Pollinator Gardening
In 2007, the U.S. Senate designated a week in June as National Pollinator Week to increase the general public’s awareness of the importance of pollinators to food production. What is pollination?...
Category: Landscape
Carolina Jessamine
Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) is one of the most beautiful vines of the South. It covers fences and trees in open woodlands and along roadsides throughout the Southeast with its...
Chemical Control of Aquatic Weeds
Aquatic weeds in ponds or lakes can be controlled by physical removal, biological control, or herbicides. The method or combination of methods used will depend on factors such as target weeds,...
Soil Texture Analysis “The Jar Test”
Soil is a medium comprised of soil particles, organic matter, water, air, and living organisms, all of which are important to the overall health of the soil and the plants that grow in it. The three...
Poison Ivy
Eastern poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a woody, perennial vine or small shrub that can be found in fields, pastures, woodlands, farms and home landscapes. As a vine, it attaches itself to...
Pond Turnover and Dissolved Oxygen
Turnover in ponds and lakes is a natural phenomenon that is a result of the influence of thermal stratification on dissolved oxygen levels in a water body. Sometimes, pond turnovers can result in...
Broadleaf Weeds
Most broadleaf weeds have netlike veins in their leaves and nodes containing one or more leaves. They may have showy flowers. Broadleaf weed seedlings emerge with two leaves. Because of differences...
White Grub Management in Turfgrass
White grubs are the larval (immature) stage of several different scarab beetles. In South Carolina, as well as the rest of the southeastern United States, turfgrass can be attacked by the grub stage...
Nematode Problems in Home Lawns
Nematodes are major pests of lawns throughout the Southeastern United States. They are microscopic roundworms that live in the soil and on plant roots. Nematodes are particularly a problem in areas...
Spring Dead Spot
Spring dead spot is a fungal disease of bermudagrass lawns and is a result of infection by one or more species of Ophiosphaerella. These soil-dwelling fungi damage the roots, rhizomes, and stolons...
Gray Leaf Spot on St. Augustinegrass
Gray leaf spot is a fungal disease (caused by Pyricularia grisea) that occurs most commonly on St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum), but occasionally may also be found infecting tall fescue,...
Leaf Diseases of Lawns
Several fungal leaf diseases may commonly occur in South Carolina home lawns, including dollar spot, rust, gray leaf spot, powdery mildew, anthracnose, and Helminthosporium leaf spot. Most of the...