Tag Archives: gardening

Too Much To Do This Weekend

Posted on April 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

Like everyone else around here in the Howard County area, I am seeing lots of things to do every weekend now that spring has arrived.

It is funny how all the big events start clustering together in April and May and cluttering our calendars.

What to do? What to do?

Greenfest is where I will be, since I volunteered to spend three hours manning a booth for the Conservancy. The hike to the river is where I’d like to be, but can’t navigate treacherous hills until I have more mobility in my neck.

The Housing Fair is happening, but since we aren’t in that market, it didn’t make my short list.

HoCoConnect did a really good summary of what is going on at Greenfest, and I will add what I want to see. He also highlights two other events I missed.

Well & Wise has a list of upcoming events, too. They include the announcements of the Conservancy events this week and next.

At Greenfest, I will be attending at least two workshops, one on stormwater management in your yard, and one on backyard composting. We do compost some, but I can always use more tips and tricks. I wish I could do the watershed walks, but they conflict. Hubby is going to hear Cathy Hudson talk about raising chickens in the morning at 11am, while I am working at our table. And, just walking around talking to vendors is interesting. I applied last year for the lottery for a free energy audit, and won. We now know what we need to do to finish the weather proofing of our house, making it more energy efficient. As I said above, what to do, what to do?

Don’t forget, there will be a mini farmer’s market there too.

Sunday morning I may make the trek into Baltimore to check out the market for some herbs from Knopps Farm, one of my old favorite vendors when I went to visit family in Severn. If you have never taken a Sunday morning drive to this market, you are missing one of the largest and craziest markets around here. Worth the drive up I-95. There are 45 vendors registered for this year, some with crafts, some with food products, others with produce, meat and dairy, and we love the excitement.

Go early if you do want to find things. It is just an amazing array of food, people and good times. South Mountain Creamery and Zahradka Farms are there. My source of dairy most of the time, and my winter CSA. Both of these vendors will be at Glenwood in four weeks, but until then Baltimore is a good place to get their products, particularly for Elkridge and East Columbia Hoco residents. The market is set up under the Jones Falls Expressway.

And, then of course, I get to come home and file income tax. Not letting MD get those few dimes of mine until the very last minute. At least we broke even and get a few bucks back from the Feds. Hmm, I didn’t check, do we get an extra day or two? Yes, google my friend, says we have until Tuesday, so if the weather is nice, we can spend more time downtown.

I love spring!

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Some History of Mt. Pleasant

Posted on April 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

We recently took a guided walk around the Howard County Conservancy property looking at the buildings through the eyes of the historians. Much of the property is being preserved, in order to keep examples of agricultural heritage so important to Howard County. The farm was named Mt. Pleasant by the Brown family members who lived there. The family owned the land from 1692 until they donated it to the Conservancy almost 20 years ago. Parcel names and boundaries changed over the years either by marriages, or bequeathing of properties to the various children, and the 232 acres are what remained that Ruth and Frances Brown donated. Together the sisters taught school in Howard County for a combined total of 97 years.

Head up the driveway towards the top of the hill where many of the buildings still stand.

The farmhouse is the centerpiece of the property, and you can’t see it until you get far into the grounds. It sits high on the property with vistas in many directions. I can only imagine how peaceful and quiet it was before Waverly Woods and I-70 were added. You can hear the interstate traffic faintly these days.

It was built in stages, with the front of it, seen from the parking lot, a newer addition. New, being relative, that is. The original log cabin is still under the siding covered walls near the rear of the house, the logs were covered over as the family grew and expanded the house. Inside there are three separate staircases, and connections between the different parts of the home.

The front of the farmhouse is used for offices now, and the rear is the home of the caretaker’s family, so it is not open to the public. This view from the rear shows where one of the “front” entrances is located, which faced west-northwest.

There are numerous outbuildings as well. Many of these are in stages of preservation. Some are used for demos. Besides the ones I picture, there is a carriage house, a corn crib, a bank barn, and wagon shed. One of the two coops now holds the resident chickens.

