As I noted last week, this has been a long winter in Michigan – OK, Jeff, no chortling from the frozen tundra of Minnesota… Most gardeners in this area have only been able to do their spring yard and garden clean-ups in fits and starts as the weather allows. We’re finally warming up a bit … Continue reading Who you gonna call?
Today I thought I’d go just a little off topic. Lots of people out there are really upset about the idea of putting genes into plants, like putting genes for Round-Up resistance into soybeans, or genes for caterpillar resistance into corn. And, I do agree, this is a pretty powerful technology that needs to be … Continue reading Genetic Engineering, Veal, and Rennin
Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Marla Spivak, a very highly regarded bee scientist, talk about how bees defend themselves from disease. Very interesting stuff. I took a lot of information away from the talk, two bits of which I want to share with you. The first is a vocabulary word — propolis … Continue reading Are Pretty Flowers Useful?
Vegetable transplants and herbs were a bright spot last year (and the one previous) for most retail growers and independent garden centers. Seed and transplant companies have taken note – saw lots of veg and herbs at the normally-ornamental trade shows. As always, some good ideas, some a bit far-fetched… Pelleted lettuce seed (much easier … Continue reading The Hottest Thing in…Veg!
Last week Jeff wrote about the dangers of using “balanced” fertilizers, especially in reference to phosphorus content. Comments quickly followed about using fertilizers in many situations – on farms, in container plants, on trees – and so on. One of the latest comments came from Nick and began “I don’t usually recommend fertilizer for perennials … Continue reading Fertilizers, crops and landscapes
A week or so ago my new friend Doug wondered about some gardening advice on the radio: would adding vodka to paperwhite narcissus make the flowers less “floppy?” The explanation he’d heard was that alcohol would burn the roots and reduce stem growth. Then today I received an email newsletter with the same intriguing information. … Continue reading Potted plants…really potted
We’ve posted before about the native vs. nonnative conundrum, especially as it relates to invasive species. So let’s complicate the issue a bit more by considering how birds are affected by our landscape choices. About 10 years ago my UW colleague Sarah Reichard and I collaborated on a literature review on the interaction between birds and … Continue reading Want more bird visitors? Nonnative plants may be the answer
Like Linda, I believe that we don’t plant enough bare-root trees. Trees that are harvested and sold bare root tend to establish better and recover faster from transplant shock than trees sold in containers or as B&B (balled and burlapped) stock. But, in general, trees that are purchased in as bare-root stock are smaller than the … Continue reading Big Trees for Crime Reduction
Well, this was a tricky puzzle! Here’s a more complete picture of this interesting plant: This, believe it or not, is a weigela – specifically, a patented cultivar named Kolmagira. You can see part of a tag in the lower left part of this photo: As the patent description reads, this shrub possesses “…yellow … Continue reading Tricky tricolor leaf
Just when I thought I had you all fooled, Judy slipped in at the last minute with the correct answer – the “pruners” in question are deer: The pruning ends when the deer can’t stretch any further, giving the tree its odd bell-shaped crown: This is also a great demonstration of how pruning stimulates new … Continue reading Pruning perpetrators