When it comes to native plant gardening, a little planning goes a long way. At Herring Run Nursery, one of the first planning questions we ask our customers is “when do you want to plant?” And the truth is that trees and shrubs can, with the right precautions, be planted almost year-round but different types…
[Note: Julie Lawson, author of this guest post, is the Director of Trash Free Maryland and a frequent partner of Blue Water Baltimore. She shares her insights into the failure last night of Baltimore City Council to pass a bag bill. Click the link at the end to read her entire article.] Last night the…
A native plant garden full of healthy, well-chosen plants is a joyous place: beautiful and full of wildlife. Too often, though, native plant gardens end up being something less than joyous. One the primary reasons that people are disappointed with their native plant gardens, even if they are not fully aware of the reason, is that…
It’s winter and by golly it’s cold out there! Not to worry, spring is right around the corner. But don’t be without a plan! Now is a great time to get ready and avoid another planting season come and go without a rain garden for your yard. Your first step is to make sure your yard has…
It’s a fact: plastic bags are a major source of trash in Baltimore’s rivers and in the Baltimore Harbor. According to various estimates, plastic bags are the second most common trash pollutant making up 10% of total trash and 50% of all plastic trash. Thankfully, the Baltimore City Council is working to address this problem….
[Note: We are excited and honored to share this guest post by Mary Page Michel, Chairman of the Roland Park Community Foundation. This article first appeared in the Winter 2013-2014 edition of the Roland Park News.] There is a love affair happening in our neighborhood. No, this is not a mid-life crisis or a passing…
Having just returned from the very exciting New Directions in the American Landscape conference, I posted on the Herring Run Nursery Facebok page a quote famously attributed to Jack Ward Thomas – the controversial chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1993 to 1996. The problem is, the quote actually belongs to Frank Edwin Egler. Egler…
(ANNAPOLIS, MD) — For many years, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has called for more extensive testing for toxic chemicals in the waters off the former Sparrows Point steel plant near Baltimore. As recently as 2012 CBF and Blue Water Baltimore filed an appeal in the U.S Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA,…
When we were putting together our 2012 Annual Report – our first as a merged organization – we wanted to illustrate how we work on water quality issues in Baltimore. This infographic was created by our designer, Redstart Creative, to highlight the four major sources of water pollution in Baltimore: sewage, polluted runoff, trash, and…
In the Maryland legislative session that starts today, there will undoubtedly be hearings on a variety of bills seeking to weaken, delay or even repeal the stormwater fee. But addressing Baltimore’s urban polluted runoff problem can’t wait, so we need to remind our legislators that the program they passed in 2012 deliberately and critically allows for local flexibility….