You wouldn’t think that living in the “Tension Zone” would be a good thing, but those of us who live in Winnebago County do and are fortunate to do so. In the 1950s, John Curtis, a botany professor at UW-Madison set out to classify the plant communities of Wisconsin. With help from his students, a [Continue]
What happens when you see an insect chewing on your beans? Do you immediately reach for some kind of spray? You really don’t need to do that – as soon as the chewer landed on the plant and began snacking, the bean called for help. It did this by releasing a complex of chemicals called [Continue]
The weeds in your lawn are trying to send you a message about your soil. You can shush them temporarily by killing them year after year, but until you pay attention to what they are trying to tell you and take action to correct the underlying problem, they are going to keep coming back. The [Continue]
I was so confused. What was it that I actually planted? You’ve heard Shakespeare’s line “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”? That may be true of roses, but I planted endive and it sure didn’t look like the stuff in the grocery store. I meant to plant Belgian endive, a leafy [Continue]
Last year, I told my husband that our vegetable garden was getting too big for me to take care of. Then, over the winter he fell for an infomercial and bought a high-powered blender that combines various greens and fruits into a very healthy drink. He asked me to grow a lot more greens this [Continue]
The first thing I love about calibrachoa is the way its name rolls up and down: Kal-a-bra-KO-ah. Secondly, its gorgeous! Calibrachoas look like mini-petunias, or petunias without their tattered petticoats. Each plants has hundreds of inch-wide flowers giving rise to its common name, “Million Bells.” It’s an annual plant that comes to us from South [Continue]
Competition in the plant world is fierce. The techniques plants use against each other to ensure their own survival make the conniving in corporate boardrooms and reality TV shows look like child’s play. Some plants develop extremely dense or deep roots systems so they can steal water and nutrients from seedlings of any other species [Continue]
Garlic mustard battle continues annually Every year for the last several years, I’ve spent an afternoon during the last week of April doing the exact same thing: walking along the Wiouwash Trail searching for garlic mustard and tying fluorescent tape on a tree or shrub branch near each patch I’ve spotted. This is [Continue]
Here are some things to remember as this year’s growing season begins: • Gently stretch every muscle and body part you can think of before you go out for a day of lifting, bending, digging and planting. • Get a tetanus booster shot if it’s been more than ten years since your last one. Tetanus [Continue]
The Perennial Plant Association has chosen Variegated Solomon’s Seal as its Perennial Plant of the Year for 2013. It’s a plant for shady woodland gardens or for a border in part to full shade. Morning sun is better than afternoon sun for this plant. Variegated Solomon’s Seal grows 18-24 inches tall and has long oval [Continue]