In this video produced by the White House and posted on AOL, First Lady Michelle Obama and assistant White House chef Sam Kass discuss the origins and the goals of the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt planted hers during World War II. Mrs. Obama said the idea for the garden began as a way to change the eating habits and the food decisions of her family. It has since exploded both in terms if impact and imitation. The video also shows time-lapse photos of the garden over several months - giving lie to all those rumors that the garden was "faked."

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

What a pity flowers can utter no sound!—A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle,—oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be! --  Henry Ward Beecher

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves. --  Ken Druse

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Chance was to work in the garden, where he would care for plants and grasses and trees which grew there peacefully. He would be as one on them: quiet, open hearted in the sunshine and heavy when it rained. -- Jerzy Kozinski

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota

The gauzy tents you see in the trees these days are not the work of gypsy moths, but of their much less damaging kin, the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea.

Jon Traunfeld of the University of Maryland extension service said those insects are probably done feeding, but their large nests are still visible in the branches.

They are unsightly but cause little damage, says a bulletin from the Maryland extension service.

Damage to the host plant is primarily aesthetic, since leaves are usually eaten late in the season when it is not normally a threat to the health of the tree, according to Weekend Gardener.

 Larvae chew on leaves and spin large, unsightly, dirty white webs over the ends of branches; sometimes several branch tips are enclosed by one web.

You can remove them with a stick or prune them out. No controls are necessary unless there is severe defoliation.

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Categories: Insects
        

You are the kind of friend who would overlook my broken fence to admire my flowers. --  author unknown

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

It was hard to believe.

The vacant lot in the East Baltimore neighborhood of Oliver - which early Thursday morning was crawling with volunteers and earth-moving equipment - had become a gem of a garden in just a single day. 

Eight raised beds held clean soil and vegetable seedlings. Around the perimeter - where volunteers had pulled out hundreds of old bricks and chunks of cement left over from demolished houses - was a garden planted with perennials, herbs and trees.

Still to come? A decorative iron fence with a pair of gates, and benches.

The project, on a lot at the corner of North Central and Hoffman avenues, was the work of Fiskars, the Wisconsin garden tool maker, Home Depot and the city of Baltimore, which caught Fiskars' attention with its "Cleaner/Greener" programs. It is the sixth such garden in the nation.

The beds should produce a bounty of fall vegetables and salad greens. And the city has promised grant money to plant again in the spring.

Business, community groups and churches are "stake-holders" in the garden and are committed to keeping it weeded, watered and blooming.

Joe Lamp'l, known on television and the Web as Joe Gardener, designed the garden and supervised its installation, with the help of about 200 volunteers.

If he had taken a week to do this, the project might not have gotten noticed.

But to pull it off in a single day? That's impressive.

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Categories: Garden news
        

 Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Just add water.

That's all the Baltimore neighborhood of Oliver is asked to do.

More than 200 volunteers from Fiskars, the garden tool company, Home Depot, the city of Baltimore and the neighborhood are working right now to create a garden sanctuary - in a single day.

They are building eight raised beds to hold 150 fall vegetable seedlings. Around the vacant lot on North Central Avenue they will plant 400 annuals, perennials and shrubs and more than 30 new trees. 

There will be benches for visitors and room for tents to hold revivals and community events just as they did here years ago.

All the community is asked to do is water the new garden. And the city installed a water line overnight to make it easier.

Master gardener Joe Lamp'l, who designed the project for Fiskars, said the project cost about $94,000 - half of what it might have cost without the corporate and city donations and the volunteer labor.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixons is due at the garden at 5 p.m. today for a ribbon cutting. There is still plenty to do! 

Stop back here are Garden Variety for a look at the finished garden.

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Categories: Garden news
        

In my garden column in The Baltimore Sun today, I talk with Joe and Alison Schweiger of Hampden in Baltimore about their postage-stamp-sized pepper patch, and the award-winning hot peppers they produce every year for the Maryland State Fair.

Joe is the cook in the family, while Alison handles the garden chores. So it is Joe who must find something to make with all those hot peppers. He is pretty resourceful. Here's a cookie recipe from Joe.

Chocolate Habanero Fireballs        

1 (12-ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter 

1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped (toasted if desired) 

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon dark rum (Myers’s or Gosling 80 proof preferred)

1 Chocolate Trinidad seeded and finely chopped (or other habanero pepper

1/3 cup Splenda 

Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in almonds, rum and chopped habanero and mix well. Refrigerate mixture about 15 minutes. Shape into 1-inch balls, then roll in Splenda to coat. Store in refrigerator.

It is suggested you wear rubber gloves when chopping the pepper and while shaping the balls.

Makes about 3 dozen.  

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron

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Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

It is only when you start to garden—probably after fifty—that you realize something important happens every day. --  Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Worms seem to be the natural result of composting.

Whenever I dig out some compost from the bottom of the bin to use in the garden, it looks like it is alive - almost more worms than dirt.

So the idea that you would need more worms - or more worm poo, as it were - seems a little redundant.

That was true for Jennifer Jewell of Redding, Calif., too. She writes for Food for Thought: anewscafe.com, and reports that she had a conversion experience while listening to composting expert Ward Habriel talk.

Read more here on the benefits of using worm castings in your garden. You, too, can get past the "yuck factor."

Photo courtesy of goosmurf at Flickr

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Categories: Composting
        

If you are not killing plants, you are not really stretching yourself as a gardener. --  J. C. Raulston

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Bok choy photo courtesy of Shannon Clark on Flickr

The New York Times' Anne Raver, our favorite garden writer because she actually gardens right here in Maryland, writes about winter greens and why they taste so sweet in the Times.

To do so, she visits Even' Star Organic Farm in Lexington Park, Md.

For those of you new to vegetable gardening -- and who don't want this season to end -- Raver makes yet another good case for planting fall crops.

Or finding somebody's fall crop you can purchase.

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Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

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

Michael Tortorello of the New York Times is pondering pure poetry as he meditates on the summer/fall transition.

