The warmer than usual weather the past couple of months has been a blessing and a curse for area greenhouses, as owners say phones have been ringing consistently with customers inquiring about plants.
While many children are hunting for candy eggs, gardeners may want to hunt for another kind: insect eggs. “If you can spot those eggs and get rid of them before they hatch in spring, you’ll have fewer unwelcome insects to deal with during the growing season,” said Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. Insects are at their most vulnerable at the egg stage. “They can’t fly or wriggle away,” she said. In many cases, you can prune out the part of a shrub or tree where you find an egg mass. In others, you may need to […]
Cleaning the house is no one’s idea of a party. You keep up with your daily chores just fine, but it’s not like you look forward to them. So why not give yourself back the gift of time as you plan for spring cleaning?
Marnie Baker and her husband lived about 1 mile from the Orland Grassland, where she was a volunteer and ultimately an Illinois master naturalist and an Orland Grassland site steward.
My trees have a few low branches hanging over my patio and I would like to prune them to avoid bumping my head. Is this an acceptable time to do this work? Jody Stein Wheeling, Illinois I’m glad you noticed this during dormant season. The recent warm weather is about to end the dormant pruning season, so prune away while you still can! Take the time to make proper pruning cuts. Pruning creates injuries to the tree, causing it to respond by isolating the damage instead of growing new tissue. Prune less aggressively or wait another year or two if […]
Gardeners eager to get outside and work in this year’s early warm weather should take care: It’s all too easy to damage your soil in early spring. “The danger is that you’ll compact the soil if you dig it or even walk on it when it’s too wet,” said Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist in the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. Compacted soil is so dense that air, water and plant roots can hardly penetrate it. “For plants, compacted soil is like concrete,” Yiesla said. Clay soil, which is common in the Chicago area, is especially subject […]
Two days before writing this column, I saved an Ohio homeowner $30,000.
I would like to dramatically reduce the size of my very large, overgrown, fragrant viburnums and lilacs. Can this be done successfully? If so, how should I proceed? — Camille Jordan, Evanston I prune plants that are overgrown very aggressively. Most gardeners hesitate to prune aggressively enough to get good results. Overgrown plants have little value in your garden, so don’t be afraid to prune. The dormant season is the best time of year to do this work, while the plants have a lot of stored energy in their roots to push up new growth in spring. With the unusually […]
Choosing the right plants is a very important step toward a successful garden.
Even by Chicago standards, recent weather has been extra erratic.