The smokehouse and second coop, once used to house guinea fowl. No one knows why those cut outs are there.

When can you see much of the property used as it may have been used years ago?

At the annual Fallfest in October is one time. Including demonstrations in the blacksmith shop. Also this year, there will be a wonder walk in July that showcases what it was like to live and farm on the land.

The Montjoy barn, which is always a draw for people visiting, was moved to the Conservancy from Ellicott City and reassembled. It would have been torn down to make way for development in its former location.

There is also a three acre honors garden on the grounds, where you can find examples of plants native to this area.

Finally, stop in and get the arboretum guide, and you will find trees on site that are beautiful specimens like this American Elm behind the farmhouse, and while back there look carefully and find the outhouse and the foundation for the ice house. Lots of history on the property. So much to discover on your own, or on one of the Conservancy wonder walks. I volunteer here and never get tired of exploring the trails, walking the pathways, visiting the chickens and goats, looking for birds, or just chilling out.

hocoblogs@@@

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Smarter Than the Average Squirrel

Posted on April 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

Sometimes I feel that the squirrels are winning. No matter how hard I try, they figure out most of the squirrel proof solutions. The latest is one of those feeders that they are managing to empty by hanging a certain way on it.

We have gone to great lengths to keep them from the bird seed, giving them corn and peanuts but trying to keep them from the woodpeckers’ favorite treats.

This arrangement gives them the cheapest suet I can find, and they have to work for it. They get corn, but if you don’t wedge it in, they run off with the entire ear of corn. My neighbors find the entertainment of a squirrel trying to carry an entire ear of corn to their nest in the old oak trees amusing, but it is expensive to put corn out there every few hours. I usually only feed the squirrels in the winter, and let them fend for themselves when the ground is full of nuts and seeds.

This feeder is truly squirrel proof. The good seed goes here, with the vitamins and minerals the birds need while raising their young. I have had to move it twice, though. Once, it was too close to the bird bath. The second time it was too close to the yucca and deck seats. Squirrels will jump quite far to grab that bar and get the good stuff. Even risking impalement on a yucca tree.

The squirrels do provide entertainment to us too. They know how to descend a ladder quite quickly when startled.

Even the hummingbird feeder isn’t safe.

They scrounge around where the birds push unwanted items out of the feeder on the pole, at least keeping it somewhat clean, but I usually get volunteer plants and weeds coming up where I don’t want them.

When we moved in, we had a lovely cedar feeder out there. The previous owners had dogs, so no squirrels. It lasted just a few months before they chewed through the wood. They will chew on the plastic too, so now we have metal feeders with metal lids and as many baffles as I can manage.

The double baffle works, as does the witches hat over the nuts for the woodpeckers.

Of course, the woodpeckers go where they want, and not always to their little feeder.

I now cram two small suet holders into the large one. Put them at an angle to minimize the area that the squirrels can reach into and grab suet. It doesn’t totally stop them but it slows them down considerably.

I have created a habitat here to keep the birds that assist us in having my garden lush and relatively bug and flying insect free. They have coniferous trees for nests. Water, heated in the winter. A constant source of food, including insect suet when they are feeding their young. We have lots of trees and bushes that produce berries. I leave the pokeweed in the meadow so they can feed from it.

We have lots of worms, good for the soil and for the robins (and their allies).

Of course, they also need to learn how to play nice around here. Looks like a little mom and pop spat going on here.

At least the robins and cedar waxwings get along.

So I put up with the squirrels, knowing that a dog will keep them away, but also impact the birds. Who needs the Discovery Channel when all this excitement goes on, right outside the kitchen window?

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Foraging Wild Asparagus, and Other Spring Pics

Posted on April 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

The first wild asparagus poked above the mulch yesterday.

There are a few volunteer plants under the crepe myrtle. Every spring we get just enough asparagus to make a frittata. Found food is a good thing. It will be a while for the rest of our fruit and berries to produce, but finding what is hidden on the property has been interesting. This past fall we found a couple of hickory nuts in the yard, probably brought in by the squirrels, but haven’t located that tree yet.