What can I plant in the warm dirt this week and still have a chance to harvest before the numbing times come? My vegetable beds have vacancies—nice, sunny spots where the previous residents checked out on the way to my salad bowl. There are three mostly empty rows where lettuce used to grow, and scattered pockmarks where American rapa and turnips once lived.

I recommend giving it read -- it's an enjoyable diversion. However, there were some nice tidbits to take away for fall planting, including one suggestion I haven't heard: It's too late to grow corn, of course, but you can plant now for harvests of baby corn!

I chatted with a garden guy at Valley View Farms, and he was skeptical. OK, he was completely down on the idea. It's too late in the season to think about corn, baby or otherwise, he said. "Can't do it," he said. "Frost is gonna kill it." By the time it gets tall enough to produce the miniature cobs, he says, it'll be too late and (more importantly) too cold to get any fruitful bounty.

So there goes that idea. Anyone have any fun veggie plans for fall?

Photo by missy & the universe @ Flickr

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Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Always try to grow in your garden some plant or plants out ot the ordinary, something your neighbors never attempted. For you can receive no greater flattery than to have a gardener of equal intelligence stand before your plant and ask, "What is that?" --  Richardson Wright

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

According to my colleague Frank Roylance over on the Maryland Weather blog, my community of Annapolis placed second in the raining of cats and dogs this weekend: 5.25 inches.

That was second only to North Beach, which was pounded by 6.25 inches during the 60 hours during which the rainfall was record.

I can see the results everywhere in my garden. Not a lot of damage, but so much silt washed out of my beds and onto the sidewalk and street that I'm not sure what is holding up the plants anymore.

Any other damage out there in Garden Variety land to report? And, aside from the mosquitoes, what is the benefit or detriment of all this rain so late in the summer?

We are, frankly, not used to anything but drought.

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Categories: Garden weather
        

The New York Times reports today on high-rise vegetable gardening.

Not a couple of cherry tomato plants in windowboxes on the 31st floor.

This is much different.

There are very believable predictions that the Earth will soon have too many people to be fed from too little land.

In this essay, Dickson Despommier writes about vertical farming: Creating buildings that reach to the sky and take garden plots with them.

It is a fascinating concept.

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Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

The golden rule of gardening is to pay attention to local conditions of weather and soil. --  Carol Williams

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Uber food writer Michael Pollan, the New York Times reporter who has written such in-depth and unsettling books about agribusiness and our food chain, was asked in an interview with NPR's Fresh Air what he thought of Michelle Obama's vegetable garden and President Obama's food policies in general.

In this interview with host Dave Davies, Pollan says Obama hasn't done much to take on the toxic health and environment effects of agribusiness, but he expressed surprise at the magnitude of the impact of Michelle Obama's garden.

Here is an excerpt.

DAVIES: You know, last October, you wrote a piece in the Times Magazine called “Farmer in Chief,” which was an open letter to the next president - the election was still going on then. And you essentially argued that changing the way we grow and process food was critical to energy policy and, thus, a matter of national security - you know, the way we grow and process food at an industrial scale and transport it thousands of miles drains energy, pollutes the environment and harms our health. And you said that it’s really important for the next president to take a lead in changing things. How would you rate President Obama on the challenge of rebuilding the food culture?

POLLAN: Well, I think Obama’s taken some very encouraging steps. I think that Obama has shown that he recognized the links between the way we grow food and feed ourselves and the health-care crisis on the one side and the climate-change and energy crisis on the other.

So I’m encouraged by some of the rhetoric. I’m encouraged by some of the appointments. There are some progressive people in the USDA, the Department of Agriculture. And there has been the new agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, has spoken in, you know, very encouraging terms about the importance of local food systems, the importance of farmers’ markets, the importance of organic food.

So all that is very encouraging, I think. But, you know, frankly, the most important thing that’s happened has been the garden that Michelle Obama planted, which has had a galvanizing effect around the world.

There’s now a garden in Buckingham Palace. People are planting gardens all over America. You can’t find seeds in garden centers, there’s such a run on gardening. I think that’s a very encouraging thing. I don’t think it is merely symbolic. And by the way, I think it’s very deliberate on the part of the Obamas. I think they understand that before you can begin to change this food system, you need to raise consciousness about it because for a lot of people, the food system works just fine.

There’s plenty of cheap and abundant food. The fact that it makes people sick, the fact that it takes an enormous toll on the environment, on animals, on workers, isn’t really clear to everybody so that there’s a kind of raising of consciousness that needs to happen. And I think that Michelle Obama is playing a very important role in that. And then you can follow, one hopes, with a different kind of farm bill that would encourage the kind of fresh, local food that Michelle Obama has been extolling.

So, you know, I’m encouraged. I don’t see any evidence that they’re willing to take on agribusiness in any significant way yet. I think what’s more likely to happen is that this administration will take steps to educate people on the value of real food and cooking and that they will also do things to promote local food economies.

(A young reader's version of Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: The secrets behind what you eat, will be in bookstores this fall.)

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Categories: Garden books
        

Grass is the cheapest plant to install and the most expensive to maintain. --  Pat Howell

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

The garden is so ferociously sexy at night, it's almost lurid. --  Anne Raver

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust. -- Gertrude Jekyll

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

I can see it now.

The Obama family outside the White House, working out of the back of a pick-up truck, selling vegetables from Michelle's garden and the kids making change out of a tin cash box.

That's the vision that comes to mind when the President discusses healthy eating, getting more fresh vegetables into school lunches and the possibility of a White House farmer's market.

Read his comments on the Huffington Post.

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Garden happenings:

Tickets are on sale now for Homestead Gardens annual Tomato Festival at the Davidsonville, Md., garden center on Sept. 12

There will be music, food, wine sampling, vintage cars, tomato sampling and a tomato beauty contest and a salsa contest.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and a portion of the proceeds goes to funding the flower baskets and containers Homestead donates and maintains in downtown Annapolis.

The cost of the ticket includes a BBQ lunch, a non-alcoholic drink and all the sampling you can handle.

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Categories: Garden events
        

Morale low at work? Are you collapsing under the weight of more work, fewer employees and less money (no raises and furloughs, anyone)?

Plant a garden.

