Milby farmhouse soaked with history
(This article marks the second in a series that will focus on historic farmhouses in Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties. These homes have been in the same family for decades, and are being given new life by the younger generation that now lives in them.) Talbot...
Feng shui to blissful garden space
Feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of placement, gets a lot of attention inside a living space when arranging furniture, choosing paint colors and decluttering. But its principles are just as applicable outside the home, says Sara Danenmann, owner of Wind & Water...
Make sure to save some for later
After growing your garden with sunshine, sprinkles of rain and love, the time to pick and preserve your garden bounty has come. Depending on how the season is going, that could involve blood, sweat and tears, too. But joking aside, canning and preserving often get a...
Don’t let a lawn stress out and stress you out
Summer is supposed to be the low-stress season with vacations, long days, warm weather and lots of options for fun, but if the weather turns dry for long stretches, it can be a stressful time for your lawn. Extended drought periods or extreme heat can turn grass brown...
Don’t you want some bunny to love?
2020 was a big year for the Eastern Shore Rabbit Rescue and Education Center. Housed in a tiny building in Rock Hall, the rescue, since it began in 2012 has placed more than 200 rescued rabbits in new homes and last year was responsible for 83 of them. People were...
Stories abound from Adshead farmhouse
(This article marks the first in a series that will focus on historic farmhouses in Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties. These homes have been in the same family for decades, and are being given new life by the younger generation that now lives in them.) in...
‘Is that bush a snowball or a smoothie?’
With similar clusters of showy white flowerheads, several popular home garden woody shrub landscape plants are commonly called “Snowball” bushes. Horticultural professionals can help untangle the confusion, but to do so they need to introduce scientific names to help...
Use bats to get rid of mosquitoes
In the spring and summer, as daylight fades and dusk sets in, bats flit and flutter in the evening sky. They are mysterious creatures, revered by some and feared by others. The truth is, they are a fragile yet integral part of our ecosystem and desperately need our...
A melting pot of culture, activity
Easton is a town with a strong appreciation of art, its streets lined with multiple galleries and hosting several arts festivals. Still, while the landscape and wildlife pieces that are aplenty are breathtaking, there are several kinds of art that haven’t had the same...
Goat’s milk proving to be tried and true
In 1880, Swiss author Johanna Spyri published her internationally acclaimed novel “Heidi.” For more than 100 years, readers have been captivated by the heartwarming tale of young Heidi and the tender way she and her good friend Peter care for their herd of goats in...
Dogwood trees worth the extra work
Dogwood trees can at times feel like caring for a young child. A favorite of Southerners, the trees are a bit picky about where they’re put, getting cranky in too much sun, moisture or dryness or when their environment changes quickly. But their inspiring beauty and...
Try tomatoes that don’t bite back
The second Sunday in May is set aside for celebrating moms, grandmoms, and others who have lovingly nurtured us. But it also marks the unofficial start of outdoor planting season for gardeners who’ve lovingly tended tomato plants...
Brothers are history detectors
If you have ever spotted someone ambling along in a field, slowly swinging a metal detector to and fro with each careful step, and wondered, “What could they possibly be finding out there?”, the answer might surprise you. The Mid-Shore is rife with history and...
Plant pairing sites prepare combo platter
As a former editor of The Mid-Atlantic Grower newspaper for horticulture and a garden club member, I get lots of e-mails about gardening. Recently an e-mail from Proven Winners announced the launch of a new, free “Perfect Plant Pairings” tool which was developed to...
Growing ‘forgotten fruit’
If you could choose any fruit tree to grow, which would you pick?. Today’s iconic standby, the apple, would likely be the most popular answer. But some area growers with a taste for adventure are branching out, helping to carve a new niche for forgotten native...
Help out those hummingbirds … naturally
One of the sweetest visual treats of spring is viewing those visiting bejeweled beauties, hummingbirds. To keep the seasonal spectacle going, people often double down in their feeding efforts, dutifully purchasing or making syrup, filling, then rigorously cleaning...
A plan to can is a plan for the future
There’s no need to go into detail that 2020 was strange, but one good thing that may have come out of it is more downtime and many people looking to grow and preserve their own food. The process offers a way to cut grocery costs and boost the body with more healthy...
It’s just the way the worm turns
Not all worms are created equal. Gardeners typically consider worms “the best thing you can do for your soils.” But that is not true, asserts Ryan Hueffmeier, director of the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center in Minnesota. He was the speaker in a recent Zoom...
When a nest can become a pest
A popular and pesky spot that birds choose to nest, such as this mother blackbird and her chicks, are the corners of a porch or garage roof. There’s something so fascinating about finding a bird’s nest as a child. A little home crafted by birds using bits of nature to...
Classical arrangement: New life for vintage jewelry
Some 40 years ago, Nancy Jarvis opened her front door to find a large unlabeled box she wasn’t expecting. Upon opening it, she found it full of artificial flowers and it fueled her craftiness and creativity. “I just went crazy,” she said. “I started making wreaths and...
Victory garden guru helps create home-grown veggie bliss
Self-described “novice lettuce grower” Page Lansdale was also his family’s lone tomato lover, and he brought forth a crop a few years back. But, in a Claiborne neighborhood laden with Master Gardeners, he yearned for his own vegetable garden. As if by fate, a friend...
