Garden Tools

Carrie Engel has been seeing green for more than 30 years. No, she's not jealous or rich, but Engel is the envy of Baltimore's gardening cognoscenti. Known as Valley View Farms' "gardening guru," Engel, 51, started at the Cockeysville enterprise in 1972. Since then, she's appeared frequently on TV and often gives lectures at garden forums. Engel, who grew up in northern Baltimore County and lives in Phoenix, says gardening can be easy, but it takes time. "There's a learning curve," she says.

EVERY COMMUNITY is more than the sum of its residents. The places we inhabit include the memories of those who have gone before us, as well as the legacies we bequeath.Savage is particularly rich in memories -- and in dedicated folk whose efforts nurture the community, sometimes for decades.Our communities are built on the achievements of those who leave to go out into the world, and on the dedication of those who remain.Some examples from Savage:The Savage Community Association is sponsoring a community cleanup of Savage Cemetery.

Although 19th-century garden writer Charles Dudley Warner insisted that the only tool a gardener really needs is a strong back with a hinge in it, most of us are grateful for implements. But few gardeners agree on what constitutes an adequate armory of garden tools. Twentieth-century garden writer Ruth Stout, famous for her no-till garden, believed in only three tools - a trowel, a spade and a fork. (I can't imagine what she did for pruning.) At the other end of the spectrum is Martha Stewart, who confesses to being something of a tool junkie.

I AM RELUCTANTLY getting ready for winter. The season of frozen pipes and freezing weather is still at least a month away. But bitter experience has taught me that you have to start battening down the household hatches while the autumn sun is still shining, however dimly.Each year, I seem to be more unwilling than before to acknowledge that winter is coming.For example, it wasn't until the temperature dipped into the 30s this week that I got around to replacing the screen on the back door with the warmer, tighter, panel of glass.

Garden tools and softball equipment worth nearly $1,400 were stolen from the bed of a truck parked in front of a Pasadena garden store Wednesday, county police said yesterday.John D. Slitzer, 27, told police he parked in front of the Garden Center in the 600 block of Mountain Road shortly after 10 a.m. and went shopping.When he returned 2 1/2 hours later, his lawn mower, hedge trimmer, gas-powered weed trimmer, softball bat, softball glove and other items were missing from his truck, police said.

Dear Santa,Help! Here's the wish list of a desperate gardener. It's been a rough year for garden tools. Many of mine are battered or broken. Don't bother hauling this stuff down the chimney. Just drop these goodies in the garden and I'll use them directly.This is what I need:* A garden hoe. I know, I know -- every year I ask for a hoe, hoe, hoe. All of mine are chipped and bent from striking roots and rocks. Bring me Super Hoe, Santa -- one that even Mr. MacGregor couldn't wear out.* A pruning saw. This crescent-shaped tool is made to trim hard-to-reach branches.

It's crazy to make New Year's resolutions for the garden.It's crazy because I can never remember them. Promises made in January, when the ground is frozen, are forgotten by March, when the garden thaws.My life is filled with empty promises. In years past, I have pledged to clean my tools regularly, give the garden a tuneup (soil test), and curb my spending on seeds. Ha! Broken vows, all.Some of my resolutions appear frivolous. Once I swore to capture a nematode, a tiny insect, and examine it under a microscope.

They don't sell horse feed like they used to at the Anne Arundel County Farmers Co-op.These days, instead of buying hog, cattle and poultry feed by the ton, a customer will pick up 5 pounds of rabbit pellets. Instead of hauling fertilizer by the tractor-trailer load, patrons buy it by the bag."We were overrun by the suburbs," says Basil Smith, manager for 20 years. "But you change with the times."Sixty-five years ago, the county Farm Bureau and a truckers' association opened the co-op in Brooklyn to supply feed and tools to local farmers.

A late Easter and a cold March brought a parade of chilly sales reports from the nation's major retailers yesterday, but analysts discounted last month's figures as potentially misleading.Clothing store chains posted especially discouraging numbers. The Gap, a perennial high-flier, skidded to a 3 percent sales decline at stores that were also open a year ago. By that same closely watched indicator -- comparable-store sales -- The Limited was down 8 percent and Joppa-based Merry-Go-Round was down 12 percent.

When Anne Bainbridge and Sarah Klinefelter needed a name for their shop, they chose well. Everything in the Garden Room, their new place in Wyndhurst Village in Roland Park, is something you could imagine in a real garden room -- a beautiful flower-filled English-country glassed-in porch.There are vases, baskets, birdhouses, framed botanicals, potted houseplants, hanging baskets, herbs, topiaries, garden sculptures, fountains, sprigs of lavender, majolica-style dinnerware, picture frames, needlepoint pillows, wreaths, painted furniture, garden books, garden tools, flower arranging supplies, flowery dhurrie rugs and chintz tablecloths.

