A few years ago, a guy in a pickup truck filled with ladders and chainsaws came through my neighborhood looking for tree-pruning work. Unfortunately, several of my neighbors hired him. Four homes in a row that each had stately 50-year-old maples in their backyards now have big, fat tree trunks with a bunch of spindly [Continue]
You probably learned in middle school science class about how the top of one kind of apple tree is grafted onto the roots of another apple tree to make a better tree. This process is often used to “dwarf” a tree – a good productive tree top is grafted onto roots that will keep the [Continue]
Several years ago a fellow Master Gardener asked the group for information on black flowers because she wanted to make a black garden. I was a bit worried about her state of mind, but also intrigued because I had never seen a black flower. This year’s seed catalogs offer a plethora of black flowers, so [Continue]
Native plants are those that were growing in a particular area when the first European settlers arrived. Many of these plants are still in existence and using them in our landscapes is a good idea for many reasons. Since native Wisconsin plants have been growing here for hundreds of years, they are uniquely adapted to [Continue]
This time of year just about every grocery, department and drug store features a beautiful display of live miniature Christmas trees as soon as you walk in the door. They are beautiful, healthy-looking trees and include Norfolk Island pines, various cypresses, holly and rosemary. After they’ve served their purpose as winter decoration, many people hope [Continue]
Do you need a challenge to perk up your enthusiasm for gardening? Why not try a theme garden? A theme garden is a mix of plants related in some way. The connection between the plants may be very apparent or it may be a little more difficult for visitors to discern. The most obvious of [Continue]
Georgia grows about 42% of the U.S. peanut crop and nine other states in the south and southeast combine to grow the rest. There’s a reason for that – peanuts require a long growing season of at least 120 days. The growing season is the number of continuous days during which the temperature remains above [Continue]
Ornamental grasses can play a part in the summer garden, filling space and providing vertical interest, but fall is when they come into their own. Many of them develop deep rust, golden, or brown colors and their seed heads can be lacy, plumy or stiff. When the trees have lost their leaves, the annuals have [Continue]
This time of year, I cut the dried seedheads of the zinnias in my garden and save them to plant next spring. I’ve been saving and replanting these seeds for 29 summers now, and I got the first seeds from my mother, who had been saving them every year since she planted her first garden [Continue]
Chrysanthemums are gorgeous and spectacular and an easy way to provide bright splashes of color in your fall landscape. There are other perennial plants, however, that will hold a place in flowerbeds all summer and bring forth their blooms in fall. Just when everything else in your perennial bed has petered out, chelone, pronounced chee-LOW-nee, [Continue]