Our Bay: Oyster gardening gains popularity

They're small and smelly and voracious eaters of yucky stuff in the water. And everyone agrees we need more of them in the Chesapeake Bay: oysters.

Regular Marylanders are stepping up to do their own small part to boost the bay's flagging oyster population. They're signing up in droves for oyster-growing programs offered by nonprofit groups, businesses and the government.

"People understand oysters are critical to the bay," said Bill Goldsborough, a senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which has been offering "oyster gardening" programs in Maryland and Virginia for 12...