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!

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!

Digging in That Dirt!

It's almost time, and for many of us, this will be the best garden year ever. Out of necessity. My husband and I take our urban gardening very seriously, but I admit, since Pepita was born, we haven't had nearly as much energy to keep it up as we've had in years past.

The year will be different, though. This year, we are ready.

I am so excited to print out this free spring garden guide from Little House in the Suburbs to help us organize our thoughts and planting schedule.

Once you establish the frost-free date for your area, this planner will tell you each week what seeds can be started, what can be planted out, and what can be direct sowed from now through the end of the spring planting season. (Italics are used to indicate it's your last chance to get that particular vegetable going.) Then, in the blanks below, you can record what you decided to plant, varieties, notes, what-have-you.

I love, love, love the planning part of winter. I can almost smell that dirt!