes intolerable pain to a leaf that started a war.

 "Within the plant kingdom lurk unfathomable evils," writes Stewart, who keeps her own garden of poison plants. 

She loves plants, she writes, but she never turns her back on them. Just because they are "natural" doesn't mean they are safe.

This is a fun book, but also one that carries a word - many words - to the wise.

The publisher, Algonquin Books, is kindly offering a free copy of this book to five randomly selected Garden Variety readers. Post a comment and include your e-mail address so I can contact the winners. Don't worry, I won't share your e-mail with anyone else.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Garden books
        

There is no such thing as an ugly garden-gardens, like babies, are all beautiful to their parents. --  Ken Druse

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice. --  Roland A Beowne

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Your tireless reporter here on Garden Variety just got a call from the White House.

I've been invited to be part of the pool of reporters who will cover First Lady Michelle Obama and her school children friends on Tuesday as they harvest the first fruits of her kitchen garden and prepare a healthy meal.

More than 30 years in the business and it is gardening that gets this newshen White House credentials. Whoda thought?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden
        

I have two more copies of What Can I Do With My Herbs? for a pair of randomly selected readers.

I wrote about this delightfully helpful book by Judy Barrett a couple of weeks ago, gave away a copy, and the publishers, Texas A&M University Press, were kind enough to send a couple more to give away.

Post a comment and include your e-mail address so I can contact the winners. Don't worry, I won't share your e-mail with anyone else.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Garden books
        

Saturday, 10 a.m.,

Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Homestead Gardens, Davidsonville, Meet with Master Gardeners at the Rainscaping.org rain garden information station.

Sunday, 11 a.m., Homestead Gardens, Davidsonville, “Coffee with Cohen: Easy Care Perennials” with ‘Perennial Diva’ Stephanie Cohen.

Sunday, 1:30 p.m., Homestead Gardens, Davidsonville “Stepables and Groundcovers” with Sandy McDougle of Sandy's Plants. Reduce Mulch in your landscape by using groundcover and grass alternatives.

Sunday, 3 p.m., Homestead Gardens, Davidsonville, “Water Gardening Workshop: A Table-Top Water Garden.” Assemble your own water garden in a container with water gardening specialist, Dave Kemon. All materials included. Pre-registration required. Cost: $50 ($45 for Garden Club members).

Photo credit: Melanie McCabe, Homestead Gardens.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Gardening classes
        

Danny Lipford, host of Today's Homeowner, and the go-to home guy for The Weather Channel, is right.

June is a terrific month for working in the garden, especially in the Mid-Atlantic.

The heat of summer has not yet peaked and the rains of recent weeks mean the garden is in raging bloom! (So are the mosquitoes. See one of my earlier posts for what to do about them.)

Here's is Lipford's list of chores for June.

• Continue pruning blooming shrubs as soon as they finish blooming.
• Deadhead spring-blooming shrubs, to focus the plant’s energy toward strong growth and next year’s blooms.  
• Shear hedges while the growth is still soft and easy to shape.
• Watch for black spot and powdery mildew on roses and other plants – apply fungicide and remove (and destroy – don’t compost) any diseased foliage.
• Add extra mulch to shallow-rooted shrubs (like azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons), to help them hold moisture.
• Remove aphids with a blast of water from the hose.
• Reduce (or stop) fertilizing as the temperature heats up.
• Continue planting container-grown trees and shrubs, but keep them well watered.
• Lightly shear conifers (junipers, cypress, etc.) but don’t cut back to bare wood.
  

• Reduce fertilizer on lawns, since they go partially dormant during the hottest part of the summer.
• Make sure your lawn gets one inch of water per week. If you irrigate, water deeply to encourage deeper roots.
• Take cuttings from the new, soft growth of trees and shrubs for rooting.
• Add extra mulch around heat or drought sensitive plants.
• Turn your compost pile, and sprinkle it with water if it’s drying out.
• Replace hummingbird feeder nectar every few days – it doesn’t take long to spoil in hot weather.
• Keep birdbaths and water features refreshed, to prevent mold and mosquitoes.
• Be on the lookout for insect damage in the garden. Address with appropriate controls, or encourage beneficial predators.
• Reduce fertilizing of all plants as the temperatures heat up and the soil gets dry. Only feed plants if they’re being watered. 
• Plant warm-season veggies such as tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash, and peppers.
• Mulch sprawling veggies, such as melons and squash, to keep them clean and away from soggy soil.
• Keep your vegetable garden evenly and regularly watered.
• Remove fallen fruits or veggies to prevent insects and diseases from spreading. 
• Install trellises, stakes, or cages for vining veggies.
• Plant summer herbs such as basil and cilantro. Pinch off flower buds to encourage more tasty leaves.
  

