Blog Archive

Good Growing 2016

Garden Planning and Spring Dreaming

There are times when trying to figure out what to write every other week can be a challenge. Then you wake up and its 5 degrees out and you immediately begin to think to warmer weather and next year's growing season. That of course led me to thinking about seed starting. One of my favorite things...
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Here We Go Again – The Great Japanese Beetle Return

They're baaack!! Japanese Beetles are buzzing and flying again and have already begun to feed on some of their most favorite plants including lindens, grapes and roses. With the emergence of Japanese Beetles, people usually also begin to ask about grub control. First off, in regards to Japanese...
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Dealing with Leaf Diseases

I've been receiving a lot of calls lately about trees and diseases in the last few weeks. Calls or emails usually include the statement of what's going on and how do I stop it and fix it. The first thing to remember with foliar diseases – by the time you see a problem – the leaves were infected...
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How Trees Get Their Fall Colors

It feels like just yesterday summer showed up and now its fall and October is here and is leaving me wondering just where has 2016 gone? Cooler days means it's easier to work in the yard and of course being outdoors means we can enjoy the gorgeous colors of fall. How plants get their fall coloring...
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Become a Master Naturalist

In my current role as a horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, I have the pleasure of working with Master Gardener volunteers who share a love of the outdoors and a willingness to give back to our communities. U of I Extension is building a new group of volunteers that...
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Give a little TLC to Your Houseplants

The other day I bought a brand new bag of potting mix and with some warm weather happily potted up a new houseplant I had purchased in the wonderful sunshine streaming on my back porch. The smell of a freshly opened bag of potting mix makes any gardener's heart begin to sing. It's been a long dark...
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What's In A Name

I was presenting a program the other day and a question came up asking if a plant was related to another plant since they had similar common names. It got me to thinking how important it is to understand the difference between common names and scientific names of plants. Common names are just that...
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Have I Missed a Chance to Prune My Spring Shrubs?

Yesterday as I pulled into my driveway, I was looking at the shrubs in my front yard and that sudden realization of just how overgrown they had become. In the back of my mind I knew that they needed to be pruned, but I didn't really want to admit that I had let that happen, but sometimes things do...
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