Seasonally, questions to Extension though phone calls, visits to the office, and via email naturally slow down. It has consistently been colder so virtually all outside activities are done for the season. We do get some late season questions and the start of winter indoor related questions coming...
By now, most of the outdoor gardening to-do list is completed, or nearly so. However, there are always things to continue or to help us prepare spring....
We winterize everything else, why not the home orchard? Now is the time to prevent problems later by spending some quality time with your fruit trees.
Rodent damage to the trunk at the soil line happens when grass is left to grow tall next to the trunk. Remove the grass and weeds using hand...
November gardening in the home landscape is always a mixed bag of tasks (and weather). Some jobs are timely and appropriate, and others we may just need to catch up with. Here’s a few to make sure are on your to-do list:
Vegetable gardens
We have had some pretty cool weather, so end-of-season...
Caterpillars are frequently collected by students for science classes, or by parents to show their little ones the amazing change from caterpillar to butterfly or moth. You may have done this before with a...
In 2021, both the consumer and retail sides of gardening have seen unique challenges due to the pandemic. Since spring 2020, garden centers saw a huge and unexpected increase in demand for seeds, plants of all kinds, and all the associated supplies used in home landscape.
This caught all of...
Are we still in droughty conditions here in northern Illinois? As of October 5 – the day before we started to get all the rain – we sure were. Are we good now? We are better off, but not “out of the woods.”
The rains we got were most welcome, yet the drought monitoring sites still show DuPage,...
Watch the short video series on this topic
When it comes to bulbs, it can seem confusing when to do what in which season. In general, you plant spring-flowering bulbs in the fall, and plant summer-flowering...
As autumn progresses, gardeners begin wondering what to do with all the plant parts that need to be pruned off, and later, all the leaves that will fall. A great alternative to those landscape waste bags is to recycle right in your own yard and benefit from all that free organic matter....
