There are lots of differences besides vegetation: As a person born and bred in Baltimore ( 40 years in NH and MA) I never ever miss the humidity of a DC/Balto summer. It is insufferable. However, east coast MA & NH have equally hot spells and humidity, just not week after week after week.. As you know, Md and DC are 4 season climates....there is certainly spring (long) summer (hellish) fall (just fine) and winter ( just not so snowy so often so long) You would not miss the drivers who have never learned to drive in snow. On the other hand, you'll have to learn. You will lose two months of real warm weather gardening and the long lovely springs which encourage azaleas. New England springs are rather short and violent.....here today, gone tomorrow. But beautiful, for sure. Oh yes, it can snow on May 1. You will miss reliably delicious tomatoes you can grow yourself, the operative word is reliably and soft shell crabs ....real crabcakes. (though you have to search as far and wide down there as you do here for the authentic lump crab) You can get Bud here. Maples we have, but the oaks down your way are fine. I miss the southern graciousness and friendliness that linger in more southern areas. Many parts of New England are more racially segregated than the greater metro area. I continued to be startled by that whenever I went home or visited DC. Maybe I wax nostalgic and inaccurate, maybe times have changed.....but around here one rarely "stops" by for a beer or a drink after work, people don't "drop in" or "drop by" . At least where I live, nobody hangs out on their front steps or front yard, though you'll certainly get a wave from the neighbors. Sure, we chat when we get to know each other, but I honestly think people are more reserved here. Maybe in part because we're holed up so long in winter. I feel very homesick right now.

Hello Nora, I garden in Hyattsville, too. Can't speak from experience to differences between this area and NJ, but I can say that we have a nice long fall gardening season that you can take advantage of this year. Our first frost is usually around Halloween, and the first hard freeze not until mid-November. I often have tomatoes and zinnias still producing in November, and fall vegetables into December. So if I were in your position, I'd use July and August to get ready for Sept and October, as well as for next spring. Get a soil test and prepare one bed as a fall garden/nursery bed as soon as you can. The local soil is generally clay-ey and on the acidic side, but makes good garden dirt if amended. A locally made compost called Leaf-Gro is readily available by the truckload and inexpensive. Get a few yards or a whole truckload and start digging. Meanwhile, start seeds of perennials and fall-growing edibles in pots outdoors or, for cool-season vegetables, under lights indoors. (You can grow a lot of seedlings under a 4-foot 2-bulb fluourescent shoplight in the basement.) Come September, plant out your veg starts and direct seed fall crops into your new bed. After harvesting the vegetables, move the perennials seedlings into the same bed to winter over. While this is going on, you can also work on other beds to get them ready for spring. And, if you choose, grow things in containers, too. Steven

FYI for next year, The National Arboretum holds a native plant sale at the end of March every year in conjuction with their Lahr Symposium. One of the vendors was Doyle Farm nursery. They are located in Pennsylvannia just over the Maryland border, above Jarretsville. Their website lists native plant sales in the area they will be attending. (It's on their "tours and open house" link, http://www.doylefarm.com/events.html) One sale is in Fairfax VA, Saturday April 29. Others are being held at Ladew Topiary Gardens, The Baltimore Herb Festiva, etc., While they sell by mailorder its nice to see the plants you're buying. The plants I bought from them at The Arboretum, White Turtlehead (Chelone Glabra) and Nodding Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes Cernua) are growing really well. If you find any other sales in the Maryland area please post them, I'd love to know about them. :) -Helen

The Invisible One is finally reporting in. After last SundayÂs gathering, The Bug got me down, eliminating my ability to say anything the least bit witty, not that I could have matched the others at that, anyway. DH and I enjoyed everyoneÂs company immensely. It was wonderful to dine among GW celebrities Igloochic (the delightful, devoted mother of adorable Jesse -- I hope he is doing much better), Buehl (who I later realized is the Kitchen Forum FAQ compiler/poster), and cooperbailey (with whom I had several things in common). It would be fun to meet more GW folks, whenever and wherever. We are in Towson, MD, so I expect weÂll be headed south when it happens. Some have pronounced our kitchen "finished." Now, we all know that "done" is a relative term. I hastily took some pictures of our kitchen before last weekÂs dinner meeting, and the only thing really missing is a window treatment. However, I need to straighten up the counters, find the best angles, and gather all the spec details before preserving our kitchen for posterity in the Finished Kitchens Blog. That new project is definitely on my Someday List  another relative term. :-) Alice