Garden Variety: Archives - Mid-Atlantic gardening: Tips and pictures on flowers, vegetables, public gardens, composting and farmers’ markets

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September 30, 2009

That salvia high

Remember the kerfluffle in Ocean City this summer over the City Council's decision to ban the sale of the herb salvia divinorum?

Seems kids were getting high, paranoid and a bit out of control by smoking or chewing this variety of sage, and the OC police, quite frankly, already have plenty to do in the summer sun capital.

The Washington Post takes a broader look at the plant today, outlining other legislative actions and quoting a Hopkins doc on its effects. It is legal inn D.C., but illegal in Virginia and parts of Maryland.

Hard for me to work up a lot of heat on this topic. The plant is legal, it is its sale that is under attack. It isn't addictive and its effects only last between 5 and 10 minutes.

It seems like just another attempt to ban "dumb."

Photo credit: Flicker/oceandesetoiles

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Garden news

Garden Rant's branch office

Susan Harris, one of the four women behind the highly successful Garden Rant gardening blog, will be blogging for Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville soon. Susan, who lives in suburban DC, also writes the Sustainable Gardening blog.

Susan told me she will be blogging about national garden trends and issues, and will share the blog space with Gene Sumi, Homestead's very popular garden education coordinator, and the Rita Calvert of Buy Fresh, Buy Local, which examines Cheapeake Bay food issues.

Word is the blog will start up in the next few days.

Keep an eye out on Homestead's Web site.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden blogs

Worth a thousand words

David E. Perry is one of those photographers who is as good with a keyboard as he is with his camera.

That's why his garden photo blog speaks so eloquently in both languages. Here is how he introduces himself.

If I were to somehow leave the impression that I consider myself some sort of gardening expert, I’d be misleading you. I’m not. I am instead a practicing gardener, still quite capable of unintentionally wounding and sometimes even killing plants that I really just want to nurture, a guy who despite that (ironically), has always found healing with his hands in the soil. I’m also a guy who sometimes struggles with feelings of inadequacy in the presence of gardeners who can see so much deeper into a garden’s bones than I, so much more intuitively into a plant’s nature ...and let's not even start with those who effortlessly rattle off the Latin names of every botanical specimen in sight.

His blog, he says, is about a "blue-collar love affair with gardens." And "oh yeah, coupled with that, from time to time, a bit of shared expertise in the art of actively seeing ...and then capturing what one sees. "

Perry was at the Garden Writers Association convention in Raleigh and here are his impressions, in both words and pictures, of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Garden photography

Speaking of the garden

All the wars of the world, all the Caesars, have not the staying power of a lily in a cottage garden. -- Reginald Farrer

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

September 29, 2009

"Elmo liiiike Michelle"

Sesame Street

Photo credit: Sesame Street

First Lady Michelle Obama will appear on the season-opening episode of Sesame Street to teach the furry characters how to plant a vegetable garden.

The show's 40th season debuts Nov. 10, with Mrs. Obama teaching the characters the value of eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

"All these seeds need to grow are sun, soil and water. If you eat these healthy foods, you're going to grow up to be big and strong, like me," Obama says on the show.

"I know you're going to like these vegetables, because in addition to being healthy, they really taste great!"

Rumor has it that Cookie Monster is noticeably absent from the show.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: White House Kitchen Garden

Zonker Harris, gardener

Zonker Harris, Garry Trudeau's slacker extrordinaire in Doonesbury, is planting bulbs this week.

(Here's how things started yesterday. Click forward to read today's strip.)

Meet you in the funny pages. Or in the garden.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden humor

Leaf-raking made easy

Photo courtesy of Ames True Temper

New from Ames True Temper and just in time for leaf-raking season...the Rake 'n Go.

This was one of the "cool tools" I spotted at the exhibition of new products at the Garden Writers Association convention in Raleigh.

So light you can hang it from a tab on the handle on a hook in your garage, you simply flip it open, rake in the leaves and wheel it where you need it to go. Kick stand and wheel locks keep it securely stationed at the perfect angle for easy filling.

It holds about three 39-gallon leaf bags and costs about $55 and is available at Sam's Club.

It also looks ideal for collecting garden debris during the spring and fall, when clean-up is so daunting.

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

Speeaking of the garden

Speaking of the Garden

God Almighty first planted a garden and indeed it is the purest of all human pleasures. -- Francis Bacon.

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

September 28, 2009

Homeward bound

Garden Variety faithful!

Flying home from Raleigh today with about 60 blog posts in my notebook! Not to mention slide shows of garden tours.

I will begin to roll them out later today.

Oh. And the 15 plants I am flying home with? Dramamine all around, kids.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden travel

September 25, 2009

Be right back

Hey there, Garden Variety readers....

I am attending a Garden Writers Association convention in Raleigh, N.C., and I have spent the last couple of days on a bus to a garden, on a bus on my way back from a garden, or sitting in a classroom learning about gardens and, not coincidentally, the Internet.

Not a whole lot of time for blogging.

I have an absolute TON of information to share with you, and I will start to do that when I return to Maryland on Monday afternoon.

Be patient. There is really, really good stuff coming.

Susan

PS. Did you see my column in The Baltimore Sun Thursday? The short version is, it doesn't look like the tomato blight that devastated crops this year is a strain that will winter over.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden travel

September 24, 2009

Garden Writers update

Lowell Catlett Good news from the Garden Writers convention in Raleigh, N.C.:

Great barbecue at The Pit last night.

No, wait. That's not it.

There are 655 in attendance. Second highest in 61 years.

I guess the recession IS over.

Keynote this morning was by Dr. Lowell Catlett and it was one of the funniest and yet most insightful and inspirational talks I have ever heard. And I am really jaded.

His point? Our grandparents thought paved roads were a miracle that made their lives so much easier. Our children have grown up with flowers planted in medians strips on those highways.

And they will never allow them to be taken out. The world goes forward, not backward, and sometimes that is a very good thing.

Humans cannot have healthy lives if they are separated from plants and animals. Gardeners and green people have set a new standard and the world will never go back.

This afternoon?

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University.

And you are, where?

Sorry. That was mean.

