In the summer, on an acreage or in town, it’s important to make every drop count.
Wise Water Use Guidelines
Weigela
In June we have a lot of great plants blooming. The spring blooming shrubs have finished blooming and we are moving on to the summer blooming shrubs. One great choice for summer bloom is a Weigela. Description Weigela, Weigela florida, is a medium-sized shrub that grows up to 6-8 feet tall and wide. It is... Continue Reading →
Common Grub Control Questions
What are grubs? Almost every gardener has seen grub larvae in the soil while installing new plants or tilling the vegetable garden. The term "white grub" actually encompasses the larval stage of several scarab beetles, the most common, and most damaging, being the June beetle or masked chafer and the Japanese beetle. Less well-known are... Continue Reading →
Yellow Nutsedge
In the last week or two, have you started to see light yellowish-green grass-like plants in your lawn or landscape beds? Guess what? You may have yellow nutsedge and it's started growing for another year. IdentificationYellow nutsedge is a member of the sedge family although it closely resembles a grass. In fact it is frequently called... Continue Reading →
Harvesting Greens
What’s the best way to harvest your greens, such as lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard? Before starting, remember these harvest tips. · Small leaves are tasty and tender. Over mature greens often become bitter. · Harvest mid-morning after the dew has dried but before the hot sun comes out. Harvesting leaves dry lengthens their... Continue Reading →
Espalier: Create Living Art with Form and Function
An old horticulture practice of controlling plant growth in a flat plane against a solid surface or trellis has merit in today’s smaller landscapes. This is the art of espalier, pronounced ess-PAL-yer, or ess-PAL-yay. The word espalier is French, but is derived from the Italian word spalliera meaning “something to rest the shoulder against.” The... Continue Reading →
Handling Pesticides Safely
Pest control depends to a great extent on how well you achieve thorough coverage of all plant parts - flowers, leaves, the undersides of leaves, and fruit. New label directions now give flexibility in the amount of water used to dilute pesticides. Using the highest amount of water you can often gives the best coverage. Spray plants until... Continue Reading →
Make Your Landscape Bee-friendly
Honey bees and other bee species, such as bumblebees, orchard mason bees, and leafcutter bees are very important pollinators of flower and crops. In the home garden and orchard, gardeners are aware how important bees are for fruit and vegetable production. But in recent years many gardeners have noticed declining bee numbers in their gardens... Continue Reading →
The Earth Laughs in Wildflowers
National Wildflower Week is celebrated the first full week of May, which makes sense for Texas where the event was first promoted by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. However, in Nebraska May is often laced with cold and snow and few wildflowers are yet blooming, thus wildflower week is not celebrated here... Continue Reading →
Acreage Life - Nebraska 