Regulars (All)

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 7/28/11

Code Orange Means Danger to Plants As Well As People

Healthier plants mean more oxygen and a healthier you

While relaxing in my hammock under the shade of our mature cherry bark oak trees, I realized that my heritage river birch tree, growing in front on my house, was expressing air pollution symptoms. The older leaves were turning yellow and beginning to fall. I noticed similar symptoms on the magnolia and crape myrtle. In the Garden this Week Make the Right Pruning Cuts After reading last week’s timely tip on summer-pruning trees and shrubs, you’ll no doubt go to...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/28/11

The One that Got Away

Far sweeter than the ones I ate

The incoming tide had just started by the time I slowed my skiff at the Bay Bridge. Nervously, I hooked up a nine-inch spot on a 6/0 hook and eased up to one of the larger multiple pilings. It would take a big rockfish to eat this bait. Throwing the motor into neutral in the slack water just down-current of the structure, I lobbed my baitfish out between the large concrete columns. The spot swam off, stripping line from my freely turning spool and making for the bottom 20...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 7/21/11

Fall Vegetables Start Now

Lots more good can come from your garden

For a feast-full fall garden, now is the time for planning and planting. On the other hand, if you want to take it easy after your spring and summer harvests, then simply plant a cover crop of winter rye in those areas where the crops have been harvested. If you like Brussels sprouts, now is the time to get the seeds in the ground. Brussels sprouts produce biggest yields when planted early so that the stem of each plant grows to its maximum height by mid-September, when the...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/21/11

River Monsters in a Mid-Bay Creek

Channel cats give a good fight and good eating

Wife Deborah and I were enjoying a lazy afternoon fishing one of the Bay’s many small tributaries when it happened. I had just made a long cast to a downed tree that, I hoped, harbored more of the fat 10-inch perch that we had been gathering for a fish fry. Fishfinder The big spot have arrived, and panfishing is on fire in the mid-Bay. Hefty croaker, large perch and the Norfolks are here in serious numbers now. At Belvedere Shoals, Podickery, Hackett’s, Tolley...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer - 7/21/11

Annapolis Is a Walking Town

But Is It a Walk-Friendly Community?

Annapolis is a walking town. It has always been so. In 1695, Gov. Francis Nicholson designed it so people could move from home to church to pubs to school to businesses in a two- to five-block walk. Compact neighborhoods still make Annapolis a place to walk and wander and wonder. Live here and you can walk to church and to school and to businesses and to pubs. Visit and you can explore your eclectic interests, peer over a garden gate of a colonial house on narrow streets and...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 7/21/11

Losing Our Foothold

What’s next after the shuttle?

Thirty years three months and several days ago, the twin Solid Rocket Boosters strapped to the space shuttle Challenger ignited in unison, discharging a wake of flames and propelling up, up, up against gravity’s pull and into low-earth orbit. I see it still, my high school freshman eyes glued to the television brought into the auditorium. Classes excused, we were all there, watching history, as was most everyone in America, with all three networks and PBS breaking into...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 7/14/11

A Full Moon by Any Name

Look for the thunder

As the sun sets in the northwest at 8:31 Friday, July’s full moon rises in the southeast. Native American and folk lore call this the Thunder Moon, the Hay Moon and the Buck Moon. We’re all familiar with this moon’s strong, mid-summer storms, and farmers still begin their harvest of winter livestock feed at this time. But even with the explosion in the deer population, the Buck Moon is more obscure. But this is the time when male deer regrow their antlers...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 7/14/11

Can Organics Feed the Nation?

Not until we compost everything, including Uncle Charlie

I’ve been chastised by a Bay Weekly reader for not supporting commercial organic farming. So I’m explaining my position. I have conducted research in composting and in compost utilization for more than 30 years, so I am very familiar with the limitations of organic farming. Under the present rules and regulations for producing organically grown crops and animals, it would be impossible for American agriculture to produce the wide variety of fruits and vegetables...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/14/11

Accounting for Rockfish Tastes

No perch will do if spot’s around

A friend and two buddies started their rockfish expedition by catching four, rather large, (for live lining), eight- to nine-inch spot and about a dozen, perfectly sized, six-inch white perch. Cruising to the Bay Bridge and starting with the big spot, they caught four nice stripers within 45 minutes. It took the rest of a long and frustrating day to manage the last two of their six-fish limit with perch as bait.1 Fishfinder The Western Shore continues...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 7/7/11

No Trick of the Eyes

While the green flash of sunset it hard to spot, it is real

We usually focus on the darkened sky in this space, but these late summer sunsets provide a chance to glimpse a strange solar phenomenon. Simply called green flashes, these are bursts of light as the sun crosses the horizon line. Those who’ve seen it describe a green-colored, flame-like burst as the sun winks from sight. Perhaps you’ve already witnessed it and chalked it up to your eyes playing tricks. This is no trick of the eye, however, but rather sunlight...