We have black raspberries, mulberries and one peach tree. Wild strawberries. Parsley, mint and of course, enough dandelions to gather greens for dinner. Thankfully, no one out here sprays.

As for what else I found yesterday, the azaleas are coming out left and right.


The mock orange is about to go into its flowering stage with the highest buds opening.

My neighbor’s crab apples are in full bloom along the driveway.

The later varieties of tulips are hanging in there, despite the frost.

Nothing says spring like flowers and Easter. Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I am off to make herb roasted onions for my brother.

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Winter CSA Week Fifteen

Posted on April 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

Since we have another freeze warning tonight, I suppose we really aren’t out of winter yet. March was the warmest on record around here so we were getting used to seeing spring type veggies in the box. Today we go back to the reality of cooler weather and the veggies associated with it. I just got finished covering the garlic, lettuces, tulips and chive seedlings again.

We got an email saying the farmer who supplies us meat was MIA last night, so no meat this week. Double portion next week. That is OK, since I went to Harris Teeter yesterday and stocked up on seafood. Sustainable, of course.

Crab cakes for dinner last night.

I was using up most of the spinach from last week, with green onions and potatoes and local mushrooms bought at HT.

This week, I got:

1 1/2 pounds of carrots
4 nice spring onions
2 large leeks
1 pound new red potatoes
4 oranges from the partner farm in FL
1 beet that weighed 28 ounces

Add that to the beet from last week.

They are slow roasting on a salt bed in the oven for a few hours, until tender. They will become part of a salad with goat cheese and the last of the spring greens from a delivery a week ago, for tomorrow night’s dinner with some Alaskan wild salmon.

Since it is almost Easter, I have to show the cool eggs we got.

I particularly like the green one. I am hard boiling about 6-8 of them tomorrow, the prettiest ones. They will get taken to my brother’s for the Easter Egg Tapping contest.

I am drowning in eggs again. With this dozen today, there are 30 eggs in the fridge. I know now that two dozen a month is too much. Without a large family, or a baker in the house, I don’t know how people go through the eggs they get in local CSAs. I think in the future I will probably pass on eggs in the winter CSA.

Dinner tonight will be pan seared scallops from Harris Teeter, with baby red potatoes from the CSA, and salad to use the last of the spinach. I wonder if Harris Teeter is the store most affected by Wegmans coming in. I like the way they make sure you don’t stand in line too long for checkout. I also like the guys making sushi. We went there for things they have the best selection of, like fennel, ginger and some of the more exotic mushrooms. They do have nice produce but I am carefully reading the labels to buy items from the closest sources.

The CSA provides me with a solid basis to menu plan. The few extras needed to make interesting dinners are all I want to purchase from other than local vendors. That way, I am making what I call the 90% solution locavore dinners. Every little bit helps.

hocofood@@@

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See You at Greenfest? Save the Date, 14 April!

Posted on April 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

Looking at what is coming up this month in the county. April 14th, 10-4 at the Community College.

Are you going to be at this year’s Greenfest? It is an information packed day at Howard Community College. I will be there volunteering as well as bringing in items for the collections set up in the parking lot. Put it on your calendar now, and don’t forget it.

Need shredding done? Want to donate old shoes, or old bikes? Or clean out the basement? Finally get rid of that IBM PC? Or, whatever is in those yard sale boxes in the garage? Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Nike, Bikes for the World, and shredding and electronics recycling will all be available in the parking lot.

Want to raise backyard chickens? You would be surprised how many people in the county raise chickens.

How about Grow It, Eat It?

Learn about composting, rain gardens, storm water management.

web brochure workshop schedule_FINAL

Have the children go outside and play. Great book, by the way.

Attend a mini farmer’s market.

Sign up for a CSA. My CSA will be there explaining what they offer and answering questions.

