ILRiverHort 2016

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator Summer is the time for family and school reunions. Rhonda Ferree, Horticulture Educator with University of Illinois Extension, suggests taking reunions to another level by starting a reunion garden. "School reunion gardens are...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator Are you enjoying the "fruits of your labor" from your vegetable garden this summer? With proper care, vegetable gardens provide fresh produce well into the fall. It is essential to keep plants watered consistently during the heat of...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator I remember going on the Spoon River Drive each fall with my Grandma and Grandpa Simmons. I loved visiting the old school house in London Mills and eating ham-n-beans scooped from a large cast-iron pot. Each year my Grandpa purchased...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator When it comes to pollination, honey bees get a majority of the attention. However, many insects play a role in pollination. What is Pollination? Pollination occurs when pollen grains move between two flowers of the same species, or...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator Growing your own food is easy and fun. This year I will write more spotlights on backyard food production in this column. To get us started, here are excerpts from an article written by my colleague Richard Hentschel. Richard writes...

Original article found at http://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/article.php?id=826 Adult Japanese beetles have been reported in southern, central, and northern Illinois. Early control reduces damage through the six weeks that they are actively feeding as beetles are attracted to previous feeding damage....

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator We've all heard wives'-tales that predict the weather. I can still hear my grandma saying, "Red sky at night, sailors delight; Red sky in morning, sailors warning." There are legends of people using groundhogs, hornets, woolly bear...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator I have been battling some difficult and very invasive weeds this summer in my yard. A new weed in my gardens this summer is prickly sida (Sida spinosa), also called prickly mallow. This summer annual has a yellow flower and...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator Every year I get questions about bizarre oak leaf damage that most people think is caused by a terrible insect infestation. Although some insects feed on oak trees, often the samples I see have a condition called Oak Tatters. I...

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator As the holiday season approaches, it seems appropriate to discuss the issue of sweet potatoes versus yams. Officially a sweet potato is never a yam, but sweet potatoes are often sometimes referred to as yams. Sweet potatoes (...