Yoga and gardens have a special symbiosis, I think.

There can be no more lovely place to meditate on the gift of this life, and the beauty of that gift, than in a garden.

And there is nothing better for the sore and tired gardener than the fluid movement from one posture to the next in yoga.

With those thoughts in mind, Garden Variety is taking a break from her gardening, and blogging, chores this weekend to attend a yoga retreat in the hills of Virginia.

May you all find peace in your gardens while I am gone. Namaste.

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

The rose "Souvenir of Wootton," believed to be the first tea rose hybridized in the United States, will return to its home Saturday, April 24, and be planted in Baltimore's Cylburn Arboretum Rose Garden.

The rose was hubridized in 1888 in Baltimore by florist John Cook. A cross between "Bon Silene" and "Louis Van Houtte," it has long been "missing." In fact, only three of the 28 roses Cook bred were found during searches by the Maryland Rose Society following the rededication of a statue to Cook at the Baltimore Conservatory in 1989.

Cook is also well known as the father of "Radiance," one of the most popular hybrid teas.

In 2002, the "Souvenier of Wootton" was discovered along with another Cook rose in a garden in Germany but the cuttings did not survive shipment to this country. Another attempt to ship the cuttings was made and "Sourvenir" arrived safely in February of 2009.

Many of the roses Cook hybridized have distinctly Baltimore names: "Frances Scott Key," "Pearl of Baltimore," "Preakness," and "Baltimore."

There is also a "Souvenir of Miami" because that's where the Cook family vacationed for years.

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

At Valley View Farms in Cockeysville:

Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m.: EVENING INTRO SERIES: Introduction to Herb Gardening. The best cooks use the freshest ingredients; many grow their own herbs. VVF's Joann Weber will teach the basics of growing a wide variety of culinary delights.

Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m.: Rose Care. Brad Yoder of Star Roses and Stephanie Darnell of Bayer will discuss growing and caring for roses. Questions about feeding, pruning, and insect and disease control will all be answered during today’s session.

Saturday, April 24, 11 a.m.: Vegetable Gardening for Kids. What better way to introduce kids to nutrition and good eating habits than to let them grow their own? Bring kids of all ages to get them started in the garden!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Gene Sweeney

Edible Gardening Weekend at Homstead Gardens in Davidsonville.

Saturday, April 24, 11 a.m.: Companion Planting & Other Tips for Edible Gardens with Homestead Gardens Horticulturist Gene Sumi.

1 p.m.: Creative Uses for your Homegrown Lavender with Marie Mayor & Sharon Harris of Lavender Fields.

3 p.m.: Cooking with Local Produce with Sustainable Cooking Expert Rita Calvert.

Sunday, April 25, noon: Grow your Best Tasting Tomatoes Ever with Mike McGrath of WTOP Radio.

2 p.m. Chesapeake’s Bounty Cooking Demonstration with cookbook author Katie Moose (includes book signing)

All seminars and demonstrations are free of charge and are presented at Homestead's Davidsonville location.

At the University of Delarware Botanic Gardens:

Friday, 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Benefit Plant Sale. Educational exhibits, live music, animals, tours and much more. Unusual and difficult to find plants for sale.

At the U.S. National Arboretum.

Friday, April 23, 10 a.m. to noon. Curator-led tour of the Azalea Collection. Learn growing tips, history and about the arboretum's renowned breeding program. Fee $12. Registration required.

Saturday, April 24, Friends of the National Arboretum Annual Plant Sale. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Rhododendron and Azalea Show in the Administration Building, while in the gardens, more than 10,000 azaleas will be in bloom. Free.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, April 25-27, 8 to 10 p.m. Full Moon Hike. Four miles, mildly strenuous hike through moonlit gardens, meadows and woods. Wear good walking shoes and dress for the weather. Fee $22. Registration required.

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

Frank Rackemann did his own drawing to accompany his garden column in advance of the first Earth Day. Of course, his column appeared on the "women's pages" of the Evening Sun.

It is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and a look back to the first Earth Day reveals that garden writers are still talking about many of the same things.

A "Fun with Gardening" column in The (Baltimore) Evening Sun, written by Frank Rackemann in advance of the first Earth Day in April 1970, encouraged readers to pick up litter and trash in their neighborhoods and suggested that homeowners plant "a flower or two for all to enjoy" on Earth Day.

The column talks about pesticides and recent reports that they can kill bees and birds. But in the same column Rackemann advises the use of chemicals to protect trees against scale and leaf minor.

Just as there has been this year, there was advice 40 years ago for the salt damage to lawns and gardens after a particularly snowy winter.

Rackemann also reports that there is free leafmold available in Leakin Park and says that adding it to the holes before planting azaleas produces amazing results.

May 10-15 is the last frost date for metropolitan Baltimore, he writes, and only after that date can tomatoes be safely planted.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The big difference, perhaps, is that there isn't a clue that Earth Day would become the worldwide phenomenon that it has.

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

Photo credit: Flickr/See-ming Lee

It is the most planted plant in the country, and last year was a disaster for tomato lovers when blight wiped out both commercial and home-grown crops.

Heirloom tomatoes, the WSJ story tells us, have become hugely popular for their fanciful colors and their rich and wide-ranging flavors: from sweet to smoky.

