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Feeding Caterpillars and Butterflies

The other day a friend posted a picture on Facebook from a walk showing a young Monarch caterpillar happily munching away on some milkweed. I immediately ran out to my little patch of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) in hopes that I would see some Monarch caterpillars enjoying a plant...
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Become a Master Naturalist

In my current role as a horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, I have the pleasure of working with Master Gardener volunteers who share a love of the outdoors and a willingness to give back to our communities. U of I Extension is building a new group of volunteers that...
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Here We Go Again – The Great Japanese Beetle Return

They're baaack!! Japanese Beetles are buzzing and flying again and have already begun to feed on some of their most favorite plants including lindens, grapes and roses. With the emergence of Japanese Beetles, people usually also begin to ask about grub control. First off, in regards to Japanese...
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Peach Leaf Curl

The University of Illinois Extension serves as a leader in the state for offering research-based advice on a multitude of topics. My role as a horticulture educator places me in the realm of anything that grows, creeps, crawls, or flies. Tree fruit questions have been the most common among...
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Mulching and Wood Chips

There are many times people will call with questions about what they can do to help their trees grow better (cultural practices) or what they can use to help keep weeds out of the garden. One of my suggestions always is mulch. Now it should be stated that mulch is just one component of good...
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Have I Missed a Chance to Prune My Spring Shrubs?

Yesterday as I pulled into my driveway, I was looking at the shrubs in my front yard and that sudden realization of just how overgrown they had become. In the back of my mind I knew that they needed to be pruned, but I didn't really want to admit that I had let that happen, but sometimes things do...
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What's In A Name

I was presenting a program the other day and a question came up asking if a plant was related to another plant since they had similar common names. It got me to thinking how important it is to understand the difference between common names and scientific names of plants. Common names are just that...
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Trying New Things

The other week, a colleague of mine and I began a youth program called Junior Master Gardener – Learn, Grow, Eat & Go! It's a curriculum that was developed by Texas A&M to help youth learn about gardening, plants, healthy eating, and getting up and moving. One of the great things about the...
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Small Space Growing

This past weekend I was finally able to get into my garden to begin the much delayed clean-up process from last year's garden. What should have been done in the fall was time and again delayed this spring usually due to weather or the occasional other weekend commitment. As I was going through...
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Give a little TLC to Your Houseplants

The other day I bought a brand new bag of potting mix and with some warm weather happily potted up a new houseplant I had purchased in the wonderful sunshine streaming on my back porch. The smell of a freshly opened bag of potting mix makes any gardener's heart begin to sing. It's been a long dark...
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