• Introduce ourselves • We are pleased the Oxford Garden Club members are interested in learning about the Bay-Wise program. Thank you for inviting us. • We both are avid gardeners – as are most of you. We also are big proponents of Bay-Wise gardening at our homes. This means we put into practice many of the things we will talk to you about today – to make our gardens beautiful places that support wildlife and that minimize negative impacts on water quality in our local streams and rivers. • Although the two of us are standing up here to talk about the Bay-Wise program, we want to point out that we have a cadre of fellow Bay-Wise gardeners in your midst. There are 6 of your members who are Master Gardeners involved in the Bay-Wise program: ― Marie Davis ― Pat Jessup ― June Middleton ― Chris Miles-Tochko ― Phyllis Rambo ― Reenie Rice
What do we mean by “Bay-Wise Landscaping”? Here are examples from right here in Oxford. Some of you might recognize the raingarden just outside of the Oxford Community Center. Raingardens capture rainwater and allow it to soak into the soil rather than running off. Raingarden plants provide nectar and pollen to birds and bugs, and they provide habitat – shelter and nesting areas – to all sorts of critters. All of these are aspects of Bay-Wise landscaping. Marie Davis’ Autumn Joy sedum attracted a gorgeous spicebush swallowtail butterfly to sip a little of its nectar. Although the spicebush swallowtail butterflies can collect nectar from many different flowers, their caterpillars live only on native spicebush – which Marie also has planted with those butterflies in mind. Phyllis Rambo has created a lovely side garden rather than leaving the area in lawn. Gardens are far superior to lawn for providing food and shelter to birds and wildlife as well as for having more permeable soil for absorbing rain water and reducing destructive runoff. What we plan to do today is explain what the Bay-Wise program is and encourage each of you to try some of the ideas we talk about in your own gardens. The “Bay” in Bay-Wise is our own Chesapeake Bay, and things we do in each of our gardens have impacts on the quality of water in streams, rivers, and the Bay. Our yards and gardens also are important links in the region’s ecosystem. By adding some Bay-Wise practices to our gardening, we each can have a more positive impact on our neighborhoods and on the Chesapeake Bay.
Many of you likely are familiar with the Master Gardener program that is part of University of Maryland’s Extension Service. You may not all be familiar with the Bay- Wise program that is implemented by Maryland’s Master Gardeners. The Maryland Bay-Wise Program is a homeowner education program conducted by Maryland Master Gardeners. The mission is to provide outreach relating to landscape management that focuses on improving water quality and increasing people’s understanding of conservation issues. Master Gardeners in all of Maryland’s counties that border the Chesapeake Bay offer the same type of homeowner assistance like we Talbot County Master Gardeners do. The picture here shows part of our Talbot County Bay-Wise group visiting a member’s garden this summer to learn more about successes and challenges we face as Bay-Wise gardeners. Our monthly meetings help us be better prepared when we visit homeowners in the area to provide Bay-Wise consultations in their gardens. Perhaps some of you might be interested in becoming a Master Gardener. A training program is offered in the winter for 10 weeks on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. After completing the class, interns are required to provide 40 hours of volunteer service in the first year. To maintain one’s status as a Master Gardener, we are required to volunteer at least 20 hours per year and take at least 10 hours of continuing education.
Why are all of us so excited about the Bay-Wise program? Because what each of us does in our gardens matters to the Bay. We all share the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed covers 64,000 square miles, extending from central New York south through Virginia. Almost all of Maryland is in the Chesapeake Watershed which means that all the water in our coves and streams and rivers ultimately flows into the Bay. So the things that each of us does on land in this area – such as in our gardens and yards … or the Oxford Community Center’s Rain Garden – has an impact on the quality of water in the Bay as well as the ecological diversity of the area.
When we hear about some of the challenges to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, it can feel overwhelming. It’s easy for residents to think that the Bay’s problems are outside of their control. The Bay-Wise program focuses on what is within our control and what we can do individually to help. There are many everyday things we do that can be done in ways that can harm the Bay, as these pictures show. But there also are many gardening and landscaping practices that contribute to a healthy Bay.
There are 8 major Best Practices in the Bay-Wise program. Bay-Wise encourages people to implement as many of these as possible. We'll go through each of them. We hope you may find ideas you might implement in your own gardens to make them more Bay-Wise. [Read off the topics] The Bay-Wise program recognizes homeowners who follow these guidelines. We say their gardens are “Bay-Wise Certified,” and we allow them to place the much-coveted blue Bay-Wise sign on their property. The sign is intended to draw attention to the gardens so passers-by or guests might ask about Bay-Wise certified gardens and hopefully get engaged themselves.
Stormwater control really means “slowing the flow”- which is a management technique to trap and contain rain water on-site instead of moving it along to storm drains. The way to battle stormwater runoff is to control stormwater with things like rain barrels, rain gardens, directing downspouts to proper places, and mulching planting beds to trap and use moisture. Bare ground is the worst at being able to let water soak in; grass is a little better, but plantings and beds are the best. Before picture: property received so much stormwater runoff from not only their own landscape, but the neighboring yards as well. You can see that there is sparse grass growing under the mature trees, and the grass growing poorly allows for erosion (bare ground). In turn, this created ditches periodically inundated with water that drained poorly and collected nutrient runoff as well. After: This “after” photo was taken a year ago, and the ditches have grown in a lot more since then. They now sport both red lobelia and the blue lobelia, and well as the giant bulrush on the right. After: the homeowner decided to take charge and embrace the “ditches” that populated the property. Instead of filling in with soil, she embraced planting with native species that enjoy wet feet and would thrive in the given conditions. The owners could not control the adjacent properties, but they could control their own. The “after” image was taken a couple of years after they started planting the ditches which now support a wide variety of native plant species that are clearly loving the conditions. They also started covering the bare spots in the turf with pine needles, which acts like a layer of mulch to protect the soil from erosion. Both the plants and the mulching improved stormwater management which improves water quality in local streams. Plants Deb Danser planted in this ditch: red lobelia, lobelia syphilitica, and giant bulrush Other plants that work in a ditch – both inundated and dry at times
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