gardening

Maintaining an environmentally friendly landscape at her family's home in Long Reach comes as second nature to Janine Pollack, who loves gardening and the outdoors.

For gorgeous fall plantings looking beyond the flowering mounds

Pumpkins are coloring ahead of schedule by about three weeks this year because of the cool summer.

Squirrels, voles and chipmunks can all be the bane of bulb gardeners, but there are lots of rodent-proof choices — including daffodils, which now come in shades from pink to white with orange highlights, as well as many fascinating forms and fragrances.

Gardeners take hobby to a new level in the Baltimore County Master Gardeners program offered through the University of Maryland Extension.

Anne Arundel County volunteer briefs

Compost piles need many insect species on their decomposition team, but wasps don't make the cut.

Anne Arundel County volunteer briefs

Crazy snakeworms probably came in on imported plant soil or soil amendments, but can, tragically, be spread as bait worms. Excess bait worms should be killed in vinegar water, never dumped on the soil.

Betsy Grater has created a patchwork quilt of annual flowers, including old fashioned velvety cockscombs, blue ageratum, white begonias and orange zinnias.

Erect clusters of red berries belong to our harmless native sumac, a good source of food for wildlife.

With the exception of those 29 resident gardeners who carefully tend the lush, colorful expanse of containers on the roof of Edenwald retirement community's four-story parking garage, and those who have visited, few know about the secret terrace garden.

David Traynor has turned his 1900s-era schoolhouse into a green sanctuary in the outskirts of Manchester, MD.

Plant late and protect. Put out transplants or plant seeds in mid-June.

The Asian tiger mosquito, which bites ferociously during the day, has forced people to reexamine and get smarter about mosquito strategies.

Pleasant Plains Elementary has always maintained a garden at the school as a means to teach about agriculture but this year they turned it up a notch, planting more and getting more people involved, and it has paid off as they were designated a Maryland Designated Green School.

A whole slew of unwanted pests — from wasps, earwigs, stink bugs, carpet beetles and sod webworm to various beetles that eat flowers and leaves — are all attracted to lights.

Alpha Ridge is Howard County's third official landfill. The first, New Cut Landfill, operated in the Worthington Park area of Ellicott City from 1944 to 1980. The second, Carr's Mill Landfill, operated in Lisbon from 1953 to 1977. Alpha Ridge opened in 1980 on 590 acres of farmland.

Deer-resistant containers of joy

Finding inspiration amid acres of space in Carroll County

Tending garden and taking comfort in memories.

Father's Day surprise entry earns winning raves for 'accidental gardeners'

Ladew Gardens will soon be opening a new butterfly house. The first of its kind in the region, the butterfly house will showcase native plants as well as the native butterflies and caterpillars that depend on them for food and shelter, according to Ladew officials. Ladew Gardens Opens New Butterfly House

Anne Arundel County datebook

Tomato plants are like canaries in the coal mine when it comes to herbicide injury. They are super sensitive to the chemical 2,4-D and its family of growth-regulating herbicides, including clopyralid.

Most vegetables don't like wet foliage. Choanephora wet rot is a fungus encouraged by warm, rainy days with overcast, humid conditions.

Growing your own herbs and veggies can add health and variety to your cooking, but make sure your soil is free of contaminants.

Norway maples in general are notorious for strangling themselves to death.

Remove non-native invasive plants to encourage a functioning native ecosystem, which includes predators for the white-footed mice that are deer ticks' main host.

Towson columnist Rus Van Westervelt writes that Pleasant Plains Elementary School was notified in early May that it became a designated Maryland Green School.

Kurt Bluemel, a perennial nursery owner and plants man who was called the "Johnny Appleseed of ornamental grasses," died Wednesday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Baldwin resident was 81.

Revisiting gardens is one of spring's great pleasures. After a brutal winter, every garden seems like a miracle. Recent rains, combined with some very warm days, have made for prodigious growth. Intermittent cool days have held the beauty long enough for one round of blooming plants to be enjoyed before the next breaks open.

Gardening with native plants

The focus will be something old, something new on Sunday, June 1, when the Horticultural Society of Maryland hosts its 23rd annual Garden Tour, ¿From Manor to Modern: Garden Design in Columbia and Ellicott City.¿

Some Leyland cypresses were, indeed, killed by this severe winter or are still in the process of dying slowly.

Normally, native insects such as lady beetles and parasitic wasps keep this scale under control, but if you see a lot of white flecks a plant could suffer yellowing, stunting or dieback.

Determinate tomatoes grow to a set size and stop, however they usually produce over a long period. Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, continue to put out new growth all summer.

Yes, rainwater must drain away from a home, but slowly is the operative word.

Guilford centennial celebration to end with benefit gala for Sherwood Gardens

Hudson's Corner Column

Some pesticides, such as horticultural oil or soap, are effective and have low impact on beneficial insects.

Howard County datebook