Succulent plants, such as sedum and hens and chicks, seem to be maintaining continuing popularity, with good cause. Succulents are easy to grow, drought tolerant, and come in enough varieties and sizes to suit nearly every gardening taste. But did you know how… Read more »
Need a quick growing fix? Look no further than a seed packet of micro greens. With minimal effort you can go from seed to salad in 10 days, making micro greens a perfect You Can Grow That! success story. On the fourth of… Read more »
As more seed catalogs arrive in the mail, gardeners will begin dreaming of next year’s gardens. Following the mantra “plant diversely and they will come” may be one way for gardeners to help troubled bee populations. Multiple bee species are showing declining populations… Read more »
While building brush piles for small animals and birds to use as winter shelter in the woods surrounding our property I came across these beautiful, understated blossoms near the forest floor. Their common name is beechdrops. Their scientific name, Epifagus (epi = under, fagus… Read more »
Were you to find this on one of your vegetable or ornamental plants would you know what it is? Would you squish it or, even worse, spray it with an insecticide under the belief that all bugs are bad? You’d be making a mistake…. Read more »
You may look at plants growing naturally in the woods, a meadow, or wetlands and think they are natives to Connecticut, but often this is not the case. To be a native, a plant must have grown in our region prior to European settlement. … Read more »
The transition area between our front lawn and adjacent woods is a “wild” area filled with woodland grasses, ferns, and mosses–lovely and very low maintenance, until now. Last July I identified Japanese stilt grass in a section about six feet wide by eight feet… Read more »
Do you know that the grub-killing pesticide you put on your lawn and the flea control you put on your pet likely contains imidacloprid, a pesticide implicated in honeybee-killing Colony Collapse Disorder? And, if you purchase non-organic coffee, citrus, grapes and other fruits, potatoes and… Read more »
Connecticut’s woodland undergrowth is beginning to green. Unfortunately, much of this color is due to invasive Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii de Candolle). This thorny shrub dominates unmanaged wooded areas. Deer don’t eat it and birds spread it by eating and dispersing the prolific red berries… Read more »