Talk about a collaborative effort.

Grocery Gardening, a new book that takes you from the seed packets to the canning jars, was written by four women who have only ever met on Twitter.

But they pooled their knowledge of gardening and cooking and, in 60 days, pulled together this remarkably complete book - from pest control to preserving.

They used their own social networks - blogs, tweets and Facebook pages - to gather the best information from others and now, presumeably, they will be able to sell the book to their combined 50,000 tweets, followers and friends!

Not only can you buy this book, you can interact with its authors, too.

Jean Ann Van Krevelen was the brains behind this project. She is a social media queen among garden and food writers, and she talked the publishers at Cool Springs Press into the idea.

She enlisted the help of Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley (from Calvert County in Maryland) and Teresa O'Connor, who in turn reached out to others in the growing network of gardeners and foodies.

The book covers 25 herbs, fruits and vegetables and there are growing instructions, common pests and diseases, nutritional information, recipes and preserving information - plus fun facts, including the fact that rhubarb is so acidic that it reacts with baking soda in recipes, making the results that much more light and fluffy.

To complete the whole social network loop, Grocery Gardening has its own Web site, where you can see whose recipes made the final cut and read more about the process. You can also find the blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter names of the authors.

And what is really cool? I, like, hang with these guys on Twitter and Facebook. We, um, you know, chat and I feel like I know they are, like, my buds!

Garden Variety readers! I have seen the future of publishing, and this is it!

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

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

"Yes, sir. Your table will be ready shortly. Perhaps you and your friends would like to have a drink at the bar?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden photography
        

Just in time for spring clean-up: the Lawn Bagg.

I found this over-sized tote bag on display at the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show in Baltimore earlier this month, and it seems just the ticket.

Though the bags come in a variety of sizes from lunch bag on up, this one holds one cubic yard (27 cubic feet) of debris and sells for about $40. It can stand up by itself while you're filling it. And when not in use, it folds to about the size of a folded bed sheet.

The bag is made of woven recycled plastic and it is puncture resistent. Unlike a tarp that could be used for gathering yard waste, this has handles. It can carry as much debris as you can drag to the curb or the compost pile.

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

The garden seminar season is underway, even if the gardening season hasn't started yet. 

At Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville this weekend:

Saturday, 10 a.m., Gene’s Tips: common problems and pests. Gene Sumi teaches how to learn from other gardeners’ mistakes to catch disease and pests before they become a problem. Fee: $5

Saturday, noon, Caring for fruit trees and ornamentals. As the mainstay of your garden, prudent tree care is a must. Homestead takes you through the basics of maintaining their health. Fee: $5.

Saturday, 2 p.m., Styling your bonsai. Learn how to tell a story through stylizing your bonsai tree from Martha Meehan, owner of Martha’s Miniatures. Fee: $5

Sunday, noon and 2 p.m., Herb wreath. Learn to create a beautiful and functional herb wreath that will look stunning in any kitchen. You will take your fresh-herb wreath home to dry. Bring your scissors. Fee: $30

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

If you have iTunes on your computer, simply choose iTunesU from the menu, choose the University of Maryland from among the colleges and universities and the College of Agriculture from among the Maryland departments.

There you will find the same videos that are available at the HGIC Web site, including videos about pruning, snakes and turtles. 

From among the Grow it, Eat it videos, you will find video information on late blight on tomaotes, how to do a soil test and how to plant a "lasagna" garden. There are 39 videos in all, many of which are also available on YouTube.

Maryland isn't the only college or university with gardening videos on iTunesU. Clemson's informational videos are there, too.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gardening videos
        

We've been talking a lot about vegetable gardening here on Garden Variety and in my garden columns in The Baltimore Sun, and there is a lot of information to absorb and remember!

Here's something that can help.

Isabel Hardman, who writes the United Kingdom blog, Fennel and Fern, "the stylish gardening blog," has created a series of 27 lovely postcards that contain the growing information you need for the vegetable pictured on the card - planting depth, when to sow and feed, problems, and when to harvest.

You can visit her blog and download the information for free, or you can order the shiny, colorful double-sided cards. They cost 95p each.

What's that in dollars?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

When you start your vegetable garden indoors from seed, the first leaves you see aren't actually leaves. They are a food source for the seedling.

True leaves will come next, and when they do, it is your cue to start fertilizing the seedlings once a week with a half dose for three or four weeks. (It is best to use an organic fertilizer. And seaweed- and kelp-based fertilizers seem to have a wonderful effect on seedlings.)

During this time, your seedlings will need a lot of attention: Water them regularly and evenly, but don't allow the germination mix to get soggy. The humidity underneath the plastic wrap or plastic dome has to be just right -- and there needs to be air circulation -- or mildews and molds and fungus will develop. You might need a small fan.