According to the Wall Street Journal, that's what some companies are doing -- starting employer-sponsored gardens to improve morale and provide a source of fresh and free fruits and veggies for their workers. From Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese, owner of an Indiana paperworks company:

"The garden really is a nice benefit, saving them on their food bills," said Ms. Woodhouse-Keese, who estimates the garden has meted out $2,400 in produce this season, from tomatoes to potatoes.

Seems like a nice idea, especially if everyone is involved. (Gleefully imagining higher-ups rolling up their sleeves and spreading fertilizer in the community garden.) The camaraderie sparked by planting beans and tomatoes. The health benefits of eating fresh veggies. And maybe even a nice company picnic at the end of the season, with work-grown food?

Space is a premium in the city, but there's no reason you couldn't create container and roof-top gardens. What do you think about the work-gardening idea?

Photo from itzafineday @ Flickr

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In my garden column in The Baltimore Sun today, I talk about composting with a Q&A on the basics with Mike Ather, who teaches composting for Gardener's Supply in Vermont.

His colleague, Kathy LaLiberte, has been with Gardener's Supply since its start 25 years ago, and she writes an advice column on the Web site.

In this one on composting, she talks about "trench" composting and "sheet" composting, in which you skip the entire compost pile step and add material directly to your gardens. She says it is ideal for kitchen scraps but best suited to a vegetable garden.

On Sunday afternoons in the fall and winter, I can be found in my kitchen making soup from the farmer's market largesse and generating a ton of vegetable scraps. The same is true at the holidays.

This year, I am going to walk right past my compost bin and go straight to the garden.

Photo courtesy of Gardener's Supply

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Categories: Composting
        

Windchimes in your yard will serenade garden creatures...squirrels, fairies and angels. --  author unknown

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo courtesy of Central Park

OMG. I was just there last weekend!

New York's Central Park, and its beautiful gem Conservatory Garden, were devastated by a powerful thunderstorm Tuesday night. This is the New York Times description of a storm described as more damaging than any in decades.

Scores of trees were toppled. One of the officials describes the smell of fresh wood that has been blown apart.

I returned Sunday night from a beautiful weekend in New York City, and I visited the Conservatory Garden for a quiet and heartfelt talk with an old friend, and we were comforted by the delicate beauty of this place.

The garden is a perfectly manicured six acres at about 106th Street, the only formal garden in Central Park. I don't think I can stand to see pictures of the storm's damage there.

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Categories: Garden news
        

 Photo courtesy of White Flower Farm

Just in time for the fall planting season, this list of recommended purchases comes from Connecticut's White Flower Farm.

I always get so greedy this time of year. And I regret not taking my own advice and sticking a plastic fork in the ground in the bare spots that reveal themselves in the spring.

Now I have absolutely no idea where to put new bulbs. And I really, really want these alliums.

Lemme know what you think....

* Peony ‘Moonstone’ – Peonies are rugged perennials that produce huge flowers in May to June. Heirloom ‘Moonstone’ has been a garden favorite for years. Its delicate pink, fragrant double blooms have a translucent glow, and its sturdy stems hold them up well.

*Poppy ‘Curlilocks’ – Poppies can stop traffic with their colorful blooms. Bright orange-red ‘Curlilocks’ has deeply cut and ruffled flowers marked inside with black spots. Plant poppies in the fall for gorgeous, large blooms in late spring.

*Ornamental Onions – The bright round globes of Alliums look like starbursts and add interesting shapes to your garden. White Flower Farm’s ‘Garden Globes’ Allium collection includes three colors: white ‘Mount Everest’, lavender-blue ‘Gladiator’ and purple ‘Stratos.’

*Saffron Crocus – The thread-like stigmas inside the flowers of this fall-blooming crocus are the source of culinary saffron. Plant the small corms in early fall, enjoy the lavender-colored blossoms, and collect your own saffron for cooking.

*Daffodil ‘Best Seller’ – Daffodils flowers are deer resistant and voles leave the bulbs alone. Soft yellow ‘Best Seller’ combines well with everything in a spring garden. This new trumpet variety comes from award-winning parents and is very hardy.  

*Tulip ‘Monsella’ – Double tulips have large ruffled petals and this one is bright canary yellow with red flames. Bold and beautiful, ‘Monsella’ opens wide in the sun and closes in overcast weather. It’s lightly fragrant and impressive in any garden border

*Tall Bearded Iris – Gardeners love tall bearded iris (Iris germanica) for a rainbow of color in June. Reblooming varieties are increasingly popular, such as ‘Immortality’, ‘Best Best’, and ‘Jennifer Rebecca’. Unlike their siblings, rebloomers don’t go dormant in summer, so should be fertilized and kept watered.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Plant Wish List
        

HalleluJazz Project and Jonathan Stone will be performing in what Annapolitans like to call "the coolest backyard in town," the historic William Paca House and Gardens on Prince George St. in downtown. The performance will take place Thursday, Aug. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Project was formed in 2002 by Nigerian-born drummer Tosin Aribisala in conjunction with other African and U.S.-born musicians. The group incorporates traditional African musical pattersn with distinctively American jazz. The group will be joined by guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Stone.

Doors open at 5:30. Admission is $12 on the day of the concert, $5 for children 5-12. Cold drinks, beer, wine and snacks will be available for sale. No outside drinks or bottles, please.

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Categories: Garden events
        

Because gardeners love to look at other people's gardens, let me introduce Keith Phelps, manager of Country Farm & Home Gift and Garden Center in Mifflinburg, Pa. Keith practices what he preaches...and what he sells. These are pictures from his home.

Hi, I'm Keith Phelps.  We specialize in container gardening and have for the past 10 years.  I enjoy gardening at home as well and have tested lots of plants and products over the past years.  The Pamela Crawford Side Planting System from the Kinsman Company is one of the most unique planting systems on the market right now.  

The system is really easy to use, planting on the sides and the top of the containers with larger 3-inch and 4-inch plants, giving you instant results. The squared off shape holds a tremendous amount of soil and water which keeps your plants happy and healthy for the entire season. 

