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Down the Garden Path 2016

Catalog Code

Garden catalogs began to show up in early January and will continue a while. There may be plenty of phrases and initials that you know. There are some new ones now too. Vegetable descriptions will often include a number of initials at the end. These usually signify that the vegetable has been bred...
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Mysterious damage in the lawn

What do Squirrels, Raccoons and Skunks have in common this time of year? They all love to mess with our lawns right now. Squirrels have been foraging for food that can be stored for the winter in the landscape and part of that activity is burying seeds of all kinds from our trees and shrubs in the...
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Planting your fruit trees in the best location

Where you place your dwarf fruit tree home orchard or even the one or two fruit trees you are going to grow make a big difference in how the fruit tree grows and performs. A major consideration is the soil. Fruit trees are no different than other trees and shrubs in your landscape, they need good...
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Still Time for Late Fall Projects in the Yard

Time has run out for doing some gardening projects, but there is still time to plant your favorite spring flowering bulbs and prepare the home orchard for the winter. Bulbs that flower for us in the spring of the year need to receive a cold treatment, easily provided through our winter weather by...
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Plants in decline

For a Horticulturist, this month has not visually been a good one. Sure there has been abundant and beautiful flowers from annuals and perennials and the spring bloom from our ornamental shrubs and trees was spectacular. What I am writing about this week is the visual decline out in the landscape,...
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Recycle, reuse, and re-purpose your holiday tree

Just about now, you can see holiday trees sitting in the front or side yard, waiting for the assigned pick up date to be collected and mulched. This is one way to be sure your holiday tree gets recycled to the benefit of the environment. The follow through to getting your tree composted in a...
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Time to protect plants in the landscape

We have been enjoying mild late fall temperatures and our plants have been slow to respond to the normal signals to go dormant. Trees and shrubs finally received the message, yet our lawns remain pretty green and maybe even needed one more mowing before the big snow. There are some landscape...
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Austrian Pines in Trouble

Since the drought of 2012, Austrian pines have been stressed, especially older trees. Austrian Pines are not native to Illinois, coming from western Europe into Asia, including Austria for which the tree is named. While tolerant of our weather pattern when young and growing well, Austrian Pine...
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Fall Gardening Chores

August usually means lots of hot dry weather. During Last week we had at least one "rain event" that was pretty substantial. Some readers had several inches of rain in fact. Things we can do and see why we are waiting for things to dry out are: Lawns Clean the air filter on the...
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Trees, dirt, fungus and bugs!

Time again to respond to several questions that have been coming to the Extension Office this fall. Q. How is the best way to handle newly planted trees and evergreens for the winter? A: Our weather this fall has really been great for the establishment of trees,...
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Planning for the Home Orchard

It has been a couple of years since I used the month of January to address starting a home orchard. The fruit and vegetable catalogs have begun to replace the holiday flyers in the mailbox and January is not too early to begin planning for a home orchard or expanding the one already there. There...
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Everyone is thinking it, no one is saying it

Seems like summer took so long to get here with weather that was enjoyable and now those unspoken words have begun to enter our everyday lives, heard on the TV, references to it on the radio, thinking about ordering hot chocolate or hot cider instead of coffee, farm stands offering more than just...
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What to do with the Christmas tree

Taking care of a fresh holiday tree once it is up and decorated really means making sure there is plenty of water in the reservoir. However, it also means paying attention to when it needs to come down. If you made a family event out of tree hunting at any one our local Christmas Tree Farms, your...
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The Worst Spring Lawn Weed

This spring has seemingly brought out the worst in some of our lawn weeds. Creeping Charlie, also called Ground Ivy has been the number one complaint I have had this spring while talking lawn care with homeowners and garden club members. Creeping Charlie quietly grew well into the fall of 2015...
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Vegetable Gardening This Early?

Gardeners growing their own vegetable transplants always begin their gardening season much earlier than the rest of us, especially if putting in that early spring garden. The decision of when to start those seedlings to be turned into vegetable transplants has everything to do with our traditional...
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Hot Weather Gardening

If you are wondering if the hot weather is impacting the home landscape and gardens, the simple answer is, it sure is. With the high daytime temperatures and above normal night time temperatures, it is becoming increasing hard for plants to keep up with the natural moisture loss from foliage. Every...
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Landscape Cleanup Continues

We have had some good weather to begin or continue our fall clean efforts in the home landscape and days where it has been too cold and rainy to get out in the yard as we have wanted. Those days have allowed us to look out the patio window and see what else will need to be done before the "snow...
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Planting Trees Correctly

Spring is a great time plant trees. Planting now allows the trees to establish a root system this summer. Trees ordered from catalogs are most likely going to be bare root with some form of moist packing around the roots to keep them from drying out. Those bare root trees should be kept cool and...
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Yellow leaves on the shade trees

In the past couple of weeks some of our large shade trees have signs of chlorosis showing up. The leaves are not the medium and deep green they normally and can have darker veins that fade out into the surrounding leaf tissue. Chlorosis is most of often caused by a nutrient deficiency, not because...
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Keeping insect cocoons and pupae cases over the winter

Keeping insect cocoons and pupae cases over the winter Caterpillars are frequently collected by students for science classes, parents to show their little ones the amazing change from caterpillar to butterfly or moth. It is how they are handled after being collected that makes the...
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