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

The voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. --  Gertrude Simmons Bonnin

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit/Associated Press

It is harvest time at the White House.

First Lady Michelle Obama and students from Bancroft Elementary, who helped her install the White House vegetable and herb garden this spring, will be collecting some of the results on Tuesday afternoon.

The kids will then help  White House chefs prepare a meal. A very healthy meal, I'm guessing.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden news
        

Saturday, Green Spring Station Farmers' Market, 2 p.m. -5:30 p.m. More than 20 vendors, including Bees by the Bay, Charles Street Gourmet, Hawks Hill Creamer, Baltimore Dog Bakery, Stoker Farms, Pond View Farms, Zeke's Coffee, Phal's Farm, Locust Point Flowers and Gunpowder Bison. Through Nov. 21. Between I-83 and I-695.

Sunday, West Annapolis Green Market, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Giddings Avenue. Produce, plants, green craft, vintage and antique wares, entertainment and family activities. Second Sunday of the month through November.

Photo credit: The Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

Here's a look at the steps for planting your container garden. For a short cut, keep reading.

Photo credit: The Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden tips
        

The more I hear of Horticulture, the more I like plain gardening. --  Julian R. Meade

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Baltimore vegetable gardeners! Just four days left to enter Burpee's "Dream a Little Green" garden makeover contest.

Describe how a new vegetable garden would change your life. The best dream, with the best rationale, will be awarded a Burpee Home Gardens™ vegetable garden makeover.

Entrants must complete Burpee's official entry form online and describe how a Burpee Home Gardens vegetable garden could change his or her life.

Entries will be accepted between until June 14. Judging will take place on or around June 19. Winners will be announced on or around June 26.

Burpee Home Gardens’ Dream a Little Green contest is open to residents of the Baltimore area in 2009. This contest may be launched nationally in 2010.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden contests
        

Now every field, now every tree is green and friendly nature's fairest face is seen. --   Virgil

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: Susan Reimer

We've talked about deer in the garden and squirrels in the garden.

What about ducks in the garden?

Only a problem if you have waterfront property - which tells me you don't have ANY problems.

But seriously, the little quackers can do some damage.

One of the homeowners on last weekend's Secret Garden Tour had a fun solution: a floating duck dock planted (not sure exactly how) with greenery the ducks would like, making it unnecessary for them to tromp up into the yard.

In this picture, Momma and her babies stop for a snack.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden tips
        

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday.

My veggies, lettuces and flowers are quietly growing, soaking up the abundant rain and sunshine we've been having lately. They've been doing so well, actually, that I'm overdue for spacing them out and transplanting my eager sunflowers, zinnias and nasturtiums to new homes. And I've still yet to retry my cucumbers. It's already too late to change my mind on repeating my beets experience (above) from last year.

I'm also overdue on answering a question from Kathryn on late planting. (There's a lot of tardiness in that sentence.)

She writes:

On that late start note, what can I still be planting this weekend that will give me something to harvest in October. I was thinking butternut squash.

Squash is a great for June planting and fall harvest; beans, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and pumpkins are also great choices. If you're feeling extra ambitious, you can also grow corn! And I don't mean for just the garden plotters out there -- one of my favorite urban gardening bloggers, Life on the Balcony, can show you how to grow corn in a container, too.

It's also not too late to start thinking of winter. You can get a start on broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, too.

Posted by Maryann James at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Of all the living objects in gardens, the most easily transplantable is the gardener. --  author unknown

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: The Baltimore Sun/Kim Hairston

A loyal Garden Variety reader, Dave from Joppa, emailed me to say that he remembered his father telling him many years ago (he is 62) about a blight on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that destroyed the honeydew crop.

"I have never been successful in growing any," said Dave, who grows many of his own vegetables from seed. "I wonder if you have ever heard the same and if you know if others have any information on this.

"I cannot rememberseeing any honeydew melons being sold at vegetable stands that I have ever frequented."

I checked with Sun researcher Paul McCardell, and he found ancient newpaper clippings that talk of a canteloupe mildew that damaged vines in 1924 and 1949 before they had a chance to flower and produce fruit.