 In the photos I have used the side plant window boxes, column planters and basket on a column planter for large pots. I really enjoy working with the products both as a professional and as a gardener. 

Plant selection varies from year to year in our containers but some of my favorites are Solar Coleus, Upright Fushia, Sweet Potato Vine, Supertunias, Superbells, Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Bidens and new this year are the "BIG" Begonias which have performed even better than expected!

My wife and I really enjoy our little piece of paradise and hope that sharing these photos with you will encourage you to do a little planting in your corner of the world!

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Categories: Your garden
        

When your garden is finished I hope it will be more beautiful that you anticipated, require less care than you expected, and have cost only a little more than you had planned. -- Thomas D. Church

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

England imports almost 40 percent of its food. And the line for public garden plots on the tiny island country is something like 100,000 names long.

Read this story in the Christian Science Monitor about Todmorden, a little town north of London where gardening activists have taken to planting vegetables in every nook and cranny - including the local cemetery.

Mary Clear's campaign blossomed, as it were, into "Incredible Edible Todmorden" and much of the produce is given away to residents.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

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

It's the middle of August, one of the slowest times of year. The newsroom is quieter, as people go on vacation rotation, and the vegetable garden is yielding little drama as my tomatoes and peppers and herbs quickly and quietly show themselves. With that mood in mind, some gardeners look inward. 

Garden Rant's Susan Harris, a first-time container veggie gardener, posts her lessons in her first year of growing. Her biggest lesson:

But like all gardeners, I'm already scheming about what I'll do differently next year and one BIG answer is to grow container-sized plants.

I agree, though most of my plants were container-sized plants (of seeds from the same Renee Susan mentions in her post). My biggest lesson so far: Water counts.

It seems simple, but I have made it complicated. This year, I ignored all suggestions about studying where sunlight hits on your balcony, kind ideas about water management, and gentle warnings about using terra cotta pots.

Next year, I will pay more attention to where the sunlight hits in my gardening area. And if I'm using the same pots, I will invest in mulch. And perhaps even some kind of watering system. (If I can find a way to make my own plant nanny, my cheap butt will be a plant nanny fool.)

Perhaps then my cucumbers will actually flourish, instead of sitting forlornly in a pot with sad blooms and no cukes.

In these dog days of August, what veggie garden lessons are you meditating on?

Photo by WTL Photos @ Flickr

Posted by Maryann James at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Speaking of shopping.

Carrie Lamont posted this essay on ordering spring bulbs on Dave's Garden, one of the most popular and helpful garden Websites out there.

In it, she promises herself to keep her color sheme - and her budget - in mind.

Me? I don't have a color scheme. Or, it seems, a budget. I wonder if I can order one of each on line?

Photo credit: Carrie Lamont

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Categories: Bulbs
        

It's that time of year.

Garden centers and catalog purveyors are offering discounts and advertising sales on plant material as the gardening season slowly comes to a close.

Here are a few I found on the Internet. If you know of others, or if there are any Mid-Atlantic garden centers planning big sales, let me know and I will post them!

Jackson & Perkins, the rose people, are advertising groundcover roses. The more you purchase, the more you save. We've talked about groundcovers before on Garden Variety, but not about using roses in this role. Interesting! J&P also has a bunch of sale items for as much as 75 percent off.

Dutch Gardens is offering $25 off orders of $50 or more, including sale items. Check out the Estate Collections: as many as 750 tulip bulbs for $554. To place your order by phone, call 1-888-821-0448 and mention code MKA7033B. The offer expires Sept. 3. Dutch Gardens is also offering its reblooming daylily collection - five plants for $29.95.

And Wayside Gardens is offering 25 percent off Internet exclusive trees, shrubs and perennials if ordered by Aug. 22. There are also a number of trees, shrubs and plants on sale. In addition, if you can name the mystery plant shown in a partial photo, you might win a $100 gift certificate. The winner will be chosen from among all correct entries.

Photo credit/Dutch Gardens

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Categories: Garden tips
        

Plants are like people: they're all different and a little bit strange. --  John Kehoe

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

...but not in a bathing suit.

Newsday.com has a Q&A with the supermodel about her garden.

She apologizes for its state. Seems she's been busy designing her new jewelry line.

Brinkley, the only model to grace Sports Illustrated's swim suit cover three times, has 22 acres, a vegetable and perennial gardens, and gardens themed by color and style.

 And...she has help. A caretaker.

I have a garden caretaker, too. He's me.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden news
        

Mother Jones magazine, the source for the original scare stories about lead in the White House vegetable garden (since debunked and debunked and debunked) is cheerfully reveling in the New York Times story we told you about last week - that the addition of organic material to the veggie plot before planting had reduced lead levels to a remarkably low 14 particles per million.

Josh Harkinson is smirking because he says the MSM (main-stream media) hadn't had the nerve to report on the lead levels when MJ did. I don't know.  I did, and I'm pretty main-stream, if I do say so myself.

Anyway. He refers to the Washington Post clip file from the 1980s in suggesting that reconstituted sludge was used to fertilize the South Lawn more than once.

OK....and we are going where with this?

It was ComPRO that was used and it was a big deal in the 1980s. Thought to be a very green way to fertilize. But it faded from use. I am just guessing here, but I think the whole reconstituted sewage waste thing just didn't fly with the public.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden news
        

People who don't know how to weed shouldn't do it. People who know how to weed are gardeners. --  author unknown

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Early to bed, early to rise; Work like h*ll and fertilize. --  Emily Whaley

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo courtesy of Ross Svebak

Ross Svebak, a lifestyle blogger from Minnesota, pays tribute to the Haws watering can in a recent post.

You know these watering cans, even if you don't know the maker. They have the long arm and the upside-down watering head.

He says he resisted buying one for years because he thought they were the stuff of snooty gardeners, but then received one as a gift.

He writes a bit of history about the Haws company, too, which began with John Haws application for a patent in 1885. Check it out.

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

Flowers and plants are silent presences; They nourish every sense except the ear. --  May Sarton

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

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 as beautiful. -- Abram l. Urban

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Meanwhile...

