Each time you bring a load of firewood inside this winter, you could be opening the door for wood-infesting insects to make your home their home. Most insects brought into the home on firewood are harmless, and you can greatly reduce their numbers by following a few simple steps from the entomology department at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Continue reading
Author Archives: andreastith
Incorporating Edible Plants into the Landscape
A nice landscape of a few trees and shrubs, some flowers and well-tended turf has value. Our landscapes help define our outdoor living space, provide shade and help screen unwanted views. A well-maintained landscape may add as much as 5 to 10 percent to the value of our property. But landscapes can provide another resource that we don’t often consider–food. What if it were possible to introduce edible plants to your landscape? Continue reading
Basics for Starting Seeds Indoors for Transplant Outdoors
Seedlings grown indoors will need warm temperatures, a well-drained media with correct pH to grow the plants, strong light (supplemented artificially), proper nutrients, correct water amounts. Steps to do this are, first, select disease-resistant varieties of seed. Such seeds are more likely to lead to successful harvest. Continue reading
Stunning Black Gum for Home Landscapes
As a horticulture nerd, I am always a bit perplexed why we get stuck in tree and shrub ruts. Maples, pears, dogwoods…that’s the tree rut I’m talking about. There are so many other trees worthy of a spot in our yards and landscapes. Here’s one very much worth it.
Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) displays all the things desirable in a tree for home landscapes: clean, glossy foliage, brilliant fall color, unique thick bark, and few insect and disease problems. Continue reading
Lawn Care Simplified
Priorities for spring should be–#1 weed control, #2 mowing, #3 watering, #4 aerating, #5 insect control, and #6 fertilizing.
Spring is the perfect time for crabgrass and other weed controls. Please read instructions carefully on your choice of weed control. To legally use and lawn chemicals, you must follow all directions on the bag. The chemicals work at certain concentrations, so a little more only allows a chemical to run off desired treatment area & pollution occurs. For actively growing weeds, it is especially critical that you apply when there is moisture on the plants for broad leaf control. Chemicals must stick to leaves to be effective. This is easiest to achieve by applying in early morning when there is a heavy coat of dew. If the grass is not wet, you have most likely wasted your time and money. Continue reading
A Messy Winter Garden Makes Good Wildlife Habitat
You worked hard turning some of your property into wildlife habitat. You planted nectar and host plants for butterflies and pollinators. Trees and bushes offer shelter and habitat for birds, squirrels, and other small creatures. Perhaps this summer, a box turtle took up residence in your back yard or you heard tree frogs singing in your own trees! Now, after all your hard work, why would you destroy that wonderful ecosystem by cleaning it up for winter?
Winter Lawn Fertilization
Many Kentucky lawns can go for a number of years without applications of phosphorous and potash, or even lime. But it is not unusual for a homeowner to apply these amendments annually. A good practice is to find out what is actually needed for good lawn quality in the upcoming months. By testing the soil before deciding to add any of these, gardeners’ dollars can be saved. It is important to keep in mind that application of nutrients when none are needed is hard on the wallet as well as the environment, in the form of both the products applied and the fuel required to spread amendments.
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly
Decorating with greenery during the holidays is a time honored tradition. Like the song says, the evergreen most people choose when they “deck the halls” is holly. Holly greenery can sometimes be hard to find and is often expensive. But if your landscape has the space, green thumb gardeners can plant their own holly trees and shrubs for an instant and cheap source of holly boughs. Continue reading
Holiday Cactus
In shades of white, golden yellow, pink, rose, coral and red, the flowers of holiday cacti look like exotic birds in flight. It is no wonder that these fall and winter blooming plants have become holiday favorites. Continue reading
Uninvited Guests for the Holidays
Before the title makes you think of friends and family, let us consider our garden-variety pest that may invade homes throughout the holidays.
By late fall, most outdoor insect home invaders have settled down for a long winters nap, either outdoors or in your home. Yet it is still a good time to seal, caulk and repair cracks, crevices and gaping thresholds as a way to keep pest invaders – and cold winter air – out of your home. If any spiders, ladybugs, stinkbugs, or flies, appear in your home, they are more nuisance than harmful and vacuuming them up often takes care of the problem. Continue reading
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