 

 

But heirlooms - grown from seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation without any genetic mucking about -- are also very vulnerable to disease and insects. And these plants don't produce very abundantly. So now, the Journal says, seed companies like Burpee and Park are offering heirloom look-a-likes that are hybridized for disease resistance and higher yield.

The heirloom stalwarts are appalled, of course

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

One of the largest and most anticipated plant sales in the area will be held Saturday, April 24, at the U.S. National Arboretum just outside Washington, D.C.

Whether you consider yourself a gardening novice or connoisseur, the Friends of the National Arboretum’s 19th annual Garden Fair & Plant Sale has a treasure for you.

There will be a diversity of plants, nurseries, plant societies, and vendors offering annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees, as well as garden accessories.

(Click on the links to see lists.)

Arboretum staff and other plant experts will answer your questions and help you solve those vexing design issues: Will this evergreen perform well in shade? Will it grow too large in my patio container? Which azaleas bloom in May? 

Also enjoy live performances by the Washington Revels and the Rock Creek Morris Women between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Children can dance around the Maypole at 11:00 a.m.

Food vendors offer coffee, brunch, lunch and ice cream.

When: Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Early bird shopping for FONA members on the 23rd, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.)

Where: Just inside the arboretum’s New York Avenue gate Admission is free!

 While you’re here, include a visit to the Potomac Valley Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society’s Rhododendron and Azalea Show in the Administration Building auditorium (open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.), Washington, DC Chapter No. 1 of Ikebana International’s Japanese Flower Arranging Exhibit in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum (open 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.), and the Azalea Collections’ dazzling display of over 10,000 azaleas in peak bloom.

Also: Remainders from last Saturday’s book and art surplus sale at reduced prices in the lobby of the Administration Building.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Plant sale
        

Fellow Maryland garden blogger 2 Green Acres, a native plant enthusiast from northern Baltimore County, took a walk along the C&O Trail near Sharpsburg, MD and was amazed at all the wildflowers she saw.

She took pictures and shares them with us here.

A lovely vision of spring...

Photo credit: Flickr/TrailVoice

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

Photo by Celia Pearson

Check out the May issues of Chesapeake Home for a couple of lovely garden features:

The story of an Annapolis garden, designed for outdoor living, and some ideas for container gardens in the shade.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Magazine rack
        

Photos by Algerina Perna, Baltimore Sun

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

At 7a.m., patrons can begin shopping for produce, poultry, meats, seafood, spices, baked goods, preserves, fresh flowers, plants and more under the Jones Falls Expressway.

The bazaar also has unique crafts and collectibles, including fashion accessories, home décor items and other one-of-a-kind artworks.

Opening day festivities include a live performance by the Baltimore Islanders Steel Band from 9 until noon.

And the market will also have a large selection of plants and flowers. Gardeners can get expert advice on planting and growing herbs from the Baltimore City Master Gardeners, trained volunteers of the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension.

The Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar is located on Saratoga Street between Holliday and Gay streets under the Jones Falls Expressway.

It will be open every Sunday from until December 19 from 7 a.m. until sell out, approximately noon.

New to the market this year is an assortment of vendors including Banksy’s Café, a local restaurant offering vegetarian burgers and salads; Wheely Good Smoothies that sells drinks powered by a bicycle; and Many Rocks Farm, which specializes in various cuts of goat meat.

Shoppers can purchase fresh foods directly from regional farmers at this, Maryland's largest farmers' market.

For more information on the Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar, call 1-877-BALTIMORE or visit www.promotionandarts.com.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Farmers Markets
        

Gardening guru Andre Viette was at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville over the weekend, dispensing plenty of garden advice.

Homestead blogger Susan Harris, who also writes for Garden Rant, was there to capture his wisdom, and her report is worth reading.

Among the highlights from the veteran nurseryman and gardening radio host?

• He likes Espoma's organic fertilizer for lawns.
• Maryland's soil is so bad is should always be amended with organic matter, and starter fertilizer that has mycorrhizal bateria. Never use sand. Sand plus clay equals cement.
• Move your tomatoes every year to prevent disease
• Japanese beetle traps actually do attract more Japanese beetles.
• And, you are watering wrong because everyone is.

(Viette's radio show airs on Washington, D.C.'s WMET (1160-AM) on Saturday's from 8 to 9 a.m. and on WNAV (1430-AM) in Annapolis from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays. Check here for a station in your area.)

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden tips
        

Baltimore celebrated urban gardening over the weekend with food, music and seed balls at the Urb Ag Gala.

There were seedlings everywhere for everyone, planted in shoes, hats, newspaper and cardboard six-pack containers.

The folks over at the blog, Baltimore DIY Squad, have pictures!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Urban Gardening
        

 Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

For those of you who might be curious about what the garden blogger's garden looks like about now, here is a modest tour.

My garden never looks better than it does in late spring. I suppose that it true for many gardeners.

I might not be so proud in August! (And my photography won't be any better, either!)

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: My Garden
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Try keeping container gardens alive on my deck during the heat of July and August and you will find yourself a convert to succulent container gardens, too.

That's how I spent the weekend, assembling this collection of glazed pots and the very few varieties of succulents I could find in my quadrant of Maryland.

I mixed potting soil with a product called Soil Perfector, which did such a good job of providing drainage for my tulip containers over the winter. And I added a little time-release fertilizer.