Obama Foodorama, a well-researched and well-written blog about Obama administration's food policies, reports that a retired White House groundkeeper confirms that reconditioned sludge was only applied once to the White House south lawn, in 1985.

Though President Clinton issued a broad directive to institute more environmentally friendly landscaping techniques, he was not in the White House when the sludge was applied, according to White House groundskeeper Irvin Williams, who retired last year after 59 years of service. That would have been during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

As bogger Eddie Gehman Kohan points out, the Clintons, too, have been "slandered" as having "poisoned" the White House grounds during this crazy campaign to discredit Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiative.

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

I wrote earlier this week about the persistent rumors that the White House vegetable garden had "toxic" levels of lead caused by an application of fertilizer during the Clinton administration that was manufacturered from sewage sludge.

It seems that every day, some new blog, Web site or goofy publication reprints the rumor that the lead levels are so high that the First Lady will not allow her family to eat the produce from the garden and blah, blah, blah.

This, despite the repeated reassurance from Michelle Obama's press office that the lead level - 93 parts per million - was far below the 400 ppm that might cause some concern.

Well, as the New York Times reports, the White House has again tested the soil and found the lead levels to be about 14 ppm. Sam Kass, assistant White House chef and head gardener, was even trotted out for a photo op to help make the point.

The White House attributed the astonishingly low level to all the organic matter that was worked into the garden before it was planted. 

The lead level is as low as it might be in an area where there are no cars, which pollute the soil as well as the air. 

Not that any of the cabbage heads out there are going to believe it.

Photo of Sam Kass/ Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Fellow gardener Stephanie Desmon, author of the Picture of Health blog here at The Sun, can't seem to catch a break. Her zucchini grows too large, her cukes have spikes and now.... Well, read on.

I was beside myself, talking about how sad I was at the loss of this tomato, which I had been growing since May.

 My husband tried to stop me. My son’s eyes started welling up. Apparently he, too, was crushed by this development and my husband had just finished telling him how it wasn’t worth crying over a tomato.

I grew this garden to teach my kids about where their food comes from. I thought it would be fun to watch it grow together and then have some yummy, healthy goodies to eat at the end.

And I figured I could save some money, growing the stuff I spend a lot of money on at the grocery store – baby tomatoes, big tomatoes, cukes and green peppers.

So far, we’ve gotten a handful of tiny tomatoes – not enough that I don’t have to still buy some at the store – two cucumbers and just a single bud has grown on my six green pepper plants.

The lesson is, as one of my colleagues told me: Carpe Tomato. Don’t wait for the perfect shade of red. Seems like it’s better to pick that sucker before the squirrels do.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden humor
        

In today's Baltimore Sun, I write about crocuses and suggest that you order your bulbs soon because the crocus corms, planted only 3 or 4 inches deep, should go in the ground early enough to allow their root systems to develop before cold weather shuts things down.

I asked Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens and Becky Heath of Brent and Becky's Bulbs if they suggested planting crocuses in the lawn - and I got two different answers.

Scott said he had seen it done, but most often in England, where the grass resembles a putting green.

"Any guy worth his salt here in America has a big, beefy lawn," he said. "Crocuses might not be able to compete with that lawn."

Becky disagreed and, as a matter of fact, the photo that accompanies my column in today's Sun is of crocuses planted in the lawn.

"With all the different colors, you can design rainbows, stained glass, make happy faces," she said. She also recommended involving children in gardening by planting crocuses to spell their names.

If you think your grass might overwhelm your crocuses, try planting some among groundcovers, such as lamb's ear or sweet woodruff.

The crocus at right is the heirloom bulb tommasinianus Pictus, one of the "tommie" crocuses that are somewhat rodent resistent, and Scott's favorite. The one below is of chrysanthus "Advance," which Becky likes because it is actually two colors - peachy-yellow when it is open in the morning and lavender and white when it  is closed in the evening.)

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Categories: Garden tips
        

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers. --  Heinrich Heine

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo courtesy of AVRDC/The World Vegetable Center

Does the impact of tomato late blight depend on where you live?

I am starting to think so.

I hope the Tomato Gods do not read this and strike me down, but I have to say my tomatoes are doing OK.

They are two Brandywines in large pots on my deck. Brandwines are heirloom and therefore particularly vulnerable to disease and insects, but mine are doing fine!

And you have to understand, I am famous in my neighborhood for NOT growing tomatoes. Mine are always overcome with early blight. They shrivel and die before I get more than two or three piece of fruit.

I am usually the laughingstock of neighborhood, but not this year. And my neighbor Ron has perhaps a dozen plants, some of them heirloom, and they are healthy as can be, too.

Mark Bittman of the New York Times is complaining about the scarcity of good tomatoes in his blog. And Dan Barber, a chef in Tarrytown, N.Y., wrote Sunday in the Times suggesting that late blight had swept through the Northeast like Swine Flu through an elementary school. He called it an "agriculture disaster."

Even Martha Stewart's reports that the crop on her Connecticut farm has been infected.

The University of Maryland's Department of Agriculture dutifully issued a warning about the appearance of late blight, which happens periodically.

But you couldn't tell it by my farmer's market in Annapolis, where tomatoes - perhaps a little late because of the cool early summer - are in  abundance.

What's the deal? Any theories? Any Maryland blight stories out there?

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

Photo courtesy of W. Atlee Burpee & Co

I find myself humming Cat Stevens these days. "I'm being followed by a moonflower...moonflower, moonflower."

It was "moonshadow" in his song, but it is a moonflower in my garden.

My friend Susan Iglehart of Susan Iglehart's Flowers in Glyndon, Md., gave me a moonflower (Calonyction aculeatum) when I arrived at her home in May to pick up my order of annuals, vegetables and herbs.

Susan works hard over the winter to find the newest and best seeds to "custom" grow for her gardening clients. She sends us a checklist in February, and we pick up the results from her greenhouses in May.

(It is always a bit like Christmas to visit Susan. I never remember what I ordered, so it is always a surprise. And I always find one or two plants that I absolutely must have. And then she sends one of her newer varieties home with me, too. It might be an heirloom tomato, or an unusual geranium. This year, it was the moonflower.)

