The kitchen is often the heart of every home. Whether it is time spent there preparing a family-favorite recipe, sitting around the table with loved ones, or resting at the counter as you enjoy a hot cup of coffee and read the morning news, many memories are made there, and countless hours are...
Thoughts may not naturally gravitate to pruning fruit trees in February, but they should – especially this year! Thanks to above-average temperatures for much of the winter season, fruit trees in Central Illinois are showing signs of waking up early. So, like it or not, it is time to get out there...
Grow a champion garden with award-winning plants.
A plant showcasing a long season of showy blooms that is also drought tolerant, deer resistant, and visited by native pollinators is a prized addition for any garden. Yarrow, the International Herb Association’s 2024 Herb of the Year, earned the...
Beat the winter blues with visions of gardening
Around the time of the Winter Solstice, our family dreams of spring planting to cope with shorter days and long winter nights. Visions of a garden filled with tried-and-true crops (tomatoes, peppers, and sunflowers) coalesce with my family’s tenacity...
The gift of gardening is an experience anyone can appreciate this holiday season. Take the stress out of shopping this holiday season and give a blooming amaryllis kit that brings the beauty of nature indoors.
Poinsettias are beautiful, popular holiday plants, but the gift of an amaryllis bulb kit...
Milk is so synonymous with a grocery store visit; it is permanently printed on your shopping list notepad. With an entire industry supporting this staple item, there are tens of thousands of farms across the country that feed into it. However, few consumers rarely give credit to the work vested in...
Keep that pumpkin out of the trash.
Halloween night may be filled with frights, but garbage day is where the real horror lurks. Every year, discarded pumpkins and decaying jack-o-lanterns are hauled off to landfills by the thousands. The masses of orange flesh piling up in landfills produce...
In falls fading light, toothy grins glow from neighborhood porches filled with pumpkins, squash, and gourds, festively displayed.
All members of one family (Cucurbitaceae), cucurbits (pumpkin, squash, and gourds) are very functional fruits. Not only are they flavorful; the source of food usually...
A gift-wrapped pear, something rich, delicious, and luxurious.
Have you ever received an ornate paper-ply box filled with this special fruit? Have you ever considered gifting yourself the rooted source? Discover the luxury of growing European pear varieties; they gift a floral show in spring and...
Give it a rest.
With outside temperatures cooling, many gardeners are ready to give their tools (and their body) a rest.
Although your gardening enthusiasm may be fading, preparation has just begun for another season of color: planting spring bulbs.
After a cold snowy winter, you will be...
