Regulars (All)

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 7/5/12

No Scarecrows for Me

I use fences, smells and my dog

Squirrels, rabbits, ground hogs and deer are a common problem in home vegetable gardens. I surround my garden with a four-foot-high four-inch-by-two-inch turkey fence supported by steel fence posts at 10-foot intervals. I also attach an 18-inch-wide pullet fence at the bottom with hog-nose rings. Groundhogs will not climb the turkey fence with the bottom pullet fence. They try but fall backwards because the pullet fence is loosely attached. The bottom edge is buried two to three inches deep to...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/28/12

Finding the Buzz in Cancer

See if you can beat Galileo’s 40

As the sun sets this week, its latest of the year at 8:35, Saturn and Mars appear in the darkening skies, Mars high in the southwest and Saturn trailing 25 degrees at due south. Mars sets at midnight, with Saturn following 90 minutes later. Our neighbor isn’t called the red planet for nothing: its orange hue is quite distinct and a real contrast to golden Saturn, although both shine at around first magnitude and are as bright as any star. See if you...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/28/12

Why Rockfish Prefer Spot

And what to do if perch is your only bait

I could feel the five-inch white perch on my line swimming toward the bottom 30 feet down. The pulses of its efforts transmitted plainly up the line on my bait-casting rod. As the baitfish reached its goal and settled down, I lightly thumbed the narrow spool of my casting reel and lifted my rod tip just enough to make the fish’s movements a bit more frantic. I was drifting over some nice marks on my depth sounder off the mouth of the Severn, and I suspected the arches...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/28/12

Chase Away Garden-Hungry Birds

Each species has a different trick

Crows, morning doves, pigeons and black birds love to pluck sprouting seeds of corn, snap beans and lima beans in the garden. Robins love to eat strawberries, while mocking birds and brown thrush love to eat blueberries as they ripen. Birds can also do a great deal of damage to maturing sweet corn. They will rip away the husks and silk and peck out the kernels from the tops of the ears. How to deter them? Scarecrows are fun to look at but about useless....

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/21/12

Cool Lights on Summer Nights

You’ll have to rise early and stay up late to see all five naked-eye planets

The nascent crescent moon emerges from the glow of sunset low in the west-northwest Thursday evening. Above the moon is Mercury with the Gemini twins Pollux and Castor higher still. Sunset Friday finds the waxing crescent a little higher in the west with Mercury, Pollux, and Castor farther to its right. Mercury outshines all but the brightest stars and even Mars and Saturn. Even so, Mercury is the least familiar of the naked-eye planets, as it is so close to the sun it never...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/21/12

Composting in a Drum

Here’s how to make it work

Making compost in a drum composter is very different from making compost in a bin on the surface of the ground. When you’re composting in a bin on the ground, any excess water drains from the compost into the ground. Any moisture released in the air surrounding the pile is quickly disbursed by wind and air currents. Composting drums have vents, but most of the moisture released during decomposition condensates on the surface and drops back into the composting materials...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/21/12

Chesapeake White Perch

Good fishing, good eating and good news

Casting up tight to the riprapped shoreline, I flipped the bail closed on the small spin reel and started my retrieve. I wanted to keep the Rooster Tail lure up and off the submerged rock below. My retrieve slowed as the lure came away from the stony structure and I let it settle, slow rolling it down, close to the bottom where I hoped some big blackbacks were holding. My bait stopped. I suspected a snag at first, but with big perch you never know. I gave my rod a good tug...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/14/12

Matters of Darkness and Light

Look for the moon’s shadowy face on these shortest nights

The waning crescent moon heralds the coming sun in pre-dawn eastern skies through week’s end. So close to the sun’s glow, there’s more to this moon than meets the eye. While the crescent appears clearly aglow, the supposedly missing face appears as a dark notch. This is a result of earthshine, sunlight reflected off our planet that casts a shadowy glow over the rest of the moon’s visible face. This is not to be confused with seeing the dark side of the moon, which is...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/14/12

The A Bees Cs of Pollinations

It takes two species for fruit trees to blossom

A Bay Weekly reader complains that her apple trees have not produced any fruit during the five years that she has had them in her garden. All five, she told me, are of the same variety: golden delicious trees. She was told that for the trees to produce fruit, she needed to plant more than one tree. Since her preference was for Golden Delicious, that is what she purchased and planted. Help Bluebirds Help You Bluebirds are great to have around the garden because they...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/14/12

Stepping Up for Rockfish

New regional recommendations help ensure legal harvests

It’s good news for the Chesapeake Bay, which provides 75 percent of striped bass stocks that reside in the Atlantic. New recommendations by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission tackle the very real threat that commercial poaching poses to the fish’s sustainability. Past as Prologue In 1985, the striped bass, or rockfish, population had collapsed due to over-fishing and environmental degradation. That led to a five-year moratorium on all harvesting...