When it comes to choosing plants for your yard, the choices can seem overwhelming. Every gardener, when they first began gardening in earnest, struggled to figure out what plants were the best plants for their gardens. The variables can appear to be endless: sun or shade; wet or dry; acidic or alkaline; short or tall;…
[Katie Dix is Blue Water Baltimore’s Volunteer Manager. She recruits, trains, and coordinates the many volunteers and programs that enable us to accomplish our mission.] Last month nearly seven hundred sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School signed a pledge to reduce their plastic consumption after they viewed Bag It, a documentary about the effects of plastic….
If this December has felt exceptionally warm, you aren’t imagining it. Baltimore, like much of the United States, has been experiencing an unusually warm month and a fitting conclusion to what is shaping up to be the Earth’s warmest in over 1,400 years. The mild temperatures aren’t universally reassuring, however. Many gardeners are concerned about…
Because native plants have a long co-evolutionary history with the native wildlife of a location, they are uniquely well-suited choices for the modern garden. In this age of climate-change and habitat destruction, our gardens should do more than just look good: they must do good as well. Whether that means providing food and shelter for…
Few native trees are more deserving of appreciation, yet fail to receive it, than the common hackberry. Despite a slightly off-putting name, the native hackberry (Celtis occidentals) has all the attributes that homeowners want: Grows in a rounded, vase-like shape? Check. Resists disease? Check. Grows quickly? Check. Tolerates air pollution? Check. Is drought and salt…
On August 28, Blue Water Baltimore hosted nearly 500 students, faculty, and staff from Goucher College for a day of service in South Baltimore. Goucher Connects, a one day orientation event that connects first-year students to each other, faculty, staff, and community organizations in the Baltimore area, is organized by the Office for Community Based…
When the Hardy Garden Club approached Blue Water Baltimore and told us that they wanted to support a restoration project, we had just the project in mind. In the past, Hardy had helped the Jones Falls Watershed Association (one of the five watershed groups that merged to form Blue Water Baltimore) install a rain garden…
[NOTE: Debra Lenik is the staff Volunteer Coordinator at Blue Water Baltimore, and first joined us in 2010 as part of the AmeriCorps Volunteer Maryland program.] A colleague recently asked me where I saw myself in ten years. Holy mackerel, I thought. Ten years?! I’m 23 years old now and of course, that’s as far…