Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
I recently attended an Illinois State Horticultural Society summer field day at Christ Orchard near Brimfield. The day included tours of apple orchards, current pest management information, and new technologies for the fruit industry...
Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
Master Gardeners are a special group of people who all have a common interest – a love of gardening and nature and the desire to share that knowledge with others. The Master Gardener Volunteer program is a very successful...
Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
Rain barrels and rain gardens are becoming more and more popular by those wanting to recycle and conserve natural resources.
According to U of I Extension Educator Duane Friend, when we receive rain, a lot of it falls on surfaces...
Ticks! We all dread getting them. To help us better understand these nasty critters, here is part of an article written by Dr. Phil Nixon, recently retired University of Illinois Extension Entomologist.
Deer tick, the northern subspecies of the black-legged tick, spreads Lyme disease, perhaps the...
Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
Old-fashioned flowers and flowering shrubs like roses, hydrangeas, sweet pea, lilac, and more have always been common garden plants. Technically, an heirloom is defined as a plant that is open-pollinated. These are pollinated by...
Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
The summer series of University of Illinois Extension's Four Seasons Gardening program focuses on environmental stewardship, home gardening, and backyard food production.
The first session of the series is titled, Using Essential...
How do dogs harm lawns? Chris Enroth, Horticulture Educator with University of Illinois Extension, explains. First is the traffic. Very often backyard dogs will wear down paths in the grass from circling or pacing. Not only is this hard on the lawn itself but it also leads to compacted soils,...
Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator
Last week I noticed an unusually large number of daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) leaves turning completely yellow and dying. Upon closer inspection, I found that they have aphid feeding on the lower stems.
Aphids are a soft-bodied insect...