Duke Gardens

Duke Garden photo credit: John K. Wyman

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden travel

September 23, 2009

Hello from Raleigh!

Garden Writers of America

Photo courtesy of Garden Writers Association

Your intrepid Garden Variety reporter is in Raleigh, N.C., this weekend for the Garden Writers Association convention.

Lots of workshops, tours, tips and new tools and plants.

I will be blogging as best I can from here -- the days are pretty jammed packed -- and I will bring back lots of information.

So stay tuned!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden travel

September 22, 2009

One million trees

tree planting

File photo

The American Bar Association has pledged to plant one million trees across the United States in the next five years, and the first ones will go in the ground around Baltimore's Franklin Square Elementary School in West Baltimore.

Tuesday between 9 a.m. and noon, students, lawyers and voluntters will plant 10 to 15 trees at the Franklin Square schoolyard, surrounding streets and nearby park, as well as weed, mulch and install flowering bed as part if a campaign to beautify the Lexington Street neighborhood

The ABA is working partnership with the Alliance for Community Trees and the Parks & People Foundation.

The tree planting event will also serve as the launch for NeighborWoods Month, a community service campaign to heighten awareness about the value of trees in cities all around the nation.

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

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

I do some of my best thinking while pulling weeds. -- Martha Smith

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

September 21, 2009

Hope floats

Echinecea Mac 'n' Cheese Went shopping this weekend. Bought plants.

It takes a certain amount of courage to buy perennials at this time of year, especially when they are marked 50 percent off because they look dead.

You have to believe that they will have time to collect themselves before the winter sets in, and will emerge with renewed strength next spring.

I sat with a catalog in the warm sun, and made a list of the plants I wanted for a bed I am re-designing and another that I am rethinking.

I went to Bru-Mar nurseries in Annapolis, looking for some bargains, and I found a few. Well, more than a few. And some weren't even on sale.

I found the Echinacea "Mac 'n Cheese" that I had been searching for all summer, and a Nepeta "Blue Dragon"

I found an orange agastache, a coreopsis "Jethro Tull" and a gaillardia "Frenzy," which wasn't what I wanted but was close enough.

I got a couple of cinnamon ferns and a couple of very pale yellow and apricot columbines for my shade garden, but I am waiting for the heuchera I want, "Stoplight," to go on sale.

I also found a new rudbeckia variety I am going to try..."Goldstrum" succumbed to the mildew this year after a three-year battle.

Now, to get them into the ground.

She who dies with the most plants, wins.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Flowers

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

I want to be a lawn -- Greta Garbo (courtesy of W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman)

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

September 20, 2009

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

Irish gardens beat all for horror. With 19 gardeners, Lord Talbot of Malahide has produced an affair exactly like a surburban golf course. -- Nancy Mitford

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

September 19, 2009

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

Everyone had a Japanese maple, althought after Pearl Harbor, most of these were patriotically poisoned, ringbarked and extirpated. -- Barry Humpries

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

September 18, 2009

First Lady at the farmers' market

White House Farmer's Market

Photo credit: Associated Press

Here is the "pool report" on Michelle Obama's visit to the new farmers' market in Washington Thursday. It has more detail that we were able to provide Thursday evening.

(Pool reports are written by a single, regular, reporter and distributed to all the news media. They use pool reporters when they can't handle a crowd. This was was written by Charles Hurt, Washington Bureau Chief of the New York Post. FLOTUS, of course, is short for First Lady of the United States.)

For a completely different and somewhat more partisan take on the first lady's visit, see Dana Milbank's report in Friday's Washington Post.

"In a steady light drizzle, FLOTUS arrived a little after 3 p.m. on Vermont Avenue at the northeast corner of Lafayette Park in front of the Veterans Affairs building.

A couple dozen produce stands were set up with fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk and cheese raised on mainly Virginia and Maryland farms.

Several hundred ecstatic FLOTUS fans gathered in the street amid the stands, including some of the vendors and other organic enthusiasts.

As part of her ongoing effort to focus on healthy eating, FLOTUS was there to celebrate the opening of the FRESHFARM farmer's market, aimed at selling healthy locally grown produce to people who work in the neighborhood.

"I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables," she said to wild cheers.
Other speakers included USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.

During the event, several tasty looking mallards flew overhead but no one noted their potential as an excellent and healthy food source.

Afterwards, FLOTUS made her way along the bike rack barriers to the tunes of -- what else? -- U2.

Someone placed a small lei of flowers around her neck. It appeared to be made of marigolds.

Then she spent a few minutes perusing two of the produce stands.
A certified member of the Eastern liberal elite media reported that, in fact, arugala was available for sale. But as your pooler hasn't the faintest idea what arugala looks like, it could not be determined if she placed any into her straw basket.

The White House later reported that the First Lady picked up some black kale, eggs, cherry tomatoes, mixed hot peppers, pears, fingerling potatoes, cheese and chocolate milk."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden news

Fall colors

I don't know about you, but my garden always looks better in the spring - and it isn't just the season.

The energy I bring to my garden after the dormancy of winter means that I am choosing and planting things that are in bloom in the spring and early summer -- never thinking that in August, September and October there will be nothing to look at.

I am determined to do better, but I will need some help.

David Salman, chief horticulturist for High Country Gardens, a catalog that features the kind of drought tolerant plants that would do well in the (usually) dry falls of the Mid-Atlantic, is a big fan of pairing perennials with similar bloom times, but shockingly different bloom colors: purple and yellow or orange and lavender.

Here are some of his favorite pairings:

Solidago sp. Wichita Mountains with Aster
Solidago ‘Fireworks’ with Salvia pitcheri ‘Grandiflora’
Agastache ‘Ava’ with Sorghasturm nutans ‘Llano’
Agastache Desert Sunrise™ with Zauschneria arizonica
Agastache Desert Sunrise™ with Perovskia atriplicifolia
Chamaebatiera millifolium with Caryopteris clandonensis
Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ with Origanum ‘Rotkugel’
Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ with Saponaria lempergii
Zauschneria garrettii Orange Carpet™ w/ Echinacea purpurea and others

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

Recipes for fall containers

autumn containers It's about time to dump the geraniums and the vinca and the tired zinnias in your containers and replace them with plants that will get you through the fall -- and look like fall, too.

