Vegetable Garden

I use a product called Preen to control weeds in my flower beds. Can it also be used in my vegetable garden? Preen is a pre-emergent herbicide that kills germinating seeds. It will not harm vegetable seedlings or kill established weeds. When Preen is spread evenly over the soil, it forms a chemical barrier that will prevent most weed seeds from emerging. To be effective, it must be spread after flower or vegetable seedlings have been planted. If it is spread before planting, the planting process will break up the chemical barrier and weeds will grow in the disturbed areas.

How should I mulch a vegetable garden? Do I need to mulch all of it? Anywhere you don't want weeds will require mulch. Mulch helps retain moisture and moderate soil temperatures, but weed suppression is the No. 1 goal because weeds steal water, nutrients and sunlight from vegetables. Organic mulches of mowed leaves or straw with three to four layers of newspaper underneath make an impenetrable barrier to weeds while allowing rain to soak through. These will last the growing season and decompose over the winter, feeding the soil.

How should I mulch a vegetable garden? Do I need to mulch all of it? Anywhere you don't want weeds will require mulch. Mulch helps retain moisture and moderate soil temperatures, but weed suppression is the No. 1 goal because weeds steal water, nutrients and sunlight from vegetables. Organic mulches of mowed leaves or straw with three to four layers of newspaper underneath make an impenetrable barrier to weeds while allowing rain to soak through. These will last the growing season and decompose over the winter, feeding the soil.

Stiltgrass has taken over a 20-by-10-foot area of my woods and now it's getting into my lawn. I will use crabgrass pre-emergent for it on the lawn, but should I rake away the leaves and apply it in the woods? Invasive stiltgrass spreads like lightning by tiny seeds. The seeds stay alive in soil for many years able to germinate. Kill it before it makes seeds, which it does in August. In spring and summer, it is easy to pull stiltgrass - it has very little root. (Once it has formed seeds, pulled stiltgrass must be sealed in a plastic bag.)

Can I grow veggies in a fully screened-in garden? I want to eat tomatoes without stink bug spots. Growing vegetables in a screened garden may reduce light, but the biggest problem is the exclusion of pollinators and beneficial insects. Vegetable plants that require insects for cross-pollination, such as cucumber, muskmelon, squash, pumpkin and watermelon, will not produce crops without them. Of course, you could hand-pollinate the flowers if you have the time. An organic method of excluding insect pests in the veggie garden is the floating row cover, which you drape directly on the plants.

Proposed cuts to Baltimore's budget would put the second season of the City Hall vegetable garden, which produced more than a ton of food for the homeless last year, in danger of an early frost. Cuts to the University of Maryland Extension Service in the city would likely eliminate the service altogether, and with it the Master Gardeners Program, which provided most of the labor and expertise during the garden's first year. Bill Vondrasek, chief horticulturist for the City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is in charge of city gardens, said he would still plant a vegetable garden around War Memorial Plaza, "but it probably wouldn't be done as well."

Like first-time gardeners everywhere - inspired by the White House vegetable garden and bitten by the gardening bug - Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley doesn't want the fun, or the fresh vegetables, to end. So, with a couple of hard-won gardening lessons under her belt and the help of master gardener Lisa Winters, a fall vegetable garden has been planted this week at Government House in Annapolis. "I'd give the garden 100 percent," said O'Malley. "We have a few issues with the drainage and with the soil, but we have been working on those."

The number of home gardeners jumped by almost 40 percent last season, but nearly half of them won't be back this year. Most probably found vegetable gardening too much work. Or, because it was a pretty poor gardening season, they didn't have much success. So, in a series of columns, I'm trying to get rookie vegetable gardeners off to a solid start. Last week, we talked about siting the garden, and my advice was to consider constructing a raised bed and filling it with bags of compost.

Q. Is it OK to use wood chips in my new vegetable garden?A. No, stay away from wood chips. They can damage tender plant stems and they will rob your soil of nitrogen. Microbes in the soil will use up available nitrogen for protein synthesis as they break down the cellulose in the wood. Select other types of organic mulches for your garden, such as grass clippings, newspaper covered with straw, or leaf mold.Q. My beautiful climbing rose was attacked by some type of insect (I suspect gypsy moth)

I am getting a very late start on my vegetable garden and will not be ready to plant until late May or early June. What can I do to help ensure that I still have a productive garden? I would give up on planting any of the early crops like cabbage, peas, spinach and carrots. However, there is still plenty of time to plant a summer and early fall garden with tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, beans, greens and other vegetables. Although these plants prefer to be planted earlier, they will do fine with a little extra care.