My friend Jon Traunfeld at the University of Maryland agriculture department says that any number of diseases might have wiped out the melons in the event that Dave remembers. And those diseases affect all melons: musk, canteloupe and honeydew.

As to why he's not seeing honeydews at farmers' markets? He must not be going to the right ones because honeydew melons grow very well in Maryland. Dave's lack of success growing them himself, Jon says, might be due to not enough sun or poor soil.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden history
        

The Howard County Conservancy welcomes Wednesday morning drop-in gardening volunteers to help maintain the many thematic and native plant gardens on the Conservancy property.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

I have no plants in my house. They won't live for me. Some of them don't even wait to die, they commit suicide. --  Jerry Seinfeld

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

I smelt the violets in her hand and asked, half in words, half in signs, a question which meant "Is love the sweetness of flowers? --  Helen Keller

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

In one of my spring garden columns in The Sun, I gave a list of my favorite garden tools, and I included a garden cart. Smaller than a wheelbarrow and easier to maneuver, it is perfect for carrying tools, something to drink and garden waste.

Here's a look at a couple of carts that you can find at Sam's Club this summer, or at Lifetime.com.

This Yard Cart (SRP: $179.98) serves as a heavy-duty wheelbarrow that converts to a towable yard trailer in a matter of seconds. It can be pulled behind all types of lawn tractors, and is great for transporting large loads of topsoil, lumber and building materials.

This new wheelbarrow (SRP: $89.99) features a patented design that distributes more weight to the wheels and less to the user, helping to lighten the load when wheeling potting soil, flowers, yard supplies and garden tools.

Both the Yard Cart and Wheelbarrow feature tubs made from 100 percent recycled material.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden tools
        

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. --  Abram L. Urban

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

Good news, Reggie and Mark!

You have each won a pair of tickets to the Reservoir Hill Garden Tour this weekend.

I will email you the details!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden contests
        

Don't know what the weather is like where you are, dear Garden Variety reader, but it is raining here in Baltimore for what I am sure is the 40th day.

All this rain is good for the garden, but it isn't good for gardening. I am sure there is much mischief afoot out there right now. Slugs and bugs, mosquitos and diseases, mildews and rusts.

Not to mention weeds and all those morning glory seedlings everyone warned me about when I planted the vines last year. You better want morning glories forever, they said.

But there is respite from the rain. Visit today's New York Times' photo tour of the gardens of Philadelphia. And there are plenty of them. The accompanying article says that Philly boosters claim the city has the largest concentration of public gardens in the country. 

The author chose four to visit, and the slide show produced by photographer Mike Mergen to go with her story will get you through this rainy day.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/ Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden travel
        

 It is June, writes Marie Iannoti, garden writer for About.com , and gardens are in full throttle. It is not the time to rest, because  the weeds, pests and dead-heads will get far ahead of you.

Here is her advice.

• Work around the humidity (early am, late afternoon / evening)
• Keep new plants well watered
• Check your mulch
• Side dress with compost or manure or feed with fish emulsion, for mid-season pick-up
• Check foliage for signs of nutrient deficiencies 
• Give the compost a turn
• Give your houseplants a summer vacation outdoors
• Make sure the birds have fresh water
• Keep up on deadheading, for long season bloom
• Pinch back tall growing fall bloomers like asters, monarda and helianthus

Vegetables

• Stop harvesting asparagus and rhubarb
• Replace crops that have bolted with the heat and cool season flowers, like pansies
• Get any remaining warm season vegetables in the ground
• Keep up blanching of celery, cauliflower and tender greens
• Plant a new batch of bush beans every couple of weeks
• Keep tomato plants staked as they grow. Pinch out suckers.
• Put a couple of drops of mineral oil on corn silks within a week after they appear, to prevent corn earworm

Fruit

• Be prepared for ‘June Drop’ of fruit from fruit trees. They’re just thinning out to a manageable crop size. Clean up any fallen fruit.
• Protect ripening berries with nets or row covers

Trees & Shrubs

• If you want to prune or shear your evergreens, do so as soon as the new growth starts to turn a darker green. Once the wisteria finishes blooming, you can do a maintenance pruning to keep it in check

Pests

• Summer is for insects. Be vigilant!
• Keep watch for 4-lined plant bug damage, especially on the mint family
• Japanese Beetles - They’re back!