I am never very good at designing container combinations, so I do the next best thing.

I steal ideas I like.

Garden Design magazine has several worth stealing in this month's issue. The designs are unusual, but still simple, and a list of plants is provided. The editors have also rated the difficulty of the design and the size of the containers needed.

Take a look and let me know which ones you are going to steal!

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

Garden chores

fall leaf North Country Maturing Gardener, a garden blogger and master gardener in New Hampshire, published her list of garden chores for September and I thought I'd share a few of them.

Not like any of us need help thinking of what to do in the garden as fall drifts into winter.....

She suggests fertilizing shrubs and perennials to help them through the winter. Bulbs, too, scattering 5-10-20 on the ground above them. (If you can remember where they are.)

Stop pruning shrubs because that encourages new growth, which will probably be bitten by frost.

Time to divide daylilies, irises, hostas and peonies before the soil gets too cold. It gives the roots time to settle in.

Stop picking roses and leave the hips. It lets the plants know it is time to harden off for winter.

Dig up summer-flowering bulbs: glads, dahlia, begonias and tuberoses.

She also suggests that we remove the blooms from tomato plants. That will allow the plant to finish off the fruit that is already in place.

It's also time to plant bulbs and seed or overseed the grass.

Remember that North Country Maturing Gardener is in New Hampshire. She is much closer to winter than we are, so you have some time to get these things done. Just don't procrastinate too long. Whatever you get done this fall is one less thing you will have to do next spring.

Photo credit: Flickr/Merete

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Weekend Chores

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

I want death to find me planting my cabbages -- Montaigne

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

September 17, 2009

First lady shops new farmers' market

White House Farmer's market

Photo credit: Associated Press

First lady Michelle Obama bought cheese and chocolate milk at the launch of a new farmers' market blocks from the White House Thursday afternoon.

"I've never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said to a crowd of about 300 shoppers.

Before shopping, Mrs. Obama spoke about the importance of healthy eating, which she said gives people the energy to get through the day, according to the Associated Press.

Mrs. Obama encouraged Americans to get to know the people who grow their food. And she said that farmers markets are especially important in neighborhoods where access to healthy options are limited.

"A farmers market is not just about vegetables, it's about community," Mrs. Obama said.

It was a perfect forum for the first lady, who has been speaking out for healthy eating since planting the White House vegetable garden in the spring.

Behind her in the picture above is long-time Obama chef and White House assistant executive chef Sam Kass, who made a presentation to a couple of neighborhood groups to get their support for the market. Kass has been Mrs. Obama's right-hand man in her healthy eating initiative.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden

Garden events

Valley View Farms Events:

Autumn Container Combos
Saturday, 9:00 am
Join the greenhouse and perennial staff as they demonstrate their own styles of fall container combos. Suzanne, Dotty, Jan, Pat, Cindi and Nancy will each demonstrate their individual techniques for creating late season container gardens.

Daffodils!
Saturday, 10:00 am
Julie Minch, president of the Maryland Daffodil Society, will present gardening enthusiasts with tips and information for growing beautiful daffodils in our area. Julie is also a judge for The American Daffodil Society. Learn to grow award-winning plants.

Herring Run Nursery Native Plant Sale

Saturday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Choose from a selection of affordable native perennials, shrubs and trees. Experts will help you select the right plants for your yard’s condition. Sales benefit the non-profit Herring Run Watershed Association. (Take $10 off any tree with a Growing Home coupon and $25 on trees over $50 with Marylanders Plant Trees coupon.)

National Arboretum Events:

Power Plants Exhibit
June 1-October 15, 8:00am-5:00pm
Adjacent to the National Herb Garden

Walk through Power Plants to discover the wide variety of plants that offer alternative energy possibilities. This garden exhibit showcases living plants and provides educational information about how they can serve as sustainable agriculture-based energy sources. A scavenger hunt activity available at the information desk in the administration building will help school-aged children explore the exhibit. Free. No registration required.

Living Garden Catalog Exhibit and Tour
Tour: Saturday, 9:00 am-10:00 am
Administration Building Lobby and Gardens

Explore the latest trends in ornamental gardening in this unique exhibit of what’s hot in horticulture. Begin inside where a photo gallery introduces you to some of the nursery industry’s most intriguing new plants. Pick up a checklist to mark your favorites, and then use it outside in the courtyard gardens to find the plants in designed beds. Don’t wait for the catalogs to arrive in the winter - discover what surprising new flower colors and tempting new forms will be available while they’re in their full glory in the garden! Free.

join the curator of the exhibit, Brad Evans, for a tour of the exhibit. He will share detailed information about the culture and characteristics of the plants on display and answer your questions. Meet in the lobby. Free, however registration is required by mail or phone. Call 202-245-4521 or click here for mail-in registration.

Sogetsu Ikebana Exhibit
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00am-4:00pm
Demonstration: Sunday, September 20, 1:00pm-2:30pm
National Bonsai & Penjing Museum
Special Exhibits Wing

Members of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area Sogetsu Branch fill the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s International Pavilion and Special Exhibits Wing with dramatic arrangements in this modern style of Japanese flower arranging. Sogetsu promotes an ikebana of no limits in which designers use plant materials of any type to create sculptural compositions. Watch master teachers demonstrate their techniques as they create a series of basic and free style arrangements during the drop-in session on Sunday, September 20 from 1:00pm to 2:30pm. Free. No registration required.

Using and Preserving Lemon Herbs Demonstration
Under the Arbor Series
Saturday, 1:00pm-4:00pm
National Herb Garden

Come into the herb garden and learn new ways to use and preserve your lemon-scented herbs. Informal, drop-in demonstrations will provide information on the great variety of uses for these wonderfully fragrant and very useful herbs including lemon grass, lemon verbena, lemon thyme, lemon balm, and others. Presented by members of the South Jersey Unit of the Herb Society of America. The Under the Arbor Series provides free public presentations on herb-related topics “under the arbor” in the National Herb Garden. Free. No registration required

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden events

Dorm room gardening

Photo courtesy of Matt Lehman

In my garden column in The Baltimore Sun today, I talk with Matt Lehman, a 19-year-old college sophomore who carried a garden with him when he return to college in Kansas.

