… questions, since they are on the cutting edge of scientific understanding. One such question is: “What are those specs of gold on the monarch butterflies?” The short answer is “Nobody knows!” But there are a few interesting theories. Lepidopterists approach strange … they are very vulnerable to predators like birds, since they can’t move. Their only defense is to display colors and patterns that either signal poison or blend into the environment. That …
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… . Amended terra preta soils created long ago still cover 10 percent of the Amazon Basin. It is important to understand that “slash and char” is different than “slash and burn,” which has many negative environmental implications, like … study showed improvement in plant disease resistance when biochar was used. So what exactly is modern-day biochar? Biochar is similar to charcoal, except that it is formulated specifically …
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… you just can’t wait for that first day when you lose the covers and open the windows. It is that breath of fresh air that tells us summer is just around the corner. Roses under a warm winter blanket of mulch. Our Krasberg Rose Garden is ready for its breath of fresh air, too. All winter, many of our roses have been under their …
Type: Blog
… and hoping winter will end, cheering a thaw and higher temperatures. What you might not know is that all this snow has a number of benefits that will help your garden and landscape later this spring. Snow is a great insulator! As winter presses on, the ground freezes deeper and deeper. This prolonged … the soil. Warmer soil keeps microbes more active, which helps break down any plant waste that is in the soil, releasing nutrients. As a result of this insulation, your plants will have a much …
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… the pollinators visiting these plants. A standout plant, looking almost like a small shrub, is white wild indigo (Baptisia alba). This is the white-flowered cousin to blue wild indigo (Baptisia australis) ; this plant, not native … tubular flowers, foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) . On the lower half of the flower is a large hairy sterile stamen (the part of the flower that produces pollen); perhaps this …
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… basics about male and female flowers. And then they started talking pollen. Flashback: What is pollen? Tiny squiggles of pollen emerge from the male flowers about three days after Spike’s … that needs to meet up with another flower’s female genetic material. Technically, pollen is a haploid or gamete, the cell that carries the male half of the plant’s chromosomes. The covering of a pollen grain is directly related to how the pollen travels to the next flower. That’s why wind-pollinated …
Type: Blog
… diseases or be browsed by critters. But the main reason that a perennial has evergreen leaves is to provide a place to store energy and nutrients while dormant. The leaves are tricky … on the north or east sides of a structure to provide shade in late winter because the sun is lower. Applying mulch will also help insulate the ground. The energy and nutrient reserves within evergreen leaves are used by new growth in the spring. This is why most evergreen perennials do not shed their original leaves until the fresh leaves have …
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… rare plant species that can be found there. The data, now quite valuable due to its longevity, is a treasure chest for land managers and others who are trying to better understand the system … guide for the ravines. She hopes it will be completed by the end of this year. Its purpose is to serve as a resource for ravine restoration and management long term. The plant-focused sampling method, called a rapid assessment, is the third piece of a larger ravine-management toolkit that includes a way to evaluate erosion …
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… wild and tasted like candy. We often brought some back to share with the family, but there is nothing quite like a strawberry fresh off the plant. Time lapse of a strawberry, … by Tomas ‘Frooxius’ Mariancik The Cultivated Strawberry The garden strawberry is the strawberry we most often think of when we think of strawberries. This is the strawberry from the clear plastic boxes you find at the grocery store. This strawberry is …
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… field of vision that helps it avoid predators. The most abundant dragonfly I’ve seen is the eastern pondhawk, with blue dasher dragonflies coming in a close second. I’m also seeing … as aquatic nymphs before they emerge into the beautiful winged insects we see on land, which is why you will often see them around water. They are fierce hunters in both stages. They don’t bite or sting humans, though. The common green darner dragonfly is one of the first dragonflies to emerge in the spring, and one of the species that can be found …
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