Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Storm damage can now be added to our list of what has happened to our landscape plants. The drought of 2012 started things off creating lots of stressed trees, shrubs and evergreens from recently planted to very mature plants. Jump ahead...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Our summer season has moved along enough that the some of the flowers in the garden have finished their bloom show and now are in need of bit of help. Deadheading is simple enough, you just remove the old spent blossoms. For flowers with...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
There has been some recent press covering cicadas in Illinois this summer. While we can have a few cicadas every year, the brood of concern will be invading northwestern Illinois in the summer of 2014. According to the experts that follow...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Just about this time every year, homeowners that have a Sycamore tree in the home landscape begin to notice problems. Leafing out late or seeing a second set of buds and then leaves form is not normal. While Sycamores seem to be the worst...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Our beautiful ornamental flowering crabapples that grace so many yards have a couple of foliage diseases that can really impact how they look once the bloom show is gone. Both diseases readily infect the crabapple leaf.
Apple Scab (...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
This column has talked about the many impacts of our 2012 drought and why our trees, shrubs and evergreens have had such a struggle regaining their health and returning to a good annual rate of growth over the past 2 years. Lawns were...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Spring is a good time to be planting trees, shrubs and evergreens in the home landscape. We have lost so many trees to the Emerald Ash borer, other wood boring insects and diseases lately that some communities look bare, especially...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
The annual passage of winter to spring has begun and the smell of fresh cut grass is in the air. The last week has seen a big green change in the neighborhoods.
A few guidelines to having a good-looking lawn do not take us away from what...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
The snow continues to melt and rains have begun to rinse away the dirty grunge of winter from the soil that piled up everywhere. While we wait for the last of the snow to go and the ground to warm up before we can plant even those cold...
Down the Garden Path
Richard Hentschel, Extension Educator
Spring is coming, but may be a bit late compared to what we have gotten used to. It is great that plants, insects and wildlife seem to know when it is right to show up. Insects will typically develop right along with their plant hosts and...
