Seed

We recently purchased a home that has a large stand of bamboo along the rear property line. Is this an invasive plant, and how can we get rid of it? With few exceptions, bamboos are considered invasive plants in Maryland. They spread more or less rapidly by enlarged underground roots called rhizomes and can be very difficult to manage. If you are not opposed to using chemicals for control, I would recommend killing the stand with a spray that contains the chemical glyphosate. Do not try to spray the full plant canopy.

Elisa Lane is not much bigger than the pigtails she wears when she gardens at the Whitelock Community Farm in Reservoir Hill. But she has a big impact. She sells the fresh vegetables from the empty corner lot that she just kind of took over at below-market prices to residents of the neighborhood. When her farm stand isn't open, residents can buy from the corner market that she supplies. And she has enough to sell to restaurants like Woodberry Kitchen and at the Waverly Farmers Market to help subsidize her cut-rate prices for the garden's neighbors.

The NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament will be missing Johns Hopkins for the first time in 42 years this season. After a 9-5 season, the Blue Jays were left out of the NCAA Tournament tonight. But three local teams will be playing next weekend. Maryland is the No. 6 seed and will face Cornell Sunday at 1 p.m. in College Park. Towson, the winner of the CAA tournament, will face No. 3 seed Ohio State Sunday at 3 p.m. in Columbus. Defending national champion Loyola will face Duke in Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday at 5:15 p.m. The lack of quality wins hurt Johns Hopkins this season.

Salisbury transfer Eric Law picked up a rebound on the edge of the crease and scored with 13.4 seconds left to cap a historic comeback and give No. 4 seed Denver a 12-11 win over fifth-seeded North Carolina in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament quarterfinals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon. The game, played before an announced 7,749, was the first men's lacrosse quarterfinal held at a venue not on the East Coast. Denver, the first team in men's quarterfinal history to win after trailing by five goals or more, will face No. 1 seed Syracuse in the semifinals Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

I've recently been diagnosed with genital herpes and treated it with the prescription drug Zovirax.I would rather use something more natural.Have any of your readers found alternative treatments that cure it? I read in an herbal book that olive leaf extract works. Is this true?Herpes infections are caused by a virus that resists cure even by the prescription drugs that control it effectively (Famvir, Valtrex, Zovirax).These antiviral medications speed healing and, if taken preventively, dramatically reduce the number of outbreaks.

Celestine Whitley couldn't believe what she was seeing: Her fellow parishioners at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church kept heading to the altar to lay money down each time the guest speaker hammered home a point during his sermon. Whitley had recently seen such offerings performed on broadcasts of televangelist Bishop Eddie Long. But the practice -- known as seed offering -- left her confused. Was it Bible-based? Were the givers sincere or just showing off? Moreover, where was the money going?

Polka dot plantBotanical name: Hypoestes phyllostachyaPronunciation: hy-po-ES-tessFamily: Acanthaceae (Ancanthus)Origin: MadagascarClass: Annual/houseplantDisplay period: Year-roundHeight: 10 inchesEnvironment: SunShow me a plant with pink foliage and it's almost a certainty I'l want it for my own. I was so smitten, in fact, with Pink Splash Select -- a superior variety of polka dot plant developed by Pan American Seed -- that I couldn't resist buying a...

What is mace? And what can I use as a substitute? We can't discuss mace without talking about nutmeg. Both are products of the nutmeg tree, an evergreen native to the Moluccas, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of Indonesia. The tree is cultivated in the Caribbean as well. The nutmeg tree produces a peachlike fruit that, when ripe, splits to reveal a dark seed in a lacy, bright-red covering. The seed is nutmeg; the covering is mace. Once separated, the two spices are dried.

The Johns Hopkins baseball team has earned the top overall seed in the Mid-Atlantic Regional for the NCAA Division III tournament. The Blue Jays (39-4) will open play Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. against Moravian at Waterfront Park in Trenton, N.J. Salisbury, which ended Hopkins' 32-game winning streak May 8, will be the No. 2 seed in a regional held at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. The Sea Gulls will face fifth-seeded LaGrange College on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

Kevin Love scored 13 points and Kevin Durant 12 to lead a balanced attack as the United States remained perfect at the FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, beating Iran 88-51. Derrick Rose chipped in 11 points and Danny Granger 10 for the Americans, who improved to 4-0 to secure the top spot in Group B. The U.S. will conclude preliminary round play Thursday against winless Tunisia. "We were a little bit fresher," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "In our last game, when we played Brazil, that was our sixth game in 10 days in three countries.

