Your garden is growing like crazy as we head into summer. Is it time to feed the lawn, the tomatoes and veggies, roses, and other flowers? Before you haul out bags, boxes, or bottles of plant food and sprinkle, spread, or pour them on, consider whether you really need to. Are the products beneficial to […]
Do you Really Need that Fertilizer? Read More »
National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26. Fourteen years ago, the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration, promoting the valuable ecosystem services provided
National Pollinator Week June 20 – 26, 2022  Read More »
Ever see a creepy, crawly, worm-like creature with oodles of legs in your yard or even in your house? Could be a centipede or a millipede. These strange looking critters are not insects – they’re more closely related to lobsters, crayfish, and shrimp, but are land dwellers. They’re most active at night around moist habitats
What’s that Crawling in the Garage? Read More »
Grrrrr – while merrily tending my roses, I’ve come across another victim of the dreaded beast – the gopher. If this is not one of the gardening challenges you face, you can stop reading now. Since I live in gopher heaven, each season I have to deal with the damage from this voracious pest. And
Traps are the Most Reliable Way to Manage Gophers Read More »
Ever heard of kudzu vine? It’s often referred to as “the invasive vine that ate the south” and the “mile-a-minute” plant. Once established, kudzu grows at a rate of one foot per day with mature vines growing up to 100 feet long. We have a smaller, somewhat less aggressive type of weed – field bindweed.
Bindweed is a Really Nasty Weed Read More »
One of the unwanted visitors to the spring garden arrives just about now. That pulsating mass of tiny pests that cloak the new growth on your roses, viburnums, or peach trees are at best an unsightly nuisance and at worst, creatures that can damage tender new growth on plants and spread disease. Welcome to the
It’s not just Aphids Read More »
There’s a whole lot of buzzing going on – bees are busy doing their thing, zipping from flower to flower, moving pollen from one to the other, bringing the promise of plump peaches, tasty tomatoes, and humdinger zucchini. There are also ones that might be drilling little holes in the eaves of your roof or
A Bee or Not a Bee, that is the Question Read More »
No need for a calendar to tell you that spring has arrived. Days are longer and warmer, trees are bursting with brilliant blossoms and tiny leaves are emerging from vegetable seeds you carefully planted last month. Along with the wonders of the season are the challenges – weeds, insect pests, and maybe even rats! Before
Noticed any branches of your pear or apple trees that look like they’ve been torched or scorched? Might be a case of fire blight, a nasty bacterial disease. It most frequently affects pome fruit trees (apples and pears) and related plants – crabapple, ornamental pear, pyracantha, and quince. Infections may appear scattered throughout the crown
Could it be Fire Blight? Read More »
If your last crop of apples featured a worm inside that big, juicy fruit, it likely was the larvae of the codling moth, a serious pest of apples that also attacks pears, large-fruited hawthorns, and walnuts. This insect pest can be a bane in the home orchard. The moth larvae tunnel into the fruit and
Prevent getting Worms in your Apples Read More »
