A reader from Mohicanville contacted me around June 15 a few years ago to ask aboutthe deformed branches on her sour cherry tree. My reader’s tree had elongated, rough black swellings or knots that developed on the woody portions of the tree. This type of knot is found mostly on small branches and twigs.
A Stroll Through the Garden
Posted inLife and Culture
A Stroll Through the Garden: Help! My Dogwood is suffering
I recently received an email asking how you might be able to rejuvenate a dogwood tree starting in the Spring. If you have a tree in your yard that appears to be struggling, inmost cases, it’s common sense to fertilize it. There may be other issues that could have a serious impact on the tree's […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Studying millions of invading Squash bugs
Last week, I got an email from a reader. My reader was pleading, ‘HELP!’ Squash bug or Anasa tritis had invaded her garden. She had planted pumpkins, acorn, spaghetti, and butternut squash.
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Dandelions can be delicious, dainty edibles
Almost 20 years ago, I helped teach a class to my Pathfinders, a Christian group likethe Boy Scouts, on wild edibles. You know, there are several different approaches to weeds. You could pull the weeds by hand by digging the plants to the root level. You could spray any number of compounds over the weeds […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Weeds can be pulled while protecting perennials
I got an email from a reader years ago in April about a sunny site with a recurring weed problem. “I used some chemicals a few years prior and got rid of them.”
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A Stroll Through the Garden: New solutions to the perennial problem of groundhogs
Last week, I got a question from a reader about a couple of groundhogs that reside in his garage and include his garden items in their diet without paying for their meals or leaving any tip. These rodents, called groundhogs, have a scientific name, Marmota monax. Groundhogs can tear up any garage floor.
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Part 2 — Fighting voles & moles
Last week, I wrote a column on moles and recommended how to help you manage moles in your gardens. Moles and voles are not even in the same family.
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Part 1 — Fighting moles & voles
A few weeks ago while at the pool, I made a new acquaintance who asked me about moles. He said, “How do you get rid of moles?” I recalled some initial ideas about castor beans and a trap that works. Here are my insights as I reviewed my previous columns and current research on this […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Cover crops offer new solutions to old problems
A friend from church asked me, “Is there any cover crop to plant in the spring?” Traditionally, most home gardeners only plant cover crops in the fall. Spring plantings of cover crops will help improve the yields of selected vegetables.
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Companion planting
One of the questions I have had over the years is, “Why would you want to mix two different plants in the same row?” When I started gardening back in Overton, I would plant each packet of seeds according to the plan I had laid out, emptying each seed packet as I went along. That […]