Baltimore Life, Heirloom Vegetable Day

photo image by craftytokyomama

If you are an avid urban gardener like me, you might like to check this out! Meet some like minded souls from across Baltimore City this weekend at the Cylburn Arboretum.

The Heirloom Vegetable Show will be held on the beautiful grounds of this special park in the newly constructed green building, the Vollmer Center. Learn about the benefits of growing heirloom veggies, seed sourcing, and get connected with the new Cylburn Seed Exchange group!

There will be Canning and Preserving workshops at Noon and 2pm.

Admission is free and open to everyone! Hope to see you there!

Baltimore Life: Springtime at Cylburn Arboretum

It's Spring, and there is no better time to plan a visit to the budding gardens of the Cylburn Arboretum. I seek out green spaces where my family can frolic on these early days of the season. Being confined in a formstone rowhouse in the middle of the city gets me yearning for some woodland flowers and naturalized daffodils this time of year. The 207 acre grounds at the Arboretum have been closed for new building construction and renovations for over a year now, and I have been waiting for the gates to reopen!

The grand opening of the green Vollmer Center, Saturday May 1st. The celebration has lots of fun planned all day with family garden events, exhibits, demonstrations and food. The Nature Museum on the grounds will be open and there will be presentations by William Moss,
Environmental Educator and Urban Garden Expert.

On Saturday May 8th, the Arboretum hosts Market Day, an annual spring plant sale-fundraiser featuring all kinds of plants from garden clubs, vendors, and the Cylburn Greenhouse. I'll be stocking up this year!
This park is located within the city limits, yet it remains a beautiful conservation area full of native plants and wildlife. Gardens of all kinds, fill the grounds. It is a great place to be in the spring!

Indie-pendent businesses: Baltimore Contained

Feeling a bit of spring fever lately? Cure it with a visit to a bright little garden spot, right in the middle of Canton.
Anne Fleshman opened Baltimore Contained last fall, hoping to make Southeast Baltimore a little greener and more colorful with her gardening expertise. Her small business was created to address the unique needs of the urban gardener. The inspiration, personal touch and great service this shop offers is worth a visit this spring!

If you bring in a container, Anne can design an arrangement in store for you to take home. You can pot up and plant in the store, so there is less mess at home! She'll coach a novice gardener or inspire the seasoned green thumb to successful container gardening.

Anne is offering workshops with hands on flower and herb containers for long lasting displays. She specializes in organic gardening and can help you create show stopping planters in their container design classes.

Baltimore Contained has also generously contributed to the neighborhood, donating crocus and daffodil bulbs to the Southeast Anchor Library for gardening club projects. Look for her flowers in the front beds this spring!

They don't call me Tigerlilly for nothin'!

These beauties are growing in pots in my concrete backyard in Highlandtown. We live in one of the most barren parts of our neighborhood. I have watched the greening efforts on my block fail as people disregard the new trees and flower pots as some of the residents meagerly try to maintain them against the odds. Our yard is fenced, so things are out of reach from metal pipe wielding kids, trash, and you don't want to know what else...

In my insistance on beauty, I bought an Asiatic/Oriental lily bulb mix for my blazing hot backyard about 2 yrs ago and have been totally stunned at the blooms that we have gotten from them! These pics are the second wave of lily blooms I have had. We have already had melony-orange and speckled freckly yellow/orange go by. White, yellow, and my stargazers are going to open in about a week or so. These plants are totally fool proof if you give them the basics. If I can grow them here, you will probably have luck with them, too!