Matt's family owns Lehman's, an Ohio, hardware story and catalog outlet that caters to Amish and others who do not have or use electricity.

After working in the family store all summer - and contracting a bit of cabin fever - Matt said he found refuge working outdoors in his mother's garden when his shift was over.

Attracted to Mel Bartholomew's book on square-foot gardening, he decided to build his own (1 foot X 3 feet), cart it back to college, and place it under his dorm window. With the help of some extra lighting, he is growing some fine tomatoes, beans and cukes.

Matt said his little garden gave him the same kind of pleasure working in his mother's had during the summer - something constructive and contemplative to do during down time.

Matt discovered what we all know....gardening can be a refuge.

And a good source of fresh vegetables!

Lehman's

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

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches -- Robert Frost

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

September 16, 2009

Michelle Williams: grieving in the garden

Michelle Williams

Photo of Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger/Associated Press

In an interview in the October edition of Vogue magazine, Michelle Williams talks for the first time about her grief over the loss of Heath Ledger, her ex and the father of daughter Matilda.

Williams owns a house in Brooklyn and one in upstate New York, and she has spent most of her time there, hiding out, healing and trying to find a way to move forward.

She talks in the interview about holding herself together with "a string and a paperclip" and wondering, when her daughter was playing with friends, how she was going to get through the rest of the day.

Here is what she said about the role of gardening in her healing process.

"One [friend] got me gardening in the spring, and that's when it started to turn around. I think it's something about being in nature that made it more possible. I remember being on my hands and knees. The ground was cold and muddy. I pushed back the dead leaves and saw the bright green shoots of spring. Under all this decay something was growing. Caring for the garden reminded me to care for myself."

It is a lesson, sadly, many gardeners have learned.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news

First Lady? First customer?

Photo credit: Associated Press

First Lady Michelle Obama is schedule to attend the opening of Washington's newest farmers' market at 3 p.m. Thursday. It's located just a tomato's-throw from the White House on Vermont Avenue NW.

The President made an off-hand reference about the possibility of a farmers' market near the White House in an interview on The Huffington Post in August, and White House chef Sam Kass seems to have run with the idea, personally making the case to several community groups who were asked to sign off on the project.

Mrs. Obama will use the opening of the market to make her case, again, for healthy eating and access to fresh fruits and vegetables. These are the principles behind her decision to plant her own vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House.

The market will sell fresh fruits and vegetables; locally raised meats, cheeses and fresh baked breads and will be open every Thursday afternoon into October.

No word yet on whether the First Family will reserve a booth to sell their extra tomatoes and zucchini.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

...make no mistake, the weeds will win, nature bats last. -- Robert Michael Pyle

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

September 15, 2009

Jessie's birth tree - revisited

Faithful readers of my gardening column in The Baltimore Sun will remember that my daughter's "birth tree," an October glory maple, died mysteriously after 22 years.

Because Jessie panicked and decided her own mortality was linked to the tree, I replaced it forthwith, with another maple.

I received a stern warning from Mike Dudderar, of Homestead Gardens, who removed the dead tree and planted the new, baby tree, that watering would be my most significant concern. Inadequate watering is the leading cause of death among new trees.

The tree would have to wear a "treegartor" for at least year, and I would have to fill the green, cone-shaped bag every week.

Now I am reading that there is more to this than just a hose. I need to be watching for disease and insects underneath the bag and between the bag and the tree. In addition, I need to make sure the bag is draining properly.

I discovered this while reading a new blog called Garden Professors, brought to my attention by the fun bunch at Garden Rant.

It is written by horticulture professors from the University of Minnesota, Michigan State, Virginia Tech and Washington State, so there is quite a climate zone range of expertise.

This, I think, is the perfect addition to garden blogdom. Certainly there are gardeners writing blogs who are knowledgeable and experienced. But these bloggers are, like, professional professors!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

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

Speaking of the garden

There is nothing more agreeable in a garden than good shade, and without it, a garden is nothing. -- Betty Langley

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

September 14, 2009

Tomato blight. Next year?

late blight

Late blight arrived early this year, damaging tomato and potato crops in 13 states on the East Coast.

Organic gardeners and home gardeners were particularly hard hit, while commercial farms, already applying fungicides, stepped up their applications and survived.

Hundreds of tomato growers pulled plants before they harvested a single tomato, placed them in black plastic bags and in the trash, headed for the landfill. No recycling or composting for these infected plants.

But what about next year? Will the blight return? And is there anything we can do in our gardens now to prevent it?

Good questions, but there are no answers yet, according to Jon Traunfeld of the University of Maryland extension service.

"We don't know what strain we've got," he said of the fungal infection. "If it is the kind we've seen before typically on the Eastern United States, it can't over-winter in the soil. It only lives on plant material and once that plant material dies, it is gone."

The answer is to make sure you clean your gardens of any plant debris so there is no chance the fungus has a place to hide for the winter.

And next spring, grow your own seedlings or buy plants grown locally so that you don't re-introduce the fungus.

But it is possible that the blight, which appears to have spread from the plants purchased and sold by big box stores, might be a variety that can over-winter.

Botany labs at Cornell and in North Carolina are trying to determine that now.

"Even plant pathologists who have been around a long time haven't seen anything like this," said Traunfeld.

"It could be a whole new ball game," said Traunfeld.

Stay tuned here. When the plant doctors have answers, we will report them on Garden Variety.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Garden diseases

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

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

September 13, 2009

Nice people

There are lots of good reasons to work in your garden, but one of the best reasons is ... the people who walk by while you do.

It is hard, in the heat of late summer, when the garden is a mess and the mosquitoes are relentless, to gin up the motivation to spend a day in the garden.

But your neighbors, strangers and passersby can make it worthwhile.

My neighbors Ruth, Patsy, Ginger and Bob are reasons to take a break, stand in the shade and talk. One or more of them is always outdoors, and they always give me an excuse to talk about the other subject of which I am so fond...my kids.