This spot on my deck is hot as blazes, but close enough to the hot tub to benefit from the moist air there.

I have been enchanted by the idea of succulents in containers since I wrote about Debra Lee Baldwin's new book, "Succulent Container Gardens." These plants look soooo exotic.

We will see how this goes, but one thing is for certain. I won't have to pay a neighborhood kid to water this collection of plants while I am at the beach.

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

Here's a first look at the herb garden planted this weekend on the 7th-floor terrace of Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel on Light street.

The 600-square-foot herb garden consists of over 403 plants and 26 different varieties of herbs, edible flowers and tomatoes.  

The hotel's culinary team isays that in a few months, customers will be dining on on herbs and vegetables harvested just a few minutes earlier as well as cocktails made with the freshest mint. 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Gardening and food
        

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Feijoa sellowiana

Commonly known as the Pineapple Guava, this fruit tree is very hardy and easy to grow. And it is in bloom right now at Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Garden in Druid Hill Park.

It originates from Brazil and does well in a tropical environment but can be grown in containers in areas that have very cold winters. The evergreen leaves are a glossy blue green with a silvery underneath, making them a beautiful ornamental all year round. The leaves can be eaten and have a very sweet taste.

 The flowers are a dark crimson with pink petals. Fruit can grow up to 3 inches, are a waxy green color, and have a pear-like shape. The taste is similar to a strawberry.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory
        

It makes perfect "scents" when you think about it. There is no better forum to learn about the relationship between plants and the sense of smell than in a conservatory, and that's what Longwood Gardens has done for its first major exhibit this year.

I write about the Kennett Square, Pa., show, "Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance," in The Sun's Travel section Sunday. Like so much at the du Pont family bequest, it is not to be missed.

The show runs through November so that it can draw on the changing seasons to tell the story of fragrance. But if you go soon, you will also see the extraordinary tulip displays both in the Idea Garden and in the Garden Walk. More than 200,000 bulbs are planted -- new ones each year -- for the Longwood displays.

Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens

Also not to be missed? The treehouses. Especially if you have children.

Longwood was purchased by Pierre du Pont in order to save an historic stand of trees. To pay tribute to its orgins, Longwood constructed three treehouses in the woods surrounding the property -- without cutting into or damaging the trees or their roots. It was painstaking process.

The hands-on exhibit is called  "Nature's Castles: The Treehouse Reimagined." They are designed to help visitors connect with the life cycle of trees and the forest and to encourage kids to get out into nature more.

Later this summer, the treehouses provide the perfect vantage point to view the blooming meadows of Longwood Gardens.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Flower Shows
        

In "Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden," boomer journalist Ruth Kassinger tells the story of her journey from brown thumb to green, as she studies conservatories, tells their stories and makes one of her own. 

On a cold, gray evening, in the wake of her sister's death, her own battled with breast cancer and her children's departure for college, Kassinger wandered into the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington. It was a trip that changed her life. She suddenly found herself with a desire to create a conservatory inside her own home.

 

 

 

 

 

Kassinger journeyed across the country talking with plant enthusiasts, butterfly breeders, and commercial growers and gradually created her own Eden––including a living wall––while learning lessons about loss and letting go, nurturing and rebirth, love and serenity. 

"Gradually, it occurred to me that adding a conservatory onto our house was just what I needed. Warm and humid, beautiful, evergreen, peaceful and still, a conservatory would be the perfect antidote to the losses and changes of middle age. It would be my personal tropical paradise where nothing unexpected lurked in the landscape."

I have three copies of this delightful book and I will send them to three randomly selected Garden Variety readers who post a comment here. Include your email address so I can contact you if you win!

Photos courtesy of Ruth Kassinger

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Garden books
        

It appears that this weekend is the weekend to plant your gardens - even if you are a hotel.

Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel is planting a 600-square-foot herb garden on the seventh floor terrace.  It will consist of over 403 plants and 26 different varieties of herbs,edible flowers and tomatoes.  

The hotel's culinary team is giving the concept of "farm to table" new meaning, and in a few months, customers will be dining on on herbs and vegetables harvested just a few minutes earlier as well as cocktails made with the freshest mint. 

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

Katie O'Malley and son Jack visit the vegetable garden last summer: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Maryland First Lady Katie O'Malley will be overseeing the installation of her second vegetable garden at Government House Saturday at 11 a.m., with the help of Master Gardeners and young volunteers.

Last year, Maryland became one of the first states to have a backyard food garden at the Governor’s home. 

There are kids, dogs, rabbits and a lot of shade testing this garden, which makes it a pretty realistic example of what Maryland families can do in their own backyards.   

Mrs. O’Malley will also announce the first-ever Master Gardener/Government House Gardening Lecture Series to teach more Marylanders how to create their own backyard gardens and grow their own food.

The lecture series begins in May and will be held once a month through October. 

Mrs. O’Malley is partnering with University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center and Master Gardeners program to promote the “Grow It, Eat It" campaign,  which encourages Maryland families to improve health and save money by growing fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs using sustainable practices. 

