Pruning

Clients will ask me if they should prune their tree.  I am not a fan of answering a question with a question but in this case I will.  Does your tree need to be pruned?  Pruning needs to have a purpose and not “just because”.  More often than not, I see around town trees have…

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Lawn Renovation

Have the heat and bugs ravaged your lawn?  If so, lawn renovation is in order.  It’s a multi-step process and now is the time to get started.  In fact, it can be thought of as a set of “cookbook instructions”, however, the risk is that one or two steps will be overlooked.  If this happens,…

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Flowering Plants for the August Garden

When it comes to August’s garden, many gardeners, plant enthusiasts and landscapers are willing to skip the month entirely because of the challenge posed by the seemingly few plants that provide interest during August. I’d like to challenge that notion, mainly because August is a perfectly fine month of frost-free weather and why not make…

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Bee Hotel

At some point in time you have probably seen a bee hotel at your favorite garden center.  They usually have bundles of bamboo inserted into a structure.  Most of them are brightly painted and whimsical in appearance.  North America is home to around 4,000 bees.  Most of them nest in the ground but around 1,200…

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The Dreaded Japanese Beetle (Again)

Despite winter and spring conditions that we hoped could thwart them, the Japanese beetles are at it again. They fall on us as we mow beneath trees, eat our hard-won fruits as they multi-task, and drown in the dog’s water dish.  Here are some important considerations: ▪Japanese beetles do lay their eggs in the soil. …

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Double Trouble

Visit any of your favorite garden centers and you will see new introductions of old familiar favorites.  For instance the purple coneflower is no longer purple.  It comes a range of colors from red, yellow, orange, green, and white.  You will even find cultivars where the traditional cone has been modified into flower petals often…

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Lawn Sprinkler Gaps

“So, Rocky, what do you see in my sister?”  “Well, Pauley, it’s like this.  I got gaps, she got gaps, but together, we got no gaps.”  Unfortunately, just like two of the actors in the movie Rocky, all lawn sprinkler systems have gaps; gaps in coverage; aka uneven application patterns. If you ever doubt this,…

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Yellow Nutsedge

“What is this grass growing in my flower bed?” is a question I hear quite often now.  Rolling the stem between my fingers quickly determines this isn’t grass at all but the infamous yellow nutsedge.  Sedges are grass-like perennials that have triangular shaped stems.   If they grew at the same rate as turfgrass, many lawn…

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Caterpillars on Coneflowers

The silvery checkerspot caterpillar, Chlosyne nycteis, can be found right now, happily munching away on the leaves of sunflower, aster, Echinacea, goldenrod and Rudbeckia.  The checkerspot caterpillar has branched spines on its back that are black in color. Sometimes the caterpillars will have an orange stripe or two.  Depending on weather conditions, there will be…

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Tree Troubles – Nonspecific Symptoms

Fir and spruce trees are known for providing beauty and function in Nebraska.  Unfortunately, they’re also known for being hard to diagnose when troubles arise.   With most trees and shrubs, specific symptoms are present when they are ailing from insects, diseases and abiotic maladies.  That’s most trees and shrubs.  Not so much with fir…

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