But three times in the last couple of weeks, complete strangers, out jogging, walking the dog, the husband or the kids, have stopped by to tell me how much my gardens mean to them.

"Even in winter," the woman jogger stopped to say, breathlessly, "I know I will see something in your garden. I wait for the hellebores."

I am embarrassed and I laugh and say that if they like my garden so much, they are welcome to stop and help me with my chores. Then I thank them and tell them that their words will keep me going.

Gardening isn't about snipping roses and placing them gently in a basket on your arm. Gardening is hard, sweaty, dirty work. And the rewards, especially in late summer, can be few and far between.

Sometimes those rewards are walking up the street to see you, and to saw something nice about your gardens.

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

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 12, 2009

Help wanted, help hired

Garden Variety

After weeks of neglect caused by vacation and rainy weather, I reentered the world of my garden and was dismayed.

Everything was eaten, dead or sick. Insects, mildews and end-of-season blues.

Suddenly, the place that gives me so much joy in May was irritating me in August. I wanted to take a gas can and a pack of matches and start over.

Instead, I do what I often do in late summer. I go around my gardens with my little black-and-white marble composition book and make notes about what needs to be done this fall and what will need to be done in spring.

They are always long lists, but this year the list was not only long, it looked impossibly hard.

I confess I am not as strong as I think I am. And digging out old beds with deep roots, removing shrubs and dividing perennials is harder work every year. I like planting much more.

So I did what some of my garden friend do. I hired a guy.

His name is Luke and he is young and strong and an artist, to boot. He knows his flowers, but he also knows color, shape and design. I trust his eye more than I trust my own.

I had him tear out a bed along the shady side of the house that had been in place for probably 20 years. It was overgrown and out of shape and had a couple of nasty bald spots. He filled it in with Leafgro and I will design and plant it this fall and in the spring.

He also divided and replanted a hosta bed that had become congested and shapeless.

This isn't all that is on my list. Luke will have to come back. And there is plenty left for me to do.

I will do it at my own pace - a little slower every year.

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Categories: Garden humor

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

Yes, in the poor man's garden grows

Far more than herbs and flowers-

Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind,

And joy for weary hours. -- author unknown

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 11, 2009

White House farmers' market

It's a go for a farmers' market near the White House.

The Washington Post is reporting that the appropriate permits have been signed and issued and that White House assistant chef Sam Kass got a couple of community groups on his side with a presentation.

The market will be open Thursday afternoons, beginning Sept. 17, on a section of Vermont Avenue NW just a block from the White House and draw from 17 farms in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

No word on whether Michelle Obama's garden will be one of them.

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden

Garden Events

Homestead Gardens

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron

Saturday, all day, Homestead Gardens, Tomato Festival. There will be music, food, wine sampling, vintage cars, tomato sampling, a tomato beauty contest and a salsa contest. Tickets $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.

Saturday, 9 a.m., Valley View Farms, Indoor Herb Gardening. Learn how to grow your own herbs all year long by starting a windowsill herb garden. Learn about the cultural necessities for growing herbs indoors including light, water, soil and specific herb varieties.

Saturday, 10 a.m., Valley View Farms, Carrie’s September Gardening Tips. Mums, bulbs and pansies are available now for gardens and containers. Overseed the lawn, protect your garden from deer; these subjects and more will be topics of discussion as fall approaches.

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Categories: Garden events

Sunflower season!

"Every year is a good year for sunflowers," said Jon Traunfeld of the University of Maryland extension service, and he was laughing.

He was responding to a question I posed from Garden Variety readers. Several, including Linda Nelson, daughter of Colt great and barbecue purveyor Andy Nelson, wrote to say their sunflowers seemed especially tall this year and the seed heads especially heavy.

"As long as they get the heat they want and the moisture they want, they are happy," Traunfeld said.

Sunflowers are native to the high plains states, where it is hot and dry. They are used to drought conditions. When you get a rainy summer, as we have had here in part of the Mid-Atlantic, sunflowers go crazy.

Even in Hampden, where Laura Durington says her sunflower seem to grow inches every time she looked away.

While Linda Nelson used her father as a measuring stick, Laura used the 6-foot fence in her yard. She thinks her flower is more than 15 feet tall.

She can thank the rain, not the rat poop, which was one of her theories about why a sunflower grew so large in the city.

"It is a big plant and it needs lots of moisture," said Traunfeld. "But their production can really increase with good rainfall."

sunflower

Photos courtesy of Matt Durington and Linda Nelson

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Categories: Flowers

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

Queer things happen in the garden in May. Little faces forgotten appear, and plants thought to be dead suddenly wave a green hand to confound you. -- W E Johns

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 10, 2009

White House Farmer's Market?

We here at Garden Variety floated this idea a few weeks back, and it looks like somebody has picked up on it.

There is movement afoot to open a farmer's market very near the White House, where First Lady Michelle Obama is growing plenty of her own vegetables.

The Washington Post is reporting that a permit request has been filed, and it has the support of the White House chefs. No one is saying for sure that Mrs. Obama is involved, but they are hinting that the idea has her support.

The market would be located on a little-used part of Vermont Avenue NW, about a block from the White House, the Post reports.

During an interview with the Huffington Post in August, the President hinted at the possibility of such a farmer's market while talking about the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches.

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden

More on the cost of your vegetable garden

I am writing about whether our vegetable gardens paid for themselves this year and Gary, from Ample Harvest, suggests that we consult his Web site for food pantries to which we could donate our garden bounty.

I looked on the site for some local food pantries for my Baltimore readers. Our Daily Bread, in downtown Baltimore, was the only one close, though there are a number in D.C.

Our Daily Bread has benefited mightily from the produce harvested from the gardens around City Hall, planted for the first time this year.

Gary, if you are listening, it would be great if you could find us some more food pantries or homeless shelters or soup kitchen that could use our extras vegetables.

And, Garden Variety readers, you can add a pantry to the site as well.

After all, how much zucchini bread can a person eat?

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Categories: Vegetable gardening

Vegetable gardening: Is it worth it?

Equipment, supplies and seeds? $940

Sixty-six pounds of home-grown produce: $190.

First year of vegetable gardening? Priceless.