The campaign hopes to encourage 1 million Marylanders to produce their own food this year.  More information on the campaign and the University of Maryland’s Master Gardener program can be found at www.growit.umd.edu. 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Vegetable gardening
        

On Fridays here at Garden Variety, I usually post a list of season-appropriate garden chores to give rookie gardeners in the Mid-Atlantic an idea of what they should be doing....and to remind veteran gardeners that gardens don't take care of themselves.

This week, I'm gonna do something different.

I am making a list of MY garden chores for the weekend. Maybe if I write them down, I will actually get them done. Here they are...

• Continue deadheading the faded daffodils and sprinkle them with fertilizer as they begin their dormant period.
• Gently scratch in the time-release fertilizer that I scattered last week. I have pretty much decided not to mulch this year, so some modest cultivation is going to be necessary, I think, to keep the weeds from taking hold
• Scrup my pots with mild soap and bleach to kill whatever nasty stuff is left over from last season. Fill them with fresh soil, mixing in a little time-release fertilizer as my container gardening guru Kerry Michaels suggests. Then they will be ready for planting when temperatures warm.
• Plant the succulents I purchased at the opening of Homestead Gardens' new store in Severna Park last night. (Wine, appetizers AND shopping! It was heaven.) Since reading Debra Baldwins new book, Succulent Container Gardens, I am all about succulents. Can't wait to get them planted in my pretty glazed pots! They are tiny. Here's hoping they fill out.
• And finally, sit on the front porch with a bottle of cold water while I watch my DH edge my beds.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

It is the 15th of the month and that means it is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the Internet.

Some of the best gardeners -- and some of the best photographers -- are posting pictures of what is ablaze in their gardens on this day

The perfect antidote to tax day, is it not?

Here are some blogs to visit.

Jean McWeeney at Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog

Baltimore County's own 2 Green Acres

From Chicago, Mr. McGregor's Daughter

And Philip at Dirt Therapy

May Dreams Gardens

Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening

And Laura Schaub at Interleafings

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

Sugarloaf returns to Baltimore's Timonium Fairgrounds this weekend (Friday and Saturday, 10-6. Sunday, 10-5) as part of a tour of cities that continues after more than 30 years.

I still have items I purchased from Sugarloaf in the earliest days of the festival: a hand-painted fireplace screen that resembles a row of townhouses and a very large basket where I keep my blankets!

There will be 250 artists at the show this weekend who have created in all sorts of mediums: functional and decorative pottery, sculpture, glass, furniture, leather, fine art and photography.

There will be demonstrations by the artists as well as live music and childrends activities. Specialty foods will be available to sample and purchase.

Admission is $8 and is good for all three days. Children under 12 are free, and so is the parking.

For more information on the Sugarloaf Festival at Timonium Fairgrounds, including a schedule of events and directions, visit the Web site, where you can purchase discount tickets.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

Here's a line-up of some of the garden events this weekend:

Tonight and this weekend  at Valley View Farms in Cockeysville:

Thursday evening intro series: Introduction to Vegetable Gardening, 7 p.m. This quick and concise course will teach participants the basics of growing vegetables in Maryland gardens. The class will provide all the resources you need to get a jump start on the kitchen garden.

Saturday at 9 a.m.: How to Grow Tomatoes, Peppers and Other Popular Vegetable Plants. Tomatoes and peppers rank as America’s favorite vegetable plants. Learn to grow them and others successfully during today’s class. We'll discuss favorite varieties to help you decide which are best for your garden.

Saturday, 11 a.m. New Annuals, Perennials and Tropicals for 2010. What’s new? How about new colors of our old favorites, new disease-resistant perennials, longer-blooming tropicals and great choices for hanging baskets and containers? We’ll discuss all of the above in today’s seminar.

At Homestead Gardens this weekend:

Homestead Gardens opens its second location in Severna Park Saturday. The new store is located at 522 Ritchie Highway and will offer the same variety as offered at the flagship store in Davidsonville.

Meanwhile, at the Davidsonville location, Homestead Gardens hosts a radio broadcast Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. with Andre Viette of Viette's Nurseries, followed by a seminar at 1 p.m.

At the Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills this weekend:

Friday, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Spring Night Hike and Campfire. We’ll take a night hike to look for nocturnal animals, listen for frogs calling, and test our senses in the darkness. We’ll end the hike with a campfire and s’mores. Fee: $8 members, $12 non-members. Ages 7 &  up (with adult). Registration deadline: Thursday.

Saturday: 11 a.m. to noon. Grow More in Less Space. Are you short on space? Come learn why carrots love tomatoes and other simple garden techniques that will save you space, time, energy, and money! Topics include square foot gardening, companion crops, and self watering containers. Make your own self-watering container to take home, all supplies included. Fee: $6 members, $10 non-members

Painting Four Seasons in the William Paca Garden, a secluded reconstructed 18th-century garden in Annapolis, continues Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The landscape painting workshop is conducted by Jean Brinton Jaecks, landscape and garden watercolorist. All levels welcome. $60. (This class is full, but now is the time to register for classes in August and October.)

The U.S. National Aboretum is having a moving sale Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Surplus garden-related books and art will be available as the staff prepares for a major renovation. In addition, some of the koi population in the pool will be for sale as the staff thins its numbers. Experts will be on hand. Free admission.  

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Doug Kapustin

The U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington will host a tour of the National Garden from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday to see trees and shrubs of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Learn which would grow well in your garden. No registration required. Meet at the national GArden Lawn Terrace.

