Daina Savage

If your idea of an apple is the waxed, glossy, tasteless variety that is more pleasing as fruit bowl art than anything to savor, it’s time to head to a local orchard.

There you’ll have a chance to go beyond what grocery stores teasingly term as Delicious and taste something truly outstanding, boasting a complexity of flavors that will create connoisseurs.

It’s apple season in Central Pennsylvania, which means there’s no excuse for not partaking in the plenty. Head to a farm market or pick-your-own orchard to find varieties like Honeycrisp, that really live up to the promise of their name, or selections like Northern Spy and Empire, that will give greater depth to your favorite apple dishes. Read the rest of this entry »

Rose lovers rejoice. Now when the repeat bloomers are glorious in their fall splendor, experts offer advice and tips to create the look in your own yards.
The Penn-Jersey District of the American Rose Society will hold its annual Fall Rose Show Sept. 18 at the Eden Resort in Lancaster, Pa. The free show, featuring more than 500 blooms in specimen and arrangement displays, will be open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Expert rose growers from throughout the mid-Atlantic region will be available to share their knowledge and answer questions.
Read the rest of this entry »

Just when many of your other flowers are on their last legs, worn out from a summer of blooming, the hardy begonia comes on strong. In a moist, shady spot with well-drained soil, the naturalizing plant can soon create a prolific carpet of multi-hued leaves, dainty flowers, and unusual seedpods for the early autumn garden. We’re at the edge of its zone, so a little winter protection in more exposed locations is helpful. But more important, make sure you plant companions. As one of the latest plants to emerge in the spring, it’s easy to forget where you’ve planted it unless you have a sea of spring bulbs to remind you. As the bulb foliage dies back, the begonia’s foliage will emerge to cover it.

Exploring the banks of the Susquehanna this summer, hikers may notice small trees with clusters of dull green, oblong forms the size of sweet potatoes tucked amid the leaves.

Their fruit a curious local delicacy, these wild pawpaws trees seem to like the warm, humid micro-climate of our riverbanks and have populated their own pawpaw patches here, just like those celebrated in old folk songs. Their highly perishable fruit, often called the “poor man’s banana” or the “custard apple,” is the largest native fruit in the continental United States and famously helped feed the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Although right now they’re difficult to spot for the uninitiated amid the canopy of leaves, by summer’s end the presence of the fruit is unmistakable. It’s then that the ground is littered with mottled black-green forms and a heady, tropical scent fills the air. Read the rest of this entry »

Our unusually hot summer may be browning out lawns and killing evergreens, but heat-loving plants like crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia) are putting out exuberant displays right now. At the edge of their hardiness zone, (the indica species is hardy to zone 7, the fauriei species to zone 6), the plants are not always reliable performers unless they have plenty of heat and light. (My neighbor’s 10-year-old plant never really bloomed until this summer, when a storm took out the shade of the pine tree next to it.) With arrestingly brilliant flower clusters, followed by vibrant berries and radiant autumn leaf color, they’re a late season standout in a mixed garden bed. Undemanding plants, they won’t flower well if fertilized or watered too heavily. Wait until late spring to prune them when new growth emerges. The National Arboretum websitehas a guide to help with selections, as well as a resource for developing new hybrids like the miniature “Pocomoke” and promising “Arapaho” and “Cheyenne” varieties.

Looking for a breezy getaway? Chart a course for Annapolis where waterfront living and gracious hospitality make for a nautical nirvana. Where the Severn River meets the Chesapeake Bay, this 18th century bustling port town is a charming 21st century delight catering to couples and families alike.

Imbued with a rich sense of history, with narrow brick lined streets and colonial homes galore, it pulses with a fresh seafaring energy and a sun-kissed, salt-sprayed vibe.

Maryland’s capital city boasts more 18th century buildings in anywhere else in the country, including the homes of all four Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence. But the Bay’s the main attraction, with hulls of all sizes and shapes, powering through the waves by muscle, wind and motor. Read the rest of this entry »

When you and your plants are wilting in the summer heat, it’s a pleasure to have no-fuss bloomers brightening your garden with little effort. Versatile daylilies serve as a bridge between seasons in the perennial bed, blossoming in a multitude of colors, forms, and heights. Best known for a trumpet shape, the more than 13,000 cultivars of daylilies can be now found rounded or ruffled, pinched and curled, with spidery trails or with fluffy cascades of petals, with each flower blooming for a single day. Some varieties boast dozens of blooms per stem. Everblooming and reblooming varieties extend the show throughout the summer, with brief rests between new waves of blooms. Daylily petals and pods with their spicy taste, can dress up a salad.
Daylilies can range from foot-high front-of-the-border features to towering six-foot back-bed fencerows of color, depending on the cultivar. So be sure to plant accordingly. Space them at least a foot apart to allow for them to multiply. As they multiply over the years, you’ll want to dig up the clumps and separate them to ensure good blooms. Either plant the divisions in your expanding garden beds, or share with friends and family. Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s time to plant and you haven’t even tilled your garden yet, or maybe don’t even have a garden space to till. Straw bales can offer a temporary planting option to see you through the season.

Created from the stems of grain plants, fluffed straw is usually used as animal bedding, a foil to keep birds away from newly seeded lawns, or as mulch around strawberries.

But kept tightly twined in bale form, straw can function as a biodegradable raised planting bed, bringing herbs to an easy harvesting height and keeping lettuce from browsing rabbits. Read the rest of this entry »

The first bite of real, locally grown strawberries has to be one of the best sensations of spring. Now, when they’re coming in like gangbusters, the abundant harvest is a luxury. If you don’t have a couple dozen plants tucked into your landscape as an edible groundcover or potted up in containers, plan on changing that next year. A bundle of 25 plants will yield a daily handful for cereal or smoothies through the season. A local favorite, Earliglo, is usually producing by the beginning of the month. Be sure to pick regularly as rotting berries will attract slugs and diseases. At the end of the month, when your June-bearing strawberries are finished producing, it will be time to rejuvenate the bed for next year by thinning the beds and fertilizing. After a few years, remove the mother plants and select strong runners to create the next harvest.

As spring turns to summer, when the water’s flowing and the mountain laurel is blooming, it’s the ideal time for an excursion to the Laurel Highlands, www.laurelhighlands.org. Heading just a few hours west yields a lush mountain landscape plunging into rushing rivers.

Come hail or high water

We started our family adventure on the water, dropping into the rapids on the Lower Youghiogheny from the town of Ohiopyle. Outfitted with helmets, lifejackets and paddles, we were guided down a series of rapids with colorful monikers like Cucumber and Double Hydraulics. The seven-mile trip can last from two to six hours, depending on the water flow. Halfway through the trip, lunch is served along the riverbank. Prepare to get wet, whether you manage to stay in the raft or not. Our trip was enhanced by the thrill of high water, temperamental thunderstorms flashing and booming dramatically above, and at one point, a full-on assault of hail. As the low point in the gorge, we tried to just relax and enjoy the show. We’ve ridden the rapids here with a number of excellent outfitters and exceptional guides, but for extended adventures, we like Ohiopyle Trading Post, www.ohiopyletradingpost.com, and Laurel Highlands River Tours, www.laurelhighlands.com, as they offer attractive “pedal and paddle” packages.

Read the rest of this entry »