Over the Garden Fence 2019

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...

Plants are beginning to get the right signals from Mother Nature that spring has begun. Foliage and flower buds have begun to swell and expand, and will do so more quickly with the more spring-like weather. Buds have been protected all winter with insulating bud scales that will soften with the...

Some of our earliest vegetables can be sown as soon as you can carefully work the garden soil and once soil temperatures reach 45 and 50 degrees. You can place spinach and lettuce in the 45-degree group, and peas, cabbage, Swiss chard, radish, and beets in the 50-degree group. Other vegetables can...

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...

When talking about flower buds on our fruit trees and flowering ornamental plants, a couple of plants come to mind. The first is the peach tree. Like other fruit trees, peaches produce flower buds every year. It is just a gamble whether or not we have severe winter temperatures during the winter....

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...

An old joke goes: "Why do you put your houseplants out for the summer? So I can slowly kill them all winter back in the house." Well, there is a certain amount of truth to that. We cannot always get them inside for the winter when we should, cannot always supply the right kind of light for all of...

Our weather can influence how well our landscape plants over-winter. Boxwood, rhododendron, azaleas and evergreen groundcovers get through the winter without all the desiccation associated with cold winters and come out in the spring looking a lot better. Limited or no snow can drive the frost...

We have some real signs spring is going to happen, and the calls, emails and visits to the Illinois Extension Master Gardener Help Desks often start with "What's the best time to…?" Here are a few FAQs for the start of the home gardening and landscape season. Q) What is the best...

Late February to early March is just about the right timing for household and houseplant insects to show up. Over-wintering outdoor insects in the home become indoor household nuisance pests, and new insects may just be waking up. Plus, houseplants that survived the move in from the patio last fall...

This time of year, questions about starting seeds indoors are common. The following FAQs should serve as a helpful refresher for the seasoned gardener and a great resource for all the first-timers. Q: I have a bag of open potting soil in the garage. Why must I use soilless seed...

When we have very cold weather, it is great to see snow come along with it, for our garden plants at least. Snow cover provides insulation from the drying winter sun and the extreme air temperatures. A good snow cover protects above ground plant parts and helps them survive the winter. In parts of...