Insect Pests

This purple coneflower is infected with aster yellows, which produce odd and deformed flowers that can actually be interestingly attractive at times, but must be controlled to limit infection of other susceptible species in the landscape.

Aster Yellows on Coneflower

The Garden Scoop
It is always interesting to observe plant diseases and try to unravel the mystery of how a particular plant became infected and to look toward solutions.  So many of these ailments have an incredibly fascinating path to infection, often including multiple species when you consider the pathogen...
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This year, periodical cicadas in Brood X will emerge across Indiana and a small, 4-county area of central Illinois.

17-Year Cicadas of Brood X

The Garden Scoop
Over the next few weeks, some of central Illinois will experience a rare phenomenon that only occurs every other decade.  As soil temperatures warm, millions of insects will emerge from the ground in forests, city parks, yards and gardens.  They will carefully navigate the terrain and...
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Redbud is a fantastic spring-flowering tree offering the best floral display of any Illinois native tree.

The top four spring-flowering trees to plant

The Garden Scoop
Spring is a time of abundant blooms as well as one of the best times of year to establish new woody plants in your landscape. This year, consider adding one, or all, of my favorite Illinois native spring-flowering trees to your landscape, and you’ll enjoy spring floral displays for years to...
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Forsythia is currently blooming across central Illinois with clusters of bright yellow flowers creating a dramatic display.

Forsythia in Spring

The Garden Scoop
Every spring, the awakening plant world has those hard-to-miss harbingers which alert us that winter is over and help to welcome spring.  In native plant communities, I think of spring ephemeral wildflowers as the primary signal and watch intently for their blooms each year.  However, in...
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Standing dead stems are important overwintering habitat that should not be removed from the garden until insects emerge later in spring.

Spring Garden Cleanup

The Garden Scoop
This past week’s warmer weather has been an exhilarating blast of spring when contrasted with the icy, extreme cold just one week earlier.  The warmup has spurred many of us to get back out in the garden to start getting ready for spring.  While our landscape beds and gardens will be...
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The brown marmorated stink bug is an increasingly detrimental pest on wide range of agricultural crops that commonly seeks shelter in our homes over winter. Photo credit – Kelly Allsup, Illinois Extension

Unwanted Winter Houseguests

The Garden Scoop
Insects are a celebrated part of our natural ecosystems, but when they enter our homes, it’s rarely anything to celebrate.  Each fall as cold weather closes in, there are a few usual suspects that surface at my house to cause a hubbub.  However, these exotic houseguests are rarely a...
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This bumble bee dangles from a flower of crimson clover, which is an attractive and valuable soil-building cover crop that can be easily hand-seeded into vegetable garden beds.

Cover Crops for Home Gardening

The Garden Scoop
Cover cropping is a practice we often associated with larger scale farming, but they have the same great benefits in our home vegetable gardens.  A cover crop is a crop that is grown for protection and enrichment of the soil rather than for harvest.  Since they are not harvested for use...
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Ants and the Partridge Pea

The Garden Scoop
This past week, I visited several Central Illinois prairies to catch a last glimpse of waning flowers and look for pollinators.  I was pleasantly surprised to see an old favorite in full bloom as the beautiful and minute, yet brightly yellow flowers of Partridge pea (Chamaecrista...
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Hackberry Gall

The Garden Scoop
As you might imagine, my family spends a considerable amount of time out observing the wonders of the natural world, and I am always fascinated by the way my kids view and interpret things in nature. Many times, their straightforward and simple perspective makes me feel like such a dummy. There is...
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