Interesting news and notes about gardens and gardening

A lot of  interesting garden stories have crossed my desk lately and I wanted to share some of them with you:

University of Maryland Launches Beehive Project in City Cemetery: Just inside the locked gate of Old St. Paul's Cemetery on Martin Luther King Boulevard, honeybees zip in and out of a white hive perched on cinder blocks. They flit past weathered headstones for a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the hero of the 1814 defense of Fort McHenry, a Civil War general and other long-gone luminaries.

The hive, put there by staff and students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, is one of the latest — and certainly one of the more unusual — installments in the growing pastime of backyard beekeeping. Read More

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Rain Gardens: A Practical Solution for Water Pollution: Rain is basically clean — until it passes along roads, businesses and communities. As water runs off roofs, paved surfaces and chemically treated lawns, it can pick up spilled gasoline, oil, road salt, fertilizer, pet waste and other pollutants.

If the contaminated water flows into ditches and storm drains, there's an increased risk for the pollutants to reach natural waterways. In fact, rainwater runoff has become the fastest-growing source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. Read More

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Conservation Garden Blossoms in Wheaton Triangle: The Wheaton Triangle Conservation Landscape Garden, which non-profit GreenWheaton finished in June, serves an important purpose. Organizers designed the garden with soil, flowers and grasses that soak up potentially harmful run-off and prevent excess rain water from flowing into storm drains and a nearby stream. Read More

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Demonstration Herb Garden – University of Maryland Extension (photos and plant list)

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Men Enjoy Their Gardening Club – Gardening isn't just for women, as the Men's Garden Club of Frederick County will assure you.

"Yes, there really is a Men's Garden Club," said Richard Adams, club secretary. "It's Frederick's best-kept secret."

The club, which has 37 members, meets seven times a year to learn about gardening-related topics from guest speakers.

"We usually meet around 7 o'clock at a member's house for cocktails … and then we have a speaker lecture on different modalities of gardening," said Vincent DiFabio, club president. Read More