Dylan Donahue scored just one goal, but it might have been the most important one of the season for the Syracuse men's lacrosse team. The redshirt freshman attackman converted a feed from senior midfielder JoJo Marasco with 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter to help the top-seeded Orange escape past Yale, 7-6, in an NCAA tournament quarterfinal before an announced 3,939 at Byrd Stadium on Saturday. Syracuse, which has captured more Division I national championships (10) than any other program, improved to 15-3.

A week ago, the thought was that Ohio State -- despite knocking off 2012 national champion Loyola and Denver to capture the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament -- was overvalued as the third seed in the NCAA tournament. Despite a convincing 16-6 victory over Towson in the first round, the Buckeyes are viewed as underdogs. That has to do with Ohio State (13-3) meeting Cornell (13-3) in the first game of Saturday's quarterfinals at Byrd Stadium in College Park. The Big Red are unseeded, but after walloping sixth-seeded Maryland, 16-8, last Sunday, many pundits and fans insist that Cornell will be the first team to advance to the national semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia next weekend.

Dickinson, the top seed in the South region, will make only its second appearance in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal when Salisbury visits Carlisle, Pa., on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Sea Gulls, a 10-time national champion, will play in their 16th consecutive quarterfinal. Advantage, Salisbury? Coach Jim Berkman declined to declare that, but he did agree that the tension and pressure is turned up as a team advances deeper into the postseason. “Being at this point, there is more at stake, there is more tension, there is more urgency into the game,” Berkman said Monday.

Soccer Wake's Harris, Gamble among new Bohemians Two players from Wake Forest, goalkeeper Andrew Harris (Gilman) and forward Michael Gamble (McDonogh), have joined the Baltimore Bohemians of the United Soccer Leagues' Premier Development League. Other new players include midfielders Julio Arjona (George Mason), Malcolm Harris (McDonogh, Denver), Austin Martz (Georgetown), Sam Tana (St. Paul's, Susquehanna) and Geaton Caltabiano (Mount St. Joseph, UMBC)

Loyola saw its season come to an end Sunday in the second round of the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament, losing to No. 3 seed North Carolina, 19-9, at Chapel Hill. The Greyhounds' Taryn VanThof scored the game's first goal, but North Carolina (14-3) scored the next five, and with a 12-8 halftime lead, put the game away with seven more. Sophomore Annie Thomas (John Carroll) led Loyola (11-8) with five points on four goals and one assist, while junior Marlee Paton had four points on three goals and one assist.

Despite hanging tough with the No.1-seeded team for three quarters, Bryant lost to Syracuse, 12-7, in the opening round of the NCAA tournament Sunday. Syracuse (14-3) was led by Dylan Donahue's hat trick, while goalie Dominic Lamolinara (St. Mary's) made eight saves. Kevin Rice added two goals and two assists for the Orange. Colin Dunster and Peter McMahon each had three goals for Bryant. It was a well-rounded day for Syracuse's offense as seven players recorded at least one point.

As remarkable as 41 consecutive berths in the NCAA tournament are, Johns Hopkins has been unseeded just once (2010) during that span. The Blue Jays, who were awarded the No. 2 seed in the upcoming tourney, are very familiar with that position. They are 18-7 as a No. 2 seed and won national championships in 1974, 1978 and 1980. Coach Dave Pietramala chuckled when informed of that history. “All I can say is, I hope,” he said late Sunday night after the bracket was released.

After setting a school record for wins and matching another program mark for best start, the Loyola men's lacrosse team reaped a coveted reward: the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. The 14-1 Greyhounds, who captured their first Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament crown and are ranked third in the latest Sun rankings, will meet Canisius (6-7), the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, in the first round. The game is scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m. at Ridley Athletic Complex.

Maryland's 2013 season could be compared to an exhilarating amusement-park ride that kept passengers highly entertained through the first half before sputtering out and leaving riders wanting more. After back-to-back appearances in the national title game, the Terps fell well short of that goal this spring, falling to Cornell, 16-8, in the first round of the NCAA tournament Sunday. With the loss, Maryland extended its national crown drought to 38 years. As frustrating as that is, however, coach John Tillman said the program will not lower the bar. “Our expectations will always be the same,” he said.

Host Ohio State holds a slight 3-2 edge in this series, but Towson won the last meeting, 10-8, on March 20, 2007. The Tigers are the Colonial Athletic Association tournament champion, while the Buckeyes captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament crown. Towson (10-7) has won seven of its last nine games and avenged the two losses during that stretch by knocking off Drexel and Penn State in the CAA tournament. Senior attackman Matt Hughes has scored three goals in his last two contests after scoring five in his first 14. Ohio State (12-3)