Share my passion for all things gardening!
Who loves butterflies?! I would guess everyone thrills to see them in their garden. While touring our way through Georgia recently, I saw all sorts of beauties and enjoyed photographing them… when they’d hold still long enough, that is! This beautiful orange-and-black butterfly (photo to left) is a Gulf Fritillary. And the top photo is of a Zebra Heliconium. Whenever I […]
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How do you feel about slugs? If you just shuddered and if your blood pressure just went up a few notches, you and I are on the same page! I despise slugs because they seem to want to eat the very same veggies that I love to grow and eat. Yet they can be tricky to control, especially organically. That […]
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Even though I recently wrote a column about the top 5 damaging insects and how to deal with them organically, I decided to write today’s column about the importance of insect ID. Here’s a link to it in The Spokesman-Review: Season’s pests may surprise you. If you want to successfully deal with problems in your garden, it is critical that […]
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As you know, one of my favorite gardening topics is attracting beneficial insects. My husband Bill and I recently discovered a whole bunch of ladybugs on our hops vines, and they were busily dispatching aphids. It brought an important point to mind: In Jessica Walliser’s excellent book, Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, she mentioned how she used to be […]
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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m all about attracting pollinators to my garden. No matter what it takes, I want those guys here! All joking aside, we all need to do what we can for pollinators. Between “colony collapse disorder” affecting honeybees, the decline of habitat for pollinators and the use of pesticides, we are making it difficult for them to do […]
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This is a common question I hear as a Master Gardener each year. A gardener will discover small zucchinis on their plants and excitedly start looking at recipes to use for their coming garden bounty. But then, the worst thing happens: those little zucchinis fall off the plant and shrivel up. What the hey? Well, you can usually blame one […]
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I love learning new things, but I’m not so happy to learn this little tidbit: pillbugs aren’t quite as benevolent as they’d like us to believe. Darn. For years, I’ve known that pillbugs are benign critters that primarily feed on decomposing organic matter. So they play a useful role in building soil fertility. However, I now know there’s a Dr. […]
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I recently wrote a post on Growing apples organically, but wanted to do a follow-up today. I get a lot of questions from readers about how to do this, so I wanted to clarify a few things. Last week, we decided it was high time we thinned and covered our young apples to protect them from the apple codling moth, […]
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What’s bugging you? Chances are, there are a few insect pests in your garden that are getting the better of you. In today’s column, I discuss my top 5 insect pests and organic insect control. Here’s a link to it, in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Pests can be thwarted naturally. If you’re like me, you’d like to deal with […]
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As you know, I’ve been writing about attracting pollinators to my garden lately. Well, there’s a fun family event coming up that focuses on the amazing pollinators around us. The Friends of Manito are holding this event next Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in Manito meeting room, located just east of Manito Park’s Gaiser Conservatory. I’m […]
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