There is so much happening that day, I am not sure where all I will be going, but it promises to be another great day. Open from 10-4. Check out the link above to see where it is all happening.

hocoblogs@@@

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Growing Heirloom Tomatoes

Posted on April 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

At the market last weekend, I saw at Mock’s Greenhouse the heirloom varieties that they grow year round in their greenhouses. They were selling for $6 a box. Head into Root’s and see heirlooms from the Eastern Shore at Hummingbird, $5 a pound. The prices will drop in the summer, yes, but not that much.

You can find heirlooms at all our farmer’s markets but again, you pay a premium to buy tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. They will be more reasonable than at the store, but still higher than beefsteak or early girl or any of the hybrid tomatoes grown around here.

So, to get the most bang for your buck, growing them yourself is definitely the way to go. I did my first heirloom plantings in 2007, and didn’t do well but got some green zebras and Brandywines to grow.

In 2009, I bought a few more varieties and tried them out in the garden. The typical Brandywine and Rutger’s, plus a Mr. Stripey and Green Zebra again. Entered the fair for the first time and learned a bit on the need to plant more exotic varieties, like the pineapple that won that year.

It was 2010 that I got serious about planting them, and started Purple Calabash from seed. I bought the seeds at Monticello. With those tomatoes, I was hooked big time. I even got my first ribbon at the county fair for them. OK, so it was fourth place, but it was a ribbon.

In the garden that year, I also had the Brandywine and Rutger’s as they produced lots of tomatoes through the fall. These are long producting, indeterminate plants, meaning they will continue to produce for weeks, even months, when the weather cooperates. I took the last ones off the vines in October, still green, and put them away, wrapped in newspaper, in the laundry room, where it was warm. I was still eating fresh tomatoes from my garden at Thanksgiving that year. The pic below shows some of my calabash and one of my Rutger’s from September of that year.

In 2011, I tried a few from seeds again. Mortgage Lifter and Big Rainbow. I wanted to try and enter the largest tomato category in the fair, and also hoped my Big Rainbow would get me another ribbon. The rain in July and August really hurt me, in terms of taste. What was really interesting in what I bought and planted was the single yellow pear tomato plant, that turned into the godzilla of my garden.

That single yellow pear plant produced dozens of tomatoes every day for months. I was taking 40-50 tomatoes a day at its peak. I was oven drying them to make chutneys and spreads. I flash froze a few bags to see how they would do. They were great in vinaigrettes and sauces. If you have nothing but a balcony, get thee to a nursery and find a yellow pear tomato plant to put in a pot. You will not be disappointed as long as you remember to water it if it is hot and dry this summer.

Because of all the renovations at the house this summer, I can’t find any pics of the yellow pears. I was giving them away to the workmen on site all during August and September, I had so many red cherry tomatoes and yellow pears. I did find this pic from 2009 that showed a day’s haul from two cherry tomato plants. This is a typical amount harvested.

As for the fair in 2011, I didn’t do well. The big rainbows ended up not really producing until September, too late for the fair. The early mortgage lifters weren’t big enough to put in the largest tomato category, and they were too watery to win in the heirloom category. Lesson learned. Mother Nature can take you down in a heartbeat.

Here is my biggest big rainbow. At 1 1/2 pounds, it was a pound too light to have won.

My mortgage lifter at the fair. Looked good. Tasted, eh, too watery. The later harvested tomatoes that grew in late September and early October had much better acid and taste.

This is the heirloom that won. See, you can look ugly as an heirloom, taste great and win. Another lesson learned. Don’t worry about stink bug marks. Grow a tasty tomato.

I still have the heirloom tomato growing addiction. I will be over at Sharp’s Farm this April looking for exotic varieties to bring home and plant. I couldn’t really do things from seed this year, with the surgery, so am opting to buy seedlings from Denise. Head over to the farm if you want to grow your own, or pick up a few plants at the Howard County Farmer’s Markets in May. May is the time to put them in the ground, or on your deck, in this part of the country.

To me, nothing says summer like my first gazpacho, made with my tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. And, if you don’t have the space to grow your own, there is always Larriland to pick them yourself.

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Dinner in the Dining Room – Not Just for Holidays

Posted on March 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

We eat in our dining room most nights. I don’t remember what prompted the change from sitting at the island in the kitchen, to setting the table and relaxing over dinner in the dining room. But, it has definitely influenced us. We spend more time sitting and talking and less time watching TV. Not a bad thing by any means.

