Your home outside the city limits.
Justin Evertson PHOTO: Native Juneberry bears blueberry-like fruits in June that are a favorite of birds as well as humans. With native habitats shrinking, our home landscapes are increasingly important for sustaining wildlife, including birds, amphibians, pollinators and other beneficial insects. In terms of year-round value, the backbone of wildlife habitat is our native... Continue Reading →
This year All-America Selections announces four national vegetable award winners. To see pictures of these and other great plants visit the All-America Selection website. Pepper ‘Just Sweet’ is a small golden-yellow snacking pepper, that resembles a miniature bell pepper. Each fruit is 3-inches long, deliciously sweet, with nice thick walls. Many judges conduct consumer taste tests and... Continue Reading →
All-America Selections (AAS) celebrates 86 years of testing and introducing improved flowers and vegetables. Founded in 1932 to foster the development, production and distribution of new and improved horticultural and agricultural varieties of flowers, bedding plants and vegetables in North America, the organization evaluates plants at a network of almost 200 display gardens across the United... Continue Reading →
Most gardeners have a favorite Salvia and it’s no wonder! The Salvia genus is huge with over 700 unique species, both culinary and ornamental types, plus annual and perennial lifecycles. There’s something for everyone! Sage is the common name for plants in this genus. They are members of the Mint family and share that families' characteristics... Continue Reading →
Late in the winter, spring is the only thing on the minds of gardeners. One of my favorite activities in the spring is heading out to the garden center and choosing all the fun flowers to plant. I like perennial plants because I can plant them one time and they will continue to come back... Continue Reading →
One of the most often overlooked maladies of turf is ice damage.
Each year the National Garden Bureau designates one bulb or bulb-like plant to highlight and this year’s featured plant is Dahlia. The Dahlia genus was named by the Madrid Botanical Garden for Andreas Dahl, a Swedish botanist and student of Carl Linnaeus. Mexico and Guatemala is the original homeland of dahlia species used to develop today’s garden cultivars. Spanish explorers of Central... Continue Reading →
One of the most important aspects of raising any animal is the feed that is fed to them. When you’re considering livestock and poultry, roughly 70% of your overall cost of raising those animals is tied up in feed costs. With that being said, feeding poultry the proper ration is key to the success, viability... Continue Reading →
This year the National Garden Bureau features Snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, as its annual flower of the year. Snapdragon is often thought of as an old-fashioned flower, evoking childhood memories of a grandparents’ garden. But snapdragons are an easy to grow, multi-purpose plant, which add great color, fragrance and pollinator habitat to any garden. If you haven’t used snapdragons in your... Continue Reading →
In early winter, pollinators are often the last thing we expect to see in the landscape. But as the days start to warm our native bees and moths come out and stretch their wings. On days over 40°F many species of bees, moths and wasps emerge from their winter homes ready to forage. Flowers can... Continue Reading →
As we shiver through winter’s freezing temperatures and heavy snow, many gardeners hope the severe weather translates to fewer garden insects in the coming growing season. But, unfortunately, insects have evolved many coping mechanisms enabling them to tolerate winter conditions just fine. Most commonly each insect species overwinters in a specific developmental stage – egg, larva,... Continue Reading →
It’s a great time to notice attractive features of trees and shrubs in the landscape.
