Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

I have received a handful of calls this season with concerns about trash bugs, a catch all term for various soil invertebrates. These soil invertebrates include root maggots, springtails, bulb mites, and symphylans, all which will happily feed on decomposing plant debris, i.e., trash.

NOTE: the editor made an error and submitted this blog under another master gardener's name. Kay Lauterbach is the author of Foxtails. It seems these days that it is hard to find something on which everyone can agree. But I may have just found it foxtails. I hate them.

As we all wait for this summer's offering of fresh fruits and veggies, (I am craving homegrown tomatoes), I happened to find some interesting recipe ideas that would complete a gift basket of your fresh garden bounty.

Drupe, n. In Botany a drupe is a simple fleshy fruit with a single pit or stone that contains the seed. A simple fruit is formed from a pollinated ovary of a single flower. The fertilized ovary grows producing a fleshy fruit with the hardened shell in the center.

In The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife (2017, Princeton Architectural Press, 223 pages), author Nancy Lawson asks, What if we could learn to see the world from the perspective of other species, both plant and animal, and understand that they, too, deserve the chance to mak...

You may be noticing white grubs in your compost piles, lawns, or garden beds. These white, c-shaped critters can be 1/4 inch long or 2 inches long, depending on the species.

As the summer swelters on, we can all be thankful that mornings are usually cool enough to take care of a gardening chore or two.

PERENNIAL: Pride of Madeira; family Boraginaceae (Echium candicans) is native to the island of Madeira in the Canary Islands. It can grow to 10 feet and is an herbaceous perennial subshrub and a dramatic landscape plant whose flowers attract bees butterflies, and hummingbirds.

One of the most popular kinds of plants that can be purchased from big box stores, local nurseries and specialty websites is lavender.

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying gorgeous perennial borders in Paris and was inspired! I had visions of taking out some lawn and going all in. But it is always best to study and learn first, and in this case, share with others.