A couple years ago I won an oxalis plant as a door prize at a Master Gardener meeting. I removed it from the plastic pot it came in, put it in a pretty ceramic pot and placed it in my dining room near the window. For those not familiar with the plant, oxalis is sometimes [Continue]
Native plants are those that were growing in a particular area prior to European settlement. Wisconsin has a wide variety of native plants because of our diverse landscape of prairies, woodlands and savannas. Native plants aren’t just for people that have acreage to devote to restoring prairies! There are many reasons to consider using [Continue]
Have you ever wondered exactly what’s in that little container of poultry seasoning that you dutifully sprinkle onto the chicken, turkey or duck you are cooking? I have to confess I never thought about it until a year ago when I had a mallard already in the slow cooker and nothing came out when I [Continue]
Like it or not, it’s time to start getting your yard tucked in for winter. There are two main things plants need protection from in winter – rabbits and the weather. Fencing is the only sure way to protect plants from rabbit damage. A roll of chicken wire is inexpensive and easy to cut [Continue]
In fifth grade, I spent hours looking at a beautiful picture of a farm that was in my social studies textbook. Fifth grade was when I learned about things like crop rotation, strip cropping and contour plowing. Not being from a farm family, it was all new and interesting to me, but I didn’t [Continue]
A jewel of a plant blooms from mid-July until frost in wet, shady places like ditches and along creeks. This is jewelweed, also called spotted touch-me-not. Jewelweed’s bright orange tubular flowers speckled with dark orange spots have large open mouths with a generous supply of nectar. They are constructed perfectly for hummingbirds and butterflies. [Continue]
There is much to do in the September garden! Vegetable gardeners continue to harvest tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and beans and are busy canning, freezing and dehydrating. Potatoes and carrots are ready to be dug and apples and pears are ready for harvest. Just a reminder that local food banks welcome any extra produce. [Continue]
Tomatoes seem susceptible to as many bacterial, viral and fungal diseases as humans do. Certainly the most serious is late blight, a fungal disease which has been spreading quickly across the eastern United States for the past two years. This is the same blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the mid-19th century. [Continue]
For the past few years, the leaves on the tips of the stems of my rose bush have leafed out a much lighter green than the leaves on the lower parts of the stems. The veins of the leaves remain dark green though. Soon those leaves top leaves turn yellow and then the edges get [Continue]
What does your front yard say about you? Anything at all? Does it reflect who you are, or does it mirror every other front yard in the neighborhood? Does what’s outside your front door have any relationship to those who live inside? After settling into a home, most people eventually make their living space [Continue]