I tucked it in a spot at the corner of the deck, where the steps lead down into the yard, and now its vines and heart-shaped leaves have found their way up the steps and along the railing and into the bird bath that is attached there!

Moonflower is an annual tropical vine that is a slow starter. But it thrives in the heat and as the summer warms, it quickly grows, flowering around the 4th of July. It is like the morning glory in one sense - it is almost invasive. Deadhead if you don't want it to self-seed. (Warning: seeds are poisonous.)

Each evening, as I welcome the soft night, there are giant white blossoms to welcome me -- as big as dinner plates and as white as French porcelain. 

The flowers are only there in the evening, and each bloom lasts only until dawn when it closes and waits to drop from the vine.

But every night, there is a new moonflower to follow me.

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Categories: Flowers
        

If your garden was there before you were, chances are it grew out of many other's dreams. --  Ferris Cook

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

I suppose it's a certain type of person who finds glee in this sort of situation, but ... Martha Stewart got tomato blight.

The uber perfectionist revealed on her blog that she's had problems with her tomato blight: In fact, 70 percent of her 50 different varieties of tomatoes have fallen to the fungus among us (Check out that scary tomato above!).

Maryland agriculture officials warned about the blight down here last month; Martha mentions the trouble that farmers and backyard gardeners have had up North, too. My tomatoes have miraculously appeared unscathed so far, but I imagine there's still time. Any other gardeners battling the blight?

(And, Martha, if you're actually reading this, I apologize for the glee. I'm actually quite glad to see that you posted your tales of woe (and your scary photo gallery). It shows you're human like the rest of us.)

Posted by Maryann James at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

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

As my summer garden languishes, Susan is nudging me to look forward and ahead to fall. "Supplies for fall planting are coming in at Valley View Farms," she said encouragingly yesterday. "I think you should try it!"

(Methinks she has ulterior motives. But I'm a glutton for punishment. It's also quite easy to convince me to do nearly anything -- and I do love garlic -- so I likely will.)

Meanwhile, one of my friends, who was in on the conversation, mentioned a post she'd recently read on perennial vegetables. Instead of planting new things every spring, you just plant once, and reap the harvest year after year.

I investigated further. Kevin Kelly at Cool Tools mentions a book by Eric Toensmeier on the subject (aptly titled "Perennial Vegetables"), and also shares some of the highlights:

+ Malabar spinach, a climbing plant that is as beautiful as it is tasty;

+ Saltbrush, which Kelly says tastes like "pretzels in a shrub"; 

+ Fiddleheads -- put your ferns to use in the spring by harvesting the shoots; 

+ and my personal favorite, Oca (pictured), a type of potato that Kelly swears tastes like a sweet and tart candy when raw, and like a potato with sour cream when baked.

From preliminary research, I'm not so sure about the likelihood of growing saltbrush in Maryland. I can't see why not, but I won't say yes until I get a definitive answer. But Malabar spinach, especially the red-leaf variety, seems like a welcome change for bored gardeners. (The UMD extension recommends planting in July, I assume because the plant thrives in warmer climates.)

Ostrich ferns are also a good option for springtime fiddleheads, though I'm skeptical after reading gardener Jessica Damiano's culinary foray into fiddlehead territory.

As for Oca? If they can grow in England, they can be grown here. Seriously though -- it's doable, in containers and in garden plots, though it seems they do better in open land. If you're interested, the master gardeners from the University of California extension have an interesting blow-by-blow of their Oca experiment. Anyone interested in trying it on the East Coast?

(Photo by yummyporky @ Flickr)

Posted by Maryann James at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. -- Anais Nin

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

 In my op-ed piece today in The Baltimore Sun, I write about the stubborn Internet conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama's vegetable garden has "toxic" levels of lead.

 Just about every day, I get a Google alert that carries one more reference to the garden's pollution as a result of an application of "sewage sludge" during the Clinton Administration.

(That may, in fact, be true. It was not uncommon in the 1980s to promote treated sewage plant waste as a fertilizer. It has since fallen out of favor. Probably because of public perception issues, as opposed to environmental issues.)

Sheesh.

The National Park Service has reported a lead level of 96 parts per million, a level that is "ridiculously low" according to experts interviewed on the very credible Obama food blog, Obama Foodorama. The blog refers to those who persist in believing the garden is polluted as "leadites," not unlike the "birthers," who insist that the President's Hawaiian birth certificate is faked.

Just today, there was another Google alert for me: The White House vegetable garden will cause alzheimers.

I couldn't make this stuff up.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

..... is another man's compost.

Gardener's Supply fall catalog is out, and it is all about composting.

It is the perfect time to start this project .... fall leaves are a gardener's gold. And if you begin composting now, you are likely to have some good stuff to work into the soil next spring when you begin planting again.

Gardener's Supply has variety of compost bins, plus lots of extras. Everything from the $399, 14-cubic-foot, self-aerating composter that does not require turning to the $40 "Big Bin" composter that is pretty much just for leaves.

There is also a compost pile additive for $18.95 that gives the heating process a jump start; an attractive counter top canister for your kitchen scraps (remember: no meat and no dairy); as well as biodegradable liners for the canister and biodegradable bags for your fall leaves, should you choose not to compost.

There is an electric composter that you keep in your kitchen for quick action on kitchen scraps and a worm composter that produces rich worm casings for the garden. Even a thermometer to check the heat of your compost pile.

I started composting years ago with a free bin made of recycled plastic. It was just slats, and plenty of assembly was required. It was open to the elements on top, and it became a hangout for critters from the woods nearby. The sides eventually pulled apart from the weight of the material.

I have since graduated to an enclosed bin that has a screen on the top and bottom to keep the creatures out and ventilation for air and rain. It produces about three wheelbarrows full of compost each spring.

I am not religious about turning it. It is a hard and smelly task. But every now and then, I pull the wheelbarrow over and use my pitch fork to unload some of the junk on top -- down to the fully decomposed compost -- and then I fork it back in. Seems to work.

