Some gardeners are scrupulous about pulling everything out or cutting everything back before winter comes. Others leave the entire job for spring. The ideal is probably somewhere in between. You should pull up and compost all annual flowers and vegetable plants. As an alternative to adding plant debris to the compost bin, dig big holes [Continue]
There are two times of year when native plants are at their best early spring when the spring ephemerals cover the forest floor, and late summer/early fall when the prairie plants shine. Here is a quick review of what native plants are and why we should plant them. Natives are those that were growing in [Continue]
Mid-summer is a good time to take a look around your yard and garden and decide what you like and what you don’t. Go out to the street and approach your home from both directions, pretending to be a visitor. What do you notice first? Is there a plant that is too big, a container [Continue]
The colors of the late summer garden are mostly brilliant purples, reds, oranges and yellows. Turtlehead is an easy-to-grow perennial plant native to our area whose late summer flowers provide a serene contrast to all that intensity with creamy white blooms. The Latin name for turtlehead is Chelone glabra. “Chelone” is the Greek word for [Continue]
There was one northern catalpa tree in my neighborhood when I was a child. I didn’t know what it was, but I loved that tree. In June, it had clusters of large bell-shaped, ruffled white flowers with yellow stripes and purple spots inside, kind of a combination of petunia and iris and orchid, not [Continue]
It was my own fault. In my defense, I didn’t know any better at the time. Here’s what happened that led to having to spend an entire afternoon digging every single plant out of one of my mother’s flower beds. Twenty-six years ago, my husband and I purchased a home that had many beautiful [Continue]
Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable garden plan and one of the easiest.to grow. Even people who don’t have a dedicated vegetable garden often plant a tomato or two in flower beds or containers. When buying young tomato plants, look for sturdy plants with healthy green leaves. Avoid leggy plants and those with yellowed [Continue]
Before European settlement, most of Winnebago County was an oak savanna. Oak trees were the main component of the plant community, but their density was low enough that grasses and other vegetation could thrive. For a variety of reasons, today the oak savanna is one of the rarest plant communities on earth. While [Continue]
The International Herb Association has chosen cilantro and coriander as the 2017 Herb of the Year. It may seem as though they’ve chosen two herbs, but they’ve actually selected just one – coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant. People tend to either love or hate the taste of cilantro. The taste has been [Continue]
If you want an easy-to-care for houseplant without the mess of potting soil, one of the 650 species of air plants, called Tillandsia, are for you. Air plants have slender, strappy leaves resembling pineapple tops, but of a finer nature. Most have spectacular tubular or funnel-shaped flowers lasting from several days to several months. [Continue]