Know How, Know More 2018

There really is no more beautiful indoor plant than the orchid in my opinion, but I hear from many gardeners that they are scared to grow orchids, which is a shame! In reality, they shouldn't be scared. Orchids are long-lasting flowering plants that make great houseplants and they're really not...

Do you have landscape plants that the leaves are stippled or showing yellow sickly spots and a few leaves are twisted as though they are wilting? You may even notice a few little white spots on some of the leaves and...

We are seeing some unfortunate incidents of fire blight in our area, very much connected to the extended rainy spring we experienced. Fire Blight (Erwinia amylovora) is a devastating, yet common bacterial disease affecting an estimated 75 species of plants in the Rosaceae family. Most...

Recently people have been noticing large numbers of brown moths fluttering around flowering trees and resting on the sides of homes. These are newly emerged Armyworm Moths. According to Kelly Estes at the Illinois...

What gets a gardener through the dark days of winter? Thinking about spring planting of course! And what better way to get prepared for spring, than starting seeds indoors in preparation for spring planting. Why start your plants from seed? Because it lowers the cost you would...

Our office bought a CSA share! Never head of a CSA – or community supported agriculture? Fellow extension educator, Andrew Larson, wrote a summary of this newer area of agriculture. Each week this summer, we are sharing our experiences using our CSA items, from recipes to farmer tips, and more....

Are you pining to grow something green, smell something green, see something green or taste something green- as if it were already spring? The green scratch for all those cravings is within your reach! Microgreens are a super easy solution to help alleviate winter blues. Have you tried growing or...

We got 2 week's worth of food this week from the CSA.  CSA Week 13 and 14 included sweet corn, green bell peppers, eggplant, green beans, baby sweet bell peppers, spaghetti squash, watermelon, and yellow summer squash. As there were no "new" foods - that is, foods we had not seen in previous...

With the recent long period of below normal temperatures, have you thought about whether your hive of honey bees is needing food? Now may be a great time to give your bees supplemental food or a winter feeding. Honey bees do not hibernate during the winter, but instead consume food reserves to...

Planting cool season vegetables in July and August when it's 100 degrees outside seems counter-intuitive doesn't it? But for experienced vegetable gardeners, now is the time that the fall's bountiful harvest of cool season vegetables is prepared for. The typical vegetables we plant in our gardens...

Ever heard of an Ugli fruit or a tried a purple carrot? What about kohlrabi or jicama? In the last six months, I have taught a couple programs titled "New and Unusual Foods." The design of the classes were different, but the central idea was this: let's try a new food. Not that Unusual...

This winter, like many, has taken a toll on evergreens in our gardens and landscapes. Just driving down the highway or through a neighborhood, you can notice browning on evergreen shrubs and trees. So the question is, why does this happen? Since evergreens retain their leaves throughout the...

How well do you know Thanksgiving turkey safety tips? Let's find out! Thanks to the "Turkey for the Holidays" website from UI Extension for these tips! Q: How long does a turkey take to thaw? A: Allow about 24...

Fudge, tea rings, macaroons, baklava, pralines, and brittles! These are some of the nutty holiday sweets we indulgence in this time of year. Besides these delectable offerings, unshelled nuts to be eaten in their natural state are common around the holiday season as well. I'm going to date myself,...

June is Men's Health Month. So, to the guys, this is all about you! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 men die from heart disease. Food choices can help reduce the risk of heart disease and complications such as heart attack and stroke. One way to improve...

A problem that seems to be an increasing across the area with oak trees is Bacterial Leaf Scorch. Up until about 2012 or so, this disease was considered a minor problem that oak trees typically overcame. Here recently, this disease is causing a slow decline of our older oak trees once they become...

Frozen fruits and veggies are some of my favorite convenience foods. I enjoy raspberries, but buying fresh means I get very few raspberries per dollar compared to what I can get frozen. I admit the frozen raspberries are not the plump fruit of fresh and fall apart, but that is okay with me since I...

If you have recently seen a bright yellow or yellow-orange slimy blob after our recent stretch of rainy days, then you may have seen a slime mold. It is not unusual to see them in the summer after a period of heavy rainfall or in areas that are heavily irrigated. They commonly appear on wood-...

To my knowledge, people generally do not purposefully go to the grocery store to purchase a potted plant from the floral department; or have it on their shopping list unless maybe at Easter. Frequently, it is a purchase made on the way to a friend or family members home as a gift to the host, or as...

As we approach the end of April and the temperatures warm into the 70's, we get the "itch" to plant our gardens. But when is it safe to plant our warm-season vegetables and to move our tropical house plants outside? Our warm season vegetables like cucumbers and squashes need a soil temperature of...