Urban chickens a nuisance? I had four in this coop and no one ever knew... Well, the chickens have won. Not of course the literal chickens, exiled as pets by virtue of prejudice and ignorance, but the figurative chickens – our local leaders who would rather stand obstinately on a disintegrating platform than [...]
Yeah. This'll get the clipboards out. Now I have definitely heard everything. Whilst chatting with a friend the other night over landscaping and other related topics that make others at the table suddenly realize they need to get up and refill their glasses, I was told that a local subdivision homeowners’ association board [...]
Kathy Jentz from Washington Gardener Magazine and yours truly at the Urban Homestead in Pasadena, where the Dervaes family has been farming their 1/5 of an acre for 30 years - harvesting over 6000 pounds of veg annually! Love my job! Hanging with plant people at the 67th Annual Garden Writers Symposium in [...]
The tricky business of staking is on the agenda chez Willburn; but with the heat, humidity and resulting malaise affecting all forms of life whether flora or fauna, it is difficult to do more than wave a hose out there and call it good. These are the times that try men’s souls (and this particular [...]
(FREDERICK, Md., June 10, 2015) —The 2015 Farm-to-Fork Frederick program, a concentrated 11-day “eat local” culinary initiative that brings together independently-owned restaurants with family-owned farms and wineries from in and around Frederick County, Md., promises yet another exciting program. Restaurants from two new county jurisdictions – Emmitsburg's Carriage House Inn and New Market's Vintage – [...]
This morning I caught my breath to find new shoots breaking through the soil on a St. John’s Wort I thought had died in transit from Oregon several weeks ago. Hypericum calycinum is not a difficult plant, nor as rare as the nursery finds that shared its cramped suitcase on the flight home; but as [...]
Sunday marks the first day of summer, and a reality check for the garden and gardeners. If you're having trouble motivating yourself, check out this UK landscaping site, Mainland Aggregates, where I and others give our number one bit of advice for summertime gardening. And yes, there's a gin and tonic involved.
We're on the Virginia side of the river now, but even so, I have read with interest the heroic efforts of a local Maryland citizen who is determined to eradicate our shared gnat problem by enlisting the big [spray] guns of the government. I must say, when we moved to this area near the Potomac [...]
Father Ted said it best. My husband is frequently annoyed with me that I rarely indulge the ‘dreamer’ who lives deep inside of this pragmatic, 40-something frame. It’s one thing to remain practical over cars, electric bills and clothing budgets, he muses. But to apply such dull and dusty thinking to a garden [...]
On Saturday June 20th at 10:00am, I 'll be at the Brunswick Community Center Building at Railroad Park giving a free seminar on "The Recycled Garden" as part of the Town of Brunswick's Sustainable Saturdays series. Gardening doesn't have to be about the latest gadget, the latest plant or the latest set of matching patio [...]
The spring reclamation of patios and decks has begun across the Mid-Atlantic and New England. And, unlike our brother gardeners in sunnier climes, this will involve something more extensive than changing the cushions to reflect a seasonal change from warm to warmer. Our outside rooms – be they patio, deck, balcony or front porch stoop [...]
Convalaria shoots are just as fascinating to my Jack Russell as they are to me The crocus and winter aconite have finally appeared, only to find me standing over them, tapping my watch. Everything is a little late this year, but I will take that as an omen for a long spring and [...]
Whether Robert Frost originally coined the term or not I do not know, but 'mud time' must be the simplest and most accurate expression to describe the period from the last snow melt to the first tulip blush. It has arrived, and each day is a new adventure in negotiating paths, roads, chicken coops and [...]
Very excited to be notified that STG has been selected as a top ten finalist in the Gardening category for the second annual Better Homes and Gardens Blogger Awards! Finalists were chosen by Better Homes and Gardens from over 3,000 reader entries! Thank you for all the voting you did last week. Though STG didn't [...]
It's a privilege to be a contributor during GreenPrints' 25th year of publication, and I encourage you to subscribe to this very worthy magazine described by editor Pat Stone as "the most unusual, humorous, moving, entertaining, inspiring, simply special garden magazine in the country!" My article in this issue, "My Tulip Turnaround" is a story [...]
Thanks to a snowy day there is order where once was chaos. There is a certain kind of panic at this time of year when the winter starts to draw to a close and I calculate how many tasks I need to finish before the last piece of wood is thrown into a [...]
I have a clear memory of sitting at my kitchen table four years ago and reading a newspaper article about a small group that was forming to discuss a neighborhood grocery store three miles from my home in Brunswick, MD. My memory is probably so clear because something inside nagged at me to save the [...]
Brush clearing has been the order of the day for the last few weeks, spurred on by the annual exchange of power tools at Christmas, and a desire for a bit of exercise that doesn't involve a perky Zumba instructor with thighs like a nutcracker. It is an exhilarating job once the blood [...]
My first garden, against a wall, in a parking lot next to my tiny apartment. 34 square feet of garden that gave me 34,000 square feet of pleasure. There are problem areas in a garden and then there are problem gardens, period. Poor drainage, terrible views, a neighbor with a security [...]
Tragic lovers - but at least they were warm tragic lovers. There is nothing attractive about a woman who has utilized every piece of warm clothing in her closet to keep Jack Frost as far as possible from a square inch of bare flesh. Hipster jeans and loose weave sweaters that [...]
