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Drip irrigation in the home garden

June 6, 2025

As demand for water resources and concern for water conservation increase across the U.S., drip irrigation is becoming a popular method to reduce water bills and safeguard water resources. Implementing drip irrigation in a garden or landscape is also a way to streamline watering your plants. With...

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Baptisia: Bold, beautiful, and underused native perennials

May 30, 2025

As gardeners, we're often on the lookout for low-maintenance plants with colorful flower displays. One such plant that fits that description, and is vastly underutilized in the landscape, is Baptisia. These easy-to-grow native perennials are primarily grown for their colorful floral...

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Soak it up: rain garden and bioswale curb cut with water flowing into a vegetative swale

Soak it up: rain gardens and bioswales

May 23, 2025

Homeowners looking to enhance their landscape this year while managing stormwater have options available. Green infrastructure options include permeable pavement, rain barrels, large trees, green roofs, raingardens, bioswales, and more. Each of these systems is designed to utilize technologies or...

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A hand placing mulch at the base of a plant

Are you falling for these gardening myths?

May 16, 2025

During my time as an Illinois Extension educator, I have run across many garden myths. Too many to keep track of. But some myths keep on coming up in teaching and talking with Illinoisians. Some myths are more localized, while others are widespread and often touted as garden “hacks” online. ...

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Columbine in the garden: Beauty, pollinators, and the battle with leafminers

May 9, 2025

Columbines are popular garden plants. They can be found in a variety of colors, ranging from red, pink, yellow, white, purple, and blue, and they can help fill the gap between early spring blooming plants like tulips and daffodils and the summer blooming plants that dominate our landscapes....

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Planting in tight spaces: trees for confined spaces

May 2, 2025

Trees are an essential element of a healthy, vibrant community. Trees, large and small, help clean our air, shade our landscapes, provide wildlife habitat, and improve our mental and physical well-being. Planting trees throughout our community, in parks, along streets and trails, at civic buildings...

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the base of a newly planted tree with fresh dirt

Ensuring the survival of newly planted trees: Essential care tips for the first three years

April 25, 2025

How do you take care of a newly planted tree?Lots of trees get planted in April, at least in Illinois. What follows is a ‘will they, won’t they…survive?’ In multiple instances, I’ve come across a tree that gets planted and maybe watered once to a handful of times that year. What most people don’t...

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Wild ginger: A native groundcover for shady gardens

April 18, 2025

Shaded areas can be difficult areas to landscape, especially when it comes to groundcovers. Turfgrass often struggles, and many commonly used groundcovers, like lily of the valley, wintercreeper, periwinkle, and English ivy, can become problematic because of their aggressive spreading and potential...

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Easter lilies: war, global production, and the Midwest landscape

April 11, 2025

In addition to the spring flowers blooming outside, many enjoy the fragrant flowers of a Lilium longiflorum (Easter lily) as a symbol of spring and the Christian holiday Easter. Growers manipulate the growth cycle and force them to bloom so that we can enjoy these...

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A hand holding pruners cutting a thorny blackberry cane

Early Spring pruning guide for growing healthy raspberries and blackberries

April 4, 2025

Are you daydreaming of future cobblers, crumbles, jams, jellies, and pies? If you grow your own cane fruit/brambles in early spring, while the plants are still dormant, it is an important time for plant pruning and care. These tasks need to take place before plants leaf out, which means if you...

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