Use the right tool for the job" was the motto of my father, the woodworking hobbyist. My mother, however, used the same cast-iron skillet to cook just about every meal. I am their daughter, the gardener, and I don't think you can have too many garden tools, even if you find yourself using your garden knife for just about every job. Since this is the time of year to take stock of garden hardware and draw up a spring shopping list, let me offer my list of essential garden tools. Every gardener has a trowel and a pair of pruners.

Carrie Engel has been seeing green for more than 30 years. No, she's not jealous or rich, but Engel is the envy of Baltimore's gardening cognoscenti. Known as Valley View Farms' "gardening guru," Engel, 51, started at the Cockeysville enterprise in 1972. Since then, she's appeared frequently on TV and often gives lectures at garden forums. Engel, who grew up in northern Baltimore County and lives in Phoenix, says gardening can be easy, but it takes time. "There's a learning curve," she says.

TODAY `GARDENFAIR' Delaware's Winterthur estate and Horticulture magazine present their third annual "GardenFair - A Total Gardening Weekend," featuring talks, lectures and demonstrations with garden experts, how-to workshops, a sale of plants, garden tools, art, crafts, furniture and more, today, at Winterthur, Route 52, Wilmington. Hear a talk by P. Allen Smith, host of his own syndicated gardening show, on "Five Things You Should Know About Color in Your Garden" at 2 p.m. today. Fair admission $13-$15.

STORE OPENING GREEN FIELDS 5424 Falls Road, Baltimore / / 410-323-3444 Good news for gardeners. Green Fields at Falls Road and Northern Parkway has almost finished a major renovation. It doubles the interior size of the nursery, adds a pavilion with more climate control, and creates a layout that's easier to navigate. When everything is done in mid-January, Green Fields will be more of a garden center, selling not only plants and fertilizer, but also garden tools, books, gift items and even cut flowers.

Keeping the garden tools in a corner of the garage is all very well, but most gardeners really want something more -- a handsome shed where the wheelbarrow, flower pots, garden gloves and the inevitable collections of old seed packets and plant labels have a place of their own. A resourceful gardener can manage quite a lot without the luxury of a shed, but when the gardener's ambitions and equipment begin to crowd the family car out of the garage, a...

Bathroom upscale Buyers of new homes have become obsessed with bathrooms -- the bigger and more extravagant, the better. When the National Association of Home Builders recently surveyed 440 buyers on their bathroom preferences, 58 percent wanted two baths. Then there's the interest in amenities: Fifty-seven percent wanted color toilets, sinks and tubs, not white. More than 80 percent demanded a separate shower enclosure instead of just a nozzle in the bathtub. Sixty-six percent wanted a dressup/makeup area.

Gardening, the passion to dig, plant and hope, is in full flower. As soon as the tulips bloom and the first spinach pokes up from the ground, a crop of gardening books arrives. As two brothers who like to get down in dirt -- one to grow something beautiful, the other to grow something to eat -- we teamed up on the current yield of gardening books. Every gardener's library should include a book outlining the basics -- everything from sensible garden planning and layout, topsoil preparation, through plant selection and garden maintenance.

EVERY COMMUNITY is more than the sum of its residents. The places we inhabit include the memories of those who have gone before us, as well as the legacies we bequeath.Savage is particularly rich in memories -- and in dedicated folk whose efforts nurture the community, sometimes for decades.Our communities are built on the achievements of those who leave to go out into the world, and on the dedication of those who remain.Some examples from Savage:The Savage Community Association is sponsoring a community cleanup of Savage Cemetery.

Although 19th-century garden writer Charles Dudley Warner insisted that the only tool a gardener really needs is a strong back with a hinge in it, most of us are grateful for implements. But few gardeners agree on what constitutes an adequate armory of garden tools. Twentieth-century garden writer Ruth Stout, famous for her no-till garden, believed in only three tools - a trowel, a spade and a fork. (I can't imagine what she did for pruning.) At the other end of the spectrum is Martha Stewart, who confesses to being something of a tool junkie.

I AM RELUCTANTLY getting ready for winter. The season of frozen pipes and freezing weather is still at least a month away. But bitter experience has taught me that you have to start battening down the household hatches while the autumn sun is still shining, however dimly.Each year, I seem to be more unwilling than before to acknowledge that winter is coming.For example, it wasn't until the temperature dipped into the 30s this week that I got around to replacing the screen on the back door with the warmer, tighter, panel of glass.