Compost bins are like rain barrels. They are a good thing for the environment, the garden and your peace of mind. Even if you just toss in leaves and grass clippings and don't bother collecting all those kitchen scraps, you will have rich material to add to your soil.

Photo courtesy of Gardener's Supply

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden tips
        

A man should never plant a garden larger than his wife can take care of.  -- T.H. Everett

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden. --  Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Your mind is a Garden, your thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can be either Flowers or Weeds. --  author unknown

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Saturday, 9:00 a.m., Valley View Farms: Victory Gardens for Fall: Keep the summer vegetables growing and replant the garden for cool-season fall harvests. Dotty Zajac and Suzanne Barton our vegetable garden experts, will suggest planting techniques and varieties for late summer planting including broccoli, lettuce, spinach and other favorites.

 

 

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Categories: Gardening classes
        

Flowers are the sweetest thing God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. --  Henry Beecher

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

I wrote today in The Sun about giving your gardens a boost in August, and Nancy Moitrier of Designs for Greener Gardens in Annapolis has some additional thoughts.

She is a big fan of the restorative powers of fish emulsion as a pick-me-up, especially if it is sprayed right on the leaves. That way, it gets where it needs to be without making that long trip up the roots.

Watering your gardens might be the most important thing you can do for them in August, but she says you might want to break up the mulch before you do or it will run right off. By this time of year, the mulch has formed almost a crust on top of the garden beds and it won't allow water - or rain - to penetrate.

By this time as well, slow-release fertilizers will have been washed out of that fancy container soil you purchased in the spring. That means the containers need to be fertilized at least once a week.

If the tips of leaves on container plants are looking brown, it could be a build-up of salt in the soil is burning the roots. That happens when you use too much fertilizer during the summer, she said. Leach the salts out of the container soil by watering thoroughly three or for times. letting the water run out of the bottom of the container.

"Then you can start fresh and fertilize again," she said.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

In my column in The Baltimore Sun Thursday, I talk about freshening up your garden and your containers, replacing plants that look leggy or tired, adding fall color or filling bald spots in the garden with something new.

There isn't room in the newspaper to include pictures of all the plants I mention, so I thought I would post them here, on Garden Variety.

Unless otherwise noted, photos are courtesy of Proven Winners

Million bells "Tequila Sunrise"

Sedum "Neon"

Sedum "Angelina"

Heuchera or coral bells in a variety of foliage colors.

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Categories: Garden inspirations
        

 Photo courtesy of Purdue University

The state flower has me in a state.

My rudbeckia "Goldstrum," otherwise known as the Black-eyed Susan, is overcome with black spots on all its leaves. They spread and grow, attacking the stem and turning the entire plant into a crispy dark mess.

This is the third year in a row for this fungus, known as septoria leaf spot, and it is spreading despite my best efforts. I have been removing the infected plants and treating the ground with a liquid copper herbicide. And I sprayed the new plants regularly as soon as they emerged. But apparently I was not attentive enough.

My answer: rip out the Black-eyed Susans and replace them with another variety next year.

I am growing less and less patient with finicky plants. If you are vulnerable to mildews, rusts, wilts or fungus, you are out of there.

I don't mind working in the garden, but I am not running a sick bay.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden diseases
        

You do not need to know anything about a plant to know that it is beautiful. --  Montagu Don

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

Photo courtesy of New America Today White House Photo Blog

In this White House photo, President Barack Obama receives a bowl of shamrocks from Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Rumor has it that newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, presented Irish president Mary McAleese with a Ben Roethlisberger jersey.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb were talking about all the happiness a TickleMe plant could bring to your otherwise lonely life (?), but the plant refused to cooperate.

Hoda gently tickled the plant to demonstrate how it closes its leaves and drops its branches. When the plant didn't respond, she pinched it. Still no reaction from the plant.

The TickleMe Plant people quickly put out a release, with a link to the video of the lethargic plant and a link to a more tickle-friendly plant, and stated that the cold conditions in the NBC studio caused the problem.

I don't know about you, but purchasing a living thing that recoils at my touch is not likely to bring me much happiness. I can get my kids to do that for free.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

Looking for organic food sources in your area?

Check out the Local Harvest Web site.

Plug in your zipcode, and a list and a map will pop up, showing you where small farms, restaurants or farmers' markets are located. It will also help you find CSAs, co-ops and on-line stores.

I punched in my zip and got 54 listings. There are reviews of some of the listings as well. It appears to be pretty accurate for my neighborhood.

This is how the Web site describes its origins:

'LocalHarvest was founded in 1998, and is now the number one informational resource for the Buy Local movement and the top place on the Internet where people find information on direct marketing family farms. We now have about 17000 members, and are growing by about 20 new members every day. Through our servers, our website and those of our partners serve about three and a half million page views per month to the public interested in buying food from family farms.

LocalHarvest is located in Santa Cruz, California, and was founded by Guillermo Payet, a software engineer and activist dedicated to generating positive social change through the Internet."

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Categories: Garden blogs
        

Among gardeners, enthusiasm and experience rarely exist in equal measures. --  Roger B. Swain

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

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

Photo by Benjamin Chun @ flickr

Last week, reader Harold Steplight asked for advice on what to plant on his Pergola 15x15. "I thought about wild grapes," he wrote. "What do you suggest?"

Quickly realizing I was out of my depth, I walked over to the wiser, more beautiful and intelligent gardener, Susan, (batting eyelashes) and asked her what she thought. Boy, was I unprepared. She listed off a slew of flower and vegetable options, some of which I recommended to Harold. But one particular suggestion stood out: purple pole beans. 

It seemed to be an interesting option that would stand out in any yard. And as one person noted, possibly a way to get your kids to eat their veggies. (I'm not so sure about that, though -- the color tends to bleed out when you cook them.) If you're interested in a sprawling trellis, the Purple King is one option; there's also some bush varieties for those who don't feel comfortable with agricultural sprawl.

Depending on the space in our yet to be chosen new place, I may have a new veggie to experiment with next year. Anyone have success with these purple beauties?

Posted by Maryann James at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Cartoon by Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

When world leaders will arrive in Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit in September, language differences could be a problem.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

 Photo courtesy of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Anyone who knows me, or has been reading my columns in The Sun all these years, knows that I am a Pittsburgh girl.

