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November 22, 2024

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

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The Talbot County Garden Club Hosts Kathleen Biggins and a Discussion on Climate Change

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Kathleen Biggins

The Talbot County Garden Club will hold a free online lecture featuring the founder and president of C-Change, Kathleen Biggins, on Wednesday, March 24, at 11 a.m. This is the last in the club’s winter speaker series

C-Change Conversations is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting productive, non-partisan discussions about the science and effects of climate change.

The organization, comprised of volunteers who span the political spectrum, sponsors the C-Change Conversations Lecture Series. Kathleen also developed the C-Change Primer with input from Climate Central and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Team members have presented the Primer to nearly 10,000 people in 29 states, and it is widely hailed as an intelligent, dispassionate introduction to and illumination of climate change. The Primer has been endorsed by business, political and social leaders, and enthusiastically received by many conservative audiences across the country. Learn more at www.c-changeconversations.org

To register for this free event, go to www.talbotcountygc.org or https://bit.ly/3r9VUXG

About the Talbot County Garden Club

The Talbot County Garden Club was established in 1917 to enrich the natural beauty of the environment by sharing knowledge of gardening, fostering the art of flower arranging, maintaining civic projects, supporting projects that benefit Talbot County and encouraging the conservation of natural resources.  Noteworthy projects include maintaining the grounds of the Talbot Historical Society, Talbot Courthouse, Talbot Library, the fountain and childrens gardens at Idlewild Park and numerous other gardens and activities.  There are currently a total of 109 active, associate and honorary members.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Talbot County Women’s Club Hosts Flower Mart & Craft Fair

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The Talbot County Women’s Club is hosting the “Garden Gate Fundraiser Flower Mart & Craft Fair” on April 22 through April 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the Talbot County Women’s Club located at 18 Talbot Lane in Easton (behind the Waterfowl Building).

The Flower Mart will offer wide selections of geraniums, annuals, perennials, and herbs, as well as hanging baskets and garden planters for both sun and shade. The Craft Fair will offer a nice selection of outdoor living and garden décor items from pots and planters to bird feeders and birdhouses, as well as locally-made jewelry and other unique items.

“Our Flower Mart and Fair is just in time for Mother’s Day gift-giving and spring planting and offers the opportunity to shop safely outside. The goal of this year’s event is to raise funds to be able to support our numerous service projects as well as support the restoration efforts for the historic house where the Club meets,” comments Nancy Lutes, President of the Talbot County Women’s Club.

The Talbot County Women’s Club, a registered non-profit, was founded in 1930 by a small group of women with the desire to serve the community while also building lifelong friendships. Four key principles have guided the work of the Club over the 90 years it has been operating and include supporting service projects, building deep friendships, creating lifelong learning experiences, and maintaining a center for the Club’s activities.

Club activities over the years included visiting patients and supporting their needs at the Eastern Shore Hospital Center in Cambridge; providing non-perishable food items to the Neighborhood Center, Talbot Senior Center, and Department of Aging; providing backpacks for Easton Middle School students; knitting and crocheting hats for the Little Hats, Big Hearts campaign for the American Heart Association; and sponsoring scholarships to women returning to Chesapeake College for their degrees.

“Our Club offers an excellent opportunity for new residents to meet other women, as well as get to know the community,” Lutes adds.

The club is always seeking new members.  For more information please visit  talbotcountywomensclub.org or call Nancy Lutes, President, 410-310-8919.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Grow Your Garden at the St. Michaels Community Garden

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Have you caught the pandemic gardening bug? The St. Michaels Community Garden is kicking off its 9th season of providing community members with space to grow their own vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits, and more for personal consumption or for donation, as chosen by the gardeners themselves.

From left: Gardeners Catharine Fritscher and Jim Walsh with Chris Barnhardt of Barnhardt Lawn Service at the St. Michaels Community Garden

The garden, launched in 2012 with support from a local Eagle Scout, St. Michaels Rotary Club and others, includes 40, 4-foot by 14-foot beds, which are available for rent on a yearly basis. Gardeners work together to maintain the lawn and common path areas while individual gardeners are responsible for maintaining their own beds and nearby paths. The community garden, located between Fremont and Conner Streets, provides water, hoses, and gardening tools, with participants including St. Michaels in Bloom and Critchlow Adkins Children’s Centers, among other groups and individuals.

