Category: Uncategorized

Photos by Tom Fernandez

Ok, admit it.  If you’re over 40 or so, at some point in your life you’ve muttered that phase, likely more than once.  There is no doubt the younger generation can do things to get under your skin and raise your blood pressure.  But then they can turn around and do some pretty cool things, too.  The cool side was on ample display this weekend as over 750 college Horticulture students from 62 college and universities competed this weekend at the annual PLANET Student Career Days (SCD). … Continue reading this article “What’s the matter with kids these days?”

Back in February I had the opportunity to give a talk on a new book that I put together with a friend of mine, Meleah Maynard, who is a Master Gardener and garden writer here in Minnesota (you can see our promotional video here  — this is the video our administration let us run — you should have seen the one they didn’t!).  We conducted this talk at Bachman’s — a very well known garden center here in Minnesota. … Continue reading this article “Why I Love Bachman’s”

On this blog we get mad at lots of things.  Sure, anger is fun, but sometimes you’ve got to suck it up and say something nice for a change.  So today I thought I’d point out a product that, while it comes from a company that I’ve had issues with in the past, is, itself, a good product.  I like Miracle-Gro Moisture Control potting mix.  The reason is that it utilizes coconut coir, a waste product from coconuts which holds lots of water and which can still maintain good aeration. … Continue reading this article “A Good Potting Soil”

Last week I decided to continue my discussion on cold hardiness and so now, of course, temperatures are forecast in the mid-70’s for this week.  Oh well, I’m still convinced we’ve got one more blast of winter to go and some of this will still matter to someone.

One of the questions posed in response to last week’s post was how much cold hardiness changes during the winter.  Before I get into that, it’s good to review how cold hardiness can be quantified. … Continue reading this article “The Cold Truth”

Most of us were taught from an early age to trust doctors (I mean the medical kind).  They’re supposed to be smart, committed, and loving, and most of the doctors I’ve had over my life have fit that mold.  And Earth, what an awesome name!  It makes me think of dark, warm, rich soil in the spring.  Damn it makes me feel good!  So it’s no wonder that some clever marketer thought up the name Dr.… Continue reading this article “Should I trust Dr. Earth?”

Ok, ‘Hot’ might not be exactly the right word, but winter in the Midwest has certainly been warmer than average this year.  I did a little trolling around on Michigan State University’s Automated Weather Network website, which has been logging temperatures and other weather variables around the state for the past 15 years and compared our current winter here in East Lansing to recent years.  Since the middle of December our average daily temperatures are 5.2 deg.… Continue reading this article “Hot enough for ya?!”

I ‘like’ American Forests page on Facebook so I receive their periodic updates.  One item that caught my eye recently was a profile article on Dr. Greg McPherson, who is an urban forestry researcher with the USDA Forest Service in Davis, CA.  Even if you don’t recognize the name, if you have even seen any statistics on the economic and environmental benefits of trees in cities (energy conservation, carbon sequestration, etc), they probably cited information for McPhereon’s studies, either directly on indirectly,

http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/forest-frontiers-greg-mcpherson/… Continue reading this article “Moving from tree planting to tree performance”

According to a post by Paul Tukey on safelawns.blog, a recent French study which was published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology shows that corn which has been genetically modified to produce the caterpillar toxin Bt is poisonous to humans.  Furthermore, so is roundup.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re screwed.

The rapture is coming.  The true believers who shun conventionally produced food and eat only organic, non-GMO will be saved.  Those who don’t, well, they’re all as good as dead so don’t even bother worrying about ‘em.… Continue reading this article “Going Overboard with Paul Tukey”

There are a lot of great products out there for controlling insect pests without using pesticides.  Some of the best include insect diseases or predators which will attack the pest and not beneficial.  For example, there are wasps that kill mealybugs and nematodes that attack grubs.  Both of these products are pretty effective.  That said there are also some products that just don’t work that well.  One of them is known as milky spore disease.… Continue reading this article “Milky Spore”