Anyone who has gardened long enough likely has a pile of seed packets squirrelled away with intentions of using those seeds someday. Many times, I keep seed packets in my collection because I just can’t stand to throw things away, especially seeds that may have some viability. However,...
This past week’s warmer weather has been an exhilarating blast of spring when contrasted with the icy, extreme cold just one week earlier. The warmup has spurred many of us to get back out in the garden to start getting ready for spring. While our landscape beds and gardens will be...
Wintertime offers few activities out in the garden, other than filling bird feeders and carefully watching dormant plants for any sign of awakening as spring nears. However, winter dormancy is the ideal time to prune woody plants. With trees and shrubs inactive in their winter slumber,...
The snow-blanketed wintertime landscape often lacks the beauty we can recall from other times of the year when plants were in bloom or filled with wonderful green foliage. It leaves both humans and wildlife searching for plant life that retains interest either in the form of ornamental beauty...
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, many of us are seeking floral gifts to express our affection for family, friends, and significant others. While nothing beats the spectacular blooms and intricate arrangements that cut flowers offer, we all know their lifespan is limited. ...
What will your 2021 vegetable garden look like? Where will you source seeds or plants? What new crops are you interested in planting this year? All these questions are on the minds of many gardeners this time of year. In 2020, there was an unprecedented interest in all types of...
The plant kingdom has not always had the diversity we know today. It has taken hundreds of millions of years of evolution to bring about the diverse, complex group of flowering plants known as angiosperms. And for many millions of years prior to the emergence of angiosperms, the plant...
Plant names provide the botanical vocabulary we use to describe the plant world to each other. They are important descriptors that facilitate both backyard gardening and scientific study by establishing a widely agreed upon naming convention of species. In our current system of plant...
Deicing salts are essential to winter travel in Illinois and provide necessary safety in a landscape setting by melting dangerous ice on precarious steps, sidewalks, entryways, and other areas of frequent foot traffic. However, winter damage from salt can be a major problem in some landscapes...
Freezing rain is a regular part of winter weather patterns in central Illinois, resulting in occasional ice storms that can damage property, take out utilities and wreak havoc on tree canopies. By meteorological definition, an ice storm occurs when ice accumulation is greater than 0.25 inches...
