Your home outside the city limits.
The coronavirus COVID-19 has instigated a new normal for us all, affecting almost every aspect of life. We are all aware of the everyday preventive actions the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends. Avoid close contact with others. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. Clean your hands often, including... Continue Reading →
This year All-America Selections (AAS) announces seven national and two heartland vegetable award winners. To see pictures of these and other great plants visit the All-American Selection Website. Consider trying one of these great cultivars this year by purchasing seeds or transplants. National Winners Cucumber ‘Green Light’ - This little beauty is an excellent mini cucumber,... Continue Reading →
Thanksgiving pie is a tradition for many families and apple pie is a frequent favorite. Wouldn’t it be great to tell your guests you grew the apples they are enjoying? Unfortunately, many home landscapes are not big enough for even a semi-dwarf fruit tree, let alone two – since most apple trees need a second... Continue Reading →
For better or worse, another gardening season is over. This week, we could talk about reviewing your gardening year, selecting disease resistant cultivars, proper pruning, watering or mulching techniques, or keeping garden records of success or failures so next year’s growing season goes better. But sometimes, you just need a little commiseration to lighten your... Continue Reading →
Raspberry crowns live for many years, but their canes are biennial meaning they live for two years. Each year new shoots grow from buds in the crown. Late in that first summer, these new canes develop lateral branches with fruit buds on them. Early the next spring, fruit-bearing shoots grow from these buds. After fruiting,... Continue Reading →
Garden professionals often talk about sanitation as a way to manage insect and disease problems in a garden or landscape. But what exactly is garden sanitation and how does it help with pest problems? Pest Overwintering Strategies Many disease organisms carry over from one season to the next on infected branches, leaves or fruits. Diseased... Continue Reading →
Gooseberries are one of those unusual fruits not grown by many home gardeners. But they certainly are worth consideration for home fruit production, especially if you’re creating an edible landscape and need plants with good ornamental appearance as well as food production. Gooseberry plants can be used as a foundation shrub or hedge, having nice... Continue Reading →
Fruit trees in the home orchard often set abundant crops if spring pollination conditions are good and most home gardeners do not thin fruit trees enough or at all. Only 10% of peach flowers are needed for full crop set and peaches are particularly prone to branch breakage under heavy crop load. Very heavy fruit loads,... Continue Reading →
Gardeners enjoy the beauty and fragrance of flowers, but from a plant’s standpoint flowers have one very basic and essential function – to ensure the production of seeds and thus the next generation. For a plant to produce seeds its flowers must be pollinated, either through self-pollination or cross-pollination, and most plants have evolved to... Continue Reading →
One of the most easily recognized insects in the home landscape is the white grub. Almost every gardener has seen white 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... Continue Reading →
Fruit trees will soon be blooming, marking the beginning of another growing season. Many diseases become active during blooming, so it’s time to prepare to protect your trees and ensure a good harvest. Brown Rot After harvesting, gardeners are often disappointed to find apricot, peach, cherry or plum fruits quickly develop a soft fuzzy brown... Continue Reading →
Even though this year’s flooding occurred in March before most garden crops were in the ground, there is still cause for concern when considering harvesting perennial crops and planning this year’s garden. Flood waters many be contaminated by any combination of sewage, river or creek water, farm run-off or industrial pollutants. Bacteria, parasites, viruses and... Continue Reading →