The 12th Annual Pennsylvania Herb Festival will be held Friday and Saturday, April 16 and 17, at the York Expo Center. The festival features nationally known speakers, workshops and vendors of plants, herbal crafts, as well as products for the gardener, cook and crafter.

 

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

On Friday, the Baltimore Urban Agricultural Task Force will host its second annual Urb Ag Gala from 7 to 10 p.m. at 2640 St. Paul St., with local food, live music, art and storytelling, as well as gardening information and resources.   

The Gala will enable those interested in the "growing" movement to become more involved, it will bring growers and eaters together for the new season, and emphasize the impact of locally grown food on families, communities and the planet.

The Baltimore Urban Agricultural Task Force is a coalition of farmers, students, professionals, artists, parents, and concerned citizens organized around locally produced food. The Task Force is finding ways to strengthen communities in Baltimore through agricultural projects and environmental education.

Interested in volunteering for this event? Please email Thao at thaowowwow@gmail.com

A $10 donation is being requested.

Urb Ag Gala will be a waste neutral event.

Contact: urbaggala@gmail.com

http://baltimoreurbanag.org/content/urb-ag-gala 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

 Photos of her cottage and dog, Webster, courtesy of Rosemary Beck

That's the first thing I asked Rosemary Beck, of course.

Are you content in your cottage?

Rosemary Beck is a New Jersey antique dealer, real estate agent, photographer and the blogger behind Content in a Cottage.

It is one of my favorite blogs because of the wonderful eclectic eye of its author.

On any given day -- actually three or four times during any given day -- Rosemary will put up photos she finds of wonderful sunrises, antique greeting cards, terrific kitchen designs, flowers in vases. Just about anything that strikes her fancy.

"I just post what interests me and I just happen to be interested in a lot of things," she said. "Things catch my eye and I save them."

She has a flat file in her studio with lots of prints. And she surfs the Web thoroughly. "I cover a lot of ground." Her favorite spot for pictures is Pixdaus, a photo-sharing Web site. And she takes many of her own photos.

About the cottage.

It is in Morris County, New Jersey, and she shares it with her 89-year-old mother. "This is my favorite house that I have ever lived in," she said.

It is just four miles away from the house she lived in previously. When she knew she would be downsizing and combining living arrangements with her mother, she stumbled on this cottage. But there was no "For Sale" sign.

"I would drive by again and again. And I actually got out of my car and knocked on the door, but no one ever answered. I didn't realize then that it was tied up in an estate."

Despite the fact that she sells real estate in the area, she almost missed it when the cottage came on the market. Fortunately, the first deal fell through and she snapped it up.

She still sells real estate and dabbles in antigues, but her blog, two years old in July, seems to please her the most.

Except, of course, for the cottage.

"I feel like I am the luckiest person on the earth."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

Baltimore Sun photographer Kim Hairston plays with light at the Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park.

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

Take your time:
Don't impulsively buy plants at a garden center and attempt a garden make-over.  This can be a costly gamble for those without experience.  Look for hard to kill plants such as the Knock Out® rose. 

Many homeowners find that it takes the help of a designer to create a well-planned landscape project that includes both plants and hardscape.  While there is a cost to hiring a landscape designer, it is ultimately more economical to work with an expert to create a plan specific to your yard. 

What do you really want?
Privacy is important to many homeowners. One pitfall many encounter is creating privacy at the expense of creativity. Adding a row of evergreens will create privacy, but will it add year-round interest and color? Landscape designers have the plant knowledge and design skills to create a "green privacy screen" using flowering shrubs, trees and fencing. 

Get dirty? Or get help?
You can choose to do it yourself or hire help.  You can hire a designer for a two hour consultation for ideas and suggestions that you can implement yourself or hire them to create a complete landscape plan.  You don't have to complete the whole plan at once.  A landscape can be installed over a period of time as well.  Decide what areas are most important and start there.  Pick your battles.

 

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

It is as much a spring scent as that of the first grass clippings: that dusty smell of mulch.

Crews can be found in every neighborhood and around every business about now, piling the brown stuff around trees and in gardens.

Huge piles of the stuff sit in driveways, waiting for the homeowner there to dedicate an entire weekend to spreading the stuff around the yard.

And I haven't even ordered mine yet.

Timing the application of mulch can be tricky.

Put it down too early and the ground will take longer to warm up.

Put it down before the spring rains have come and gone and you won't be sealing in as much moisture, which is what mulch is designed to do.

Put it down before the perennials have emerged and you might be burying a weak sister for good.

But if you wait too long to put your mulch down, the gardens will have filled in, making it that much harder to work safely around all that plant material. 

What's a gardener to do?

I told myself last year I wasn't going to mulch this season. I have been piling mulch on my beds for years and years. There are places in my garden when the mulch has formed a hard shell and where all the water just runs off. Everybody needed a break, I thought.

And when I dressed the beds with a load of Leafgro compost material, I was convinced. This, then, was the right stuff to use.

Besides, my colleague Jacques Kelly says he doesn't mulch at all. That's landscaping, he said, not gardening.

But it is spring now, and the beds are looking scruffy and ill-kept. My husband will edge them with a spade soon and the contrast between his work and mine will be sharper still. A nice layer of mulch can fix that, I tell myself.

