… With their bright colors and unusual shapes, gourds are not only beautiful, but are also a wonderful medium for … paint or dye them; use wood-burning tools on them to create highly decorative objects of art. And they’re utilitarian as well. Many cultures have used gourds as containers (serving and … since all of them are smaller than 6 inches. Growing Gourds Gourds require at least 120 frost-free days to mature. Therefore, they should be started indoors in March and moved outside to the …
Type: Plant Info
… Susceptible Plants More than 300 species of trees and shrubs, particularly oak ( Quercus ), apple ( Malus ), linden ( Tilia ), birch ( Betula ), hawthorn ( Crataegus ), aspen ( Populus ) and alder ( Alnus ) Description & Symptoms Spongy moths are a serious pest of forest and urban … area and find any evidence of the moth, call the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s toll-free Moth Hotline at (866) 296-6684 for specific instructions. In Lake County, currently the …
Type: Plant Info
… Garden centers are packed with delightful goodies to adorn flower beds and borders. But sometimes it’s simply fun—and money-saving—to create your own garden art. Can’t paint a picture or draw a straight line? No … about them shattering. Recycle It How about those old salt-and-pepper shakers or knick-knacks? Free them from the china or kitchen cabinets and repurpose them as container ornaments. Remove …
Type: Plant Info
… Summer is a social time, filled with friends, family, and sunshine—but what if you want to slip away on your own? A growing body of research shows that solo trips outside, away from your everyday life, can calm the mind and allow you to de-stress. We’ve got tips on how to find moments of peace and self-reflection at … Japanese Garden Free with Garden admission To calm your mind, simply walk over the arched bridge to the Malott …
Type: Blog
… I’m prioritizing the plants that “pass with a vengeance” (e.g., Shasta daisies, coneflowers, and burnets). I’m less concerned about plants that just fade into obscurity because then they just provide room for something new and exciting to take their place. Now that the garden is being less dramatic, more of my energy … and the desired traits gathered from data—that I’m trying to capture at a series of key points over the span of time in the evaluation garden. This record of the plant's life and how I …
Type: Blog
… Known to most shade gardeners as coleus, Solenostemon scutellarioides brings tropical colors and waves of texture to garden beds and baskets. Grown for its vibrant flashes of foliage, which span the color spectrum from yellow and chartreuse to burgundy and purple, coleus is enjoying a revival from its earlier years as a …
Type: Plant Info
… of several individual gardens: the Home Landscape, Aquatic, Bulb, Native Plant, Heritage, and Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Gardens all opened in the summer of 1984. This got us thinking … into a shady one. Shrubs gone wild after a season or two of missed pruning. Hedges revealing bare spots as some evergreens "age out" before others. (The latter happened to us recently in the … and slabs tilt as tree roots flex their might. Wooden structures cry "uncle" after decades of service. (This spring, our carpentry crew rebuilt —beautifully—the wooden pergola/arbor in the …
Type: Plant Info
… Ask most families what their favorite fruit is and the answer is unanimous — the apple! Whether picked fresh on a crisp autumn day or baked later into pies and cobblers, apples are enjoyed by more adults and children than any other fruit. The good news for gardeners is that you don't need an orchard …
Type: Plant Info
… highlight the spirit of spring. Prized for their profuse display of flowers in April and May, these ornamental trees boast a variety of sizes, shapes and forms from dwarf and weeping to mounding, wide-spreading and upright. Besides the spring … that infects the leaves and fruit. The infection occurs early in spring and often results in bare trees by late summer. Many newer cultivars have been bred for disease resistance. Before you …
Type: Plant Info
… in Smart Gardener, we talked about daffodils twice, in both the April article (on planning) and again in the November article (on planting, when you need it in fall). This April, we want to … a particular subset of the enormous genus Narcissus : the smallest daffodils, both miniatures and species, that often go unnoticed and unplanted. What makes a miniature? The American Daffodil … those that don't encourage much to grow beneath them, like Norway maples. Imagine a typically bare, gray spot in the yard as a staging area for hundreds of mini-daffodils instead. Along the …
Type: Plant Info
