Fall is the time to renovate our cool-season lawns following are recommendations (aka lawn chores) for this late-summer to early fall growing season. First analyze your soil. If your soil has become compacted or is very heavy clay, it is best to aerate prior to seeding. Hollow tine aerators work...

What's going on in the garden this week? Here is a snapshot of observations and questions coming into the Extension office. Out in the Garden The rains have ceased and the lawn and garden beds are drying out. It is almost the end of July and I have yet to water a single plant this season, even...

What's going on in the garden this week? Here is a snapshot of observations and questions coming into the Extension office. Out in the Garden Rot, rot, rot. With all this rain landscapes and gardens have been suffering from saturated root zones. Here's a comparison of beebalm in...

  Let it be known that in my family I hold the record for number of mosquito bites at one time. While on a vacation in the coastal swamps of Georgia (yes I said 'vacation'), I racked up over 100 mosquito bites. So what makes a person more attractive to mosquitoes than others? Here are a few...

Despite our best intentions to create healthy gardens and landscapes, sometimes we wind up introducing a material that has potential to affect environmental or human health. Do you know if you have any in your yard? Let's look at a material commonly found in the landscape and its potential impact...

These days it seems like salsa is everywhere. Americans have come to love this condiment as it tends to show up on the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing is better than fresh salsa. Better yet, the ingredients used to make salsa are incredibly universal and can be grown in your backyard...

Despite its drab name, the mourning cloak butterfly might be one of spring's earliest flowers. My two sons and I spotted one on a walk along the woods mid-March in 2015. It was resting upside-down sipping away at tree sap along with a flurry of ants. As the butterfly fed, the warm late-winter sun...

My son loves birds. And it all started with a walk on a cold, snowy day during the winter of 2013-2014. As we walked, a sound caught his attention. It was something he never heard before. It was the rat-a-tat pecking of a woodpecker. He looked around excitedly trying to pinpoint where the sound...

Things sure do seem to be getting clean outside. Not clean in the ordinary sense of course, but in terms of weeds. Our yards are cleaner, farms are cleaner. For the past century humans have spent a lot of energy, time and money on cleaning up the landscape. It has led to increased farm yields, and...

The Illinois Senate has declared 2015 the "Year of the Volunteer". This is not a random labeling of a year, but one that takes into account the benefits of volunteerism. According to the November 2014 Harvard Health Letter, volunteering allows an individual to "let go of the inward focus [and]...