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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 →
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 →
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 →
One of the true joys of the well-balanced, diversified landscape are the spring flowering and summer flowering shrubs. Now is the time when we can enjoy the spring flowering shrubs such as dogwood, viburnum, lilac, cotoneaster and forsythia.
The photo in the featured image is from John Ruter, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org In May many of our plants are blooming, making it very enjoyable to be outside. A great plant for May bloom is a plant called beautybush. This is not to be confused with beautyberry which is a plant we grow... Continue Reading →
Lilacs are one of the most recognized and best loved shrubs found in Nebraska landscapes. It’s also one example of a plant that performs wonderfully in northern gardens, hardiness zones 3-7 for most species, but lacks vigor and does not flower reliably in southern gardens (Zone 8 and higher). Lilacs are easy to grow and... Continue Reading →
Cucumber beetles and squash bugs are two serious insect problems of the cucurbits – cucumber, summer squash, winter squash, pumpkin, watermelon and zucchini. They are both difficult to control, but new research gives an option to reduce their numbers using low-chemical control. The Culprits Cucumber beetles and squash bug adults both cause damage through their feeding.... Continue Reading →
New guidance for farmers market operators was released by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture April 15, 2020. Nebraska farmers markets will be allowed to take place this year if they follow the mandatory guidance requirements, many of which are similar to procedures we are currently seeing in grocery stores. Here are a few excerpts from Guidance... Continue Reading →
After living with COVID-19 for the last five weeks, we all have a basic understanding of the disease, as well as basic practices to keep ourselves safe. Now spring is in full swing, how do these practices apply to the green industry professionals? Directed health measure (DHM) guidelines published by the Nebraska Department of Health... Continue Reading →
The spring is a great time for our gardens. Plants are starting to wake up from a long winter dormancy and it allows us to get outdoors once again to break the cabin fever. One of our early blooming perennials in the spring is Iris. About Bearded Iris Bearded Iris, Iris x, is a perennial... Continue Reading →
Acreage Owner Question: We just bought a new house and are trying to get started landscaping it. Can you recommend some fast growing, sturdy trees? Sure thing.
“If every plant and flower were found in all places, the charm of locality would not exist. Everything varies, and that gives the interest.” Richard Jefferies Karma Larsen There’s no doubt about it, there are some difficult ornamental plants out there. Usually we’re referring to plants that are hard to get established, too tall, short-lived... Continue Reading →
