This week's column is all about some unwanted indoor insects, but not your usual Box Elder bugs and spiders that made their way indoors this past fall. Homemakers are in full swing baking our favorite cookies and other holiday treats. With that baking comes the potential for all those pesky pantry...

August brings some unique questions to the Master Gardener help desk. Here are some that have been fun to answer: I planted my garden sweet corn next to field corn and now my sweet corn isn't so sweet, what is happening? Unlike other vegetables that get cross pollinated and...

Feeding birds is an annual discussion with homeowners who enjoy having birds in the yard over the winter. Let's start with the bird seed fact everyone should hear or read: All bird seed mixes are not created equal. Selecting bird seed means buying seed to attract your favorite birds and...

To control or not to control, that is the question. There are two grubs that historically have caused us to ponder the control question, our native masked chafer (white grub) and our not so native Japanese Beetle. The masked chafer will lay eggs in the latter half of July in the norther parts if...

Checklists can be useful garden tools to be sure projects and tasks get done in a timely fashion. Going down a checklist to lessen disease is just another part of planning what you are going to grow this season. My suggested list below covers eight points and is a great place to start. Not all will...

Nearly all our spring blooming plants have finished now and are in the process of putting their energy into storage if a bulb. Next year's flowers depend on the plants ability to continue to produce food reserves until they naturally die down. The very early spring bulbs have already disappeared...

Last year gardeners were caught off guard with outbreaks of scale insects on their trees and shrubs. University of Illinois Master Gardeners received many calls of Magnolia foliage turning black and sticky residue on lawn furniture, yard ornaments and if you stood there for even a minute, all over...

Shopping for the gardener in the family this holiday season? There are more gardening tools out there than you can imagine. There are tools for the vegetable garden, flower beds, trees, shrubs and evergreens. And, there are tools for every job in the yard. When choosing a gift, consider giving a...

The weather is sure messing with our plans for early work in the yard. There is at least a couple of projects that not only can be done, but should be done as soon as possible and at the right stage of growth. Perhaps the more critical project is that of our earliest sprays in the home orchard....

There are some good stories out there why fall color happens with credits to the changing temperatures, and a hot summer and wet fall and the best one "Jack Frost". While there clearly is some truth to changing temperatures and adequate moisture, Mr. Frost has little to do with the fall colors we...

Storing unused pesticides can be a troubling situation for home gardeners. Frequently asked questions include: Where can I keep them? Is it safe? Will the pesticides last? What about my children and pets? While buying in bulk might be good for dry goods and groceries, today the pesticide...

Insects are very interesting to watch as they go about their lives in nature from early spring through fall. We notice them when something goes wrong or missing on our valuable landscape plants and flowers, especially when those insects are considered detrimental to growing our prized flowers or...

Extension offices routinely get phone calls after a two or three year old fruit trees, "why don't I get any fruit?" Often times what is happening is natural, sometimes we contribute to the delay of fruit production by the care we have given the fruit tree. It is pretty common that we will get some...

Garden catalogs began to show up in early January and will continue a while. There may be plenty of phrases and initials that you know. There are some new ones now too. Vegetable descriptions will often include a number of initials at the end. These usually signify that the vegetable has been bred...

What do Squirrels, Raccoons and Skunks have in common this time of year? They all love to mess with our lawns right now. Squirrels have been foraging for food that can be stored for the winter in the landscape and part of that activity is burying seeds of all kinds from our trees and shrubs in the...

Where you place your dwarf fruit tree home orchard or even the one or two fruit trees you are going to grow make a big difference in how the fruit tree grows and performs. A major consideration is the soil. Fruit trees are no different than other trees and shrubs in your landscape, they need good...

Time has run out for doing some gardening projects, but there is still time to plant your favorite spring flowering bulbs and prepare the home orchard for the winter. Bulbs that flower for us in the spring of the year need to receive a cold treatment, easily provided through our winter weather by...

For a Horticulturist, this month has not visually been a good one. Sure there has been abundant and beautiful flowers from annuals and perennials and the spring bloom from our ornamental shrubs and trees was spectacular. What I am writing about this week is the visual decline out in the landscape,...

Just about now, you can see holiday trees sitting in the front or side yard, waiting for the assigned pick up date to be collected and mulched. This is one way to be sure your holiday tree gets recycled to the benefit of the environment. The follow through to getting your tree composted in a...

We have been enjoying mild late fall temperatures and our plants have been slow to respond to the normal signals to go dormant. Trees and shrubs finally received the message, yet our lawns remain pretty green and maybe even needed one more mowing before the big snow. There are some landscape...