At the time that Greenbelt first promoted “No-Mow April” in 2022, this garden writer, Master Gardener and lifelong gardener wrote “Beware No-Mow April” about its potential harm to turfgrass, citing U.Maryland lawn-care advice. Even if you’re anti-lawn, the most environmentally responsible kind of lawn is a thick, healthy one that prevents stormwater run-off and weeds while requiring no treatments of ...

Greenbelt writer Kim Keyes, we recently learned, doesn’t JUST write. She also makes videos, and has a new playlist called “The Baltimore and  Washington, D.C. Area that Tourists Rarely See” and it’s a great addition to our blog category “Day Trips.” We thank her for expanding our horizons and confirming that our area is incredibly rich in places to visit ...

I was listening to the podcast “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” about the bipartisan-by-design Ethics Committee that’s able to do things like – in the news this week – investigate Matt Gaetz for possible sex-trafficking, lobbying violations and obstruction of justice. The committee has equal party representation, so neither is in the majority. Rep. Steny Hoyer, who represented Greenbelt for decades, ...

By Catherine Plaisant (plaisant@umd.edu) All photos by Catherine unless indicated otherwise. With the planting of an interpretive sign at the end of December, the Greenbelt Community Conservation Landscape and Demonstration Project is reaching completion. The interpretative sign A team of neighbors living near 65 Ct. Ridge Road worked together – and with Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) – to obtain a ...

The following letter by Mark Cheater and me was published 1/18/24 in the Greenbelt News Review.  Here it includes a correction suggested by the editor. Title: “Charter Fixes Needed for Council Elections The tragic loss of Councilmember Ric Gordon has highlighted problems in Greenbelt’s charter that need to be fixed. These fixes would respond to legitimate complaints about the lack ...

Top traffic posts and pages of 2023. As one does at year-end (or a little late in my case), here’s a capsule look at what happened on Greenbelt Online during 2023, and changes coming in 2024. Top Traffic Pages The Top 10 traffic-getting pages on the site in 2023 were: Home, how to prune your our hedges, how to shop ...

As promised, Greenbelt Online is following breaking news about the FBI headquarters projected relocation to the Greenbelt Metro Station, and adding links to news items to our chronological archive here. Most news stories since our first blog post about the Greenbelt announcement have repeated statements of opposition from Virginia office-holders, and mentioned that the FBI’s Inspector General is reviewing the ...

Good news for me and my fellow Maryland seniors – if you need the safety of a daily check-in, there’s no need to pay monthly for an automated phone check-up service. Maryland now provides that service for free if you’re 65 or older. It’s the first state in the country to do that! How it works You’ll get an automated ...

Here’s the second and final batch of blog stories that our subscribers didn’t receive by email while our subscription service was “paused” mistakenly. (Here’s the first batch of five.) Five Posts that Our Subscribers Didn’t Receive “Wild Reels Film Festival Highlights Outdoor Recreation“ featured the outstanding new film festival in Greenbelt this year – the Wild Reels Film Festival – ...

Winters here in Greenbelt are pretty mild and getting milder, but last week, with freezing weather, I was reminded that I hate walking or biking (or doing anything) when the weather is that wintery. (While yes, appreciating that it could be so much worse. I spent my college years near Lake Erie, so I KNOW.) Swimming Indoors in Cold Weather ...

Euglossine orchid bee pollinating a vanilla orchid flower in the train exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden. If you’re looking for something fun (and educational) to do between now and New Year’s Day, the U.S. Botanic Garden gets my enthusiastic vote, especially since their beloved trains are running outdoors! (Thanks to covid, and now permanent.) It’s weather-permitting, of course, but ...

A big Greenbelt welcome to our new city manager Josue Salmeron and his family, who JUST bought a GHI home on Ridge Road! When I ran into them, Josue’s wife Tania Hutchinson was marveling at Roosevelt Center, and the kids Ahnika and Josue Brooks seemed to like it, too. On the left is a brother (of Josue, I believe), who ...

What a news week for Greenbelt – the election, and now the announcement late Thursday that Greenbelt has been selected as the site of the new FBI headquarters! It’s SUCH a big story for Greenbelt – the announcement and everything to follow – that Greenbelt Online is reporting it, with a focus on coverage by the media. We begin with ...

“What happened to emails from Greenbelt Online?” It took hearing that question (from someone in the grocery store) for me to finally realize that subscribers to this blog had stopped receiving updates by email – back in March of this year. Sorry!!! The reason is that the number of subscribers had become too large for our free version of Mailchimp, ...

Mayor Emmett Jordan holds the city’s Proclamation of the 20th Anniversary of the Forest Preserve. He’s joined by “forest protectors” Susan Barnett, Paul Downs and Konrad Herling, as Council member Ric Gordon applauds. Photo by the author. What a glorious event it was celebrating the 20th anniversary of Greenbelt’s beloved Forest Preserve. A crowd of forest-lovers turned out to hear ...

Voting Starts this Saturday Click here for details about voting in the 2023 City Council elections. Problems with Greenbelt’s Council Elections Back in 2017 I predicted low voter turn-out in the Council elections due to Greenbelt’s system of voting – all Council seats are at-large – which pro-democracy and voting rights groups criticize, for good reason: At-Large Voting as Incumbent ...

Remember October of 2022, when Greenbelt’s first Wild Rumpus event was brought to us by our very talented Recreation and ARTS Department? Here’s a quick highlights video if you don’t. As the community gathered again in Roosevelt Center to see V. 2 of Wild Rumpus, we wondered if it would be a repeat of that wonderful event, or something new ...

Greenbelt’s very own, very special Utopia Film Festival happened last weekend and was, by all accounts, a big success! A project of Greenbelt Access Television, the festival started in 2005 and shows a wide variety of films (features, documentaries, and shorts) from independent filmmakers from the DC area and beyond. With the mission of “Seeking a better world through film,” ...

Greenbelters pick out their pumpkins at the main tent The Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival kicked off last weekend, starting with the annual pumpkin carving in Roosevelt Center on Friday.Despite the rainy weather all afternoon, the community showed up in the evening to excitedly pick out their pumpkins and get to carving. Thankfully, multiple community members came together and provided their personal ...

The niche sport that has grown in popularity for teenagers and young adults over social media this year has been around in the senior community of Greenbelt since before the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as four people playing pickleball — three of whom had never played before — turned into an organized senior program that meets four times a week ...