gardening

If you're having trouble combating aphids, it's possible that a vicious cycle has resulted from using highly toxic broad-spectrum pesticides.

The neonicotinoid class of pesticides is systemic, spreading throughout plants, including roots and pollen, which has implicated it as one factor in the country's pollination crisis.

Sugar is not a recommended fertilizer. Sweet and sour are old-fashioned terms used to describe soil pH.

As the season approaches for cleaning up flowerbeds and planting vegetable gardens, you may love the idea of all the blooms or produce you¿ll create but dread the annual fight for control over weeds. There¿s no need to go wild on chemicals to reduce all that pulling and hoeing.

Patricia Foster considers the garden ¿a lifelong learning laboratory.¿ As a master gardener at the University of Maryland Extension¿s Baltimore City office for almost 15 years and the program¿s former president, she recently sat down to offer what all spring planters crave: professional advice. ¿My answers reflect a lifetime spent in the garden; trial and error is a great instructor,¿ she says.

Some flies, such as a drain fly or sewer fly, breed in wet, rotting material such as drain gunk.

Thinking spring, I attended a Master Gardener talk on shade gardening at Savage Branch of the Howard County Library System. Pat Greenwald, a Howard County Master Gardener, presented the topic "Color in the Shade."

Mushrooms live on dead organic matter, such as wood. They also need moisture and warmth. This suggests that your house has water problems.

Seeds with a VFN (verticillium, fusarium, nematode) designation are disease-resistant, but this does not mean disease-proof.

Seeds of summer are in the catalogs of January

Cabin Fever Art Show, with art sale, will be held at Piney Run Nature Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 14

Howard County datebook

It could a crack from frost, sunscald, insects, herbicide damage or simply a natural growth crack.

Reservoir High School will have a college information night on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.

On Jan. 10, the Reservoir High School Physics Olympic team played host to the second annual Howard County Physics Olympics.

Howard County Parents for School Music will collect used musical instruments on Jan. 31 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mt. Hebron High.

In a season of gray and brown, winter gardens add color, variety and action.

Rotating crops mean growing vegetables of a specific family in different areas of the garden each year to avoid soil-borne diseases and nutrient depletion.

Pine needles make an attractive, highly sought after mulch. They have been mulching pine trees naturally for eons.

Your warm house will cause the eggs to hatch prematurely, and you will have tiny and cute, but fragile, praying mantises running all over.

Termites' presence in the tree indicates that part of it is dead, meaning it may be weakened and prone to falling.

When left in the same pot as the main one, there will be less space, moisture and nutrients for the bulblets.

Dorothy E. Marvel, a retired librarian and inveterate gardener, died Nov. 19 at Stella Maris Hospice of ovarian cancer. She was 84.

9 Master Gardenres, 2 volunteers tend to Eldersburg library's native plant garden in preparation for winter's arrival

Among the 40 churches in the area that provide help to needy families at Assistance Center of Towson Churches, there are a handful of churches who maintain a garden for the purpose of growing vegetables to donate, including Ascension Lutheran in Towson.

There are now millions of these alien trees spreading over the Eastern U.S. This displaces native trees necessary for our wildlife and a healthy environment.

This plot of land in Clifton Park will soon become a forest full of edible plants — fruit trees, vegetables and tubers, berries and herbs.

Since when did flowers become an environmental 'hazard?'

The multicolored Asian lady beetles were introduced to eat pest insects. However, they can be a nuisance in the fall when they look for overwintering sites in homes.

St. Paul's United Methodist Women in New Windsor sell homemade mincemeat as a seasonal treat

A movement is under way to fill some of Baltimore's 14,000 vacant lots with flower farms, where residents could grow zinnias and toad lilies and hyacinths to sell to local florists or invite the public to come pick their own bouquets.

What the middle band on a woolly caterpillar really tells you is that the caterpillar had a good summer.

Falling leaves are one reason why it is best to sow grass seed early in fall, even in late August, so it is mature enough to withstand leaf removal.

The shorter grass can make leaf collection easier, among other things.

The lush beds of lettuce, mustard greens and peppers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future's greenhouse resemble the plants that Rick Lee of Damascus has grown in his greenhouse. Yet instead of traditional in-ground fertilizer, these plants get their nutrients from a different source: fish waste.

Many summer weeds are now loaded with thousands of seeds. Also, many weeds known as winter annuals start now and will explode with growth in spring.

As one of the big polluters of the Chesapeake Bay, it's important to prevent phosphorus from being washed into storm drains or waterways that lead there.

Raymond Chow, Mt. Hebron High School Marching Unit Boosters publicity chairman, has great news to share. Last month, the MHHS Marching Unit participated in the Miss America Parade in Atlantic City.

On Saturday, Sept. 20, the Glenelg High School Robotiators, Team 888 Robotics team, competed in and earned two awards at the 8th annual Battle O' Baltimore FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

Fortunately, tomatoes do not need to ripen on the vine to have good flavor

Robert Johnston, 76, a retired insurance salesmen, made a hobby of collecting the plants which grows in thousands of varieties in various shapes and colors 16 years ago. Since then he has amassed a collection of 310 of the unique flowers that line his backyard, front porch and dining room table of his home.

Something about these chilly almost-autumn days makes us want to sip wine outdoors, watch a parade, browse a manicured garden, or, you know, get scared out of our wits. Fortunately, there are plenty of opportunities in the region for all of the above.

Unfortunately, giant ragweed pollen causes highly allergic reactions, just like the more familiar species

Growing up in a rural town, I spent many summer days frolicking in the creeks, playing hide and seek in the cornfields, and feeding the various farm animals adjacent to our property. Looking back, I think this environment is what helped cultivate my love of nature and the outdoors. Baltimore County Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park can provide these same experiences for children and adults in our area.

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