Trees

The splendor of fall color on deciduous trees is a beautiful indicator that winter is coming. In the months ahead, the outdoor landscape will experience freezing temperatures, piles of snow, and an abundance of dormant or dead plants. For the animals left to survive the winter season, the trees and...

Autumn is a time for apple picking, pumpkin spice everything (yes, I’m on that side of the debate), final garden harvests, and tree planting. While April gets a lot of attention for being Arbor Month, let’s consider autumn as another great time to plant trees.Advantages of autumn plantingRegardless...

There are many ways we mark the 'end of summer'. Some refer to the beginning of school or the closing of the pool, while others view Labor Day as the 'unofficial end of summer'. Another way, if you're more entomologically inclined, is the appearance of fall webworm.Fall webworm (Hyphantria...

A recent family trip westward to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks offered a chance to observe the changing landscapes of the Midwest. While Iowa’s familiar fields of corn and soybeans resemble much of Illinois, the transformation across Nebraska—from tallgrass to shortgrass prairie—...

If you spend enough time looking at and working with plants, you'll inevitably come across galls. Galls are abnormal growths and can be caused by a variety of different organisms, including insects (like aphids, flies, wasps) and mites, and occasionally nematodes, fungi, and bacteria. Galls can be...

Trees are an essential element of a healthy, vibrant community. Trees, large and small, help clean our air, shade our landscapes, provide wildlife habitat, and improve our mental and physical well-being. Planting trees throughout our community, in parks, along streets and trails, at civic buildings...

How do you take care of a newly planted tree?Lots of trees get planted in April, at least in Illinois. What follows is a ‘will they, won’t they…survive?’ In multiple instances, I’ve come across a tree that gets planted and maybe watered once to a handful of times that year. What most people don’t...

One of the most favored hobbies of outdoor enthusiasts, gardeners, and wildlife lovers is feeding the birds. Setting out a bird feeder with seed or suet cakes is a popular way many people use to feed the birds, but there are other ways to feed birds. Birds scavenge seed from plants, they will get...

Each year, a variety of establishments attempt to make news by predicting annual garden trends. I’m conflicted over these reports because, on the one hand, they are fun ways to see what types of new things are on the horizon. Yet on the other hand, many of the trends are elaborate and expensive to...