I don't know how this story will end. Except this: If I do order mulch this year, I am hiring somebody to help me put it down.

Mulching, after all, is not gardening.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden tips
        

Those Bradford pears, which are blooming like ghosts in the woods right now, are an invasive specie and they "don't play nice" with others.

Birds spread the seeds from this tree, formally known as pyrus calleryana and native to China, and they take over fast.

But their limbs are weak and their lives are short, making them a very poor choice for homeowners, despite their pretty white blooms.

I wrote about Bradford pears this time last year, confessing that I was one of those homeowners who purchased one years ago.

Prized by suburban developers for their quick growth, their perfect shape, their spectacular (if stinky) blossoms in the spring and their wonderful range of leaf color in the fall, Bradford pears were a popular street tree choice after they were formally introduced in the 1960s.

But the tree proved a disappointment for two reasons. It has become invasive and it is fragile.

The fruit - more like hard little berries - that the tree produces is softened by frost in the fall and favored by birds, who have deposited the seeds everywhere you look, pushing out other native trees. You can see the evidence on your drive to work each morning.

Also, the angles of the branches off the trunk are so narrow - and the foliage so dense - that it is rare to see a Bradford pear that hasn't been split by a wind storm or shredded by an ice storm.

But my husband and I returned from the movies one weekend afternoon - a storm had broken over Annapolis and we could hear it raging from inside the theater - to find our Bradford pear split down the middle as if someone had taken a mighty meat cleaver to it.

The half of the tree that remained upright eventually filled in. But it did not survive long. Another storm took it down.

2 Green Acres recommends planting an Allegheny Serviceberry or a Green Hawthorne instead.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Tulip "Blue Parrot"

Tulips have always been appreciated for their beauty, but did you know that in the 17th century they became so popular they were used as a form of currency?

Most people associate tulips with the Netherlands but their cultivation dates as far back as 1000 A.D. when the Turkish Empire began growing them, well before the craze caught on in Europe. The tulip is the national flower of Turkey, and it thrives because of the long hot summers of dormancy there.

Visit Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens to cure your case of "tulipmania."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory
        

Elizabeth Lawrence was the first woman to graduate from the landscape design program at what is now North Carolina State University and, in the early 1930s, was struggling to make a career for herself in Raleigh, where there was little work for a woman landscape designer.

Meanwhile, Ann Preston Bridgers, a Raleigh native, had become a Broadway sensation, writing Coquette with George Abbott and starring Helen Hayes. It became Mary Pickford's first talking movie in 1929.

Bridges was a great nurturer of young writing talent and she struck up a friendship and correspondence with Lawrence, encouraging her write about her love of plants and gardening for newspapers and women's magazines and to put that writing into a book.

 

 

 

The book became A Southern Garden and it is still considered a classic.

Elizabeth Lawrence, who died in Annapolis in 1984 where she had gone to live with a niece, was ranked by Horticulture magazine in 2004 as one of the 25 greatest gardeners in the world, acclaim that might not have been visited upon her if she had never met Ann Preston Bridgers.

Emily Herring Wilson, who wrote a highly regarded biography of Elizabeth Lawrence called No One Gardens Alone, has collected Elizabeth's letters to Ann in a new book: Becoming Elizabeth Lawrence.

The letters (discovered in Ann Bridgers' bequest to Duke University) do not include Ann's responses, but they reveal much about Elizabeth's devotion to her family and to her accumulation of gardening knowledge and about how Ann encouraged her.

Truly, she might not have become Elizabeth Lawrence were it not for Ann Preston Bridgers.

Elizabeth Lawrence is buried in St. James' Episocopal Church in Lothian, a country church she had always loved.

I have four copies of Becoming Elizabeth Lawrence, and I would be delighted to share them with four randomly selected readers who post a comment here. Please include your email address so I can contact you.

 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Garden books
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

Art Blooms, a display of floral arrangements at Baltimore's Walters Art Museum, sets garden club members loose each year to interpret with flowers the art works in the museum, and it is on display this weekend. For free.

Our own Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun photographer, paid a visit to the show and created his own work of art: a photo gallery of the floral arrangements there.

This is one of Jed's photos. For the rest, check out his display at baltimoresun.com.

Art Blooms, a presentation of the Women's Committee of the Walters, is on display today through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. There are lectures and docent-led tours as well.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Flower Shows
        

Art is in bloom at Baltimore's Walters Art Museum. And so are the flowers.

Three dozen members of local garden clubs have been asked again this year to interpret art on display in the gallery through floral arrangements, and the results will be on display this weekend - and admission is free.

The floral arrangers were asked to take their inspiration from the Japanese cloisonne exhibit currently on display, courtesy of Baltimore collector Stephen W. Fisher. 

The pieces are inspired by nature, so the synergy is complete.

Gay Legg, a member of the Saint George's Garden Club out of Northwest Baltimore, has contributed arrangements to this fund-raising effort for nearly half of its 21 years.

(For more pictures from previous Art Blooms exhibits, go to the Walter's Flickr collection.)

"Every year, the Walters seems to come up with an amazing set of designers who do just beautful work," she said.

After learning about the cloisonne technique, which involves creating designs from nature using thin gold wire and then coloring those designs with layers of glass, Legg said she decided to create wire flowers in her design this year.

But there are real flowers, too!

