Bulbs

Competing theories of urban redevelopment may be headed for a collision on Howard Street, Baltimore's boulevard of broken schemes.What might be termed the big-bang theory for renewing the city's rotting retail district says developers won't risk $350 million building hundreds of apartments and shops unless they have freedom to be creative and are allowed to demolish scores of buildings, if necessary.Another approach, which might be termed the SoHo theory, holds that such large-scale demolition is doomed to fail because distinctive architecture is the only advantage urban areas hold over the boring but convenient suburbs.

Each spring, seed catalogs seduce us with visions of Eden. It's not just the gorgeous pictures of flowers. It's also the smorgasbord of plant varieties -- a cold-tolerant tomato, an early snap-bean.But as the garden catalog business grows, it's easy to be overwhelmed by all that arrives in the mail. To help fantasies of a lush paradise become a reality, it's necessary to be a smart consumer -- as well as a skilled gardener -- when researching and placing your order.These days, there are hundreds of seed and plant catalogs to choose from.

A member of the cruciferous family, kohlrabi has a flavor reminiscent of both cabbage and turnips.Like the turnip, both its purple-tinged, white, bulblike stem and its greens are edible. Kohlrabi is slightly sweet and juicy and can be used raw as part of a crudite tray or steamed and tossed with a light mix of lemon and butter.Purists point out it is not, strictly speaking, a root but a swollen stem growing just above the ground. The bulb can be pale green or pale purple outside; both varieties are white inside.

Long underappreciated, alliums are finally beginning to get their due. Most of these fall-planting bulbs are disease-free and cheap. They don't attract pests, and deer or voles, which love tulips, usually take a pass on alliums.The best known is Allium giganteum, which is indeed the giant of the genus. It produces grapefruit-size globes of purple flowers on 5-foot stalks that give whimsy and height to late spring gardens and make a big impression.It's now being rivaled by a new showstopper named 'Globemaster' with an even larger ball of denser, longer-blooming flowers that last a month because they're sterile.

Q. Should I fertilize my bulbs when I plant them? Is bone meal really the best thing for them?A.Bone meal is a good source of phosphorus, but bulbs are like all other plants in that they require nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for good growth. Broadcast and incorporate a balanced fertilizer according to label instructions before planting, broadcast the fertilizer on top of the soil after planting. You can reduce amount of fertilizer if you incorporate compost into the bed.Q.A neighbor gave me some lemon grass and rosemary plants from her herb garden.

The first game at the Ravens' stadium at Camden Yards is months away, but the lights are on.The 612 field lights, suspended nearly 200 feet in the air from light towers, are burning 24 hours a day as workers prepare to calibrate them. Each of the 1,500-watt bulbs has to burn for at least 100 hours before workers can aim and calibrate the beams to network television specifications."It's called the burn-in period," said Maryland Stadium Authority project manager Alice Hoffman.This week, workers will begin aiming the bulbs and testing their brightness -- a process that might take a week to complete.

From time to time, I discover a computer product that breaks the "gee whiz" barrier. Truster shatters it with room to spare.This software converts a computer into a lie detector. But unlike a polygraph that requires the subject to be strapped in and wired up, Truster detects falsehoods from the sound of the spoken word using "voice stress recognition," and it is used by law enforcement agencies around the world.As a person speaks, the vocal cords vibrate at a specific frequency. When a person lies, the amount of blood in the cords drops.

How many people does it take to change a light bulb?At Severna Park Middle School, apparently quite a few.School custodians can't replace the outdated tube-shaped bulbs at the 30-year-old school because the manufacturer no longer makes them. When bulbs burn out, they have to remove the entire fixture.Except they can't do that, either, because of asbestos in the ceiling."You'd think this was a simple thing," said Principal Sharon Morell, who has fielded teacher and parent complaints about the lights, "but it's become a complicated and expensive operation to replace these bulbs."

It wasn't the typical smuggling bust at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. There was no cocaine or heroin. Just thousands of tiny bulbs in a suitcase on their way to feed a European craze for exotic plants.But that was enough to charge two men from the Netherlands and a North Carolina man with conspiring to illegally export 12,000 Venus flytraps, a carnivorous plant once in vogue in the United States for its ability to gobble insects.The plants are a protected species and cannot be exported without a permit.

Just when I'm sick of garden chores, Jack Frost tromps through the ragged flower beds in his combat boots and solves my problem for another season. I come inside and flop into a chair beside the stack of unread books I've been eyeing all summer and fall. After a week, I'm mourning the absence of fragrance and beauty that only a flower will give.Forcing bulbs answers the need perfectly. I get fragrance and blossom without the work of a full-blown garden.What is forcing?Forcing is treating plants in a way that fools them into growing and blooming outside their normal season.