The St. Michaels Community Center serves as fiscal agent for the community garden, with the $5 per year/per bed rental fee and other donations helping to maintain the property year-round. The land is leased through the Town of St. Michaels.

Beds are currently available for the coming season. For more information, call SMCC at 410-745-6073. Social distancing measures outlined by the State of Maryland and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be adhered to for the season. Participants are also encouraged to bring and use their own tools or sanitize shared tools before and after each use.

St. Michaels Community Center continues to serve as the Bay Hundred’s food distribution site in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of its mission to serve, empower, and connect the community.

Donations to SMCC and proceeds from the Treasure Cove Thrift Shop in St. Michaels, Md. help the nonprofit provide year-round services for people from throughout the Bay Hundred area. More information is at stmichaelscc.org.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Queen Anne’s County Master Gardeners Offer Virtual Seed Swap

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The University of Maryland Extension Queen Anne’s County Master Gardeners are hosting a virtual Seed Swap between February 7th and February 13th, 2021 online at go.umd.edu/SendMeSeeds. For this event, seeds will be grouped together and sent directly to you.  You may also pick them up from the Queen Anne’s County Library in Centreville or on Kent Island. Because of limited supply, seeds will be limited to one packet per person.  We will fill the orders in the order that we receive them and do our best to give you the top choice.

Seeds can be picked up at the Queen Anne’s County Library in Kent Island (200 Library Circle Stevensville, MD 21666) on Tuesday, February 23rd from 10:15 A.M. – 5:45 P.M.or at the Queen Anne’s County Library in Centreville (121 S. Commerce St Centreville, MD 21617) on Wednesday, February 24th from 10:15 A.M. – 5:45 P.M.

Container mix may include cucumbers, tomato, peppers, and/or herbs.

Pollinator will include a mix of annual flowers.

Salad Mix may include lettuce, peas, carrots, radish, and/or spinach.

Summer Vegetable Garden Mix may include tomato, peppers, squash, watermelon, cucumbers, bush beans, and/or cantaloupe.

Herb mix may include basil, thyme, cilantro, and/or parsley.

Salsa mix may include tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and/or onions.

Cool Season Fall Vegetable mix may include lettuce, carrots, radish, beets, spinach, broccoli, kale, and/or cabbage.

Fall Squash mix may include pumpkins and/or fall squash.

Seeds for the seed swap were donated by the following businesses: Southern States, An Eastridge Garden, Burpee, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Price & Gannon True Value

For more information call or email the University of Maryland Extension Queen Anne’s County Master Gardener Coordinator, Rachel Rhodes, at 410-758-0166 or [email protected]. Rachel J. Rhodes is the Horticulture Educator and Master Gardener Coordinator for the University of Maryland Extension in Queen Anne’s County. She is one third of the Garden Thyme Podcast. The Garden Thyme Podcast is a monthly podcast where University of Maryland Extension Educators, help you get down and dirty in your garden, with timely gardening tips, information about native plants, and more! For further information, please visit https://extension.umd.edu/queen-annes-county/master-gardener-home-gardening or see us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/QueenAnnesCountyMasterGardeners or listen to The Garden Thyme Podcast at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/687509

University programs, activities, and facilities are available to all without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, religion, protected veteran status, genetic information, personal appearance, or any other legally protected class.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

January Gardening Tips

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After almost an entire year of quarantining, it is a great time to pause and reflect on last year’s gardening success and failures. Here are some simple easy tips to help get your mind and garden ready for the upcoming growing season.

