Month: April 2022

NOAA recently announced that La Niña is favored to continue through summer and fall this year and could last through next spring. This forecast is bound to strike fear in gardeners in the western United States, since La Niña is associated with drought in the western parts of the country which sorely needs more rain. Los Angeles has announced some stringent watering restrictions due to impending water shortages, and that means gardeners will have to be especially careful there to use the water they have wisely.… Continue reading this article “What a third year of La Niña means for gardens”

A week or so ago one of my “friends” sent me a link to a new journal article that claims plants can “see.” (The use of quotes here indicates that plant vision is suspect, as is the friend status of the person who sent the article.) Of course, dissecting the claims in this article became an all-consuming task for the next several hours. And rather than writing off those hours as never to be reclaimed, I decided a blog post would at least set those thoughts down to save other skeptics the time.… Continue reading this article “The plants have eyes! Another foray into B(ad) S(cience).”

This is the springtime installment of our random, look-behind-the-scenes of the plant world blog post. In this episode we’ll take a look at William Forsyth, a gud Scottish horticulturist.

William Forsyth was born in 1737 in Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire in northeast Scotland. In 1763 he moved to London to work at Syon Park House for the Earl of Northumberland. After that gig he transferred to the Chelsea Physic Garden and trained as a gardener under Phillip Miller.… Continue reading this article “People and Plants”

You may have heard about these fungi or perhaps not. But if you look carefully on bags of potting mix and on some fertilizers you will see that they are marketed as “essential” to your garden plants.  Claims on mycorrhizal products suggest dramatic growth increases.  These claims like many “snake oil” products can be extreme and are based on science that supposedly bolsters their efficacy.  Mycorrhize are responsible for tremendous growth increased when compared to plants denied access to the fungi. … Continue reading this article “Mycorrhizae! Myco what??”

I started writing for The Garden Professors a little over a year ago. My very first posting was on “The weather where you are.” In that article, I described some simple ways to measure the microclimates around your yard using some simple hand instruments. But many of you are already well past that and have your own weather stations. For those of you who don’t, here are some considerations for adding a weather station to your garden and a shameless plug for CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network), a citizen science network of rainfall (and snowfall!)… Continue reading this article “Measuring the weather in your garden”