Category: Gardening & Landscape

Can a Gardener Go On Vacation

Can a gardener go on vacation in the summer time? You depart, however, with a heavy heart, full of fears and cares for your garden; and you say, “Look here. There is nothing to be done in the garden and…

By this time of the year, most people are during tomato harvest. I have been noticing blossom end rot is showing up now. This show up as a black or brown rotten area on the bottom of the tomatoes. There…

Adding some garden art to your backyard does no require a lot of money, who doesn’t love something made from nothing? Gardens seem to be a natural home for all things re-used and up-cycled…it just seems to make nature happy,…

Raccoons in the garden are nocturnal animals that are thriving thanks to increased human contact, as anyone with an unsecured dumpster or trash can will attest. Wild populations prefer areas with trees and water nearby. But more and more they…

Hackberry psyllids are small aphid-like insects that cause hackberry galls commonly seen on the underside of hackberry tree leaves. An alternative name is hackberry “gall-maker.” They are most commonly noticed, however, as a household nuisance in late summer and fall.…

Use a drip irrigation system to conserve water and improve water absorption in flower beds and gardens. If you watch television advertisements, one would think the best way to water and even fertilizer flowers and other plants is to stand…

If you have followed all the advice on asparagus care you will have asparagus ferns turning yellow by the autumn (October time). I never cut the stems back for they hold snow which is good for the bed. Depending on…

Trees signal their water deficit through several symptoms. The most common changes in appearance are lighter green to yellow-green foliage, leaf scorch around the margins, wilting leaves and dropping them prematurely. Conifers will often produce an abundance of cones the…

Avoid using mulches and clean up any debris around plants to eliminate shelter for squash bugs. Practicing crop rotation can greatly reduce their numbers as well. However, rotations will not completely keep squash bugs from showing up because of their…

Arbors date back to early Egyptian and Roman gardens and were used throughout Europe by the late 16th century. The term arbor, or arbour, is an English word, believed to be derived from the Old French herbere or Anglo-French herbe, meaning herb or grass. Residential…

Thatch is a layer of decomposed and partially decomposed organic matter located between the soil and green turf grass vegetation. When the bottom portion of the thatch becomes mixed with soil (for example, by earthworms) and is in the process…

Get the Weeds Out While They Are Young Summer Weed Management Strategies Now is the time when those pesky weeds are really coming up full force in many gardens around the state, particularly if you have had rain in your…

Tomato Problems in South Dakota

Most of the questions that will be coming in will relate to tomato problems, and earlier this summer, relate to tomato problems in South Dakota. Despite early predictions that this summer was going to be dry, many areas have received…

Design under your backyard trees without the extra cash to afford such things as designer landscaping bricks or other pre-made landscaping elements, I turned my attention to the resources of the internet for some inexpensive do-it-yourself ideas. I found some…

There are several cedar-rust diseases that spend part of their life cycle on Eastern red cedar and other junipers, and another part of their life cycle on apple, hawthorn, and other members of the rose family. Both hosts are required…