  • Do not handle the hairy poison ivy vines wrapped around trees. Be aware that the offending oil of poison ivy, urushiol, is active and can produce symptoms during any time of the year. Be very careful not to bring firewood into the house with poison ivy vines attached
  • Heavy snow and ice loads can damage shrubs. Using an upward motion, gently sweep snow loads off shrubs to prevent breakage. However, oftentimes bent or weighed down branches will spring back after the snow/ice melts.
  • Order fruit plants from mail-order companies in January and February for early spring planting. Refer to our small and tree fruit sections on the website.
  • Decide on a good site for a new vegetable garden: sunny, level, access to water.
  • Make a garden plan. Put your plan in a notebook or garden journal and start recording ideas, notes from reading, or websites.
  • Purchase a high-low thermometer, to track weather patterns throughout the year.
  • Order catalogs and seeds, especially if you want to start slow-growing, unusual, or heirloom varieties indoors under lights. (See HG #70 “Recommended Vegetable Cultivars for Maryland Home Gardens”- on the Grow It Eat It website).
  • Test viability of saved or leftover seeds by placing 20 on a moist paper towel; roll up and put in a perforated plastic bag. Set bag on top of the refrigerator; in 7 days, count sprouted seeds. If less than 70 percent, toss out and buy new seed.
  • Be sure to clean your bird feeders once every two weeks or more often if seeds get wet or if sick birds visit your feeder. Dirty feeders can spread disease, and spoiled seeds can make birds sick.
  • Bird’s remember-feeding them regularly brings them back. Provide high-fat feed during the winter.
  • Birds are thirsty. Clean your birdbaths regularly. Even during winter, birds need a reliable source of freshwater.
  • Recycle your Christmas tree. Recycled Christmas trees can be used for mulch, soil erosion barriers and many other environmentally friendly uses. Click on the links below to find out how your county recycles Christmas trees. https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/Marylander/Pages/ChristmasTreeRecycling.aspx

Bagworm (Photo credit: Rachel J. Rhodes)–Remove and destroy bagworm bags from affected trees especially if seen on evergreens.

Indoor Plant and Insect Tips

  • Be careful not to overwater houseplants. Most houseplants should be watered only when the top of the growing medium begins to dry out.
  • Cut back or stop fertilizing houseplants unless they are grown under supplemental lighting.
  • Did you receive amaryllis for the holidays? Keep it in a sunny window. After it is done flowering, the plant will produce leaves and with proper care can rebloom.
  • Indoor herb plants benefit from daily misting and full sun windows.
  • Avoid the temptation to start seeds too early. Check seed packets for detailed information on starting various types of flowers. Do not depend on windowsill light to grow these seedlings. Refer to our instructions on starting seeds indoors.
  • Indian meal moths are a common problem of grains and grain products, cereals, birdseeds, dried pet food, etc. You may see adult moths flying, larvae crawling, or webbing. Always check bulk foods before purchasing for signs of meal moth infestation.
  • Don’t store firewood inside your home. Only bring in enough to burn at one time. Bark and other wood-boring beetles may emerge inside the home.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Adkins Arboretum Announces Fall Native Plant Sale—Online!

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Prepare for fall in the garden! Adkins Arboretum, offering the Chesapeake gardener the best selection of landscape-ready native plants for more than 20 years, announces its Fall Native Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum’s rich variety of education programs, scheduled to resume in 2021, that teach about the Delmarva’s native plants and their connection to a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

Due to recommendations regarding COVID-19, the fall sale will be conducted entirely online. Orders will be accepted through Thurs., Aug. 27 at adkinsarboretum.org and will be fulfilled via timed pickup. There will be no in-person shopping at the Arboretum.

Fall is the best season for planting, and the Arboretum offers the Chesapeake region’s largest selection of ornamental native trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and grasses for the fall landscape. Many native plants produce seeds, flowers and fruit in fall that attract migratory birds and butterflies. Brilliant orange butterfly weed and stunning red cardinal flower attract pollinators to the garden, while native asters add subtle shades of purple and blue. Redbud and dogwood dot the early-spring landscape with color, and shrubs such as chokeberry and beautyberry provide food and habitat for wildlife.

Native asters add color to the fall landscape and attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators to the garden. Photo by Kellen McCluskey.

For those not sure how to integrate native plants into their landscape, the Arboretum’s Native Landscape Design Center has launched a new service targeted to smaller areas. In a 90-minute smartphone or video call, professional landscape designer Christina Pax will meet with participants to help devise beautiful and sound ideas for an area targeted for design. The ideas will incorporate native plants, support practices that clean and reduce runoff, and bring colorful support for pollinators and birds to the landscape. At the end of the meeting, participants will have a plant shopping list and a sketch that shows where to plant the plants. The fee for this service is $240. To learn more or to sign up, send email to [email protected].

As always, Arboretum members receive a generous discount on plants that varies according to membership level. Leon Andrus, the Arboretum’s first benefactor, lived to the age of 101. In honor of his long and fulfilling life, the Arboretum is seeking 101 new members during 2020. To join, visit adkinsarboretum.org or contact Kellen McCluskey at [email protected].

