Regulars (All)

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/9/13

Maternal Roots

I was raised in the garden

My mother had three flower gardens, and my dad cared for the vegetable garden when we lived in Laconia, New Hampshire. The garden between the sidewalk and the foundation of the house was approximately two feet wide and 15 feet long. Here mother planted annuals that she started from seeds on the sun porch using discarded egg cartons. As the seedlings grew she transplanted them into Dixie cups that she rescued from the trash bin following church dinners. Petunias were her favorite followed by...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/2/13

Reminders of Halley’s Comet

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower returns

The moon wanes through morning skies this week, reaching last quarter Thursday, May 2, when it shines between the faint constellations Capricornus and Aquarius and is high in the south by dawn. The sun sets this week around 8pm, revealing Jupiter high in the west, brighter than any star. However, if you have a clear view of the west-northwest horizon just after sunset, you may find the only brighter star-like object to the lower right of Jupiter: Venus, which is slowly...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/2/13

The Story of Compost

From low places to high

Governor Martin and First Lady Katie O’Malley may not be aware that in 1985 I tried to convince the gardeners in charge of the state properties in Annapolis to apply compost to the turf. The idea was met with great resistance because the gardeners thought it would take too much time, and they did not believe it would improve the turf. We’d already been turned down in higher places. During the Carter administration, those of us doing research...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/2/13

The Full Monty

Shad, perch and rockfish — why choose when you can fish them all?

It was opening day of trophy rockfish on the Chesapeake, but Moe and I were going shad fishing. Crossing the Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore, we could see that our decision was sound: The surface of the Bay was churned milky white from the breaking waves driven by near 40-knot winds. An hour later, however, casting over a rain-swollen and tannin-stained Choptank, we wondered if we had made the right choice after all. But within a few minutes a hickory shad, mimicking a...

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 5/2/13

Cueing Up for Food, Fun and Music

Follow the smoke to the Naptown barBAYq

This weekend brings the third annual Naptown barBAYq Contest and Music Festival to the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds. This two-day fundraising event is organized by the Parole Rotary Club and has expanded to include two days of music as well as a large field of barbeque competitors with names like Que and a Half Men and Aporkalypse Now. Last year’s event raised $30,000 for local charities. The grills start rolling into the Crownsville fairgrounds on Friday, nearly 60...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 4/25/13

By the Rings of Saturn

Can you notice the Seeliger Effect?

Thursday marks April’s full moon, also called the Pink Moon for the early blooming phlox, the Grass Moon for the return of verdant lawns and the Fish Moon, hereabouts commemorating the opening of rockfish season. That evening, the moon rises in the east as the sun sets in the west. In parts of Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Asia, Earth’s shadow will partially eclipse the moon. The rest of us will have to be content with the golden glow of Saturn above the moon and to its...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 4/25/13

Earth Day

We need its reminders more than ever

I was involved in the very first Earth Day, and I remain a strong supporter of its goals. The earth we grow our crops in is our umbilical cord for survival. The proverb take care of the earth and the earth will take care of you is true in more ways than one. If we continue to rape the earth as we have, we will leave nothing for future generations. This earth has provided us with an abundance of food and has helped to sustain us in many other ways. We have an obligation...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 4/25/13

Big Problems with Blue Crabs

We need sustainable, not seesaw, management

Our blue crabs are in trouble again. Since last year, the juvenile crab count had plummeted to 111 million, down from 587 million in 2012, according to the 2013 Winter Dredge Survey results. The overall number of crabs in the Bay dropped by over 60 percent. Blue crabs may, once again, be approaching the crisis levels of five or six years ago. Fishfinder The trophy season opened Saturday with half-gale winds and whitecaps from shore to shore. Despite that, the Bay...

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 4/25/13

Have a Little Cake with Your Asparagus

Asparagus specials are popping up, but to celebrate 20 years, Bay Weekly serves cake

May is National Asparagus Month. This perennial spring vegetable is one of the first harvests of the season and a favorite on menus. A distant cousin of the lily, asparagus takes some dedication to cultivate, about three years before your first crop. But once it takes, the stalks can grow up to four inches in one day. If your green thumb hasn’t stretched to asparagus, you’ll find the stalky green popping up all over — in farmers markets,...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 4/18/13

Return of the Lyrids

The waxing moon makes predawn skies your best bet for this annual meteor shower

The moon is at first-quarter phase Thursday the 18th. Even with only half its face illuminated, the moon washes out the stars of amid the constellation Cancer the crab, in which it rests that night. But if you look beyond the moon, you will see that it is juxtaposed between a triangle of three more or less equally bright stars: Procyon to the west, Regulus to the east and Pollux to the north. Friday evening the moon is to the right of Regulus, and by Saturday it is just a...