If asked, probably 99 out of 100 people would say that the patron saint of gardeners is St. Francis. This pious man with a long cloak is often pictured holding a bird or two in his hands, and his statue made of concrete, resin or plastic stands in many gardens, whether the gardener is [Continue]
February brings the excitement of the almost daily arrival of seed catalogs in the mailbox. Now is the time to plan for this year’s garden and place your order for plants and seeds. Page through the catalogs and make a list of everything that catches your eye. Then, get realistic and pare the list [Continue]
I first saw a broadfork in use many years ago when Eliot Coleman demonstrated its use on his HGTV series, Gardening Naturally. A few years later, retired DNR warden Wayne Jeidy taught one of our Master Gardener classes and he had high praise for the broadfork. I’ve wanted one ever since. A broadfork, [Continue]
Bring the natural beauty of Mother Nature indoors this holiday season with a few easy decorating ideas anyone can master. Bright red dogwood branches can be cut and placed in a clear glass vase for a starkly beautiful decoration. Or cut some interesting branches from any old tree or shrub and spray paint [Continue]
Is there a gardener on your Christmas gift list? Here are some suggestions sure to be appreciated by the gardener in your life. Most gardeners love gardening books. Not only are they good reference materials during the season, they give us something to dream about over the winter. A beginning gardener will appreciate [Continue]
Gardening for wildlife is much more fun and relaxing than gardening purely for beauty or to keep up with your neighbors’ expectations for yards in the neighborhood. A landscape with perfectly trimmed trees and shrubs and annuals lined up in rows like soldiers may be pretty, but it is rather sterile. Add some [Continue]
Mulch offers many benefits to plants during the growing season and it is equally important to mulch plants over the winter. You may think that the purpose of winter mulch is to keep your plants warm but it is actually just the opposite. Mulch should be applied after the ground freezes, usually around Thanksgiving. [Continue]
The last two summers have been much drier than usual. Other parts of the country have been dealing with lack of rain for years, but in the Midwest, with a few exceptions, we’ve had ample rain for the past several decades. Xeriscaping is the term coined to describe a method of water conservation through [Continue]
Common buckthorn and glossy buckthorn were introduced to the United States in the 1800s as tough, hardy shrubs for the landscape. That toughness has made buckthorn aggressively invasive to the point where it is crowding out native flowers in woodland areas, forming an impenetrable understory layer, destroying wildlife habitat and causing long-term decline of [Continue]
When I went to visit Suzette Lazotte’s permaculture garden, she gave me her address and detailed directions how to get there. But I wouldn’t have needed either. Just the name of the street would have been enough – her yard is very different from her neighbors’. The bulk of Suzette’s yard is filled [Continue]