COLLEGE PARK, Md. As
autumn approaches and you
harvest your last tomatoes, pep
pers and cucumbers, you may
think your work in the vegetable
garden is done. It’s not.
Fall cleanup is an important
part of proper vegetable garden
management, according to spe
cialists at the Home and Garden
Information Center of the
Cooperative Extension Service
University of Maryland at College
Older Homes Look Best With Old-Fashioned Landscaping
maintain privacy and shut out landscapingprofessionalit’s best damage or kill them, and changing
noice. Some remodeling also to involve him or her while you re ™ V a ne Hf light conditions will affect them
might be necessary, such as add- setting goals and developing the SSwrtavaSbte 60 too.” says Steams. ‘The best ap
ing a side door, putting on a new g* S A. expm- poach is to prccecd will, ,m of
porch or fixmg the walkway. mSes ” are selling heirloom plants again ” care . and remember that landscap-
Before breaking soil on any vent costly mistakes. Working with an older land in 8 can be done in phases. It
property, create a landscaping A landscape contractor can help JJ 1 h ™ doesn’t have to happen all at
phut -If you* going » hhc a yo» dec.de winch php* an, »o„h p la^
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) When you buy an older
home, you’re also buying an older
landscape. Those vintage plants
often are worth keeping, says a
landscaping specialist in Penn
State’s College of Agricultural
Sciences.
“Most yards around older hous
es contain plants of the period
when the houses were built, such
as lilacs, yews, roses and forsy
thias,” says Dan Steams, assistant
professor of landscape contract
ing. ‘These plantings complement
older architecture.”
It’s often a mistake to remove
existing plants and replace them
with modem landscaping. “Close
ly sculpted hedges, a front deck
and a large expanse of lawn may
clash with Victorian or colonial
homes,” says Steams. “We’ve all
seen houses and yards that just
don’t fit together.”
Steams advises waiting at least
a year before altering any la i
scape. “Study your yard’s appear
ance during each season,” says
Steams. ‘There may be spring
flowering bulbs, summer-bloom
ing shrubs and perennials, trees
with colorful fall foliage and ever
greens for winter interest. Preserv
ing these plants can save time and
money.”
Does this mean you shouldn’t
plant new things? “Not at all,”
says Steams. “The key is to blend
new plantings with existing ones.
This also may mean rejuvenating
or removing older plants that are
past their prime."
Functional issues also will in
fluence your landscaping deci
sions. “A lot can change during a
property’s lifetime.” says Steams.
“Many houses were built before
there were automobiles. You may
need to add a garage or even a
driveway.
“The quiet lane your house was
built beside now may be a busy
highway. If this is the case, a tall
hedge or fence will be needed to
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Get Vegetable Gardens Ready For Winter Now
Park.
The first step in winterizing
your vegetable garden is to
remove diseased and insect
infested plants. This will prevent
many plant diseases and insect
pests from overwintering. Healthy
crop residues can be worked into
the soil or composted.
Next comes soil enhancement
through the addition of lime and
organic matter. A $5 soil test con
ducted at the University of Mary
land at College Park will help you
How ‘Clean And Green’ Affects Local Taxes
HUNTINGDON (Huntingdon
Co.) To help preserve farm
land, Pennsylvania’s Clean and
Green law lets farmers pay taxes
on the agricultural value of their
land instead of its higher develop
ment value. But it also cuts local
tax revenues, says a Penn State
researcher.
“Some of Pennsylvania’s best
farmland is at risk of develop
ment,” says Dr. Tim Kelsey, assis
tant professor of agricultural eco
nomics. “Act 319, also known as
Clean and Green, was enacted in
1974 to help farmers keep real
property taxes in line with their
income. Even if farmland is not
physically affected by neighbor
ing developments, higher property
values mean higher taxes.”
Kelsey calculated tax revenues
lost because of Clean and Green as
well as millage rate increases
necessary to offset these losses
using data on participation in the
act in 1991. That year, 45 of the
state’s 67 counties had particip
ants. More than 42,000 people and
more than 3.7 million acres were
enrolled in the program.
"The average county govern
ment with Clean and Green parti
cipants lost 3.S percent of its real
property tax revenue and 1.2 per
cent of its total revenue because of
the program,” Kelsey says. “These
impacts varied dramatically
across counties, municipalities
and school districts.
“Fulton County, for example,
lost a larger share of its total
revenue 8.9 percent than
any other county, even though it is
INC.
under less development pressure
than many counties,” says Kelsey.
“On average, county millage
rates would have risen 0.51 mills,
and municipal millage rates would
have risen 0.26 mills,” Kelsey
says. “School district millage rates
also would have risen because of
Clean and Green. This means the
average owner of a house with a
market value of $50,000 located in
a county with Clean and Green
participants pays an additional
$38.12 in local property taxes
each year.”
Clean and Green seems to
impose a large burden in certain
areas, but are these unfair? The
jury is still out “Some people
argue that the real property tax is
unfair to farmers,” Kelsey says.
“Farmers at all income levels gen
erally pay around 10 percent of
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determine what and how much
is needed. Test kits are avail
able from the Home and Garden
Information Center
(1-800-342-2507).
The final step is to plant a cover
crop. When planted'in the fall and
plowed under in the spring, cover
crops improve soil structure and
fertility while preventing erosion.
The best cover crops are
legumes. Bacteria associated with
the roots of these plants convert
nitrogen from the air into a form
Uncaatar Farming, Saturday, Saptamber 24, 1994-817
that can be used by plants.
The most suitable legume for
home gardens is hairy vetch. One
of the most efficient soil builders,
this winter annual should be sown
in September and plowed under in
early spring. Non-leguminous
alternatives are annual rye and
oats, which should be sown
between early September and ear
ly October.
For more information about
their household income on real
property taxes, while nonfarm
households pay a smaller and
srtialler share as their income
rises. Programs like Clean and
Green help to correct that.”
Raising taxes to make up for
these losses shifts the burden from
participating farmers onto other
taxpayers. “How these costs are
distributed may be more unfair
than the size of the costs them
selves,” Kelsey notes. “Some
communities suffer large impacts
even though they are under little
development pressure.
“People living in Clean and
Green communities pay the prog
ram’s costs, even though all tax
payers benefit from the program.
Other states with similar programs
shift the costs from local taxing
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vegetable gardens or other horti
cultural topics, Maryland resi
dents can call the Home and Gar
den Information Center at
1-800-342-2507. Experts are
available to answer questions
about 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday
through Friday. Recorded infor
mation on a variety of subjects is
accessible via touch-tone phone
24 hours a day.
districts onto the state’s income
tax base. Pennsylvania currently
does not do this, so rural residents
pay a disproportionate share of the
program’s costs.”
Preserving farmland might be
worth the cost, but the benefits are
hard to measure accurately, and
there is no consensus on how
effective programs like Clean and
Green are in preserving farm
land,” Kelsey says.
A new publication from Penn
State’s College of Agricultural
Sciences explores this issue in
more detail. For a free copy of
“Farmland Preservation in Pen
nsylvania; The Impact of ‘Clean
and Green’ on Local Governments
and Taxpayers,” Extension Circu
lar 411, contact the Penn State
Cooperative Extension office in
your county.
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