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A newly released report offers a glimpse at the vision for Howard County's first public garden.

Kristin Danley-Greiner, Patch Staff

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A report detailing plans for the first public garden to be created in Howard County has been released and calls for the creation of herb and vegetable gardens, pollinator gardens, lawn alternative gardens, container gardens and conservation landscapes among other special features.

The land, which is the former site of the Longwood property in Glenwood, sits at the intersection of Route 97 (Roxbury Mills Road) and Burntwood’s Road. The land includes 29 acres of woods and 71 acres of fields including actively farmed hay ground, open meadows, a black walnut grove, a pine grove, wetlands, a pond, streams, springs and covered slopes.

“This premier destination public garden will be a place of cultivated beauty where residents and visitors of all ages and abilities can come together to embrace Mother Earth and improve their physical and mental well-being in a peaceful setting,” said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. “In its beauty, we also recognize the significance of the Longwood property’s past as a place where human enslavement once occurred. With the support of our community, we hope to determine the most respectful and appropriate way in which we can display this history.”

Structures on the property include the historic house, a smoke house, a doctor's office and the cemetery, believed to be the original features of the farm from the early 1800s, as well as a cinderblock storage shed with a metal roof, a cinderblock horse stable, a cinderblock horse birthing barn, a cinderblock horse bathing barn, a cinder block basement post and a collapsed bean barn.

The report, A Public Garden for Howard County, Maryland, details the recommendations made by the focus group assigned with developing a preliminary concept plan.

Customers of the Wegmans Food Markets in Maryland can now have their grocery orders delivered directly to their doors via Uber Eats.

Deb Belt, Patch Staff

|Updated Thu, Jan 23, 2025 at 12:19 pm ET

MARYLAND — Customers of the Wegmans Food Markets in Maryland can now have their grocery orders delivered directly to their doors via a new partnership with Uber Eats.

Starting this month, Uber Eats users can browse the app to order from Wegmans locations in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Customers can shop on the Uber Eats and Uber apps for products from restaurant-quality meals and artisan breads to fresh produce, cheese sourced from around the world, and grocery staples.

Uber One members pay no delivery fee and will receive a 5% discount on all Wegmans orders with a $35 minimum purchase. All new Wegmans' consumers will receive up to 40% off their next order of $60 or more until Feb. 5.

The grocery chain has eight stores in Maryland:

"We're thrilled to welcome Wegmans to the Uber Eats app this January," said Hashim Amin, head of North American Grocery and Retail Delivery at Uber, in a news release. "Wegmans is synonymous with high-quality food and exceptional service, and now customers can easily order everything they need for game day entertaining — from fresh produce to prepared meals and snacks — delivered right to their door."

Find out what's happening in Columbiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

By joining forces with Uber Eats, Wegmans officials said the company aims to bring more options to its customers, allowing them to shop when and how they want.

"Our goal is to make meals easy and help our customers live healthier, better lives through exceptional food," said Erica Tickle, Wegmans Vice President of Marketing and Digital Growth.

Wegmans customers can build group orders with family members, place orders any time of day, and select replacement items with real-time tracking.

Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a regional supermarket chain with 111 stores located along the East Coast. The family company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. Wegmans has been named one of the '100 Best Companies to Work For' by FORTUNE magazine for 27 consecutive years, ranking No. 6 in 2024.

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On New Year's Eve, Merriweather Symphony of Lights will host the "Midnight at 7" event complete with fireworks, music and food trucks.

Kristin Danley-Greiner, Patch Staff

COLUMBIA, MD — Ring in the New Year at one of several events being held across Howard County.

The Merriweather Symphony of Lights in Columbia offers a one-mile course of scenic colored lights visitors can drive through to experience the holiday season. The experience opened on Nov. 29 and goes until Jan.4; however, visitors can walk through the light show on select dates.

On New Year’s Eve, the venue will host the “Midnight at 7” event, giving guests the chance to walk through the course one last time this holiday season. Fireworks will be set off at 7 p.m. followed by music and food trucks.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in and around Columbia:

Find out what's happening in Columbiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have their own versions of this celebration, such as the Peeps Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho.

The transition from one year to the next is often marked by the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who made promises to return borrowed items and repay debts at the beginning of the new year, which was in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if people kept their word, the pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. However, if they broke their promises, they would lose favor with the gods.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are many reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude or a plan for coping with the stress and discomfort that comes with changing a habit or condition.

Columbia has a new “it girl.” At 10 years old, she has a dog-walking and treat-making business and teaches other young girls how to work through obstacles, patience and how to treat people and pets as individuals — only she’s 18 inches tall and has limbs made of vinyl.

Summer McKinny, sporting a rainbow tie-dye dress and pink glasses to go with matching bracelets and colorful sandals, is the doll that was crowned the 2025 American Girl of the Year. She’s the first American Girl of the Year from Maryland after making her debut in September.

Since Pleasant T. Rowland founded American Girl in 1986, the brand has become a touchstone for millennials and generations after who grew up with the dolls. More than 36 million of the dolls, which typically cost around $125, have been sold in the last four decades, according to American Girl.

Mary Mahoney, a historian and co-host of the popular “Dolls of Our Lives” podcast that retells the stories of each American Girl Doll, said McKinny’s story is defined by her turning her passion into a business, which mirrors what is important to generations today.

“Now we have a Girl of the Year whose dream is to be an entrepreneur. … The girls in the early periods were just pursuing things because they were interested in them. They weren’t trying to make a living,” Mahoney said. “And now it’s interesting that it’s kind of a reflection of our own times that Summer isn’t just interested in making dog treats or loving animals, which is wonderful, but also wants to make a business about it.”

She said Girl of the Year is an attempt to speak to kids, and that every doll’s story can stand as a yearbook or litmus test for the values that Mattel, the company that owns American Girl, thinks are important to children at a certain point.

Sep 18, 2024

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McKinny’s story is told through two books called “My Journal by Summer McKinny” and “Summer Gets to Work,” both written by Clare Hutton, a Columbia native.

Hutton consulted Katie Flory, the community care and advocacy director for the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Janear Garrus, founder of Chesapeake Educational Alliance, to make McKinny’s story as accurate and authentic as possible, according to American Girl.

Along with McKinny’s baking and dog-walking business, her story features her dog, Crescent, and her Aunt Olivia’s cat, Fettuccine, that bring moments of chaos into McKinny’s life. She learns how to navigate her business venture with her home life, and Hutton hopes readers see themselves in McKinny’s story.

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“While Summer’s not perfect, she is willing to admit when she’s wrong, talk about her feelings, and do what it takes to get a friendship back on track,” Hutton said in an American Girl blog. “I hope that girls will recognize their own relationships in the ones that Summer values and realize that they too can resolve conflicts just as she does.”

McKinny has real emotions that many readers may relate to, and Mahoney said that is what American Girl Dolls and their stories are meant to do.

“I think it’s a really special brand because everything they do is about instilling confidence in girls to love themselves, to explore who they are, to pursue their passions and be unapologetically interested in the world,” she said.

American Girl treats girls as empowered, important people, without rushing them to grow up or rushing them to be defined by a relationship to a boy, Mahoney said.

The dolls are also a way to connect girls to other generations in their families and encourage storytelling and shared play. “And I think all of that is really special,” she said.

abby.zimmardi@thebaltimorebanner.com

Abby Zimmardi is a reporter covering Howard County for The Baltimore Banner. Zimmardi earned her master’s degree from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism in December 2022.

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