You will want to transplant your seedlings into larger pots, with a mix of potting soil and perhaps a little garden soil, when they have three or four sets of leaves. Don't wait too long, or you might damage the seedling in the process.

Peat pots or CowPots or newspaper pots are ideal for the transplanted seedling because you plant the whole business in the garden when it is time, protecting the delicate roots.

Two or three weeks before it is time to transplant the seedlings to the garden, expose them to the sun, wind and cold of the outdoors a little more each day.

When it is time to put your plants in the garden, choose a mild and overcast day with little wind. You might consider one more pampering move: a row cover to protect these tender plants for a few more weeks.

Above all, rely on the advice and directions on the seed packets. They are the best source of information for starting your vegetable garden from seed!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Gardening feels a lot like Christmas.

You no sooner finish with it than it is time to do it all over again.

I spent an unseasonably warm day in the garden last week, picking up months of debris, raking up last fall's leaves and cutting back last season's dead stock. I felt like I had a head start on my spring chores.

And then a windstorm hit.

Photo credit: Michael Weishan/Old House, Old Garden

According to my colleague Frank Roylance, who blogs at Maryland Weather, winds gusted up to 40 miles an hour on Monday, and about three-quarters of an inch ofo rain fell in my area of Anne Arundel County.

Leaves returned to my yard from parts unknown. And my neighor's two Linden trees shed their small branches like dogs shedding fur: All over the place.

It was a particularly frustrating example of the circular nature of gardening. You do it, and then you have to do it again. Like laundry or the dishes in the sink, nothing in the garden stays done.

The good news is, nothing really big and heavy fell on my fence, my car or my house.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden inspirations
        

Here on Garden Variety, and in my gardening column in The Baltimore Sun, I have been trying to offer advice to the rookie vegetable gardener -- someone who missed the bandwagon last season and wants to jump on it this season.

In my enthusiasm, I offered a list of a dozen catalogs to consult for all sorts of exotic veggies, and readers who follow Garden Variety on its Facebook fan page called me out on it. Careful, they said, or you will overwhelm a beginner.

And I think they are right.

The catalogs are beautiful and full of heirloom, rare and new-fangled vegetables, but they can easily cause a new vegetable gardener to give up. There is just too much information and too many choices.

Not only that, but the shipping and handling charges on several orders from different catalogs would put a dent in a beginner's budget.

Garden Variety readers suggest instead that new vegetable gardeners go to their local independent garden center, have a conversation with one of the experts on staff and then purchase some seed packets there.

There are other advantages as well:

A local garden center expert is going to know what will do well in your area; you will be keeping your dollars in the community; and it will allow you to purchase, under an expert's guidance, the other garden materials you might need. 

It is even possible your local garden center has some of those heirloom seeds!

Thank you to all my readers, who are the best source of information!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

Catherine Zeta-Jones, hubby Michael Douglas and their two young children have recently relocated from Bermuda to New York City while the actress stars in Broadway's "A Little Night Music."

But the transition hasn't been without incident.

Apparently mother and children used the sun-drenched privacy of Bermuda to run around, um, naked in the garden.

During an appearance on the David Letterman show, she said she had to remind herself and the children that that isn't something that plays well in New York City.

"It's really hard to do that in Central Park," she said.

Letterman assured her that, actually, it wasn't that hard to do.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Garden humor
        

As any good garden calendar should, it includes pretty pictures and timely tips. In addition, events and seminars to be held at Greenstreet are listed. And there are coupons for free gifts and plants.

Garden Variety readers, get out your typing fingers. Post a comment on any of the posts on the blog, and I will randomly select four of you to receive a calendar.

The fifth one is for me!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Gardening
        

Washington Gardener magazine is hosting its fifth annual seed exchange on Saturday, and this year it comes to Maryland, too.

The seed exchange will be held from 12:30 to 4 p.m. in two locations - Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, and Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA -- and there is still time to register.

The deadline for mail-in registration forms to be received is Thursday and attendance is limited to 100 at each site.

In addition to the seed exchange, there will be featured speakers.

Barb Melera of D. Landreth Seeds will talk about the essentials of container gardening at Brookside. And Michael Twitt will talk about the research he did on African-American foodways for the Landreth seed collection.

Cindy Brown of Green Spring will talk about when to start edible seeds, and Janet Draper from the Smithsonian will talk about growing annuals from seed.

Registration is $15. Bring your extra seeds. Bring gently used gardening books and catalogs to exchange, too.

By the way, the last Saturday in January is designated National Seed Swap Day

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

"Clerodendrum Quadriloculare."

Commonly known as “Starburst” and part of the Verbenaceae family, this plant will bring a dazzle of blooming fireworks to any garden.

Located in the Conservatory's original Palm House, it is a true attention grabber.

Native to the Philippines, the Clerodendrum naturally grows as a bush or shrub but can be pruned to grow into a tree up to 12 feet high.

