Lawn reduction and outright replacement are hugely popular topics in the eco-gardening world today, and even in mainstream media. And the most challenging place to get rid of lawns altogether are front yards – because of HOA (or co-op) rules, city ordinances or just the desire to get along with neighbors. Yet, in the eco-gardening literature the so-called “solution” offered ...

On July 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would vacate the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). BARC is the largest agricultural research facility in the country. The USDA proposed moving all BARC employees to five “hub” cities that the Department had selected. The USDA has failed to demonstrate that any of the five hub cities ...

On July 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). This blog post examines the plan’s legal justification. The July 24 announcement was made in the form of a secretary’s memorandum, a form of internal communication between a federal department’s leadership and its staff. Although the July 24 memorandum ...

Kristen Weaver, Greenbelt’s Mayor Pro-Tem, with new sculpture at Motiva Apartments on Cherrywood Lane. The dramatic new sculpture at the Motiva Apartments (a new 354-unit apartment development) was celebrated there last weekend among dignitaries and community art-lovers. A plaque was unveiled explaining that the sculpture, called “Beauty in a Garden Comes from More than One Flower,” was created by Erwin ...

On Thursday, July 24, 2025, a Trump appointee announced a major reorganization of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (Rollins 2025). The plan includes winding down operations at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) over a few years and then “vacating” the property. The research center lies adjacent to the northern boundary of Greenbelt. The plan also includes vacating ...

Last year I visited the famous USGS Wild Bee Lab, just outside Greenbelt, with its funky little building, amazing macro photography, and native plants galore. I got to interview the famous Sam Droege, who heads up the lab and is an incredible spokesman for native bees and plants. But then Jay Evans, another bee expert, moved into my GHI court ...

There’s a new (plant) nursery in town – or just outside Greenbelt, in Beltsville, not far from the old Behnkes location. It’s Lillian Farms, situated along Odell Road in a surprisingly residential neighborhood. It opened last November and it’s time to check it out! (If, like me, you’re wondering how a permit was ever gotten for a shop in a ...

Barb at the art show opening event on June 5. Meet Greenbelt artist Barb Stevens, whose works are on display through June at the Greenbelt Arts Center.  (Check their website for event times when the Center will be open.) In her words: My art draws attention to the many things we see every day, yet sometimes take for granted. I ...

About Living New Deal Living New Deal (LND) is a fast-growing collection of information about New Deal projects using crowd-sourcing to document projects – already 174 in Maryland – and add more information to projects already listed. The mission of the project is threefold: To create a database of New Deal project To educate the young and old about the ...

There was no need for Greenbelters to go all the way to downtown DC to join in the great international “Hands-Off” demonstration against – you name it. So a big thanks to the local organizers, whoever they were! People gathered outside Greenbelt’s Municipal Building. Here are some of my favorite signs and sign-holders: Below is a quick video of the ...

I asked Gizelle for an informal photo of her and she provided this selfie taken in her car. The City of Greenbelt’s Manager, Josué Salmerón, discovered a need when he assumed the job in 2023 – for someone to respond to citizen complaints and going beyond that, coordinate responses on big issues. After posting the new job as “Coordinator of ...

My adopted cat and the Greenbelt Animal Shelter’s description of her. Last summer, after the second of my two old cats passed away, I abandoned my plans to be pet-free for long enough to take some extended trips and high-tailed it over to the Greenbelt Animal Shelter the very next day. There, in a tiny room holding 12 or so ...

Gardenbloggers, like me, are always on the look-out for new stories, and any connection to plants or gardening will do. So when I came across 1942 photos of Greenbelt’s original community gardens in the Library of Congress archives, I naturally blogged about them, asking readers to comment on the clothing choices on display here. The photos were taken in June, ...

On display now until December 29 at the New Deal Cafe is the Ekphrastic Fantastic Show, the Cafe’s third so far. So what is it? According to the Poetry Foundation, an ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art.  Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a ...

It’s thanks to my recent visit to the Norfolk Botanical Garden that the question in the title ever entered my mind. Like Greenbelt, it began as a New Deal project – in its case a $76,278 grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Unlike Greenbelt, all the 220 workers who built the first garden there were African-American – 200 women ...

The spanking new Royal Farms on Greenbelt Road (between the Honda dealer and the American Legion) has really opened, after several soft and official opening dates were announced and then changed. So I missed those, but stopped by a couple days later. It should be fully operational today (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), with opening problems solved ...

by Catherine Plaisant. Photos and videos by Catherine Plaisant and John Klinovsky. When the temperature finally dipped below 90 in mid-July, John Klinovsky and I looked for something to do that we had never done. What about a day at the racetrack? I have lived in the area for about 37 years without ever setting foot at Laurel Park.  In ...

Lincoln Smith speaking to members of the Greenbelt-Beltsville Garden Club in his forest garden. Lincoln Smith has been described, by one Washington Post  reporter, as a “landscape architect gone rogue,” after he quit his “high-end landscape architecture firm” to experiment and advance forest agriculture, the goal proclaimed on the home page of Forested. He started his “forest garden” in 2012 ...

When it’s THIS HOT OUTSIDE, museuming has never looked so appealing! That’s what I found last week when I visited the Baltimore Museum of  Art, which was easy and fun, I can’t remember why it’s taken me so long to see it – decades! Some details: It’s surprisingly FREE! The on-site parking costs $12/day; there may be free parking in ...

This week, with the extreme heat, I’ve been heading out at 6 a.m. for a walk before it gets unbearable. I’ve visited Lake Artemesia twice and I have news (at least it was news to me.) Walking past this newish work-out spot I stopped in my tracks – kayak rentals now available? Self-service? And just a few feet away is ...