Using the good napkins and not reserving them for company …

Using the fancier wine glasses, and the Dansk Bistro dinnerware. Inexpensive, the way we did it, but over the years, we ended up with enough to entertain. We found the glasses at Iron Bridge. They would order you a set of four for $40.

When we first moved into our town house, after one of the 1983 blizzards, our cul de sac of twelve houses (23 people) started getting together for a pot luck or themed dinner every other month. You entertained once every two years. The Dansk has been accumulating from years of scouring the outlets on the Eastern Shore, or in PA. Our set is mix and match, but still nice and festive. Somewhere along the way, years ago, I put the stoneware in the donation bags and decided that using the good dishes should be something we did for us. Don’t we deserve to eat off the good plates?

Flowers on the table. I always bring in some of my flowers from around the outside of the house. Before living here, I used to buy flowers at Giant, because they just made me smile. Now, having a variety of flowers all summer long gives me this sense of accomplishment in my garden.

I have to say, now that we moved away from Columbia and don’t eat out as often, the dinner time ritual here has created a transition from working all day long on something to relaxation and conversation.

Do you take the time to sit and enjoy a meal with your family? Do you only eat in the dining room on holidays? Do you have date nights? Like dinner and a movie on Friday night.

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Springing Up All Over

Posted on March 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

The plants and trees are gaining momentum, and as I walk around the property there are new things to discover.

Like, the redbud.

We have a running battle about the redbud. It is heavily shaded and not doing great, but it still tries its best to put on a springtime show for us. I want it to stay. The other half of this family thinks it needs to come out because it is being crowded by the maple and the oaks.

I have no idea what these are. It is one of my goals this year to identify all of the volunteer grasses, weeds, and flowers that carpet our meadow (and our quote, lawn, unquote).

All down the property line, a sea of different shades of green is spreading, and starting to take over in some places.

We don’t have grass all over our property, we have every different type of weed, wildflower, and invasive green stuff you can imagine. I don’t believe in messing with the environment that feeds and nourishes so many of our wild critters around here. The bunnies are happy; the birds are happy. TruGreen isn’t, but I don’t care. This is certainly not the back nine at Hobbits Glen.

Also, the toads are happy. We have three living in the pond at the moment. I don’t know how they get here. The nearest creek is about a half mile away. I like having them there. They will keep the mosquito population at bay. The pond has a small pump and trickle of water, but the lower shallow end has standing water. The toads love mosquito larvae, so they are welcome to live in the pond all summer.

The spring and summer birds are slowly returning. More finches, more red winged blackbirds and cowbirds. The hummingbirds aren’t here yet, but I read that they have been sighted as far north as Canada already. We always have two or three that frequent my feeder and my neighbors. They will come up even when you are sitting out there.

The butterflies are back.

The garlic in the herb garden is coming up nicely.

For me, spring is my favorite season, full of growth and promises of warmth to come. New beginnings.

Time to go out and do some more planting.

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Frost Happens!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

It never seems to fail. The tulips come up. The herbs start growing. Thankfully, I didn’t transplant the lettuces yet.

And then, we get a frost warning. I had to cut some herbs and bring them in, so I could cover the rest.

Covering the garlic and herb beds.

And the tulips in the front of the house, just the ones that haven’t opened yet.

The ones that had fully opened or that were all by themselves, not worth spending the time to cover the single bulbs, came in to be the centerpiece on the dining room table. I usually do this later in the spring, but you can’t beat Mother Nature.

The temps will hit the 20s here tonight. Here’s hoping it doesn’t mess up the strawberries and the fruit trees coming along nicely for spring.

As well as the grape vines. Budbreak has occurred in some areas due to the warm spring weather. Cross your fingers for the farmers spending a tough night protecting their plants.

As for me, I am just happy the weeping cherry hit its peak and is already shedding its flowers. I love it when it reaches that intense pink and white loveliness.

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