Over the Garden Fence 2024
Welcome to summer! The heat, periodic drought, and summer storms can really take a toll on your trees. Here are some tips on how you can help your trees weather the weather.
Planting Summer is not a great time to ...
Finish this story
While you may be familiar with many invasive plants and insects, the hammerhead worm is perhaps one of the strangest and least well-known invaders to our gardens. HistoryAccording to the USDA,...
Finish this story
Rainwater is frequently treated like a waste product – gathered up, hustled off our yards, and into the nearest body of water. But instead, what if we kept it where it fell, used it, and directed it back into the ground. We could help mitigate flooding, conserve water, and be rewarded with a...
Finish this story
As spring planting begins and we look forward to the harvests of our labors, one of the best summer treats are strawberries. Depending on cultivar planted, June-bearing provide a large crop of larger strawberries and everbearing strawberries produce smaller berries throughout the growing season....
Finish this story
With all the media frenzy around this year’s upcoming cicada emergence, what can we really expect? Let Extension help you separate fact from fiction.
Why do they live so long?
Cicada larva (or grubs) spend most of their life underground, feeding on tree roots. Depending on the species...
Finish this story
Over the past several weeks, residents in northern Illinois have experienced some unseasonable weather. Warm, spring-like temperatures, thunderstorms, rain, hail, sleet, and snow have been the reality along with 70-degree high days with 20-degree low nights. All of these warm days have woken our...
Finish this story
Every spring, I look forward to the return of the hummingbirds. Their aerial antics around the feeder, zooming by with iridescent flashes of green, red, and white, chasing each other with the precision of a tiny fighter jet – they always brighten my day. When will they return and, more importantly...
Finish this story
At its core, composting is recycling organic matter into nutrient-rich soil. Plants and other vegetative matter are broken down by decomposers such as insects, worms, fungi, and bacteria, making the nutrients they contain available to other growing things. It also helps to improve the...
Finish this story
Dormant winter pruning always leaves a mess of trimmings that usually end up being composted or placed in your yard bin. There is another use for those trimmings; you can us them to create plant clones!
Plant propagation is the science and practice of creating new plants. This can be done with...
Finish this story
Winter is a time to stow away your gardening tools, put your gardens to bed, pack away your gloves and dream of warmer weather, counting down the days until you can start planting again…or is it? What if I told you that now is the perfect time to not just plan your gardens (especially if you’...
Finish this story