"You can do whatever you want to interpret the art," she said. "But the flowers have to be really beautiful. After all, the flowers are sitting next to works of art."

Art Blooms, a presentation of the Women's Committee of the Walters, is on display today through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. There are lectures and docent-led tours as well.

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

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Faithful readers of Garden Variety know that I have had no success with tulips in the ground.

Something always eats the bulbs before they have a chance to sprout.

An attempt to grow them in pots one season didn't work either. They rotted.

This year, with cheap bulbs and tons of drainage, I tried again.

Success!

Now, of course, I am regretting the cheap bulbs.

If I had known this would work, I'd have planted nicer tulips.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Flowers in the Garden
        

Ginny Smith, who writes about gardening for The Philadelphia Inquirer, is one of the smartest garden writers in the country, and she is showing why today.

Ginny also writes the blog, Kiss the Earth, and today she is talking about big box stores, whose uniformed sales people are encouraging the purchase of warm weather vegetable crops, and garden center experts, who know well enough that this warm spell will not last, and it is too early to put your tomato plants in the ground.

Daffodils, after all, are still in bloom.

It has been a week of mid-summer warmth in the Mid-Atlantic and while all of us who remember 40 inches of snow are grateful for it, the calendar tells us it is still early April. Indeed, weathermen are predicting temperatures in the 60s for this weekend.

It isn't the air temperature that matters most to our tomato and pepper plants, Ginny writes. It is the ground temperature, and the ground is still cold.

In any case, your tomatoes won't arrive any faster if you put them in now. Trust me. And if you don't trust me, trust Ginny.

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

Baltimore's City Hall vegetable garden, which generated more than a ton of produce to help feed the poor and homeless at Our Daily Bread last year, is in trouble.

Budget cuts proposed for the University of Maryland Extension Service in Baltimore City would jeopardize the Master Gardeners program, and it is those volunteers who did the lion's share of work on the garden last season and were expected to do it this year, too.

And nobody seems to understand what's going on.

With the help of the venerable garden writer Adrian Higgins, let me see if I can explain.

Master Gardener programs are essential, especially in this time of renewed interest in sustainable vegetable gardening, because rookie gardeners and average homeowners have no idea what they are doing.

The Master Gardeners volunteer their time, in a variety of venues, to teach them. These volunteer hours are a requirement in exchange for their training.

They don't just tell Joe Homeowner how to kill crab grass. They help him understand how to do it without harming the environment and the creatures in it. And they can teach him how to grow his own food.

For example: when something like last season's tomato blight wipes out entire crops, Master Gardeners are at farmer's markets and elsewhere to help explain it and prevent it from happening again.

These Master Gardener programs operate under state cooperative extension services, which are funded by land-grant universities, such as the University of Maryland in our state, using both state and federal dollars.

Often, counties and cities establish extension services, too, with help and funding from the state agencies. That's what Baltimore City did back in 1942.

The Master Gardeners, in essence, extend the reach of the state extension service and, in this case, the city extension service. There are 157 volunteers in Baltimore City's Master Gardener program, and they work in dozens of programs, including school vegetable gardens.

Though Master Gardeners often establish their own nonprofit organizations, Higgins explained, they count on the state extension service for training, curriculum and science-based help in such new areas as organic pest control, native plants and other developments in growing our own food, Then they teach us, as well as the next generation of Master Gardeners.

But the extension services, and the Master Gardener programs under them, are "low-hanging fruit," said Higgins, for politicians in a budget crisis.

That's what is happening in Baltimore.

Extension services and their programs made much more sense when the United States was an  agrarian economy and they helped farmers feed us. They are an easy target when you think that all they do now is help homeowners kill crabgrass.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore's City Hall Garden
        

The spring flower show at Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens, featuring The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is posting record attendance numbers, says director Kate Blom.

Through nine days of the show -- and with four days to go --  2,582 visitors have toured the gardens in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park. That's more than the 2,093 that attended during last year's show.

The show runs through April 11. The Conservatory is open Tuesday through Sundays, including Easter Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (The Conservatory is closed Mondays.)

The flower show is free, though a $3 donation is gratefully accepted. 

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Flower Shows
        

Proposed cuts to Baltimore City's budget would put the second season of the famed City Hall vegetable garden, which produced more than a ton of food for the homeless last year, in danger of an early frost.

Cuts to the University of Maryland Extension Service in the City would likely eliminate the service altogether, and with it the Master Gardeners Program, which provided most of the labor and expertise during the garden's first year last year.

Bill Vondrasek, chief horticulturist for the City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is in charge of the city gardens, said he would still try to plant a vegetable garden around War Memorial Plaza, "but it probably wouldn't be done as well."

Vondrasek has to maintain the city gardens anyway, he said. "I used to plant flowers. I might still try to plant vegetables. But it would be a lot more difficult without the Master Gardeners."

Angela Treadwell-Palmer, who designed the vegetable garden last year and this year, said the spring crops have been planted and the seedlings started for the summer vegetables. But without the Master Gardeners, maintaining the 1,100-square foot garden would be difficult.

"The Master Gardeners are a lifesaver," she said.

Citizens will gather Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at, coincidentally, the War Memorial Plaza, to express their opinions on the proposed city budget cuts. Representatives of the extension service will be there, said director Manami Brown.

