Bakers in the family, and everyone else who enjoy their benefits, really like the holidays. Lots of cookies, cakes and pies are baked during the season. Pantry pests are those tiny grain beetles and flour moths that use the leftover flour to feed on and live in. This phenomenon is common, as many...
Gardeners have reluctantly decided the gardening season is at an end given our current and future weather patterns. It is now time to "put to bed" a lot of gardening and yard equipment until next spring. While each piece may have a different garden function to ease our workload, they can have a lot...
Bird feeders are part of many backyards during the winter months. We enjoy the activity around the feeder, both by the birds themselves and the additional wildlife that feed on the leftovers knocked to the ground. We can attract specific birds by choosing an appropriate feeder and feed.
One of our...
Many of our fall yard and garden efforts have been delayed by weather. So what should we be getting done?
One of the ongoing efforts has been to keep the lawn mowed, and, if we haven't already, now we need to contend with the leaves that came down in great numbers. There is very likely more than...
The fall foliage show is back by popular demand (and because we cannot stop it anyway). Those reds, yellows, and oranges now have begun to subside, and soon enough a night of really below freezing temperatures will bring that to a close. Then, all those leaves will end up in the landscape.
Our...
Over the last week and more, we have experienced frost and even freezing temperatures, kind of offsetting the warmer than normal temperatures earlier. About now, the outdoor fire pit and indoor fireplaces are looking pretty good. Whether you cut, split and dry your own firewood or buy it for the...
Oak trees are proving to be more important to ecological balance than previously thought. Of the 60-plus native oaks in the United States, 22 of them are right here in Illinois. Homeowners know them for their majestic size and shape, and this time of year, for their colors of red, yellow and gold...
There are still lots of things going on in the home landscape as fall settles in. Woody plants are well on the way to dormancy; leaves are turning fall colors and coming down slowly right now. Most of our flowering perennials have lost that luster that we have enjoyed all summer. In fact, by now,...
Let's start with a few confusing sentences this week. You plant spring flowering bulbs in the fall and summer flowering bulbs in the spring. You dig up summer bulbs in the fall. You divide spring bulbs in late summer.
Your favorite spring bulbs are winter hardy and for them to bloom in the spring...
Late summer and fall are great times to plant ornamental and shade trees in the home landscape. The weather is comfortable for us and the trees can begin to establish themselves in yard before the cold weather sets in for the winter.
If you are planting a flowering ornamental like a crabapple or...
