Latest Posts

Sorghum Syrup and More

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator I remember going on the Spoon River Drive each fall with my Grandma and Grandpa Simmons. I loved visiting the old school house in London Mills and eating ham-n-beans scooped from a large cast-iron pot. Each year my Grandpa purchased...
Finish this story

Ornamental Gourds

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator It's fall festival time again. Time for spiced apples, beautiful fall colors, arts and crafts, and locally grown produce. I've never been to a fall festival when those items didn't include gourds either for sale individually or...
Finish this story

Low-water use landscapes

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator My son Derek just moved to Monterey California to attend graduate school at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies. California has been in a drought for a very long time, and so water conservation is a real concern there...
Finish this story

Do plants predict the weather?

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator We've all heard wives'-tales that predict the weather. I can still hear my grandma saying, "Red sky at night, sailors delight; Red sky in morning, sailors warning." There are legends of people using groundhogs, hornets, woolly bear...
Finish this story

How Plants Climb

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator As a plant geek I am often fascinated by how plants work. Take vining and climbing plants and the methods that they use to grow vertically. In broad terms, climbing plants are either clinging or non-clinging. As the name implies,...
Finish this story

Invaders of the Weedy Kind

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator I have been battling some difficult and very invasive weeds this summer in my yard. A new weed in my gardens this summer is prickly sida (Sida spinosa), also called prickly mallow. This summer annual has a yellow flower and...
Finish this story

Garden To-Do List for September

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator If you are like me, your gardens did not develop exactly as you had planned in the spring. I have more weeds than I usually do in early fall. Parts of my lawn has too much crabgrass and some plants simply do not like their location...
Finish this story

Pokémon GO Gardening

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator I remember when my sons Derek and Tyler used to play Pokémon on their Gameboys and collect the trading cards. I never really understood it then, and I'm not sure I fully understand it now; but, I did download Pokémon Go on my phone...
Finish this story

Chicago Landscape Design Styles

Written by Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator Recently I helped lead a bus trip to Chicago for Bradley's OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program. On the way to Chicago I spoke on the bus about the history of landscaping in Chicago. Although we are far from Chicago, some...
Finish this story
Blog Authors
Keywords
Blog Archives
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014