You do the math, and then read Michael Tortorello's essay in The New York Times.

He makes the case that a lot of naysayers were making in the spring: That raising your own vegetables, especially the first time you do it, is going to cost a lot more than it saves.

Numbers don't lie, but what do you think? What reward do you get from gardening - if not monetary.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron

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Categories: Vegetable gardening

The Old Farmer's Almanac

What's old about The Old Farmer's Almanac? The farmer or the almanac?

The almanac, for sure. It has been in continuous publication since George Washington was in the White House.

The 2010 edition hit newsstands last week - second Tuesday in September, regular as clockwork.

And it is the usual collection of sun, moon and tide tables and weather predictions, plus a healthy dose of news, information and humor.

Here is a tidbit from this year's edition.

Best ever container garden?

Lay a bag of potting soil flat. Poke a few drainage holes in the top surface. Roll the bag over. Cut a few holes in the new top surface. Insert seedling plants into the holes. Water and fertilized as you would a bed. For best results, set this sack into a wheelbarrow or a child's wagon and move it into and out of the sunlight as needed.
P.S. The almanac predicts a cold winter for Baltimore with snow by Thanksgiving and a dry spring and summer, despite lots of rain in early June.

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Categories: Garden humor

Hummingbird heaven

Garden Variety

Photo credit: William Fox

It is the time of year for hummingbirds, especially the ruby-throated species, to head south, and if you have a feeder you are likely to see clusters of them as they fuel up for the long trip.

Bill Fox of Joppatowne captured these images, and we here at Garden Variety are the beneficiaries.

The birds in this picture were attracted to the trumpet vines in Fox's backyard. A few will winter over in Maryland, but not many. Most will spend the season in Mexico before making their way back, according to Dr. Jerome Jackson, a biology professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Interestingly, you are not likely to see clusters of hummingbirds at your feeder in the spring. That's because the males chase everyone else away. In the fall, everybody is more willing to share, Jackson said.

If you'd like to attract hummingbirds, purchase a specially made feeder - usually made of bright colors -- and fill with a liquid that is one part sugar to four parts water. Boil the water first, dissolve the sugar and refrigerate.

No need to color the nectar. It doesn't help attract the birds and it could be harmful.

The shrubs and plants you choose for your garden will catch the eye of this little beauties, too. They like bee balm, hollyhock, hibiscus, trumpet honeysuckle, clematis, impatiens, phlox and fuchsias, to name just a few.

Thanks, Bill, for sharing.

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Categories: Birds in the garden

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. -- Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 9, 2009

Adkins Arboretum fall native plant sale

The Adkins Arboretum fall native plant sale begins Wednesday in Ridgely, Md., with a preview walk at 1 p.m. Learn how to use natives to add color and habitat to the fall garden. No plants will be for sale, but experts will be available to answer questions.

Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., aboretum members can purchase fall native plants.

The public sale is Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Adkins Arboretum

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Categories: Plant sale

Where do flowers come from?

Susan Reimer

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Carl Zimmer of the New York Times is writing about "the origin of the flower," with apologies to Charles Darwin, author of "The Origin of the Species."

In fact, Zimmer writes, the ancestry of flowers has baffled generations of scientists since Darwin. There was no good reason why the flower survived in the shadow - literally - of much larger shrubs and trees. And the incredible diversity is another mystery.

Here is something of what Zimmer wrote.

Darwin could see for himself how successful flowering plants had become. They make up the majority of living plant species, and they dominate many of the world’s ecosystems, from rain forests to grasslands. They also dominate our farms. Out of flowers come most of the calories humans consume, in the form of foods like corn, rice and wheat. Flowers are also impressive in their sheer diversity of forms and colors, from lush, full-bodied roses to spiderlike orchids to calla lilies shaped like urns.
The fossil record, however, offered Darwin little enlightenment about the early evolution of flowers....
...scientists are [now] finding a wealth of clues in living flowers and their genes. They are teasing apart the recipes encoded in plant DNA for building different kinds of flowers. Their research indicates that flowers evolved into their marvelous diversity in much the same way as [human] eyes and limbs have: through the recycling of old genes for new jobs.

Amazing stuff.

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Categories: Garden news

Speaking of the garden

Garden Variety

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. -- W. E. Johns

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 8, 2009

Happy Birthday, St. Fiacre!

Gwen Bruno writes on Dave's Garden, a particularly helpful Web site for gardeners, about St. Fiacre, patron saint of gardening.

Though it is St. Francis's statue that we often see in gardens, he is actually the protector of the living creatures who venture there, including the squirrels that dig up the bulbs. But I am sure that's just an oversight.

Ms. Bruno writes that St. Fiacre was an Irish monk, whose feast is celebrated in Ireland and France on September 1. (OK, we're a little late here.)

Here is more from her essay.

Born in Ireland in the 7th century, Fiacre was raised in a monastery. During the Dark Ages, monasteries were repositories of learning, and it is here that Fiacre became a skillful user of healing herbs. As he earned fame for his knowledge of plants and healing abilities, disciples flocked to him. Fiacre sought more solitude and left Ireland for France where he established a hermitage in a wooded area near the Marne River. Here Fiacre built an oratory in honor of the Virgin Mary and a hospice where he received strangers. He himself retreated to a solitary cell, living a life of prayer and manual labor in his garden.

The miracle upon which his sainthood is based is this: He asked for more land for gardening and was told that he could have however much he was able to till in a day. Though the exact area of ground is not clear, he did overturn trees and remove rocks and briars to clear the land in a day.

The effort was declared miraculous, as I am sure many gardeners today would agree.

Photo credit: Flickr/ TravelingMermaid

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Categories: Garden inspirations

Speaking of the garden

A profusion of pink roses being ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring. -- William Carlos Williams

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 7, 2009

Speaking of the garden

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 6, 2009

Speaking of the garden

As one grows older one should grow more expert at finding beauty in unexpected places, in deserts and even in towns, in ordinary human faces and among wild weeds. -- C.C.Vyvyan

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 5, 2009

Tool Time: Potlifter

potlifter

Heavy lifting is a big part of gardening, especially when the seasons change. This is a gadget that looks like it can help.