Blooms average 6 to 10 inches across in a display of white and pink flowers. The foliage is just as striking, with leaves of dark green and underlying dark purple.

But it can be quite invasive and is suitable to containers. Does best grown in zones 9, 10, and 11 but can be brought indoors to avoid freezing temperatures.

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

The Philadelphia Flower show is just a month away, a sure sign that spring is just around the corner.

The grand-daddy of them all, the flower show has added "International" to its title this year and, fittingly, the theme is "Passport to the World." 

A 28-foot-high hot-air balloon, covered with more than 79,000 dried flowers, will greet visitors to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It will tower over the Explorer's Garden, a display of exotic plants that recall the flower show's original purpose: to highlight new plants.

And that's only the beginning. There is food, drink, fashion, entertainment, garden seminars and some of the best shopping anywhere.

Garden Variety will be describing plans for the flower show over the next month, culminating in a preview of the show before it officially opens on Sunday Feb. 28. The show will continue through Sunday, March 7.

Tickets are $23 for adults, $18 for students and $13 for children ages 2 to 16. They can be purchased in advance on line, where there is more logistical information about the show.

In addition, there are bus trips from the Baltimore-Washington area and Garden Variety will help you find out about them.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Flower Shows
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Rookie vegetable gardeners have been reading my tips in The Baltimore Sun for the last couple of weeks, and I am hearing from some that 2009 made for a disappointing start for this new endeavor.

There were blossoms, they write, but they never matured into fruit. And they wondered if it was because the bees were MIA.

The bee crisis is real, and it is frightening. The colonies are inexplicably "collapsing," and bees are disappearing. Since something like 80 percent of our food crop requires pollination, we are lost without bees.

Ken Point, who blogs from Central Pennsylvania, attended winter garden meetings in that state and reports on Veggie Gardening Tips that the focus was on pollinators.

Here's some of what he learned about bees.

• Bees are our most important pollinator but butterflies play an important role in maintaining genetic diversity because of the way that they flutter here and there spreading pollen to individual plants in scattered areas.
• There are native pollinators such as squash bees that will visit a single family of plants. Solitary squash bees pollinate and feed on pumpkin, gourds, and squash flowers and are much more efficient with them than honeybees.
• Bumblebees generate an electrical charge as they travel that attracts and causes pollen to jump onto them as they pass through flowers. Bees are hairy in comparison to wasps and that hair is an asset in the pollination process.
• Native plants are four times more attractive to native bees. Hybrid plants are even less attractive to native bees. Plant flowers in groups or drifts to attract native bees and plan for a succession of blooms throughout the season to provide for them. Native bees also need nesting areas, access to water, and sheltered sites to overwinter.
• Pussy Willow and Crocus are two plants that can produce pollen early in the season when native bees have limited supplies of good pollen sources.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Insects
        

Gardeners were disappointed and angry in July when Scotts Miracle-Gro decided to close the 56 Smith & Hawken stores it had purchased and liquidate the inventory.

But Target has now acquired the upscale gardening brand, along with Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis - in what looks like a move to take on the Home Depot/Martha Stewart partnership - just in time for those spring outdoor living purchases.

It makes sense since Target already sold Smith & Hawken outdoor furniture and other decorative products. It appears that Target will sell Smith & Hawken products in its stores rather than re-open the individual stores.

The company was begun by Dave Smith and Paul Hawken in Mill Valley, Calif., in 1979, and quickly established a national reputation for high quality - and pretty high prices. The brand was sold twice in the 1990s before Scotts bought it for $68. million in 2004.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

Spring must be right around the corner because the list of weekend gardening seminars is growing longer!

Here's what's up this weekend in the Baltimore area.

Baltimore Green Forum: Sunday, 4:30 to 6:30. Introduction to Permaculture Design with Karen Stupski and Patty Ceglia. At the Maryland Presbyterian Church, Providence Road, Towson. Free, but a donation to the church is appreciated.

 At Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville:

• Saturday at 10 a.m., Gene’s Tips on Gardening Tools.  Homestead Education Coordinator Gene Sumi shows his picks for the top garden tools. (The ones at right are too old to be among them!)
• Saturday at noon,  Composting.  Dr. Frank Gouin of the University of Maryland, a revered expert in composting, talks about the simple process of transforming  kitchen scraps and yard waste into “black gold”.
• Saturday at 2 p.m.,  Planting for Wildlife.  Master Gardener Lisa Winters shows how to bring nature home by selecting the right plants for the backyard.
• Sunday at noon, Cool Weather Vegetables.  Annuals Manager Kerry Kelley introduces great cool-weather crops, including fresh greens, snap peas, and cauliflower.
• Sunday at 2 p.m., Cold Weather Containers.  Learn how to plant a stunning container for pizzazz in even the bleakest winter landscape.

At Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills:

Saturday, 2 to 2:30 p.m. Meet the creature. No fee.

At Behnke's Garden Center in Beltsville:

Saturday at 1pm.  African Violet Care. Join Sonja Behnke Festerling as she talks about her love of African Violets at the Beltsville location. Learn how to propagate your own African Violets with a hands-on workshop. The cost is just $10.00 and includes an African Violet, plus you will take home three leaf cuttings. Everyone will also receive a $5.00 off coupon on their next purchase. You must register and pay in advance. Call 301-937-1100 or stop in at our Beltsville garden center. Snow Date, Saturday Jan. 30.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

Photo credit: River Hill Garden Center

My neighbor, Ruth, has several gorgeous crepe myrtles in her yard and last year she had them pruned to within an inch of their lives.

I was nervous and so was she.

She told me the arborist explained that crepe myrtles are more like perennials than they are like trees and that they rebound beautiful from a harsh pruning.

And they did!

I have a baby crepe myrtle in a new bed and frankly, I didn't have to nerve to go after it with my pruners despite the good result next door.

Helen Yoest, who blogs at Gardening with Confidence, talks about the pruning of crepe myrtles in the South, were debate rages.

Maryland has so many crepe myrtles that sometimes I think it should replace the Black-eyed Susan as the state flower. Everybody has at least one, I think.

How do you prune yours? Or do you?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

Fern, who writes the garden blog, Life on the Balcony, for apartment and condo-living gardeners, wants us to vote:

Are you going to plant vegetables or flowers this year, or some combination of both?

So far in the poll, vegetables appear to be winning.

Unfortunately, there was no category for me: 100 percent flowers, except for those two tomato plants.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

The National Wildlife Federation says this is  Squirrel Appreciation Day, which leaves lots of gardeners grinding their teeth.

The "day" was started in 2001 by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in North Carolina.

This is what NWF has to say about the little furry-tailed pests:

No matter how you feel about squirrels, they are remarkable creatures. These small mammals are some of the most successfully adapted animals to both fragmented habitat and urban living.

While many may see them as vexing pests that consume vast quantities of bird food and scavenge ridiculous things for nesting materials, take Jan. 21 to look at them in a new light -- as a reminder of the wildlife around us.

What's next, gardeners may ask?

Deer Appreciation Day? Cat that Stalks Birds at My Feeder Appreciation Day? Dog that Digs in My Beds Appreciation Day?

Photo credit: Phil Cole/Getty

Squirrels not only raid our bird feeders and dig up our bulbs, the NWF reports that twice, in 1987 and 1994, squirrels shut down the NASDAQ exchange by getting into the wiring.

Who knows? Squirrels also may be responsible for the dot-com bubble, sub-prime mortgages and excessive Wall Street bonuses...

Posted by Susan Reimer at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Garden news
        

Homestead Gardens, the giant garden center in southern Anne Arundel County, is expanding, opening a location in Severna Park this spring.

Homestead is taking over a building formerly occupied by Boater's World and, before that, Frank's Nursery. It is located at 522 Ritchie Highway, just south of the intersection at Robinson Road.

The new location will be about a third of the size of Homestead's mammoth operation in Davidsonville -- one of the largest independent garden centers in the country -- but it will carry many of the same annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs.

"We've been looking for a second location for some time now and Severna Park was at the top of our list," said Don Riddle, president and CEO of Homstead Gardens.

Severna Park is a fairly well-to-do bedroom community for Washington and Baltimore with old neighborhoods with large yards as well as new construction.

Nevertheless, the expansion comes at a time when tight credit and few new housing starts are taking their toll on the landscaping industry.

"While it is true that the average sale is down," said Riddle, "the customer counts are increasing. People are buying color [annuals] and tropicals and vegetables and they are looking to improve their existing property."

Riddle stopped short of calling the new Homestead location a Gen-Y garden center, but he said he was confident it would "appeal to young people as well as the mature gardener."

The new location, to be called Homestead Gardens-Severna Park, will open in mid-March, with a grand opening celebration the second week in April.

Photo credit: Homestead Gardens/Tim Hamilton

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden news
        

Michael Tortorello, who has been chronicling his novice vegetable gardening adventures for the New York Times, is saving the rest of us a lot of time.

Gardeners understand how overwhelming the catalog season can be, how big our eyes are and how small our gardens are. And how we don't want to spend a gardening season nurturing a tomato that tastes, as Tortorello says, "like Play-Doh."

So he has asked major-league gardeners in different areas of the country for their favorites - and their failures - and he gives us their shopping lists and their favorite sources.

Of interest to Garden Variety readers here in the Mid-Atlantic, Tortorello asked Holly Shimizu, executive director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, for her recommendations. She gardens on a quarter-acre yard in Glen Echo, MD.