For more information on plants, purchasing or pickup procedures, visit adkinsarboretum.org, send email to [email protected] or leave a message at 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

The “Frances P.” Gets a New Coat of Paint

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Girls from Boy Scouts of America Troop 1091 gave the “Frances P.” in the Frances Plate Memorial Garden a new coat of paint as part of a troop project. The boat is a replica of a Chesapeake Bay work boat and is a favorite among children who play in the garden.

The Frances Plate Memorial Garden is located in Idlewild Park in Easton and was established by the Talbot County Garden Club in 2001. A committee of Club members maintain the garden, which also includes sculptures, a fountain, and a covered seating area nestled among native plants.

Easton, Troop 1091 participants working on the boat are Rosalyn Perez, Meghan O’Connor, Katey Tuttle, Juliana Stepp, Laura Fresco Rubio, and Gabbie Smith.

The all-girl troop, led by Scoutmaster Lori Stepp and Assistant Scoutmaster Kelly Tuttle, spent 2 days sanding, priming and painting the boat while adhering to safety guidelines regarding COVID-19.

About the Talbot County Garden Club

The Talbot County Garden Club was established in 1917 to enrich the natural beauty of the environment by sharing knowledge of gardening, fostering the art of flower arranging, maintaining civic projects, supporting projects that benefit Talbot County and encouraging the conservation of natural resources.  Noteworthy projects include maintaining the grounds of the Talbot Historical Society, Talbot Courthouse, Talbot Library, the fountain and childrens’ gardens at Idlewild Park and numerous other gardens and activities.  There are currently more than 100 active, associate and honorary members.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

The Garden Hoes – June Edition

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As Dr. Wayne Dyer said, “The only difference between a flower and a weed is judgment.” June weeds are certainly testing our judgment. As we move into our third month of quarantine, our gardens are buzzing with activity. In this month’s episode, we discuss how to become garden detectives with Integrated Pest Management or IPM, fungal spots, timely watering tips, and our features for tip/bug/native plant of the month!

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a research-based holistic approach to pest management that emphasizes biological control versus the use of pesticides until absolutely necessary. In Maryland, we typically experience hot dry summers. Swiftly, our days merge from tranquil and breezy to sweltering and humid. During this time, our plants may show signs of decline. Making sure that they’re properly watered and taken care of will help ensure their survival. For more Watering Tips for Drought Conditions check out Factsheet HG85

Timing:
IPM – Start
Fungal Spots at (~6:55)
Watering Tips at (~10:00)
Native Plant of the Month at (~14:20) “Asclepiassyriaca,” or common milkweed
Bug of the Month at (~20:00) “Water Strides” aka Jesus bugs
Garden Tips of the Month at (~23:00) “Bagworms, warm-season crop updates, and garden updates”

If you have a gardening dilemma or gardening questions join the Garden Hoes (Podcast) on their second installment of “Ask the Garden Hoes,” on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, from 11 am until 12 pm. This live webinar will address real-life gardening questions with a Q&A for participants. Feel free to submit your questions and photos ahead of time online: https://forms.gle/NJaYXxRdaqUYZkmn6. This program is free and open to the public, but registration required: https://go.umd.edu/askgardenhoes

The Garden Hoes Podcast is a monthly podcast where we help you get down and dirty in your garden, with timely gardening tips, information about native plants, and more! The Garden Hoes Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County). The University of Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Equal Access Programs. We want to remind everyone that we are open to all audiences, and will continue to serve our communities.

To listen to the podcast visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/687509 or visit Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardenHoesPodcast/

University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all people and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, or national origin, marital status, genetic information, or political affiliation, or gender identity and expression.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Ask the Garden Hoes

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If you have a gardening dilemma or gardening questions join the Garden Hoes (Podcast) on their second installment of “Ask the Garden Hoes,” on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, from 11 am until 12 pm. This live webinar will address real-life gardening questions with a Q&A for participants. Feel free to submit your questions and photos ahead of time online: https://forms.gle/NJaYXxRdaqUYZkmn6 This program is free and open to the public, but registration required: https://go.umd.edu/askgardenhoes

The Garden Hoes Podcast is a monthly podcast where we help you get down and dirty in your garden, with timely gardening tips, information about native plants, and more! The Garden Hoes Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County). University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all. To listen to the podcast visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/687509 or visit Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardenHoesPodcast/

University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all people and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, or national origin, marital status, genetic information, or political affiliation, or gender identity and expression.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Planning Your Landscape Like a Pro (Part 2), by Meredith Watters

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“Planning Your Landscape Like a Pro (Part 1)” described how to begin the process of creating your own home landscape design, how to measure, document, and print a sketch of your land plat.    Now comes the fun part — making design decisions to create a beautiful, well thought out garden plan!

