Welcome to the University of Maryland Extension (UME) of Worcester County which is part of a statewide, non-formal education system within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. This partnership also includes support from USDA as well as the county government. The Worcester County UME faculty and staff provide a broad range of outreach through workshops, seminars, classes, clinics, newsletters, consultations, and media efforts.
The Worcester County Fair Guide is now available!
Join us for a fun-filled day at the county fair, featuring a variety of events and activities for all ages! The fair kicks off at 4:30 PM with a ribbon cutting ceremony, followed by a series of exciting contests, live music performances, and delicious foods. Don’t miss the agricultural exhibits, kids’ activities, and indoor 4-H and open exhibits and demonstrations.
Sporobolus heterolepis
Plant of the Week...
...or Prairie dropseed is often considered one of the most handsome of the native prairie grasses. It thrives in average to dry well drained soils, needs full sun, and is cold tolerant in USDA zones 3-9. Although it prefers to grow in dry rocky soils, it will tolerative a wide range soils from heavy clay to sandy loams. These fine textured warm season grasses can be slow to establish and are slow growing, but the plants can thrive as a ground cover in hot and dry areas, as a foundation planting, in a Rain Garden, a meadow, native plant garden, as a border or with their deep fibrous root system, reducing erosion on a sunny slope. The clump forming perennial grass will grow 2-3 feet tall and wide with hair like fine textured medium green leaves that grow 1/16” wide and 20 inches long. The foliage creates a mound with the arching stems, and the summers green turns golden in the autumn then fades to a light bronze in the winter. August to October the pink and brown tinted flower panicles bloom, filling the air with the fragrance of a combination of coriander, honey, popcorn, sunflower seeds and/or melted wax. The open branched airy flowering panicles are set on slender stems that rise above the foliage, and when mature become tiny rounded seeds that drop to the soil from their hulls. Plants can provide 4 seasons of interest, after mowing down the foliage in the spring the new grow has decorative arching stems, in summer the green mounds need no maintenance, in the autumn the foliage turns to gold with airy seed heads dancing in the breezes, and winter brings a sturdy bronze colored mound of grass that even snow can not beat down. Birds enjoy the seeds and the plants are tolerant of drought, erosion, deer, air pollution and Black Walnut trees.
Ginny Rosenkranz
