Gardeners eager to find root of their problems
When guests touring a Relay garden June 10 complained of gypsy moths invading their neighborhood, Catonsville resident Mary Lewis advised them to call the University of Maryland’s Home and Garden Information Center.
“I would call them and report it,” Lewis said after several women noted the moths’ occurrence as unusual for Relay. “If it’s unusual, they want to know.”
Although Lewis’ current home is a condominium with scant space for a garden, she has years of experience as a gardener and is a 2002 graduate of the university’s master gardener program.
It trains volunteers to provide horticultural education to the public, which accounted for her presence during the tour of John and Linda Kacur’s garden, which was part of the Relay Improvement Association’s Victorian tea fundraiser.
Lewis listened sympathetically as guests described droppings from the gypsy caterpillar.
“It was raining on us, all this black stuff,” a neighbor said, recalling an outdoor party she had hosted the previous night. “It was horrible.”
Others wanted to know why Lewis recommended native plants over non-native varieties such as the Bradford pear, a flowering tree developed from a species native to China.
Native is preferable, she said, because such plants support the native ecosystem, including birds, butterflies and insects.
“Before the landscaping businesses took over our yards, we had whatever grew there,” she said, referring to native vegetation.
Marylanders would do better in planting a walnut tree than a Bradford pear.
“There are about 130 species that are supported by a walnut, nothing with a Bradford pear,” she said.
The Kacurs’ garden reflected their mutual love of roses, which accounts for the 1860s-era, Victorian style house’s name: Victorian Rose.
“It’s a big blossom,” John Kacur said of the rose-colored, three-and-a-half-story house on more than an acre of land.
The couple tends the garden and yard together, spending about an hour a day on average to keep it in order.
“A garden is a lot of physical work,” Linda Kacur said. “You don’t have to go to a gym.”
Catonsville native and amateur gardener Danae McDevitt would agree.
A third-generation gardener and past president of the Catonsville Garden Club, McDevitt learned the skill from her father and grandfather as well as through a landscape design course offered by the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland.
Although she gardens as a hobby, McDevitt takes the job seriously and spends hours tending her Osborne Avenue yard.
She notes that vines, for example, take a lot of work.
“The problem with vines is, you’ve got to train them and you have to work with them,” she said. “Kind of like having a baby.”
By By Marcia Ames
E-mail Marcia Ames at Marcia Ames@patuxent.com
