Christmas Tree Tips
by Valle Novak The day before Christmas is the traditional time for many families to decorate their trees. Trees aren’t too hard to come by,…
Category: blog
Fall Chores
by Valle Novak With the rains of fall beginning and the true cold of oncoming winter a given, it’s time to complete your fall chores…
Bats
by Valle Novak My bed is situated so that I can lie and see what’s going on outside the window: The wind in the trees,…
Yellow Jackets – Vespula spp.
by Marcie Crockett Yellow jackets are social insects that live in colonies containing thousands of individuals. These wasps will attack aggressively when their nest is…
Spider Mites
by Marcie Crockett Spider mites are a major pest on a wide variety of garden and landscape plants. They are minute arthropods whose feeding can…
Aphids
by Marcie Crockett Aphids are soft-bodied insects that use their piercing sucking mouthparts to feed on plant sap. They usually occur in colonies on the undersides…
Compost
by Bob Wilson * The benefits, for both the individual and the community, of composting common organic waste materials are manyfold. Most people produce quantities…
Soil Amendments
by Bob Wilson * Recently, it has been brought to my attention that some people have had problems using log-yard wastes as soil amendment. I also talked…
Hillside Planting
by Valle Novak A few months ago, a friend new to the ranks of Master Gardeners, mentioned that her property lay on a partial hillside and that…
The Art of Color Echo
by Laurie Brown Combining colors in the garden is a source of great fun for me. drifts of lavender, spikes of blue – will it…
Try an “Upright” Landscape Plan
by Valle Novak Small houses – one-story ranch-type homes or bungalows, for instance – have a real charm and are site-friendly since they don’t overwhelm…
Fairy Garden
by Valle Novak Some years ago – and I’ve recounted this story before – I was lost in a network of country roads and finally in desperation,…
Herbal “Worts”
by Valle Novak Many gardeners will recognize today’s little play on words. Indeed, back in medieval times the term “worts” was used for many plants…
Edible Landscaping
by Valle Novak If your plans revolve around a pretty – mostly ornamental – garden, with flowers and shrubs, and you haven’t the time or…
Green Flowers
by Laurie Brown Green flowers? Leaves are green, yes, and grass is green. But flowers? Yes, there are green flowers, a surprising variety of them,…