Though I haven't lived there for more than 30 years, my children actually think they were born there. When they talk about going "home" for the holidays, they mean Pittsburgh and all the aunts, uncles and cousins who still live there.

This news, then, from the 'burg. The lovely and historic Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will host the G-20 Summit on Sept. 24.

The Phipps is where Pittsburghers have, for generations,  gone for an early spring flower fix at its wonderful Easter display. The G-20 leaders and their spouses will tour the botanical gardens and the leaders will remain for a working dinner.

The gardens were founded in 1893 by steel and real-estate magnate Henry Phipps as a gift to the city of Pittsburgh. Its purpose is to educate and entertain the people of Pittsburgh with formal gardens (Roman, English, etc.) and various species of exotic plants

The Victorian glasshouse is located in the rolling hills of Schenley Park, and its recent renovations have earned it a reputation as one of the "greenest" public gardens in the country.

Schenley Park itself has a scandalous history. It was donated to the city of Pittsburgh in 1889 by Mary Elizabeth Croghan Schenley, whose elopement at the age of 15 with an English captain many years her senior caused her father to faint -- and demand that the federal government send a ship after them.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

It's official.

Members of Ocean City. Md. City Council voted overwhelmingly Monday night to ban over-the-counter sales of a hallucinogenic variety of the herb salvia. It must be gone from shops along the boardwalk by this morning.

The police and a majority of the council members threw their support behind the move to make possession and sale of salvia divinorum a misdemeanor with a possible penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The final vote was 6 to 1 in favor of the ban.

Apparently, officials were under the influence of YouTube videos showing young people who smoked or chewed the herb acting strangely.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

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

Susan recently wrote about planning for fall crops, and ever since I've been dreaming of having my own fall garden. My current crop is looking worse for the wear right now, mainly because of water management issues (Lesson learned: if using terracotta pots, mulch will go a long way.).

But I can start anew in the fall with lettuces! And peas! And broccoli! And I can plan ahead for my dream veggie, garlic.

When I first started planning my garden, I was super psyched about growing my own garlic ... until I realized it was something you plant the fall before. Whoops.

At any rate, I'm on vacation this week (tomorrow, Aug. 5, is my birthday!), I figured I'd share a bit of what I'm likely dreaming about while sitting on the lake shores of Maine. Lobster with garlic butter, anyone?

+ Fine Gardening has a step-by-step guide to growing garlic, along with a breakdown of the different types of garlic. (Softneck tends to be a sturdier option.)

+ Veggie Gardening Tips offers directions on curing garlic (for a long-lasting garlic supply) and, if you're so inclined, drying them.

And when you're done harvesting, you can reference this video on roasting the tasty suckers.

Garlic photo above: Baltimore Sun file photo 2007

Posted by Maryann James at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime, Rot and consume themselves in little time. --  William Shakespeare

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

War Memorial Plaza, just outside Baltimore's City Hall, was the scene this weekend for the 22nd Annual City Farms and Community Gardens potluck supper.

Baltimore has more than 600 vegetable garden plots in the city, and more than 200 of the citizens who tend those gardens gathered Saturday evening to show off their produce - and their recipes.

The Sun's Dan Rodricks was there and filed this report.

War Memorial Plaza is home for this event, but it was an even more appropriate location this year. As reported here on Garden Variety, planters surrounding the plaza have been planted with vegetable crops for the first time ever.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore's City Hall Garden
        

President Obama gets 65,000 paper letters and more than 100,000 e-mails a week, and he has asked his staff to go through them all and choose 10 for him to see each day that represent the concerns expressed in all those letters. He hand-writes responses to three or four of those letters each day.

In this behind-the-scenes White House video, the president says that most of the letters are about health care. But one letter writer described using the government's $250 stimulus check to plant a raised bed vegetable garden - inspired by the first lady's vegetable garden - and send the president a picture of the results.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

This isn't your garden variety salvia.

It isn't the fragrant, purple-spiked border plant that is a staple of gardens - salvia "May Night" or salvia "Friedland."

This is a relative of that sage plant known as salvia divinorum, and it has hallucinagenic qualities if smoked or chewed. The folks in Ocean City, Md., are seeking to make it illegal because the kids in that resort town can get screwed up enough on alcohol.

Colleague Mike Dresser reports on the controversy in today's Sun. The herb can be purchased over the counter legally, but a vote Monday night could end that.

Medical professionals say the drug is not addictive or physically harmful, and one trip seems to be enough for those who use it --apparently they aren't fun.

Photo salvia "May Night" courtesy of White Flower Farms

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Garden news
        

 Photo credit: Telegraph (UK)

President Barack Obama and his family will vacation this month - on a farm.

The First Family has rented the Blue Heron Farm near Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard for the last week of August, according to the Vineyard Gazette.

Of course, it isn't a farm the way you and I think of a farm. But it does come with an apple orchard and flower and vegetable gardens, not to mention a golf practice tee and a small basketball court.

The property is said to be near West Tisbury's town center, including a library, general store and farmers' market.

The 28.5-acre farm has four dwellings - apparently enough room for the family, the Secret Service and the press corps and White House staff that has to travel with the president.

The Vineyard Gazette also reports that the rent being paid for the property isn't known, but similar properties go for $30,000 to $50,000 a week. The property sold in 2005 for more than $20 million.

According to the Gazette, the search for a vacation spot began in the spring and more than 20 Vineyard properties were check and rejected.

Mrs. Obama, the Gardener in Chief, may head to the Vineyard early with her daughters and stay with other friends there, with the president to follow.

Of course, this news did not pass without comment. Several readers of the Gazette Web site posted complaints that it was a waste of money in these difficult economic times.

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Categories: Garden news
        

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden. --   Elizabeth Lawrence

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Categories: Garden quotations
        

By the time you find greener pastures, you can't climb over the fence…  -- author unknown

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The watering of a garden requires as much judgement as the seasoning of a soup. --  Helena Rutherford Ely

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Categories: Garden quotations