Though it is called a "potlifter," it can lift other heavy objects, too, such as bags, tree root balls, firewood, rocks and whatever else will test your back.

You need a partner, but the flexible noose and straps can make their way around awkwardly shaped objects, with handles that look easy to grip. And it stores in a simple canvas bag.

You can buy a potlifter at Behnke's Nurseries stores in Beltsville and Potomac. You can also order on line at potlifter.com. It costs $24.95.

Photo courtesy of Potlifter

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Categories: Garden tools

Speaking of the garden

I should like to enflame the whole world with my taste for gardening. There is no virtue that I would not attribute to the man who lives to project and execute gardens. Prince De Ligne

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 4, 2009

Garden Party at Wye Hall

Wye Hall

Photos courtesy of the Hammond-Harwood House Association

Historic Wye Hall on Wye Island near Queenstown, Md., is the setting for the annual Hammond-Harwood House Garden Party, Saturday, Sept. 19, from 5 to 8 p.m.

The event will take place on the mansion grounds. Guests will be served a light supper to music by the Shore Strings. A silent auction will be held as well.

Tickets are $125 each, a portion of which is tax deductible and includes a one-year membership in the Hammond-Harwood House Association.

All proceeds from the event are designed for the preservation and conservation of the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, known as an outstanding example of anglo-palladian architecture.

Wye Hall was rebuilt in 1936 as a home for former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and his wife, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore, on the foundation of the country house built by patriot William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Maryland's third governor. The original house built for Paca by White House artchitect James Hoban was destroyed by fire in 1879.

The grounds of the Wye House were designed by landscape architect Jay Graham, who used archeological research to design a site plan overlooking the Wye River.

The grounds include lush, green terraces, intimate gardens, a garden of native plants and a series of meadows that flow into open fields and end in a forest.

It is a rare opportunity to see the house and grounds, now owned by former Freddie Mac chief Leland Brendsel and his wife, Diane. They purchased the 27-acre historic estate in the late 1990s for an estimated $5.1 million and have overseen a multi-million-dollar restoration.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.hammondharwoodhouse.org, over the phone @ 410-263-4683 x10, or at the museum (19 Maryland Ave). The cost is $115 per person for members and $125 per person for non-members (this includes an introductory membership to HHH). $70 per ticket is tax deductible.

Wye Hall gardens

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Categories: Garden events

Speaking of the garden

Flowers seem intended for a solace of ordinary humanity -- John Ruskin

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 3, 2009

Katie O'Malley's vegetable garden: Swiss chard?

Katie O'Malley's vegetable garden

Photo credit: Flickr/Leeks 'n' Bounds

Swiss chard is to garden greens what zucchini is to garden squash. Plant some and you will harvest enough to feed the world. Chard keeps growing even after the lettuces and the spinach are long gone.

But it is incredibly colorful, and the bounty gives heart to the gardener, especially the first-time gardener.

There was Swiss chard aplenty from Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley's vegetable garden this summer. As a matter of fact, it is still producing.

I asked Government House chef Buz Porciello what he did with all that chard, and he gave me this recipe.

Rockfish and Crab with Swiss Chard

Serves six at an 8 oz. portion of fish

3 lbs. rockfish fillets
1 lb. jumbo lump crab meat
3 lbs. rainbow Swiss chard

3 tablespoons minced shallots

8 ounces Amontillado Sherry

1 quart heavy cream

crab base – follow manufacturer’s directions for amount needed.

4 ounces whole grain Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

olive oil

butter (optional)

chives or scallions for garnish

Portion rockfish fillets and set aside. Clean crab meat and set aside. Rough chop the chard, soak in water to remove any dirt or grit that may remain. Remove chard from water, drain in colander and set aside.

Mince the shallots and put in a sauce pot with the sherry and cook on high until the sherry has reduced by half. Add the cream and crab base; stir and bring to a boil until the sauce thickens slightly. Add the Dijon mustard and salt and pepper to taste.

Season the rockfish fillets with salt and pepper then sauté in a pan with olive oil. Cook on each side for 3-5 minutes until done. While the fish is cooking, sauté the chard in a little olive oil or butter with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté until wilted then drain excess liquid as the chard does contain a fair amount of water.

Reheat the sherry Dijon sauce and add the crab meat and stir gently so as not to break up any lumps. Place the cooked chard in the middle of a serving plate, then place the rockfish on top followed by the sherry Dijon crab sauce and garnish with thinly sliced chives or scallions and serve.

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Categories: Vegetable gardening

Fall garden for the state's first lady

Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley, bitten by the gardening bug, has decided to extend the growing season of her first vegetable garden at Government House by planting fall crops.

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Categories: Vegetable gardening

Speaking of the garden

If I'm ever reborn, I want to be a gardener—there's too much to do for one lifetime! -- Karl Foerster

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 2, 2009

My bug, my bad

Garden Variety

Photo credit of Monarch butterfly caterpillar: Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber

I've been writing today about what I thought was a Monarch butterfly caterpillar on my parsley.

At least I thought it was a Monarch butterfly caterpillar.

Maureen posted a comment saying the picture I used was of a Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar.

She might be right. But we'll never know. The caterpillar is gone. And I am pretty sure he didn't fly away in his new state. I am guessing he had help from a bird.

Anyway.

The picture I used was taken by my friend Sarah Kelber at a butterfly garden. I thought the picture I had chosen was of Monarch caterpillar, but if you look at pictures of Swallowtail caterpillars, they have a lot in common. That whole stripe thing goin' on.

Neither the pictures I took of my caterpillar, nor the ones we videotaped in the vegetable garden of Maryland first lady Katie O ‘ Malley are clear enough to say for sure.

But in my reading about these butterflies on Michael Raupp's blog, Bug of the Week, it says Swallowtails really like parsley, dill and, probably, the carrot tops on which we spotted them in the Government House garden. Monarch butterfly caterpillars like Milkweed, from which they draw the stuff that makes them taste so bad to birds.

No way to tell for sure now which butterfly we were seeing in its caterpillar stage.

But they were cute, anyway.

