When to Plant Which Veggies

Especially in Nebraska, spring weather can be variable.  You might even say “very variable”.  Warm and cold, wet and dry and combinations thereof make for a challenging early planting season.  With this in mind as an overarching consideration, we still need to start somewhere, with some kind of guidance.  A basic planting schedule as the…

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Seeding Lawns in Spring

Winter has been harsh this past year, hasn’t it?  For most of the people I talk to during the week, the answer is a strong “Yes!”.  Perhaps it’s just the spring fever, but we certainly have had a seemingly large number of cold and windy winter days.  All of this undesirable weather has left many…

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4 Step Lawn Care Packages – Good Idea?

You see them in just about every hardware store, garden center and mass merchandizer – 4 step lawn care packages.  They are usually comprised of A preemergence herbicide and fertilizer combination for spring A weed and feed herbicide and fertilizer combination for early summer or early fall An insecticide product for summer and A winterizer…

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Garden Sanitation – Late Winter

The words “garden sanitation” sound kinda funny, at least to me, and also impart a connotation of an assertion that I’m uncleanly.  After all who is to say who is clean and who is not?   Perhaps the best approach is to remove all thoughts of human sanitation (taking a shower, washing your hands) and…

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Weed Appreciation Day—In Praise of Dandelions

Weed Appreciation Day is March 28 and in recognition of this important day, I’m writing about the common dandelion. The dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is a cool season perennial, having some of the first leaves to develop in early spring.  Leaves can be used in salads and are high in potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium and vitamins…

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Fairy Rings of Turfgrass – A Folktale?

If ever there was a name of a malady of turf that inspires a bit of folly and a lot of frustration, it’s fairy ring.  Pertinent to property owners due to this being National Folktale Week, the name was inspired by the “tale” that fairies used to dance in circles above the turf and soon…

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Cool Season and Warm Season Vegetables

Cool season vegetables are those that grow best during the cooler growing conditions of spring.  In some cases, a light frost will actually enhance their flavor.  Cool season vegetables can be planted/sown as soon as the ground can be worked in early to mid April.  The really terrific thing about cool season vegetables is that…

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Garden Gnome

Garden gnomes.  Are they cute or whimsical or just a waste of space?  I for one, think they are adorable and should grace any garden.  They have been around for centuries some literature date them back to the 1600’s but they didn’t hit mainstream until German 1800’s. Phillip Griebel popularized these mythical creatures in Germany…

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Water – Ground and Surface

With a tip of the cap to National Groundwater Awareness Week, the landscape and gardening industry must do their part to prevent groundwater and surface water pollution on the properties we manage.   At first, this topic may seem kinda nebulous, almost begging the question of “how does my garden or lawn contribute to water…

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Women of Horticulture

In honor of International Women’s Day, which was March 8, I’m blogging today about women in horticulture that I admire. Peg Conley has been and continues to be a Douglas-Sarpy Master Gardener since 1979.  Her signature contribution is the gardening knowledge she has imparted to the citizens of Nebraska in her 39 years as a…

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Rain Garden Plants

Okay so I’ve been lagging behind getting my blogs out this past month.  Getting back into the swing of things this week I wanted to talk about choosing plants for rain gardens.  When we think of rain gardens we think of plants that will be submerged all the time like aquatic/pond plants.  However, this is…

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One Woman That I Admire

I’ve admired the work of Dr. Bonnie Lee Appleton for many years.  I first ran across her work when I was working closely with Fine Gardening magazine/Taunton Publishing, and the editors sent me some of her work to use as a model.  She wrote a number of books and magazine articles including Trees, Shrubs and…

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