It’s still cold and wintery, so let’s imagine ourselves in a happy place…warm, sunny, dry…with dead lawns. As the photo shows, the turfgrass is dead; this happens every summer during the Pacific Northwest’s droughty summers. Yet many of the weedy species are obviously thriving. Why? Remember, this is a physiology quiz. You can discount herbicides, … Continue reading Friday physiology fun
One of the roles I’ve evolved into over the past decade as an extension specialist at MSU is that of ‘the Conifer Guy’. Conifers are great and fascinating plants. The oldest trees in the world are conifers, the largest trees in the world are conifers, and some of the most interesting (at least to me) … Continue reading Blue Spruce Blues
The Perennial Plant Association recently released the identity of the PPA Plant of the Year – for 2010 it is Baptisia australis (False Blue Indigo). Various blogs have noted this (including Garden Professor fave Garden Rant) and I’ve read some interesting comments, both pro and con. True story: I asked for Baptisia at a small … Continue reading Baptisia: Beyond the Blue
We have a winner! Brian correctly identified the windowed hood of a cobra plant (Darlingtonia) and its function in tormenting hapless insects. Here’s the entire picture: Thanks to everyone who gave the puzzle a shot. Very imaginative guesses!
(You’ll see two posts from me today. This first one is easier to do at 6 a.m.) One of the efforts I’ve been involved with is serving as science editor (and writer) for MasterGardener Magazine. We started this quarterly publication in 2007 (take a look at it online at it here) – not just for … Continue reading Is there any future for a scientifically-sound gardening magazine?
A few months ago I posted a caution about using old pressure-treated timbers for vegetable gardens (see my Sept. 23 posting). I now routinely get questions about alternatives to these arsenic-laden materials, especially new treated lumber. What’s in the new wood that makes it rot resistant, and is it dangerous? Rather than arsenic, new pressure-treated lumber has … Continue reading Veggie garden safety
This winter, we’re working on renovating part of the campus Hort Garden. We’re tossing around lots of ideas/themes, but I’m leaning towards a garden full of “Plants with a Purpose”. Edible, fiber-producing, medicinal…you get my drift. Which brings me to today’s bloggerific topic: beverages. Mankind has, throughout history, infused or fermented just about every species of … Continue reading I think about these things as I peer into my coffee cup…
Hopefully everyone got their filling of turkey and dressing over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I used our unusually mild weather on Saturday to celebrate a time-honored tradition around the Cregg farm: The annual cursing of the tangled Christmas lights. Turning the calendar over to December in Michigan means another Midwest tradition is just around the … Continue reading Salt solutions
By now you’re probably ready to stand up, brush off your pants, and stretch your back after crawling around looking for surface roots and root crowns. Not so fast! There’s one more thing to look for – and to avoid. Take a look at these two photos: You can easily see the suckers at … Continue reading Inspecting nursery plants, part lll
Part of being a Garden Professor is evaluating, interpreting, and passing on good science to the rest of the gardening world. I was recently made aware of two articles soon to be published in Crop Protection and Pedobiologia, both peer-reviewed, scientific journals. (You can download these articles just by clicking on the highlighted journal names.) … Continue reading Friday puzzler: Opening a can of worms