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Categories: Insects

More on Monarchs

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber

Michael Raupp is an entomologist at the University of Maryland and man behind the lively Bug of the Week blog.

Here is what he had to say when a Monarch butterfly appeared in his garden:

One of the true delights of the steamy summer season in Maryland is the return of the monarch butterfly. I saw my first female monarch two weeks ago (in August) sipping nectar from a swamp-milkweed.
Last autumn the grandparents of this beauty survived a dangerous and arduous migration from the eastern United States to their overwintering sites in central Mexico. During the long winter, they bested predators and weather in their highland retreats.
This spring the vagabonds flew several hundred miles from Mexico to the southern United States before finding suitable milkweed plants to serve as food for their young.
The female monarch lays her eggs, usually one per plant, on the undersurface of a leaf. After several days, the egg hatches and the tiny monarch caterpillar begins to consume the nutritious leaves.

Flit on over to Raup's blog to read the rest.

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

Monarch caterpillars in my garden

Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley and I have something in common: Monarch butterfly caterpillars in our gardens.

I stopped by Government House in Annapolis this week to talk to the first lady about her vegetable garden and plans to plant fall crops. (More about that Thursday in my garden column in The Sun.)

Lo and behold, there were three green, white and black striped caterpillars in the carrot tops! Just like the ones that have taken up residence in the pot of parsley by my back door.

Mine are more likely to make it to adulthood than hers are, I fear. Once I noticed them, I sheltered the pot of herbs to keep the birds from spotting dinner. Hers are pretty exposed.

The O'Malley's youngest, Jack, 6, spotted the caterpillars while visiting the garden with master gardener Lisa Winters, and he couldn't wait to show his mom. It was fun to watch the two of them bond over the bugs.

Photo of Jack O'Malley: Baltimore Sun/Leeann Adams
Photo of what is probably NOT a Monarch butterfly caterpillar: Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber

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Categories: Insects

Speaking of the garden

It has been said that vines are to bits of architecture what a dress is to a woman. It may serve to enhance beauty or to cover defects. -- Loring Underwood

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Categories: Garden quotations

September 1, 2009

Bats are our friends

bats

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron

The bottom line on my bat adventures?

I am probably going to install a bat house next spring. Sort of a guesthouse for creatures I have learned to like, although my daughter may want a vote here.

I agree with Molly. Bats have bad PR. Everything I have learned about them is positive -- they eat the mosquitoes that bother us and a host of other insects that plague crops. And they are no more likely to carry rabies to humans than any other wild creature, such as racoons or foxes. Probably less so.

It is just that they aren't cute. And there is that whole vampire thing going on.

And Molly is right about the "white nose syndrome" as well. It is a deadly fungus that has not shown up in Maryland yet - in part because Maryland does not have a "bat-worthy" system of caves, and most of Maryland's bats go to West Virginia or southern Pennsylvania to hibernate for the winter.

How does it kill bats? According to Dana Limpert, bat ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the fungus irritates the bats' noses, causing them to wake frequently during their winter sleep, using up valuable energy stores.

Thus, when spring comes and the famished bats emerge to begin eating the not-very-plentiful-yet insect population, they quickly succumb to fatigue or disease and die.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden news

Bats? You always suspected she was

rabies

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Christopher T. Assaf

Yesterday in Garden Variety, I began to tell my tale of the bats.

Several dozen of them had taken up residence in the nooks and crannies of my house. My siding, my deck and my gardens were streaked with their calling cards -- guano.

It took several weeks and a lot of money to humanely "exclude" the bats from my house, where they had spooked my daughter with their nighttime scritching and scratching in the attic above her bedroom and on the roofline just outside her window.

But the bats had never found their way into the living area of the house.

Here is the rest of the story....

Flash forwards a couple of years and Jessie is out of college, employed and ready to move into a house with a bunch of her girlfriends. It had a pool and a deck with a grill ... but I digress.

One night, Jessie wakes and finds a bat in her room. Much shrieking later, a roommate's friend pretty much beats the bat to death with a broom, leaving not a whole lot of bat brain material to be tested for rabies by the Anne Arundel County Health Department.

The tests, we would learn to our dismay, would be inconclusive.

And Jessie could not say for certain whether she had been bitten....

Bats don't exactly have jaws of steel. Just little tiny teeth for snapping up mosquitoes in flight.

I would learn to my dismay that known cases of human rabies in the United States had been bat-related, and the victims could not say for certain whether they had been bitten.

I was in the middle of a Really Big News Story here at The Baltimore Sun when the call came from Jessie. The hysterical call. "Mom, what do you know about rabies? Do I have to get the shots?"

At this point, I knew nothing about the bat, the boyfriend or the broom. I didn't know what we were talking about. But I grabbed a few details and hung up.

I immediately "badged" my way to the top of the Maryland state Department of Health. It is one of the benefits of being a reporter. That, and I know Fran Phillips, the deputy director. Our kids played soccer together.

Anyway, the state's chief vet, Katherine Feldman, gave me a detailed course in bats and rabies. Jessie would have to get the shots, even if there was no proof that the bat was rabid or that it had bitten her.

"Rabies is 100 percent fatal if not treated," she said.

The decision was made.

I let Jessie know and went back to working on my Really Big News Story for The Sun. But I took a moment to say to no one in particular....

"How come I'm the one who gets the rabies phone call? How come the dad only gets the call when she wants a case of vitamin water from Sam's Club?"

Jessie went to the emergency room to have the shots. Four of them that first time, based on weight. She hand-carried the rest of the serum to her doctor for shots at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days.

She says they were not very painful (they are no longer administered in the stomach). She just felt a little sore and maybe a little queasy.

Coupla lessons here.

If you wake up with a bat in your room, try to catch it. Or at least don't beat it into pulp so the rabies test can be conclusive.

Assume you were bitten. There is no upside to assuming you were not. If the bat is rabid, get the shots. No discussion.

The shots aren't that bad, but they are hugely expensive.

And, finally, the mother always gets the rabies phone calls. It's what a mother does.

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Categories: Garden news

Speaking of the garden

I haven't much time to be fond of anything . . . But when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times . . . the roses get it. -- (William) Wilkie Collins

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Categories: Garden quotations

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