This weekend, when you are planting your tulip bulbs and your daffodil bulbs and your crocus bulbs, think about planting a few garlic bulbs. Yep. Garlic. The planting season for garlic starts now in our Mid-Atlantic zone, just when you might be putting the rest of your garden to bed for the winter, and it extends until Thanksgiving. The bulbs will send down roots now and use winter's dormancy to develop. Then they send up shoots in the spring, so that mixing them in your perennial bed is a good idea.

There is something courageous about the tiny crocus. Its flowers, blooming determinedly through the snow, have the power to give the gardener the boost he needs to get through the last, lingering days of winter. "I love that they are so early," said Scott Kunst, owner of Old House Gardens heirloom bulbs of Ann Arbor, Mich. "And they are among the iconic flowers: tulips, lilies and lilacs. "Winter aconite is not the stuff of legends or poetry," he said. "Crocuses are. Every elementary school kid knows what a crocus is."

For years, you have been spending more than you should on your house, car and fancy vacations. Now the economic bubble has burst, your 401(k) is tanking, your planned early retirement is a distant memory and you have rediscovered the virtue of saving. It's an understandable move in hard times - pragmatic, reassuring and wrong. Any economist will tell you that too much saving can be just as dangerous as too much spending - it's hard to spur a limp economy back to life. What you really should do is spend in ways that will pay you real dividends and also feed the economy.

THE PROBLEM -- A left-turn light on a traffic signal in Baltimore County didn't work for more than a year, according to a reader. THE BACKSTORY -- How long does it take Baltimore County to change a light bulb? More than a year, according to Karen Zale. About two hours, according to the county Department of Public Works. The Baltimore County resident wrote Watchdog on Nov. 7, complaining about an "unworking left arrow signal" from Old Court Road at Towne Center Place, which leads into a shopping center in Pikesville.

You said not to fertilize because of the fall drought. Can I fertilize now? Fall is the best time to fertilize cool-season grasses. Go ahead now that it has rained. It is still advisable to use a slow-release fertilizer with a nitrogen source that has at least a 30 percent to 40 percent water-insoluble nitrogen source, usually identified as WIN on the bag label. Slow-release fertilizers are less likely to leach or run off the lawn and cause problems with water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Be sure to not apply fertilizer where it can get onto impervious surfaces, such as sidewalks, driveways or roads.

Dim bulbs. We know them and work with them or around them. You know the ones I mean. The incandescent bulbs the size of a grain of rice found at the business end of Mini Maglites that cheapen the workhorse flashlights. Nite Ize (www.niteize.com) has come up with a simple $10 upgrade pack that lets you replace the standard bulb with a cluster of three LEDs. The result is not only a brighter light but one the manufacturer claims will burn four times longer. The company also makes $10 upgrades for Maglite's C- and D-cell flashlights.

My childhood Christmases were adorned with large, colorful lights joined by heavy-gauge wire that, save for occasional bulb replacement, were ever in perfect working order. The bulbs had metal tapers that screwed into honest-to-goodness metal sockets, and the wire, because of its size, was reliable and relatively easy to keep untangled. Our collection had been providing seasonal illumination for years before I was born - had, in fact, been around for at least a generation. Today, we have what used to be called minilights, but they have somehow evolved to become the standard.

Jacqueline van der Kloet has a refreshing way of planting tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbs: Forget about old-fashioned sweeps of red or yellow and concentrate instead on striking accents, echoing patterns and brilliant little pools of color. Van der Kloet, a Dutch garden designer, developed her style in her own garden in the small town of Weesp and then planted her ideas at Keukenhof, the famous garden in Lisse, in the Netherlands, where hundreds of thousands of bulbs bloom from March through May. Her "inspiration gardens" at Keukenhof are designed to bring great design ideas down to the scale of people's backyards.

We love our dogs. We love our gardens. But sometimes our dogs love our gardens too much. They love to dig. They love to romp through carefully designed plantings. They love to sample the plants, which may not agree with them. They love to use the entire lawn as a bathroom. They love to explore what's stored in the garage. They love to burrow under the fancy fence and take it on the lam. Here's how to tame the beast: Plan a garden to be enjoyed by dogs as well as people, rather than a people's place that dogs damage or a cage for animals we don't have time for. And plan to be out there, enjoying the garden with your pet. "Dogs will want to use the landscape in ways that may be a little different from the ways humans might want to use the landscape," says Cheryl Smith, a Seattle-area trainer and author of Dog Friendly Gardens, Garden Friendly Dogs (Dogwise Publishing, 180 pages, $19.95)

Cherry blossoms get all the glory in early April, but fresh daffodils are growing everywhere in public parks and private gardens, even brightening high-speed landscapes like Interstate 97 and Route 2. Daffodils are the first kiss of spring, announcing its arrival, and a supreme equalizer in waking up winter-weary eyes. They clear the way like foot soldiers for more formal, showy tulips that follow, but they have their own following. "They're like a promise, my favorite," says Melinda Carrera, 19, a freshman at St. John's College, gazing at a bunch outside Randall Hall in the early evening.