Among her favorites is a favorite of mine, Moon vine (Ipmoea alba), which blooms bright white in the evening.

In addition, she, like me, has given up on tomatoes in the ground because of blight.

For the rest of the gardeners and their suggestions, check out Tortorello's article.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

In my garden column in The Baltimore Sun, I am helping rookies jump on the vegetable gardening bandwagon in 2010.

Last week, I talked about siting your vegetable garden for maximum sun, access to water and some protection from wind. And I concluded that a raised bed might be the best idea: it limits the size of your garden, so you don't bite off more than you can mulch; and because you will fill it will bagged compost, you don't have to worry about the quality of your soil.

In today's column, I talk about what you might like to plant in the garden. Not the whole produce aisle -- just what you are likely to eat and cook with, including your favorite herbs. And I talk about some of the sources for vegetable seeds.

To make it easy for you, I am including here the links to some of my favorite seed catalogs. Just click and order.

But control yourself. Nobody needs that many tomato plants.

(Note to the vegetable gardeners out there: What are your go-to catalogs for vegetable seeds?)

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds

D. Landreth Seed Company

Tomato Growers Supply Company

The Cook's Garden

Seed Savers Exchange

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

White Flower Farms

Burpee

Johnny's Selected Seeds

Harris

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: From the catalogs
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

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

Caitlin Flanagan writes for the Atlantic, and I have always considered her a well-spoken contrarian and flame-thrower, an articulate anti-feminist and Neo-Con.

She is so smart about it, it is often hard to argue with her point of view no matter how much you disagree. She is never flat-out offensive, the way, say, Anne Coulter can be.

What does all this have to do with gardening?

In the most recent issue of the magazine, Flanagan is lashing out at school garden programs in her home state of California.

In a review of Thomas McNamee's book "Alice Waters and Chez Panisse," she argues that the foodie icon and education bureaucrats have hijacked the curriculum in the name of teaching kids where food comes from.

It is a lesson, she writes, that immigrant parents might have hoped their children would not have to learn, here in the land of opportunity.

Had this patronizing agenda been put forth in the Jim Crow South by a white man as a way of teaching African-American children about share-cropping, we'd see it for what it is -  "a way of bestowing field work and low expectations on a giant population of students who might become troublesome if the actually got an education."

Flanagan makes the case that when a $50 billion school system is an utter failure at teaching children the basics of literacy, math and citizenship, it really has no business wasting class time teaching them how to garden.

As I often do, I find myself reluctantly seeing Flanagan's point of view, though I also see quite clearly the holes in her arguments.

Recess and gym class don't get any book-learning done, either, but they were a way to siphon off the extra energy of elementary school kids so they could better sit still for a lesson. Both are all but gone from our schools. 

Nobody ever learned the branches of government in driver's ed, either, but it was often the only real instruction high school students got in how not to kill themselves with cars. It is gone, too.

And I don't think you can argue that academic performance in this country is hugely better as a result of not wasting time in recess or driver's ed.

First Lady Michelle Obama has made fresh fruit and vegetables a pillar in her campaign to reduce childhood obesity, and she planted her own garden to bring the point home. She points out, quite rightly, that the diseases associated with obesity are a central cause of our country's outrageous health care costs.

And I don't see a garden patch in the school yard, if it helps a child connect vegetables to a healthier life, as a giant waste of time. Plowing it under might not be the first step I would take in improving education in this country.

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

It was one of those days that fulfills the promise of Mid-Atlantic gardening: a 58-degree day in the middle of January.

There will be more of them before spring comes and stays. It is what keeps gardeners around here sane. That it came on a holiday from work was a double bonus.

The garden at this time of year can be overwhelming. Everything is a mess. Leaves, fallen tree debris, all the plants that you didn't cut back in the fall are limp and grey.

This is when it is important to be a "mindful" gardener. To divide the work into bite-sized pieces; to never look ahead to what is not done; to enjoy the simple pleasure of being in the garden when the calendar says you should be by the fire.

Photo credit: Winter gardening for summer dreams: Susan Reimer

I always start in the same place in my yard: the gardens around the front porch and down the sides of the driveway. They are the nose on the face of my garden, and I always powder it first.

These are the parts of my garden dog-walkers, postmen and my visitors see first and, after all, I do have a reputation to uphold!

And it is where Jeremy and I started first.

You know Jeremy. I have introduced him before. He is my young, strong, very bright neighbor who joins me in the garden to do some of the heavy lifting. He bags all the junk I pull out of the beds, and we talk about current events and such.

Jeremy is also my concession to age and to the fact that my husband's job no longer allows him to be my guy Friday.

So, I spent the day in the garden, focusing only on the few square feet in front of me, not allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the work ahead of me. Happy to be outside, in the weak, winter sun. Delighted to see the daffs poking their heads up, the first blooms on the candytuft!

