Last week Jeff kicked off a lively discussion about invasive plants. Let me state up front that no one on this blog is promoting invasive plants. But the issues surrounding invasive plants are extremely complex and have profound implications for many groups with whom we work in landscape horticulture and urban and community forestry. It is essential in these discussions that we separate fact from hyperbole. In some quarters, lines have been blurred and people fail to make key distinctions and lump exotic, alien, or non-native species together with invasives. … Continue reading this article “Are natives the answer?”
Category: Uncategorized
Growing a greener Christmas tree
Among the many hats I wear, one of the most enjoyable is that of an Extension Specialist working with Christmas tree growers here in Michigan and surrounding states. I suppose part of the satisfaction stems from the fact that my first real job was shearing Christmas trees in southwest Washington during my high school summers. To give you an idea how long ago this was, the minimum wage when I started the summer between my sophomore and junior years was $2.20 per hour.… Continue reading this article “Growing a greener Christmas tree”
Let It Snow!
Here in Minnesota one of the things that we need to worry about is the cold. Over the winter we can see temperatures down into the -30s (even the -40s in the Northern part of the state) and it can damage many of the plants that we grow. The tops of the trees are usually able to handle these types of temperatures — though a good heavy snowfall can cause a limb to collapse now and again.… Continue reading this article “Let It Snow!”
Friday Can O’ Worms
I was pleased to see that at least two of you dug into the literature over the weekend to read these papers! (I can still remember the first time as a Master’s student when I was assigned a journal paper to review. I had NO idea what, exactly, I was supposed to be doing. It took a long time to figure it out.)
In any case, kudos to Jimbo and Diana for their thoughtful comments – and for zooming in on the problems. … Continue reading this article “Friday Can O’ Worms”
Soap and Deer
Short post today — Linda appears to have transmitted her illness electronically over a couple of thousand miles — Thanks Linda!
I was reminded yesterday that it’s almost time for gardeners to start worrying about winter deer damage. With that in mind I thought I’d share with you my favorite research article on the subject. It’s a little paper by Michael Fargione and Michael Richmond and published about 18 years ago. You can find it here.… Continue reading this article “Soap and Deer”