Over the Garden Fence 2018

University of Illinois Extension offices are already getting calls about needle evergreens that are not looking healthy, and spring has yet to arrive! If you drive your neighborhood right now, you can spot those evergreens that died late last fall. Arborvitaes are standing dead in many locations in...

What a difference just a few days can make in what we need to be doing in the home landscape. Since the rain shut off or slowed, the first part of the landscape with symptoms of water stress is the lawn (even the lawn weeds). If you planned for it, go ahead and let the lawn go dormant even though...

Now that we have gotten a lot of rain, plants are responding and that has been driving questions to Master Gardener Help Desks in all the counties I get to work in. Q: My lawn finally has begun to green up after the drought, what should I be doing to get it back in shape?...

There are signs, despite the weather pattern, that spring will indeed arrive this year. More and more spring bulbs are showing up with flower stalks well above the soil line waiting for a bit better weather to bloom. There is even an up-side to our temperatures. If it remains cooler, those spring...

Powdery mildew can be seen every year on perennials, lawns or landscape plants at some point in the growing season. As a fungal disease, it is not limited to just ornamental plants. Vegetables like pumpkins, squash, melons and grain crops, and even houseplants, can be added to the list too. The...

Bakers in the family, and everyone else who enjoy their benefits, really like the holidays. Lots of cookies, cakes and pies are baked during the season. Pantry pests are those tiny grain beetles and flour moths that use the leftover flour to feed on and live in. This phenomenon is common, as many...

I purposely did not go back and count how many times this season I have discussed water. Either we are getting too much, it is interfering with planting, or we are in absolute need of water. Recent weather patterns have brought much needed rain to some of us, but others were left dry. Master...