Category: In the Garden

Mountain Mint

Oct 1, 2020 | In the Garden

Would you like an easy-to-grow perennial that flowers from July to August and is a magnet for many pollinating wasps, skippers, bees, and moths? Then consider mountain mint for your garden. Mountain...

What is it? Wednesday

Sep 30, 2020 | In the Garden

Puss Caterpillar Identification Later instar caterpillars densely covered in yellowish, reddish, brown, or mouse gray setae (hairs). Middorsal crest has rusty to smoky setae. “Tail”...

Native Notes – Goldenrod

Sep 29, 2020 | In the Garden

Thars gold in them thar hills (and in the flatlands too)! The rustling of dried corn stalks, stacks of pumpkins at the roadside stand, Halloween costumes at your local general store… all are signs...

How to Pick a Pumpkin and Select the Best Mums

Sep 28, 2020 | In the Garden

With all those mums and pumpkins at garden centers and farmers markets, how can we select the best and make them last? For an immediate impact, many people choose chrysanthemums (“mums”) in full...

What is it? Wednesday

Sep 23, 2020 | In the Garden

Fall Webworm Tent Tent Structure Fall webworm caterpillars incorporate leaves, and sometimes entire branches in silken tents spun, typically, at branch tips. (In contrast, eastern tent caterpillar,...

Managing Water in the Home Landscape

Sep 21, 2020 | In the Garden, Water

The weather events and weather patterns of recent years, like the “1000 year storm” in 2015 associated with Hurricane Joaquin, have left residents grappling with water management in their yards. On...

What is it? Wednesday

Sep 16, 2020 | In the Garden

Tobacco Hornworm and Braconid Wasps Fast Fact Cotesia congregata are important biological control agents of about a dozen moth species in two families (Sphingidae and Noctuidae). Life Cycle An adult...

Cover Crops for the Fall

Sep 14, 2020 | In the Garden

Planning to leave the vegetable garden fallow this fall? If you take the time to plant a cover crop instead, you will reap the benefits later. In general, cover crops protect the soil from erosion,...

Tired of eating squash? Consider donating to a local food ministry

Sep 10, 2020 | In the Garden

If you are anything like me, this is the time of year when you never want to eat another squash or zucchini again. I feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump when describing the many ways I have eaten...

What’s this stuff in my stream!?

Sep 9, 2020 | In the Garden

“There’s orange water coming up through the ground!” said the homeowner who called me last week, wondering what kind of contaminant had made its way into her yard. If you’ve ever come across this...

Monarda (Bee balm)

Sep 7, 2020 | In the Garden

Our family now has a new favorite garden perennial plant. Ever since our ‘Jacob Cline’ Monarda (Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’) came into bloom, it has been the most gorgeous flower we have tried in...

Toad Lily

Sep 3, 2020 | In the Garden

Toad lilies (Tricyrtis hirta) bloom from September to October and have small, lily-like white to pale lilac flowers with heavy purple to maroon spots. They prefer evenly moist, well-drained,...