The word pesticide represents a wide variety of natural and synthetic products that also are known by more specific wording, depending on what is being managed. Insecticides are for the management of insects and other related creatures.

Gardeners who are really into collecting rainwater will have several barrels. Some connected in series as well as barrels collecting water from the garage roof too.

One has a common name of pavement ant.

There are groups and organizations that monitor just about everything these days, and right now the National Phenology Network (NPN) has been very busy very early in 2017 tracking plants as they begin to leaf out. Tracking for Illinois shows we are as much as 20 days ahead of what we know as "normal" for central through southern Illinois.

Annual grassy and broadleaved weeds have shown up in both thin and thick lawns this summer. The good news is that being an annual they will die yet this fall. By mowing them, we have eliminated or seriously reduced adding to the seed bank for next year. The exception would be crabgrass, having adapted to mowing and produces flower and seed below our 2.5- to 3-inch cutting heights.

Home gardeners will be doing the same thing, yet in a much smaller scale. Gardening has been hard to do this year given our early good weather well ahead of normal.

Although most Master Gardener help desks are on hiatus right now for the winter, questions still come into the office. It is interesting to see the seasonality of the questions this time of year, and this month, there is a thread among most of them – houseplants.

Q: I love my succulents in the summer, but they are already getting leggy. Can I stop that?

Saving "store bought" seed is the easiest thing to do. Gardeners typically fold the seed packet over, paperclip or rubber band the seed packets together and put them somewhere until next year. Where you store them can make all the difference in future success. The kitchen junk drawer or garden shed are not good spots.

For example, just keeping up (again) with the flush of the lawn has been hard, but add in finding a time when the ground is firm enough and grass dry enough, is the real challenge.

While at a recent meeting, the presenter asked if anyone knew how you would eat an entire elephant. After several funny answers, the real one was "one bite at a time," exactly how gardeners should tackle fall clean up.

Female beetles are attracted to moist soils and locations where there will be plenty of food for their hatching eggs. We have had quite a bit of rain this summer, so finding moist soils is not a problem, and our green lawns will be providing the food. Statewide, the rains have been irregular, but around here, we have had to continue to mow consistently all summer.

Q: My white pine is losing many needles on the inside, is that normal?

A: White pines, like all needled evergreens, naturally let go of one set of needles a year. It seems to be quite pronounced this year, though very normal.

Q: My lawn and yard have mushrooms all over the place. Should I be worried?

Our honeybee may be the most obvious example as the queen gathers up thousands of support bees from the existing hive and heads off to find another location to set up shop. Those swarms can be seen hanging in trees or somewhere on the home under the eave. Sometimes they cling to parked cars and trucks before moving along. Bee swarming is much more likely latter in the summer when colony numbers are much higher.

Q: We still have carrots in the garden, and do not want them to go to waste. How can we store them for a while longer?

A basic soil test will give you some great information and can possibly shed some light on why your plants have been doing well or poorly.

Vegetable descriptions will often include a number of initials following their name. These signify that the vegetable has disease resistance, or tolerance to a disease, specific to that variety.

At the top of the list are stink bugs, also known as squash bugs if you are a gardener. There are several dozen versions around the area, nearly all of them sap feeding. Nearly all are native with one exception – the Marmorated Stink Bug. In recent years, it has shown up and it is quite destructive, feeding on our fruits and vegetables.

Q: When will I know it is time to add mulch?

Colder weather, frozen soil, fallen and windblown leaves, and later any accumulated snow, all will force rabbits to take shelter and begin to look for food anywhere they can. Once the ground is frozen, rabbits will have fewer places to take shelter or hide. Foraging for food will mean staying a lot closer to the protection of their winter home.

If the water came and went but left the lawn covered with silt and mud, rinse off the grass blades so the grass plant can begin to produce energy again. As the floodwater filled all the available pore spaces in the soil, it displaced any soil oxygen.

There are several good reasons for dormant pruning. Without the leaves present, we can see the entire plant, looking for dead branches, crossing branches and older branches with insect or disease damage.

