Uninvited Guests for the Holidays

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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 →

Hydrangeas – Blue or Pink? You Decide.

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Hydrangeas grace the landscape with beautiful flowers in the spring and summer. The most colorful hydrangeas are bigleaf hydrangeas, Hydrangea macrophylla. Their flowers are usually either pink or blue. Flower color depends on the pH of the soil, a measure of soil acidity. Soil pH can be raised by applying lime. Some hydrangeas will respond to a higher pH (between 6.0 and 6.5) with pink flower color. To lower pH, apply aluminum sulfate. A lower pH (between 5.0 and 5.0) often results in blue flower color. A soil test will determine the existing pH and you can change your soil with the appropriate amendment to get the resulting flower color you want. Continue reading →

Harvesting Blueberries & Blackberries for Full Flavor

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It’s almost summer, and that is prime harvest season for blueberries and blackberries, both of which have the potential to grow very well in Kentucky. Blueberries, which are native to North America, are ready to harvest from early June through early August. Blackberries are ready to harvest from mid-June to early October. These delicious fruits offer health benefits, but best of all, they capture the essence of summer in their sweetness. Continue reading →

Rose Diseases

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Spectacular blooms and diverse types and varieties make roses a favorite of many Kentucky gardeners. However, warm, humid growing conditions create an ideal environment for serious problems each year with black spot and powdery mildew.

Gardeners can nip these fungal diseases in the bud by planting resistant or tolerant varieties and creating an unfavorable environment for disease development. It may be necessary to use fungicides throughout the summer, especially on susceptible varieties. Continue reading →

Tips To Reduce Pests Potential Mosquito Breeding Sites In Ornamental Pools & Landscape Fish Ponds

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If you have an ornamental pool or landscape fish pond, you might be wondering how to reduce mosquito populations in these particular situations. Ornamental pools and landscape fish ponds are potential breeding sites, but they don’t have to be.

Below are some mosquito management tips for these pools and ponds. Some of these tips also apply to birdbaths. Continue reading →

When Thatch is a Problem

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In Kentucky, we often struggle with quality lawns for many reasons. Cool season grasses do not perform well with a hot summer and warm season grasses are not as pleasing during the cooler months when they are dormant. Good overall maintenance practices play a critical part in our success. Aerifying and dethatching could be important to your specific lawn needs. Continue reading →

Early Start On Spring Gardening

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You don’t need to wait for warm weather to start your vegetable garden. Did you know there are several types of vegetables you can start as early as March? Radishes, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, onions and many more vegetables are all quite frost tolerant, and you can seed or transplant them in the garden from mid-March to early April. Continue reading →

Time for 5 Eastern Tent Caterpillar Egg Hatch

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After spending about 9 months as eggs in masses on twigs of wild cherry and related trees, the first few tiny eastern tent caterpillars (ETC) of the season should soon be leaving their eggs. The onset of the single generation that occurs each year varies with the character of the season. Hatch was noted as early as March 14, 2012 during an unseasonably warm spring and as late as April 2, 2014 during one that was slow to develop. Continue reading →

Hellebores

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A plant that flowers in winter has a head start in making it onto any plants lover’s list. This perennial is one that can grow in Kentucky gardens from the knobs and bluegrass to Ohio River, making it a plant for all regions, over a wide range of climates. Despite its common name, Lenten Rose is not a garden rose at all. Continue reading →

Serviceberries Are Great for Small Landscapes

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Serviceberries, Amelanchier spp., are an ideal sized tree for most landscapes. Sometimes considered large shrubs, serviceberry trees are usually grown in clumps with many upright branches, although they can be trained to a single trunk. They reach sizes of 25 feet tall by 15 to 20 feet wide. Amelanchier is one of those trees whereby the common name can sometimes make it difficult to identify. In addition to serviceberry, these trees are also known by Saskatoon, shadblossom, shadbush, shadwood, Juneberry, mountain blueberry, or sarvis-tree. Being a native tree to woodland borders and hillsides in eastern North America, settlers who encounter and admired Amelanchier contributed to the multiple common names it now carries. One name, serviceberry, originated because branches were collected in mid-winter and forced into bloom for church services. Continue reading →