The early garden continues to grow

The weather has been generally in the 40's during the day and with rain the last couple of days the early crops (lettuce, spinach, greens, cabbage and kale) are doing well. Now for the starts indoors: the tomatoes are about a foot tall and so begins the task of transplanting into bigger pots.  Next year I won't be so quick to start tomatoes in early February! The peppers and basil look great and are growing slowly which is fine by me...I am also trying to use a mixture of soil that uses 1/3 sand, 1/3 compost and 1/3 clay....we'll see how this goes!

What's Going On?

Now - Prince George's Pool is accepting membership applications for the 2011 season. Join by 5:25 p.m. on 5 April to get $25 off. If you prefer to apply via hard copy instead of online, click here.

Now - As a resident of Maryland, Delaware, Washington DC, or Pennsylvania, you can choose your electric supplier. Clean Currents is the region's leading, independent green energy company providing electricity sourced from clean wind power. The electricity that powers your house will still be delivered through the grid, so there is no installation of equipment and no change to the dependability of service at your home. Write "Gateway Arts District" in the space that says "Where did you hear about us?" so that the local nonprofit gets a $10 sign-up bonus.

30 March - 17 April - Active Cultures presents The Resurrectionist King at Joe's Movement Emporium. "This play explores the life of a man unlike any other in DC’s past - the true story of Vigo Jansen, a grave robber who became a local legend. Jansen robbed local cemeteries to get cadavers for DC’s medical schools and scientists. Hounded by the police, but loved by the press, he became a folk hero to DC residents. Set during a 24-hour period in 1884, the play follows Jansen’s disastrous attempt to create a stage play about his grave-robbing career. Written by Stephen Spotswood, winner of the Mark Twain Award for comedy, The Resurrectionist King is an amusing backstage drama about life, death and the theft of our earthly remains." 3309 Bunker Hill Rd.

30 Mar, 6 April, 13 April - The city council would like a committee of local artists and a business owner to present three designs for a painting of the intersection of 34th and Bunker Hill, and to present a plan of execution and maintenance. Meetings to process designs, and narrow them down to 3 that council will select from, are happening every Wednesday until the 4/15 council meeting. Anyone in Mount Rainier can bring a design to the table. A committee of artists will refine them into the final three. Rawberry Ranch, 4115 31st St., 9-10 p.m. For more information call Mike, 240-461-7026.

2 April - Marvin Gaye Day bike tour! Meet at Mt. Rainier Bike CoOp, 3601 Bunker Hill Rd., 11 am. A fun and free bike tour through DC this coming Saturday, a beautiful spring day, will feature spots relevant to Marvin Gaye's young life growing up here.

21 May - Mount Rainier's Farmers Market will be open from 10 am-2 pm at One Municipal Place. We will have tea, organic fruits and vegetables, coffee, Indian food, meat, eggs, a bakery, cheese and barbeque, cooking demonstrations and music, to start. You can "like" the market on Facebook.

ZZ Pizza & Kabob - Mt Rainier - MD - Discount | Coupon

ZZ Pizza & Kabob - Mt Rainier - MD - Discount | Coupon

Headed to ZZ to pick up a pizza and chicken kabob. I can't wait to get home and eat it! Click on the link above for a discount when you order online.

No snow today

You would have thought that we might end up with lots of snow overnight but, no, we ended up with just a dusting...yay for the garden! Outside temp is about 40, ground temp about 44. Spinach, kale, collards and cabbage, arugula and lettuce continue to look good. Asparagus, started from seed indoors not looking so good but this is an experiment. A side note that I started tomatoes indoors too early as they are about 10-12 inches tall...will have to transplant to larger containers with hopes of moving outdoors mid-April/early May.

Cold this morning!

I woke up this morning (Friday, March 25, 2011 at 7am) to discover the temp went down to 30 degrees, frost only on car windows but still with cool weather crops in the ground I was a bit dismayed that I had let that slip by me, whereby I could have played with row covers last night ;-) Still the collards, kale and spinach look just fine, perhaps liking the cold temp (ground temp was about 45 degrees).

Why Evolution is True….and Nobody Believes It

Author and U Chicago biology professor Jerry Coyne will give a public lecture called "Why Evolution Is True….and Nobody Believes It" on Monday, March 28 at 6 p.m. at the University of Maryland, College Park Biosciences Research Building (BRB) 1101.

I've read his book "Why Evolution Is True," and I think it's the best single-volume easy-to-read explanation of what evolution is.

The full announcement and campus map with a big blue star over the Biosciences Research Building are below.

"College Park Scholars Life Sciences is pleased to present the first “Lee Hellman Lecture in the Life Sciences” on Monday, March 28, 2011, at 6:00 PM in BRB 1101. Refreshments will be available in the Colonnade next to the lecture theater beginning about 5:15 PM.
Lee Hellman, Emeritus Professor of Entomology, is the founding director of the Life Sciences Scholars Program and remains an integral component of the program to this day.
Each year, Life Sciences Scholars will bring a prominent scientist or journalist to campus who has written a book or article on an important topic in the life sciences directed at a level appropriate for our students and of interest to the general university community. The speaker for the first Hellman Lecture is Dr. Jerry A. Coyne, previously a faculty member in the Department of Zoology at Maryland and now Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. Dr. Coyne is the author of the 2009 New York Times bestseller, Why Evolution Is True."

Spring Time gardening in Mount Rainier, part one

I've decided as an "urban farmer" to posts some entries to this MR city blog from my ongoing garden journal so that others might benefit (or not ;-) from my adventures in tilling city soil to get food and flowers to the table. Since I am far away from my journal I shall just say that the weather currently is in the 40's, some rain, soil temp about 50 degrees. I decided to start my "cool-weather" garden early this year so believe it or not I planted peas and spinach at the end of February (spinach is peeking up but the peas are not). It is the great experiment to see if I can extend my garden without having to invest in hoop houses and cold frames.