This column has talked about how different plants, insects and diseases have developed based on our unseasonal temperatures and rainfall. Last year, I reported on the Viburnum Leaf Beetle larvae feeding towards the end of June. Our accumulation of growing-degree days being so far ahead, the larvae have already been feeding for more than 10 days. Throughout Cook and DuPage counties, homeowners have discovered unfamiliar foliage feeding on their viburnums in the landscape. Surrounding counties are not immune; we just have not found them yet.

One animal example that really stood out was feral pigs. While we do not have them around here, they have become a problem in other parts of our country.

One that you can count on every late summer and early fall is the boxelder bug.

As the growing season moves forward, the weather begins to change in day length and in temperatures during the day and night. The vegetables may slow down in production a bit, yet the produce harvested is just as nutritious for the family as it was all summer long.

We are seeing the end of the spring bulbs with foliage yellowing and drying down, which is accelerated by the hot dry conditions. The early spring bulbs "went away" some time back, now it is the daffodils. Other perennials, like columbine and bleeding heart, really do not like the hot weather and those too are fading away.

Here are a few Garden Resolutions to consider:

As the growing season moves forward, the weather begins to change in day length and in temperatures during the day and night. The vegetables may slow down in production a bit, yet the produce harvested is just as nutritious for the family as it was all summer long.

About now, gardeners are beginning to get the annual itch. Catalogs can keep the urge down, but eventually it comes back, growing stronger and stronger – that absolute need to get your hands dirty. To satisfy the craving, we can do some gardening activities inside right now.

Leftover baking goods are usually the culprit, especially any flour or flour-based cooking and baking product. This is a bit more troublesome for homes where baking starts before the holidays and quits soon afterwards as our normal routine returns.

Most of us give little thought that those big oaks, maples, pines and spruce could use our help.

Summer bulbs are planted after the danger of any late frosts have passed in the spring and are generally dug back up as the summer changes to fall, either just before or just after our first light freezes or even killing frosts each fall.

Q: I am seeing rodent trails all over my backyard and under the bird feeder now. What should I be doing about this?

Even with the best attempts, occasionally these pantry pests show up anyway. Identification is a good place to start and from there understanding the pest life cycle guides us through the removal process.

Crabgrass is a warm season annual grassy weed that waits for the soil to warm up before the seeds germinate and seedlings emerge. It is common to see crabgrass in parkways and the lawn where our preferred grasses are not very thick.

In general, leaf spot diseases are rarely fatal to a tree so that is good news. What is often disturbing is those spots appear on the lower branches, right at eye level for all to see, especially while we sit on the patio chairs gazing out into the home landscape.

This year, due to trapping numbers from 2016, increased efforts now include a Gypsy Moth quarantine.

Q: With bitter cold weather, is there anything I should be doing or watching for outside in the garden beds?

Leafy greens, including Swiss chard, have been doing very well. Harvesting and eating those greens should be a regular part of gardening now. If left until warmer weather, they are going to bolt and go to seed, especially spinach.

Tree leaves have been slow to fall, so maybe use the mower and bagger attachment to go over the lawn one more time to clean up the last of the leaves. Ground up leaves can be used to cover the vegetable garden soil for the winter, or be added to the compost pile or bin as part of the "browns" to go with the "greens" already there.

"It's no secret that much of Illinois has received excessive spring rains, which has resulted in waterlogged soils and flooding. It is important to understand what is happening to plants growing in these conditions and what to expect later. I look at this as a wait-and-see situation."

Cool season vegetables are those that can survive or prefer cool to cold air and soil temperatures. Within this group, we can break them down further. First, are those vegetables that can withstand freezing temperatures or hard frosts without damage.

Rodent damage to the trunk at the soil line happens when grass grows tall next to the trunk. Remove the grass and weeds using hand clippers, not the string trimmer, as that can cause more problems. Rodents love to hide in the grass, and they will happily eat the bark off the trunk and the surface of the roots. This feeding can girdle the tree, causing it to die.

No one's gardening crystal ball has been very clear, and there is not a lot we can do except wait and see. Part of the concern comes from gardeners already walking the yard and seeing what's going on outside since it has been so nice.

Feeding the birds means starting earlier than later. Birds need to know early on that there will be something to eat on a regular basis if you want them to hang around in your yard. Rather than buying seed that has a little bit of everything for every bird out there, consider seed that will be more likely to attract your favorite birds.

The release covers April 2 through May 9.