Warmer Areas

• Start new seeds of sun loving crops, for the fall
• Cut back on mowing.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

God and men, from Persephone downwards have picked flowers, and it strikes me as mean, foolish and damaging to the sensibilities of the human race, to train children to leave all flowers unpicked as they find them. --   author unknown

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

The death of David Carradine has put me in mind of all the wonderful lessons the monks took from nature when they instructed their young "Grasshopper," itself an image from nature that suggests the inattentive energy of youth.

As Kwai Chang Caine (KCC), Carradine flipped back and forth from the present to the past and the Shaolin temple where he was taught. I was a fan of the show, and I remember being struck by the life lessons the monks found in nature.

Among the lessons were these, which I found on line in old scripts.

David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine/ ABC

Young KCC: Then life must always be defended.
Master Kahn: The thorn defends the rose. It harms only those who would steal the blossom from the plant.

Man: Mister, I’m in your debt.
KCC: No more than the leaf owes the root. With water and sunlight, both grow together.

KCC: Long ago Jwang Joe dreamed that he was a butterfly. He was very joyful as a butterfly. Well pleased with his lot. His aims fulfilled. He knew nothing of Joe, the man. But shortly, he awoke, and found himself again, to be Jwang Joe. He could not tell whether as Joe he had dreamed he was a butterfly, or as a butterfly he has dreamed he was Joe.

Master Poe: Where is evil? In the rat, whose nature it is to steal grain. Or in the cat? Whose nature it is to kill the rat.
KCC: The rat steals. Yet for him the cat is evil.
Poe: And to the cat, the rat.
KCC: Yet master, surely one of them is evil.
Poe: The rat does not steal. The cat does not murder. Rain falls, the stream flows, a hill remains. Each acts according to its nature.
 

Master Kahn: See the way of life as a stream. A man floats, and his way is smooth. The same man turning to fight upstream, exhausts himself. To be one with the universe, each must find his true path, and follow it

Master Poe: The mountain is beautiful with snow. But after it loses its snow, green grows from underneath. In every loss there is a gain, as in every gain there is loss. Grasshopper, do you understand that?
 

MasterPoe: The undiscerning mind is like the root of a tree. It absorbs equally all that it touches. Even the poison that would kill it.

David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine/ ABC

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden inspirations
        

Just in time for the 4th of July, Wave Petunias is having a contest.

You can win two six-packs of the grower's red, white, and blue petunias.

5 lucky winners will be drawn at random for the contest, sponsored by Garden Design magazine.  Winners will be drawn on June 18th  and notified by June 22nd.

The prize also includes a 14" fiberglass container and tote bag.

Go to Garden Design magazine's web site to register to win.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden contests
        

My colleague, Gus Sentementes, writes today on his blog, BaltTech, about the attempt by science to produce "super" lettuce.

Steven Britz, a research plant physiologist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, is using ultraviolet rays to grow nutrient-rich lettuce.

Sounds great. But son would still say, "it tastes like wet grass."

 Photo of not-super lettuce by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

Saturday, 9:00 a.m., Valley View Farms Unusual Bonsai: ‘Root over rock’ is one fun technique that Martha Meehan of Meehan’s Miniatures will demonstrate in this bonsai class. In addition, she’ll demonstrate to create the miniature bonsai jewels known as Shohin and Mame. Martha will also talk about growing, maintaining, and shaping bonsai maple trees.

Saturday, 9:00 a.m., Valley View Farms, The Summer Garden: Our Favorite Long-blooming perennials:  Join Valley View Farm’s perennial staff as they take customers through the aisles and point out their favorite summer perennials.  Andy, Jan, and Pat have working knowledge of hundreds of different perennial varieties and will share and discuss the pros and cons of each plant for the experienced and novice gardener alike. Having a garden that has something blooming or of interest all year long is the ultimate goal of any flower gardener and this is a place to start.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden events
        

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. --  John Muir

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo of Randy Howell and Karen Minor's garden by Howard Fink.

This is the 15th year for the Historic Reservoir Hill tour in Baltimore, featuring 35 homes and gardens.

Weather is predicted to be upper 70s, low 80s and clear. Perfect for a garden stroll - or 35 of them.

The neighborhood associations in Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill charge $10 each day for the user-friendly tour of six city streets. Maps and Mylar balloons mark the way. The money is used for community projects, including renovating park areas and funding community garden projects with students from John Eager Howard Elementary School.

This year, the tour will also feature crafters on Park Avenue selected from among Baltimore’s best and wine sales from Boordy Vineyards.