The University of Maryland Extension Service in Baltimore City is funded by the city, the University of Maryland and the federal government through the USDA.

If the city withdraws its $204,000 contribution, as currently proposed, the University and the federal money would go away, too, explained Brown, leaving the city without an extension service for the first time since 1942. 

The service provides more than the Master Gardeners program which helps to manage the City Hall vegetable garden. It also includes 4-H programs for young people, nutrition education, financial education and support for the 32 community gardens in the city.

"Last year we served 10,000 city residents," said Brown. "And all these services are free."

Dorothy Wells, president of the Baltimore City Master Gardeners, was dismayed.

"This has me very flustered," she said. "Last year, our 157 members provided 5,500 volunteer hours in the city." That represents about $116,000 in value. She guessed that perhaps only 300 of those hours were spent at the City Hall vegetable garden. The rest of the volunteer hours were spent in classes, workshops, lectures and teaching all around the city.

Would the Master Gardeners tend the City Hall garden anyway? After all, they are volunteers.

Wells explained that though nobody is paying the Master Gardeners a salary or health care benefits, they are covered by insurance and other support from the University of Maryland. Without that support and protection, it isn't likely that would be out there weeding, watering and harvesting for three months.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Baltimore's City Hall Garden
        

Photo slideshow by Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber. Shot at the Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park.

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

It is awards season in the land of garden blogs and Garden Variety is asking you to show her some lo-o-o-ve!

Colleen Vanderlinden, organic gardening columnist for About.com and founder of the Mouse & Trowel Awards for garden blogging, has added new  categories this year -- all the better to spread the glory like, well, mulch.

And they include categories into which Garden Variety fits nicely: Best new garden blog (we launched in March, 2009) and best blogger to follow on Twitter (I only think in 140 characters.)

I have some thoughts on my best post of the year, as long as you are asking.

Voting continues until April 30, when a new round of voting on finalists begins.

So, get out there and vote. If not for me, for the garden bloggers you love. It is your civic duty.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden blogs
        

We never even got close. And it wasn't even the weekend!

Thank goodness for Baltimore Sun photographer Algerina Perna, who made it to the Tidal Basin and brings us these images.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden photography
        

Road trip! Road trip!

Garden Variety heads to Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia today to preview its first major exhibition of the season: Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance.

The exhibit opens April 10 and runs through Nov. 21, during which the Gardens' Conservatory will be transformed into a museum for the senses.

You will be able to see the actual plants and flowers behind those iconic perfumes, explore the power of the sense of smell and learn about the intersection of art and science behind fragrance.

Stay tuned for more upon my return.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Flower Shows
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Doug Kapustin

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden inspirations
        

On the occasion of the installation of the second White House vegetable garden, our friends over at USA Today produced a slide show of the first year, from its humble beginnings to its appearance on "The Iron Chef" to its place on the gingerbread replica of the White House during Christmas.

Take a look.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

White House chef and Food Initiative Coordinatory Sam Kass reports that the winter garden produced about 50 pounds of lettuces, arugula, garlic, peas, turnips and carrots. And the time-lapse photography of the garden during the winter storms and during the spring melt is pretty cool.

The garden, described by Kass as "11-hundred square feet of pure joy," will grow by 500 square feet this year so more vegetable varieties can be grown. Among the new additions: bok choy, mustard greens and artcichokes, to be joined later by figs, corn, melons and pumpkins.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Photo: White House vegetable garden during first season

Here's a portion of the transcript of yesterday's planting of the second season of the White House vegetable garden. First Lady Michelle Obama is trying to get the kids to guess how many pounds of vegetables the garden produced:

Last October, with all the work that you guys did, you know what we were able to do?  We harvested over 55 different kinds of healthy foods -- 55 in that little piece of dirt -- 55.  And you know how many pounds of fruits and vegetables we harvested?  Can you guess?  Give me a guess.  What’s your closest guess?  Yes.

CHILD:  One hundred and four?

MRS. OBAMA:  No, higher.  What?

CHILDREN:  Eight hundred?

MRS. OBAMA:  Eight hundred?  Close.

CHILD:  Five hundred?

MRS. OBAMA:  Higher.

CHILD:  One thousand.

MRS. OBAMA:  One thousand pounds.  One thousand pounds of food.  Can you imagine that?  That’s pretty amazing. 

And Mrs. Obama also used the occasion to talk about her "Let's Move" initiative, which has the goal of healthy eating and exercise to prevent obesity in children.

So there’s nothing like watching tiny seeds grow into something amazing.  But the thing is -- and I don’t know if you guys have been watching -- but the garden was about more than just planning healthy food, right, because we were able to feed not just the staff at the White House, but we provided food to people at homeless shelters.  So we used that food to feed a lot of people.  But we also began a conversation about getting kids and parents and teachers all across the country thinking about living healthy. 

     So just think, the work that you did helped start a national and international conversation.  You guys did it.  Everybody is talking about that garden, not just here in Washington, not just here in the United States, but all over the world.  And we’ve been able to start thinking about things like getting kids to try new foods that they’ve never tried, vegetables that they’ve never had.  You guys have been helpful in getting your families to think more healthy about what they eat, getting your communities to make different decisions.  We’ve also even started talking to schools about how do we make your school lunches even more healthy, right?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden