Growing

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

For Baltimoreans of a certain age, the name "Admiral's Cup" conjures up images of boozy Fells Point nights and dirty bathrooms. The legendary dive bar closed in 2007, reopening last fall under the ownership of Kali's Restaurant Group, the company that oversees Fells Point neighbors Mezze and Kali's Court. Old fans looking to relive their youths at the bar might be disappointed; thanks to a face lift, Admiral's Cup has lost its gritty edge. With a focus on local beer and capable takes on bar-friendly food made with local ingredients, the restaurant feels fresh and current.

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Maryland Department of Business of Economic Development announced Monday that they created a new program to help companies that have moved beyond the start-up phase to continue to grow. Advance Maryland is designed to assist these companies with developing markets, fine-tuning their business models and boosting growth with the help of a research specialist. Similar models have been adopted in other states, the groups said. "Maryland has a plethora of organizations and resources devoted to the start-up community, but we are limited when it comes to resources for second-stage companies," said Jen Gunner, the alliance's chief operating officer and co-program manager of Advance Maryland, in a statement.

Inside Westminster Abbey, eight 20-foot-tall live trees lined the center aisle during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The trees transformed the space, doing what even the most elaborate floral arrangement could not — providing a natural, living sense of permanence and an air of drama. The move was unexpected, unpretentious and bold. A potted tree on your patio or deck can have the same effect. While not every tree is well-suited for a container, there are a surprising number of options, ranging from crape myrtles to hollies.

Question: The roots of my orchid are growing way out of the pot. Should I cut them off? Answer: No, wild flailing roots are business as usual for an orchid. Orchids are epiphytes which grow in tree crotches or wherever they can get purchase in the tree canopy. It's not normal for them to be confined to a pot, consequently potting medium for orchids is primarily shards of bark. When this decomposes it is too much like soil, and the roots are not happy. They may be signaling that it’s time to repot your orchid with new specialized orchid potting "soil."

Of course traffic gets worse ("Traffic getting worse? Survey says yes," Feb 25th). Those who study population dynamics in the U.S. know that the Baltimore-Washington area has been growing very rapidly, adding roughly 70,000-90,000 people per year, for quite a few years now. For the Baltimore area, if we consider the population increase of Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties (where many car commuters reside), data available show that the population increase for the combined counties since 2000 has averaged 13,000 people per year!

"I do this because I need to dig in the soil," says Gail Barbosa, explaining why she spends weeks each spring toiling over a garden plot two miles from her King's Contrivance home.Ask other gardeners what draws them to Columbia's three community garden sites and a variety of reasons unfold. Some want truly fresh, vine-ripened produce -- "real" tomatoes top the list.Others are trying to keep down their grocery bills by growing their own vegetables. A few, including some immigrants from Southeast Asia, are growing exotic vegetables and herbs not available in stores here.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- President Clinton warned the Florida Legislature yesterday that fast-growing states could fall into a fiscal "trap" under GOP plans to convert welfare and crime-fighting programs to lump sum payments to the states.Seeking to forge a new alliance in his battle against the Republican proposals, Mr. Clinton told a legislative joint session that Congress' primary purpose in using block grant maneuvers is to save itself money.While awarding sums could generate a profit for states with stable or declining populations, it could penalize those forced to stretch the funds across a growing caseload, he said.

Marijuana growers in Maryland are getting more creative and perhaps more desperate, even willing to risk artillery fire to produce a good crop without its being detected.One "extremely clever" such effort yielded a huge harvest yesterday -- for state and federal drug agents who seized and destroyed more than 900 marijuana plants found in a highly secure "downrange" area of Aberdeen Proving Ground.The plants, representing one of the largest marijuana crops ever discovered in Maryland, had an estimated street value of more than $2 million, said Special Agent Andrew S. Manning of the FBI's Baltimore office.

The gay couples who've booked Rouge Fine Catering in Hunt Valley for their weddings have appreciated not only good food and stylish events, but something less tangible. "They don't want to be with a caterer that is going to be judgmental," said Jonathan Soudry, Rouge chef and owner. "There is a lot of intimacy in the relationship between the caterer and the couple. " Soudry, whose business handles about 300 weddings a year, catered more than two dozen receptions for same-sex couples last year.

A new poll released today shows the largest measured gap between Americans who believe individuals are born gay and those who believe sexual orientation is caused by external factors. According to Gallup , 47 percent of Americans chose "nature" over "nurture" when asked about same-sex orientation, while 33 percent say they believe being gay is a product of an individual's upbringing and environment. As recently as 2011, public opinion on the causes of sexual orientation were about equally split.

Steve Kilar's excellent article on Baltimore's local currency highlighted the process of launching and growing the BNote ("Baltimore's local currency, the BNote, is 2 years old," May 7). Missing from the article, however, was an assessment of the economic benefits of local currencies on communities. Local currencies stimulate the economy by encouraging local spending. A 2008 study conducted by Civic Economics showed significant economic impact from local spending in Western Michigan.

Actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy rather than risk developing breast cancer hit close to home for Melissa DeSantis, a Bel Air mother of three children. As DeSantis read about Jolie's experience, she began to feel a sense of kinship to the Hollywood star. DeSantis also made the tough decision to have her breasts removed in a February surgery. Like Jolie, she had one of the inherited gene mutations that leaves many women more likely to develop cancer.

I recently spoke at a seminar at Harvard on the theme of education as a civil right. Among other things, the seminar conveyed the urgency as well as the intractability of the problem of low college completion rates for certain groups of young people in our society. I directed my remarks toward the low college enrollment and graduation rates for students from families in the lower half of the income distribution. While other panelists noted how increasing numbers of racial and ethnic minorities could influence college enrollments, I noted that the low-income problem affected all groups.

Downtown Towson is on the cusp of a building boom that will transform this suburban county seat into one of the most dynamic, cosmopolitan communities in Maryland. All the elements are in place for this transformation. Towson has two institutions of higher education, Towson University and Goucher College, that not only provide world-class learning but also a work force that stabilizes the commercial core. Residential developments like Towson Green will make sure the downtown area does not become a ghost town after sunset and on the weekends.

Growing Up Empty: The Hunger Epidemic in America, by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel. HarperCollins. 272 pages. $24.95. Twenty years ago, a young journalist named Loretta Schwartz-Nobel found what the older and more experienced among her craft had failed to illustrate -- that millions of Americans were going hungry in the richest nation in the world. The result of her work, a groundbreaking book called Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, won awards and calls to action, promises that things would change.

Knills' Farm Market is a growing family enterprise nourished on hard work and cooperation that has taken root in the heart of Mount Airy.The market started three years ago with vegetable sales from a wooden cart along the driveway of the Knill farm, east of Route 27 across the road from Watkins Park. Business has grown each summer, enough to warrant a permanent location visible from Ridge Road and closer to Jim and Carol Knill's farm home. The market, which opened for the growing season June 30, is a joint venture of the Knills and Jim's father, Bill Knill.

When first-time mom Sarah Dorman has a parenting question, she often turns to a Facebook group of Baltimore women before her own mother. Her mother's probably not available at 3 a.m., and not familiar with the latest rules regarding infants and organic fruit or fretting over the contradictions in all those advice books - unlike some of Dorman's online peers. "It all goes through fads of what's the popular thing. What was really popular when our parents were doing it might now sound psychotic," said Dorman, 31. Three decades ago, for example, parents were told to place babies face-down to sleep, a distinct no-no today after doctors realized it increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

The course is "Introduction to Casino Gambling," but upon entering the classroom, one might be tempted to place a bet at the roulette wheel, the craps table or any of the other table game layouts. As he stared at the roulette wheel, Christopher Lamb of Elkridge, a student who has taken one week of the Anne Arundel Community College course, could scarcely contain his excitement at the thought of working in a casino. "It is an amazing game, just on gambling and chance, and who knows where the ball is going to land?