I was mindfully gardening.

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

Photo credit: MIchael Lemmon

On Mondays, Garden Variety will be letting you know what's blooming at the Howard Peter Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Garden in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park.

This week, it is Pachystachys Coccinea.

Commonly known as the "Cardinal's Guard," it is part of the Acanthaceae family. This tropical shrub grows 3 to 4 feet tall with soft green leaves and is native to northern South America.

The scarlet red tubular inflorescences grow in spikes up to 6 inches long and are very attractive to hummingbirds.

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

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Nope, this isn't a mysterious crop circle.

Baltimore Ravens grounds crew members painted the team logo on the grass at War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall.

Garden Variety wishes the Ravens luck tonight against Indianapolis.

She thinks they are going to need it.

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

Greenstreet Gardens of Lothian, a relative newcomer among garden centers in Maryland, was the surprise regional winner in a contest designed to reward the most innovative garden centers in the country.

The center, owned by Ray Greenstreet, was named to the Revolutionary 100 list by Today's Garden Center as the Northeast region winner.  Size and revenue are not factors in the judging. Leadership and innovation were.

"The average age of some of these centers is 50 years," said Greenstreet. "We've only been here as a garden center for five."

Greenstreet and his wife Stacy, native Marylanders, purchased what was then Windmere Nursery, a rooting station which sold to wholesalers and retailers, 10 years ago. Greenstreet had been a salesman for Ball Seed Co. in New York, but wanted to raise his family in Maryland.

"We wanted them to grow up on a farm where we could build good character," he said.

Greenstreet gave the public some access to the plant material he was growing, but soon realized he needed a retail outlet.

"We are here in southern Anne Arundel county so we knew we had to be a destination," said Greenstreet.

The goal was to provide soup to nuts for gardeners, but also to provide family entertainment.

"We try to provide a service for planting, but also a place for people to come and spent time with the family."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden news
        

Acclaimed horticulturist Allan Armitage will be speaking at The Perennial Farm & Manor View Farm in Cockeysville Saturday on native plants for the North American gardener.

The 11th Annual Education Seminar will take place at the Valley Mansion from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., and includes presentations by Perennial Farm and Manor View experts, Armitage will talk about how plants got their names as well as about plants that perform well in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The fee for the seminar is $75 and includes lunch. (A $20 late fee is now in effect as well).

For more information, phone 410-771-4700

National Arboretum, Saturday, 1-3 p.m., Talk and tour: Perfect Conifers for Urban Gardens and Containers. Conifers provide striking color and form in your small garden or container during the winter. The diversity of colors range from green to gold to blue, and forms include spreading, weeping, and upright. Learn which ones are perfect for your landscape’s size and style. Rain date January 17. Fee: $12 ($10 FONA) Registration required. Call 202-245-4521

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden events
        

Kerry Michaels writes about container gardening on line for About.com, and she can make her pots fruit and flower as if she were gardening on a plantation.

Though she works in small spaces, she has a big appetite for plants and vegetables, and she is just as likely to be overwhelmed by all the garden catalogs that arrive this month as the rest of us.

Here are Kerry's thoughts on "catalog panic." Ok, everybody...Take a deep breath...

Right about now I start a love/hate relationship with my mailbox. Each day it is filled with gardening catalogs of all kinds. They sit like flat Pandora’s boxes, each with its force field of temptation, daring me to open them. And then when I do, I am simultaneously smitten and panic-stricken.

There are so many plants out there, that no matter how much space, money or time, it would be impossible to grow them all. Just deciding what kinds of tomatoes to grow can make me want to take to my bed in a fit of indecision. Last year, trying to choose tomatoes, I became so flummoxed, that I appealed to tomato guru, Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms, begging him to put me out of my tomato misery and just surprise me with a variety of his favorite seeds. He did and I was saved.

This year I bought a portable greenhouse on Craig’s List. I knew this was a hazardous proposition, because even though the greenhouse was cheap, it would open the door to starting even more seeds than the ridiculous amount I started last year. And seed packets are relatively cheap, so the plant-to-pleasure ratio can get warped really fast.

So it’s only January and I have already become glassy eyed and borderline catatonic, searching through seed and garden catalogs trying to decide between the overwhelming possibilities. Just this morning, when trying to decide between buddleias, I became a veritable deer in the headlights (albeit with a credit card). Who knew it could be so dangerous just getting the mail?

 Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Algerina Perna

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Guest post
        

Photo courtesy of The Food Network

Bird-dogging investigative journalists tells us that the vegetables used in the Jan. 3 episode of the Iron Chef -- which were supposed to have been harvested from the White House vegetable garden -- were actually stunt doubles.

And Lynn Sweet, who writes the Daily Flotus blog for Politics Daily asks why the viewing audience was misled? 

