Gardening Resources for Omaha from Nebraska Extension
One of the most common questions we get in the horticulture department of Nebraska Extension is “hey, should I aerate or power rake my lawn?”. We hate to answer the question with “it depends”, but that’s really the answer, because each procedure is done for a different reason.
Confusion surrounds the healthiest way to stake newly-planted trees to stand up to fierce winds while fostering good root growth. The old method, seen much too often still, of snaking wire through a section of garden hose to wrap around trunks and branches is highly injurious to trees. This ill-advised technique digs into tree conductive…
If damage from voles, skunks, ice, cold temperatures or other factors have left your lawn a bit on the thin side, mid-spring is a good time to thicken up the stand.
One of the most important considerations for putting the right plant in the right place (RPRP) is the amount of sun that an area receives. In shady spots, many options are available, as long as consideration is given to just how shady it is.
Spring has sprung and cabin fever is high. Not just cabin fever; COVID-19 cabin fever. As we start venturing outside and focus attention on the lawn and landscape, here are some spring lawn care tips to keep in mind:
If ever there was a year for cabin fever, it’s 2021. In mid-March, all Midwesterners are ready to do something outside in the lawn, landscape, veggie garden, patio…anywhere but inside. Add to that the feelings of enduring COVID-19, and the need to do something outside is almost at a fever pitch.
With site assessment, spacing, sun/shade and other considerations covered in Rules 1-7, it’s time to think about the actual plants in the catalogs. Rules 8-10 highlight the need for color, accents, textures, massing, repetition, all season color and experimentation in the landscape.
Getting the most out of your online or hardcopy garden catalog experience is best done by following rules. Well, they’re not so much rules as “guidelines”; Bill Murray knows what this is all about. For the Midwestern gardener, rules 5-7 focus mostly on the size of the plants and where they are planted in the landscape.
Join the GROBigRed team for our virtual learning series via Zoom. Sessions are Saturday mornings starting at 10am CT and we’ll cover two topics each week. Come prepared to learn and to ask questions – our experts will be standing by to answer your burning vegetable garden questions. Sessions are free and hosted via Zoom….
The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. The next two focus on the landscape itself in terms of cold tolerance and disease susceptibility of certain plants.