Along with the tomato foliage diseases that can really challenge the gardener, there is one fruit problem that really can be frustrating. Blossom end rot can show up especially on the first fruit set. We have waited a long time to get our very own tomatoes and those first fruit sets are likely to...
This season gardeners have been seeing many lumps, bumps and blobs on all kinds of plants throughout the landscape, in parks and forest preserves. It is not uncommon since this occurs annually, what is uncommon is the generous number of these growths we are seeing.
These are generally...
We all know how different the weather pattern has been this year. Foliar plant diseases develop when weather conditions are right, allowing the pathogens to grow and infect our plants. Our extended cooler spring temperatures and abundance of rainfall allowed those early spring foliar diseases more...
If you enjoy fruits like blueberries and apples, or if you plant summer squash or fall pumpkins in your garden, you have a reason to protect our pollinators.
Without pollinators, including butterflies and bees, the flowering plants they visit would not produce food. The pollination process also...
You wake up in the morning, take the cup of coffee to the patio, sit down, and gaze out into the yard and BANG… mushrooms. It is like the book 'I Spy,' you never know where you will find them. While I have been known to say you can never have too much organic matter, that is exactly the environment...
No one wants to hear the word "rain" these days. Clearly all the wet weather has changed the way we planted the vegetable garden and our flowerbeds this year. I have heard people describe spring plantings as "I went ahead and mudded them in." Not the best practice for seeding and transplanting, of...
It's been a different winter, spring and start to summer than we're used to, and it shows in the questions our Master Gardener Help Desk receives. Here's a quick summary of those questions coming in via phone, email and walk-ins last couple of weeks.
Q: Why are my perennials in...
Gardeners and farmers have had a chance to catch up on planting (finally). As I was traveling south, then east, before coming back north, I saw a lot of the state over the last week, and it showed just how behind planting corn and soybeans has been, with many fields just now being worked and...
We finally got some dry days to catch up on planting the family vegetable garden and dealing with the landscape beds, weeding, edging, and putting down composts and other kinds of organic matter.
Unlike the farmer who has to make some hard planting decisions this late in the season, our annual...
What do bees, ants, and termites have in common? At some point in the year, they all swarm. Our honeybee may be the most obvious as the queen gathers up thousands of support bees from the existing hive and heads off to find another location to set up shop. You may see those swarms hanging in trees...
