A Light Exists in Spring by Emily Dickinson
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period-
When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels
In rural Illinois there...
Have you ever noticed the leaves of your peach tree becoming curled and puckered and turning reddish or purplish? If you’ve seen this, you’ve likely had peach leaf curl.
Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease caused by Taphrina deformans. It is one of the most commonly encountered diseases...
Our recent cycles of warm weather and snow have been somewhat of a nuisance; however, for those of you with a thin stand of vegetation in your pasture or hay field, this weather may be a great aid in frost seeding these areas.
Introduction to Frost Seeding
As the name suggests,...
Do you think at some point as children our imagination changes from imaginary friends, action figures, tea parties, and dolls to speculative market planning? How dull the adult imagination can be. However, if there is one thing about winter, it puts my imagination into overdrive. I create these...
When we think of the typical home landscape, our garden areas are usually separated by the type of plant being grown. We have a separate bed for flowers and ornamental plants, one for vegetables and one for herbs. Often the vegetable and herb gardens are tucked away in the backyard and out of view...
Are you stricken with pools of water in your yard and you don’t own a pool? Instead of water moving away from your house, does it run into the basement? Are you constantly battling eroded hillsides? If you fight these common water maladies, then very likely there is a stormwater drainage...
The weather this year has been a bit of a roller coaster. One day it feels like spring, and the next, we are reminded that we’re still in the middle of winter. Despite some of the warmer temperatures we’ve had this year, we still have a way to go before the warm weather sticks around for the long...
As a kid, I remember the bald eagle being rare and revered. At school and on TV we learned the bald eagle was an endangered species. The resounding theme when I was young was that bald eagles were noble hunters, flying skyward and swooping down to grasp fish from an icy lake. In movies bald...
Norfolk Island pines (Araucaria heterophylla) are plants we commonly find during the holiday season. They are widely marketed as living Christmas trees and are commonly adorned with bells and bows. If you purchased or received one, they could become beautiful houseplants for many years if...
In 2015, I was interviewed for an article in an Associated Press story. The topic was on biodiversity in the home landscape. While a few snippets of my interview made it into the article, I provided over 1,500 words worth of answers to the journalist’s questions. Now after five years, this...