Apparently, the time lag between the White House harvest scene filmed in October and the cooking competition filmed a week later in New York was too great for the vegetables to have remained fresh.

First Lady Michelle Obama famously appeared with competitors Bobbie Flay, Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batalli, who were joined by White House chef Cristeta Comerford, and charged them with making healthy meals with whatever they could find in the garden.

Marion Burros of the New York Times and Eddie Gehman Kohan of the Obamafoodorama.com revealed the use of "stunt doubles" in November.

And all would have been well if the chefs had not misled the audience during the show with references to vegetables "from the White House vegetable garden."

In fact, only honey from the garden was used in the show, and the vegetables harvested by the television chefs that day were donated.

The episode went on to be the most watched show ever on the Food Network, but the revelations that substitute vegetables had been used succeeded in bringing the haters out of the woodwork, who used it as another example of the Obama Administration's, ummmm, how shall I put this, lack of transparency.

Which goes to show you that all politics, and all vegetables, are local.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Kim Hairston

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Categories: Wordless Wednesday
        

Photo credit: AP/San Antonio Express-News, Joe Barrera

If you missed the Nature episode, Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air on Sunday night, you can now view it on-line.

The episode of the PBS show drew rave reviews for its portrayal of this tiny but tough bird, with a metabolism that keeps it constantly on the edge of survival. Hummingbirds are called the most elite athletes of the animal world.

Most of us think hummingbirds live on nectar, but the truth is, they fill their calorie requirements with insects, and it is their speed and agility in the air that makes them tremendous hunters.

It is the wonder of high-speed video that allows us to enter the world of the hummingbird for the first time, and the show includes a great deal you didn't know about this colorful little creature, including the secrets of its evolutionary bond with flowers.

There are other features on the Web site as well, including an interactive map showing where hummingbirds are found and an interview with the show's producer.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gardening on television
        

The University of Maryland Home and Garden Information Center has added a live chat feature to its advice menu.

And Garden Variety was the first live chatterer.

After a 2009 garden season that saw a 30 percent increase in e-mail questions and in visits to its Web site, the extension service has expanded its Internet presence to handle what is expected to be another busy growing season.

"We had about 12,000 calls and about 3,500 e-mails," said Jon Traunfeld. "We think the increase is due to the Grow It, Eat It campaign."

Debbie Ricigliano, the horticultural consultant who will administer the live chats, said interns from the University of Maryland, who were majoring in broadcast journalism, introduced the information center to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

To open a live chat, just go to the Home and Garden Information Web site and click on the "Live Chat" option in the left-hand menu.

"Live chat as another thought they had," she said. "It just took some time to get it up and running."

There are six horticultural experts available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and each will be able to carry on multiple live chats.

Residents with questions can still call the service at 800-342-2507.

But when the question involves the identification of a disease or insect, e-mailing a digital image remains the best way to get answers.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is actually 118 woodblock landscape scenes of mid-nineteenth-century Tokyo by the artist Ando Hiroshige, and it is considered one of the greated achievements in Japanese art. It celebrates the Japanese culture at the end of the shogunate.

Landscape designer and garden blogger Susan Cohan has taken the Views of Edo as inspiration for her own attention to the world around her.

Wondering what she would have learned if she had paid close attention to her garden over the last 10 years, Cohen, who works out of Chatham, N.j., has resolved to record her observations every Monday for the next year.

"I believe I know intimately still has something more to teach me–not so much about gardening, but about creativity and how to see," she writes.

It is a space just 11 feet wide and 45 feet long. Much smaller that Tokyo. Susan Cohen wonders, as do I, what it has to teach her.

Her observations will include words and images and, she hopes, keep her from being distracted by the next shiny object.

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

Introducing Chris Kaltenbach, who has for years reviewed movies for The Baltimore Sun. We asked him what the best looking movie gardens are, and here is what he says:

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Categories: Gardens in the movies
        

As Garden Variety has reported, the Meryl Streep romantic comedy It's Complicated has inspired lots of chatter among gardeners who found her character's garden too good to be true.

In fact, it is. Production designers told the Los Angeles Times that they grew the vegetables in greenhouses, dug up the best ones and planted them in the movie garden. Even the best tomatoes were chosen and then wired to the plants.

Then somebody jumped in to say that the garden in the blockbuster hit Avatar made Meryl's garden look like a weed patch.

Now Jenny Peterson, at J. Peterson Garden Design, has listed the top five movie gardens of all time on her blog. She includes Edward Scissorhands and Alice in Wonderland.

Anybody have any garden's to add?

I am afraid my favorite would have to be the ones in Enchanted April (1992) which glow by comparison to the rainy and bleak London cityscape the women leave behind.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Gardens in the movies
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

There is nothing like a cyclamen to brighten the gray days of winter.