Tickets are available at the corner of Park Avenue and Reservoir Street. Houses and gardens will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

I have two pairs of tickets to give away to two randomly selected posters here on Garden Variety. Winners will be able to pick up their tickets at the above location. Get typing, people.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Garden events
        

Reggie Higgins' garden will be a stop on the Charles Village Garden Walk this weekend.

The 30th annual Charles Village Garden Walk will be held Sunday.

Tickets for the self-guided tour of 30 gardens are $10 and will be on sale at the Garden Walk Booth at Charles Street and 29th Street. The gardens are open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Charles Village Festival itself runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with live music and vendors.

For more information, visit the Web site.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Your garden
        

Some people are always grumbling that roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses. -- Alphonse Karr

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

   EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday.

One seedling was grown from seed indoors (perhaps because its planter was impatient to start growing things) and another sown outdoors, once it was warm enough. One seedling grew tall and spindly, the other grew squat and dense.

Which one survived once they were transplanted to its final container, nestled next to my robust tomato seedling?

The short one, of course.

This tale of two seedlings is a cautionary tale for those of you who are planting from seed. Spindly seedlings (like my sad, doomed one above, at right) are more likely to meet an untimely end because they got a bad start -- "leggy seedlings" are a sign of insufficient light and/or too much heat or fertilizer.

However, if you're like me and are already down the leggy seedling road, there may be some hope. Try planting your spindly seedlings deep. And pray on it.

Posted by Maryann James at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

  EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Maryann James posts on vegetable gardening every Tuesday.

I'm a foodie first, gardener second. In fact, my love of food is the main reason I started to grow vegetables in the first place -- what better way to ensure tasty food than to grow it yourself?

However, I have found that there are many people, especially in the city, who want to plant and just don't know where to start. Enter the foodie connection: epicurious.com.

Epicurious mainly offers recipes and entertaining guides, but they've branched out (ha! get it?!) and are now offering a handy guide for wanna-be vegetable gardeners. They break it down into three parts:

+ What you need to start.

+ How to grow certain veggies (plus recipes).

+ Assorted gardening tips.

Tip #1, "Read your seed packet," could have helped me avoid my cucumber disaster.

As Susan says, it's not too late to get your garden together. So get going!

Posted by Maryann James at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds. -- Dan Bennett

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations
        

 Photo credit: Lloyd Fox/The Sun

To paraphrase something from the Clinton campaign war room, "It's the weather, stupid. Not the economy."

If retail garden centers are having a tough time this spring, it is probably because the weather has been cold and rainy and the weekends have been lousy.

The predictions for this year's gardening season were dire. No one thought that there would be any spare cash for spending on silly things like plants.

"I kept saying," said Steve Castorani, owner of North Creek Nurseries, a plant breeder, and the Gateway Garden Center in Delaware, "what we really need to have is good weather in the spring, especially on the weekends in the Northeast.

"And we didn't have a stellar spring. All the rain was good if you are a grower, but if you are counting on pleasant weekends to bring in customers who want to start their garden work, March and April and the beginning of May weren't good."

Castorani's optimism was shared by those who believed that 1) people might not have money for vacations but they will find money to fix up their back yards and 2) flowers might be like alcohol. In bad times, they can lighten the mood.

It is still early. Plenty of time to get your gardens up to snuff before July 4th. And last weekend was a beauty. As this photo from Valley View Farms by Lloyd Fox suggestions, people are buying. That's good news for garden centers.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

Fine Gardening magazine's August issue arrived in the mailbox with a wonderful, truly helpful, cover story: 100 skills to make you a better gardener.

I am not going to list them all here - and I probably won't do all of them either - but this is a great set of tasks for the self-taught gardener to do to help develop his or her skills.

Among them:

• Determine the orientation of your house. Which way, exactly, is south?
• Buy a good set of pruners and then prune a shrub rose. Learn how to sharpen your pruners.
• Design and plant a container garden.
• Learn to identify poison ivy, oak and sumac.
• Buy a good shovel and learn how to sharpen it.
• Force a bulb
• Learn how to remove a tick
• Determine your area's average rainfall and identify your microclimate.
• Learn to keep good records.
• Learn to tell the good bugs from the bad bugs.
• Mix your own potting soil.
• Lay a path.

(The article isn't available in the on-line version of the magazine. It looks like you'll have to buy it at the newstand.)

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Magazine rack
        

How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence. --  Benjamin Disraeli

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden quotations