Reflect. Refresh. Renew.
Find everyday inspiration.
Put research-based knowledge to work for you at home, at work, and in your community. Get inspired, build confidence, and trust Extension’s reliable and relatable information to help you navigate health and resilience in all areas of life.
Find local progams
Title
Avian Flu Updates
The nationwide spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, in the past few months has many concerned about livestock, pets, wildlife, food safety, and public health. HPAI is an extremely contagious disease that can kill entire poultry flocks in days. The H5N1 strain spreads from wild to domestic birds as well as mammals, including dairy cattle, wild carnivores, and pets, raising concerns about how the virus might be mutating.
Connect. Learn. Grow.

Wildlife is Everywhere
Learn how to support Illinois wildlife and navigate everyday wildlife encounters with research-based information you can trust.

Plan Your Garden
Growing your own produce brings many rewards. Plan your garden space and find out when to plant your favorite vegetables and fruit in each Illinois plant hardiness zone.

Grow Your Food Business
Learn about the laws, certifications, processes, and practices required to run a home-based cottage food operation safely and legally in Illinois.
Title
A Strategic Path for Extension Impact
Throughout 2023 and early 2024, Illinois Extension, in partnership with Huron Consulting Group, engaged in a comprehensive planning process to refine and refresh its core priorities, goals, and paths to success through internal and external stakeholder surveys, focus groups, and listening sessions statewide. The research yielded vital findings around Extension’s engagement, services, partnerships, and impact and identified shifting trends, demographics, and needs that will impact Illinois residents.

Extension bridges gap between environmental research and real-world solutions
Strong natural systems and the resources they provide, from water filtration to renewable energy sources, are a vital part of healthy, robust communities. One of the core University of Illinois Extension program areas – natural resources, environment, and energy – connects communities across the…

Explore 2025 All-America Selection plant, flower award winners
URBANA, Ill. — Another Illinois winter comes closer to a close, depending on which region of the state you live in. Cold and snowy days may have drug on, but the promise of spring and garden catalogs ease the time before March planting. Whatever the plan is for 2025 gardens, leave room for those…

Study: ‘Sustainable intensification’ on the farm reduces soil nitrate losses, maintains crop yields
URBANA, Ill. — A nine-year study comparing a typical two-year corn and soybean rotation with a more intensive three-year rotation involving corn, cereal rye, soybean and winter wheat found that the three-year system can dramatically reduce nitrogen — an important crop nutrient — in farm runoff…