Their red, white and frilly pink petals look like butterfly wings, and their leaves are traced with shades of green and paler green.

And then they are dead.

Cyclamen, like primroses, start showing up in the grocery store florist aisle at this time of year. But the florist version of the plant - there is a perennial variety - seems delicate and fussy and does not survive long in my kitchen.

Ann Whitman writes in Gardener's Journal, the blog at Gardener's Suppy, that cyclamen need a replicated version of their Mediterranean climate and they will bloom for a couple months -- just long enough to get us to daffodils.

"They thrive in cool temperatures that drop as low as 40 degrees F. atnight and rise into the 60s during the day. Place them close to a bright south-, east- or west-facing window for maximum sunlight," she writes.

My house is cold enough to hang meat in the winter - thanks to BG&E and deregulation -- and I am guessing that watering, specificially over-watering, is my problem. It usually is.

According to Whitman, we should let our cyclamen get dry, but not to the point of wilting. Lift the pot and it should feel light. Then a thorough watering, and an equally thorough draining of excess water, until the next time the pot feels light.

Marie Iannotti, who writes a gardening blog for about.com, says humidity is key, and she advises keeping cyclamen on a tray pebbles filled with water, being careful not to let the cyclamen sit in the water. Some houseplant fertilizer every week is a good idea, too, she writes.

Whitman advises us to remove spent flowers by cutting the stems near the base of the plant. Remove any seed capsules that fall and any yellow or withered leaves, she says.

And something more I didn't know about cyclamen. If I keep them in a cool dry place for the summer, and the tubers remain hard and plump, they will rebloom. Don't water during this period, or the tubers will rot.

All I have to do is place them in a cool bright window in the fall and begin watering again, although Iannotti says repotting the plant might be a good idea.

So there you have it: how not to kill your cyclamen.

S'cuse me. I have to get to the grocery store.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden tips
        

And you thought gardeners spent January curled up by the fire, reading seed catalogs.

I know I did.

Maybe I am just lazy because my fellow garden writers are making lists of their January garden chores! AAAAGHHH.

Here is some of their good advice.

Helen Yoest who writes Gardening with Confidence out of North Carolina says now is the time to take a tour of your garden and make notes about what you might like to do differently in 2010.

She also says to check the rose crowns to make sure the wind has not blown the mulch away, be ready with 10-10-10 fertilizer the minute your daffodil tips emerge, and keep up with the weeding!

North Country Maturing Gardener, who writes from New Hampshire and might not be getting out much these days, writes about indoor plants. Give them a spritz to get rid of the dust; sit them in a tray of wet gravel to increase the humidity they love; watch for insects and give your plants a soapy bath if you see any.

Oh. And keep the bird feeders full!

Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden, who writes from the Hudson Valley, says she continues to set out mouse traps in the yard to catch moles and voles. And she is testing her unused seeds for viability. Here's how she does it.

Marie Ionnotti at About.com says to check plants for heaving; take a gardening class. And avoid the spring rush -- get your tools sharpened and your lawn mower maintained.

She also said to get your catalogs together and plan your orders. But you were already doing that, right?

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

Garden Variety has had some complaints from Baltimore readers whose Christmas trees were not picked up by city trucks as scheduled, but we have good news.

KB reports that he called 311 and his tree was gone by the time he got home from work.

"I chose, "Missed mixed refuse pickup" as my complaint, and then typed in the open box that it was not trash but rather my Christmas tree that was not picked up," he writes.

Also, Andy Miller followed my suggestion that he e-mail the contact names on the Department of Public Works press release that announced the pick-ups. He did so, and reports he received answers within five minutes.

Here's what the city had to say:

"You will not be fined for leaving your tree out," wrote Celeste Amato.  "We have clearly missed your collections and are alerting the Bureau Head to the errors. Please leave everything in place if you can and we will take corrective action as quickly as possible. You have my contact information if the problems persist."

And Robert Murrow wrote: "Your tree was supposed to be picked up and your recycling should have been picked up.  Those were crews errors that should be reported to 311 so they can be corrected.  Though we pick up from 210,000 households in Baltimore City, we do occasionally have crew errors.  Please let me know your address so I can forward it to senior solid waste management.  Thank you."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Christmas trees
        

Garden Variety is not pleased! Her journalistic reputation is at stake!

We printed the schedule for Christmas tree pick-ups in Baltimore City that came to us via a press release from the City Department of Public Works.

But we are hearing from Garden Variety readers that their trees did not go away with the regular trash. And they didn't go away on yard waste day, either.

What's up, City?

To find out why your tree isn't gone like 2009, we suggest calling the contacts on the press release: Celeste Amato at 410-545-6541 and Robert Murrow  at 410-545-6189.

Their email addresses are celeste.amato@baltimorecity..gov and robert.murrow@baltimorecity.gov.

Let us know what happens!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Christmas trees