First, take a good, analytical look at your house.  Consider design features you already have, such as arches, columns, materials (such as brick, stone, wood), or perhaps the color scheme.

No Landscape

Bad Landscape

Good Landscape

Consider these elements when putting together your overall design.

Form: mostly refers to the architecture, which can be seen as a sense of bulk, expanse, emptiness, height, breadth, straight/curvy, or geometric shapes.  Questions you should ask:

–Do I need to add a sense of height (such as for ranch style architecture)? Include including vertical elements?

–Do I need to reduce height? Use weeping plants or distracting the eye with a great deal of interest on the ground plane.

Color: expressed through plant leaves, flowers, fruit, stems/bark, or even furniture, colors of stone, brick, paint, pottery.

–Use three colors max (not including green).  Yellow or light green plants can make plants look sick; dark green is somber and heavy; bright blue can distract; warm colors (red, yellow, orange) advance toward you; cool colors (blue and pastels) recede; white is neutral.

–Choose your color palette by referring to a color wheel.  On it, find the color you love and what works well with your house color, and then choose the complementary color on the opposite side of the wheel.

–Use brightly colored plants in limited quantities.

Texture: found in plant material (fine textures recede and coarse texture enlarges space and makes for a good accent).  Also found in hardscape, which can be soft textures and therefore recedes, or bold (like the use of boulders), which are focal points.

Line: the easiest element to use.  Lines draws the eye. Curvy lines show movement and relax the viewer, and slows the pace.  Straight lines establish formality and purpose.

The following Design Elements will also provide a sense of order, structure, and unity for planning your landscape.

Simplicity: achieved through repetition, massing, line, materials, color. Limit the different types of plants or their colors. Limit the different kinds of surface or structural materials.

Balance: symmetrical creates formality, asymmetrical creates informality – what’s your preference?

Variety: too much is confusing, and monotone is too boring.

Dominance: be careful not to create too much dominance of one element such as too many accent pieces, repetition of over-powering types of plant shapes, color, etc.  A special specimen or accent plant can provide strong interest, so be careful not to overuse it.

Scale/Proportion: a height-to-width proportion of 2:1 yields a nice personal scale, 3:1 is an excellent social or larger setting.  If a house is two stories tall plus roof (30’high overall) and has a very dominant physical presence, I would suggest your landscaping beds should be at least 15’ deep(wide), i.e., out, from the house foundation.  Within the 15’ setting, sidewalks or patios should be included in the landscaping when analyzing the scale/proportion.  If you had only a 6’ wide plant bed along the tall house foundation, the house doesn’t feel “grounded or well-blended” into the landscape.

Repetition: accomplished through repeating curves, angles, shrubs, ground covers, color, hardscape material can all create unity.

A few more suggestions:

–Try using your garden hose to outline a new bed design.  Put your patio furniture (tables and chairs) in the space where you think you want a new patio.

–The more the plant beds are covered with spreading ground covers, perennials, and shrubs, the fewer weeds because sunlight, critical to survival, is blocked.

–Don’t plant tall shrubs just 2’ away from the house foundation. Doing so will create problems for cleaning windows, painting the house, blocking crawl space air vents.  Research the ultimate size of all your plant purchases.  Just because they are 1’ high now, doesn’t mean that they won’t grow to 10’wide x 10’ tall.

–Pop the plants out of their container and see if it is root bound in the pot before purchasing.  Roots growing in circles in the pot is a long-term problem for some woody shrubs, and especially trees.

–When deciding on how many plants to use, try to use groupings of 3, 5, or 7. Consider staggering them in a zig-zag fashion, instead of planting in a row.  After all,  if one dies years later, what are you going to do with an empty hole?

Of course, there are many other environmental considerations to make, such as water drainage, presence of pesky rabbits or deer, soil quality, etc.  Look for previous Spy articles that I wrote about soil quality (Spy Gardening: Let’s Talk Dirt) and how to prune plants (Spy Gardening: Winter’s False Start (to Springtime)).

If you have any questions, please call me to discuss your situation.

Meredith Watters, Watterscape Designs, received her Masters in Landscape Architecture in 1985. In her consulting and design of residential landscapes, she maintains a strong focus on ecologically sensitive and creative outdoor solutions.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.