New Tree & Shrub Fact Sheets

I have 3 new fact sheets up at my workplace website. Take a look: Fringetree Sweetshrub Fatsia Pretty pictures too.   And yes, this does mean it’s time for me to pay attention to this blog again. I’ve neglected it for far too long.

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God Gets a Lesson on Lawns

Over at Suburban Farmer, an amusing essay on suburban lawns.  God Gets a Lesson on Lawns

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How to Cut your Lawn Maintenance to Virtually Nothing

It’s so easy you won’t believe you haven’t thought of this method before. Or maybe you have, but wondered what the neighbors would think. Lawn maintenance is expensive, both for the lawn owner and for the environment. Huge quantities of fertilizer and pesticides are used every year to produce and preserve the perfect monoculture of [...]

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MSU Extension Faces Closure

I really wanted to post a bright, perky, colorful post for a gray Friday. But it wasn’t to be. Article at ConnectMidMichigan.com This is one of those horrible headlines that Extension agents have nightmares about. As must all the farmers, 4-Hers, gardeners and many others that are provided with researched, reliable information from people who [...]

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How I spent my summer vacation…

or at least a small part of it. My mother was recovering from surgery*, yet needed some gentle exercise, so we spent time walking through the small towns in Virginia near her home. The town where I found this house and garden is Hamilton, VA, a tiny place that has mostly missed the great western [...]

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What this blog needs is more PURPLE.

This first time I met this gorgeous beauty, I came close to falling off a rather hilly trail in Virginia. My hiking partner (after rescuing me from an embarrassing near face plant)  knew the plant only as French mulberry, a fairly common name for it in that area. As it turns out, this stunning berried [...]

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