It was Dirty Finger Club Day at Linton Springs Elementary School, near Eldersburg. Out in the vegetable garden - one of a dozen "outdoor classrooms" in the meadows, wetlands and woodlands of school's spacious grounds - Anna Letaw, a volunteer who has been the dynamo behind Linton Springs' Environmental Education Program, was giving a kindergarten class a primer on gardening. "Oh, look what I found!" Letaw called out as she knelt. "An earthworm .... Can anybody tell me what earthworms do?"

I'd like to grow carrots, but I hear it's tricky. Any tips? Because carrots are roots that need to push through soil, having light loose soil is a big determiner of success. For carrots, a depth of 12 inches is ideal. Add compost to your soil structure. It is the Year of the Root Crop on Grow It Eat It, our all-vegetables. all-the-time site. Find us at our new url: extension.umd.edu/hgic. Our online newsletter starts off the year with a great article providing many tips for growing root crops in Maryland.

Think of Annapolis and you see Naval Academy midshipmen in their crisp whites, the spires of ancient churches and the masts of sailing yachts. The glittering dome of the state capitol and the rows of historic houses painted in lipstick colors. It is my town, and even I see it that way. I don't, however, see chickens. I will, though. More than 50 people attended a meeting at the Annapolis Library to learn more about a new city ordinance that will allow them to keep as many as five laying hens on their property, and some of them were my neighbors.

It was while she was serving dinner to her kids in 2008 and their dad was out campaigning for president, that Michelle Obama hatched a modest daydream: a vegetable garden on the White House grounds. She'd recently had a conversation with her children's pediatrician about their eating habits, and the poor health of children he was seeing in his practice. It shook her up — he was treating obesity and diabetes in kids — and she resolved to make better food choices for her family. She never said anything to Barack Obama about a vegetable garden (she told interviewers this week that she didn't want to jinx things with a "what if" question)

Can I grow veggies in a fully screened-in garden? I want to eat tomatoes without stink bug spots. Growing vegetables in a screened garden may reduce light, but the biggest problem is the exclusion of pollinators and beneficial insects. Vegetable plants that require insects for cross-pollination, such as cucumber, muskmelon, squash, pumpkin and watermelon, will not produce crops without them. Of course, you could hand-pollinate the flowers if you have the time. An organic method of excluding insect pests in the veggie garden is the floating row cover, which you drape directly on the plants.

The first family is America's egalitarian version of royalty (if you are too young to remember the sprawling Kennedy clan), and thanks to our People magazine sensibilities, we know as much about their family life and fashion as the Brits do about Kate and William's. For example, the latest news is that 13-year-old Malia Obama is beginning to spread her social wings, and it is giving President Barack Obama hives to see his oldest daughter leave the White House all dolled up for a dance or a party.

Just add water. That's all that was left for the residents of the East Baltimore neighborhood of Oliver to do after a vegetable garden and urban sanctuary were installed in a single day in a vacant lot in the 1300 block of N. Central Ave. Eight raised beds were filled with clean soil and planted with 150 vegetable seedlings Thursday. Around the perimeter, 400 perennials, herbs and shrubs were planted, plus 30 trees to shield the oasis from traffic noise. All planted in time for Mayor Sheila Dixon to cut the ribbon at the end of the day. "The vegetables that come out of this garden," said the mayor, "will help others make the change to greener and healthier living."

I'd like to grow carrots, but I hear it's tricky. Any tips? Because carrots are roots that need to push through soil, having light loose soil is a big determiner of success. For carrots, a depth of 12 inches is ideal. Add compost to your soil structure. It is the Year of the Root Crop on Grow It Eat It, our all-vegetables. all-the-time site. Find us at our new url: extension.umd.edu/hgic. Our online newsletter starts off the year with a great article providing many tips for growing root crops in Maryland.

Proposed cuts to Baltimore's budget would put the second season of the City Hall vegetable garden, which produced more than a ton of food for the homeless last year, in danger of an early frost. Cuts to the University of Maryland Extension Service in the city would likely eliminate the service altogether, and with it the Master Gardeners Program, which provided most of the labor and expertise during the garden's first year. Bill Vondrasek, chief horticulturist for the City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is in charge of city gardens, said he would still plant a vegetable garden around War Memorial Plaza, "but it probably wouldn't be done as well."

More greens. Fewer cherry tomatoes. Those are the plans for the second season of Baltimore's City Hall garden, which produced more than 2,000 pounds of fresh produce last year for Our Daily Bread, the city's largest soup kitchen. "We're catering to what Our Daily Bread is requesting," said Bill Vondrasek, chief horticulturalist for the Department of Recreation and Parks, which helps care for the gardens. "They specifically told us what they will eat more of and what they didn't each much of," he said.