Horticulture

From homemade pesticide applications to adding eggshells to the soil, gardeners are always looking for natural alternatives to current gardening practices. Over the past few years, there has been an influx of gardeners adding eggshells, coffee grounds, and dish soap to their gardens to improve soil...

Hot summer days may be slowly coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the growing season has to! Fall crops are a staple in the Midwest, which helps farmers and gardeners prolong the short growing season in Northern Illinois. Cool season crops like broccoli are commonly grown in the Spring and Fall...

Hot summer days may be slowly coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the growing season has to! Fall crops are a staple in the Midwest, which helps farmers and gardeners prolong the short growing season in Northern Illinois. Cool season crops like broccoli are commonly grown in the Spring and Fall...

During the holidays, there are a few plants that seem ubiquitous, even if only during the month of December. But have you ever wondered why we “deck the halls with boughs of holly” or kiss under the mistletoe? Holly Holly (Ilex sp.) is a group of almost 500 species of both deciduous and...

What a great time of year – crisp mornings, warming up to comfortable afternoons, with the opportunity to have that outdoor firepit going after dark. October also signals the annual trip to a farm or farm stand for...

If you live in northern Illinois, the most frequently grown large fruit is very likely the apple. There is certainly nothing wrong with peaches, pears, plums or cherries, it is just that apples are the hardiest of them all...