Flowers, Fruits, and Frass

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Hydrangea leaftier by Phil Nixon

May 30, 2014

Hydrangea leaftier, Olethreutes ferriferana, has been noticeable in central Illinois and is present in other areas of the state. Damage appears as two to four cupped leaves tied together with silk at the end of a branch. An attacked plant will typically have ten to twenty of these...

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Strawbales Revolutionize Vegetable Gardening

May 28, 2014

Last spring, Joel Karsten wrote a book called "Straw Bale Gardens" that has taken the gardening world by storm and given growers a new media to grow vegetables, herbs and annuals. The science behind the decomposition of the straw bale is what makes it the ideal growing media for vegetables....

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Growing Salad Greens by Nancy Pollard

May 27, 2014

Mesclun is a mixture of assorted small, baby salad leaves also known as a mesclun mix. You can purchase mesclun bagged in cellophane at your grocer. Yet freshly harvested from a few square feet in your patio, garden, or front stoop, mesclun is an easy tender treat, said a University of Illinois...

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How Johnny Appleseed would operate in 2014

May 26, 2014

If Johnny Appleseed were planting apples in 2014, he would be planting dwarf or semi-dwarf trees grafted onto disease-resistant rootstocks instead of apple seeds from a leather satchel. Grafting is like plant surgery for horticulturists, connecting the growing tissues of one plant to another....

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Beenificials by Rhonda Feree

May 25, 2014

May bring us our fifth gardening trend for 2014: Bee-neficials: It's all about the bees this year. News on bee and other pollinator populations is everywhere this spring. Obviously, pollinators are an essential requirement for many of our favorite food crops. Pollination is a process that takes...

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European Pine Sawfly by Phil Nixon

May 12, 2014

European pine sawfly larvae are present throughout the state feeding on Scotch, mugo, and other two and three needle pines. The larvae grow to about one inch long with dark and lighter green stripes. They have large black heads. Sawfly larvae can be distinguished from caterpillars by having six or...

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Strawberries

May 12, 2014

Strawberries are the first fruits of the season, and fresh-picked strawberries from the garden taste better than any berry bought from a store. Plant strawberry plants this spring for ample production and summer fun for your kids next spring. Strawberries can be greatly rewarding and only require...

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Crayfish by Phil Nixon

May 12, 2014

Crayfish become a nuisance in turfgrass when they burrow in high moisture soil, creating chimneys at the burrow openings. These chimneys, made of balls of clay soil that bake in the sun, become very hard. Hitting them with a mower dulls the blades and may even kill the mower's engine. The crayfish...

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Pansies by Rhonda Feree

April 14, 2014

Pansies brighten up spring garden URBANA, Ill. - Pansies are making a comeback in the garden world, said a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator. "According to the Garden Media Group, pansy and violet sales were up 6.4 percent in 2011," said Rhonda Ferree. "Since then, pansies...

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Will pool water hurt Bees?

April 14, 2014

Nobody in our lab is aware of any study that has looked at the possible toxicity of swimming pool water to bees. However, bees certainly seem to like drinking from pools. It could just be that a pool is an easy water source to find, but we also know that bees generally like a tiny amount of salt in...

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