This time of year, insects and spiders are out and about – some in large numbers – looking for places to hunker down for winter. “Just like us, they’re coming inside to get warm,” said Brooke Edmunds, a horticulturist for Oregon State University Extension Service. “They’re not feeding on homes or humans, they’re just looking
When botanist John Bartram first identified a hydrangea native to the U.S. in the 1730s, little did he know it would become a mainstay of the garden with its iconic flowers implying romance with their blustery beauty. Hydrangeas populate millions of gardens and with good reason. They can be used as specimens in a place
Holding onto poinsettias after the holidays is good for the pocketbook but hard on the ego when you can’t get them to color up the next year. To get you through the grief experts at Oregon State University Extension Service give the gift of good advice. Now’s the time to start coaxing poinsettias back into
Anticipation of ripe pears and apples peaks in fall as fruits hang heavily from branches and begin their gravity-aided trip to the ground. But how do you know when it’s prime picking time? According to Steve Castagnoli, a horticulturist with Oregon State University’s Extension Service, the signs are different for apples and pears.
For most gardeners it’s been a normal or above-average year for the country’s most popular vegetable. “It was a fairly decent season for tomatoes,” said Brooke Edmunds, horticulturist with Oregon State University Extension Service. “We got warm enough and didn’t have any early cold spells. If you were irrigating, you probably had a pretty good
Conifers in Oregon are getting hit hard by several years of drought, to the point that many are dying. “Beginning in 2013-14, we started to see significant impact on Doug-firs in western Oregon, particularly in the south end of the state,” said Dave Shaw, a forest health specialist with Oregon State University Extension Service. “Now
If you treat them right, microscopic critters in soil will do your bidding and turn garden and kitchen debris into black gold for the garden. “There are more microorganisms in a teaspoon of topsoil than there are people on planet Earth,” said Nick Andrews, small farms specialist and compost expert for the Oregon State
Lawns languish in the heat of summer unless showered with the water they require to thrive. But not to worry, the grass isn’t dead. Come fall when the rains start again, grass greens up quickly, said Alec Kowalewski, turf specialist for Oregon State University’s Extension Service. While letting your lawn go dormant in
Yellowjackets zeroing in on your steak and fruit salad as you dine al fresco can be irritating, but don’t get out the pesticide yet. “Yellowjackets have their place. Although they can be seen as pests due to their attraction to our food when we are dining outdoors, in typical scenarios they are beneficial insects, feeding
No one wants to go through the winter with no clothes, not even the soil that grows our plants. So jacket up the soil in cover crops. If you’re not acquainted with cover crops, here’s the rundown: These hardworking plants can add organic matter and aerate the soil, protect it from compaction caused by rain,
Impressed by compost’s contribution to the soil, gardeners conferred on it the nickname “black gold.” Even more beneficial worm castings could take the title “black diamonds.” Just ask true believer Larry Steele, an Oregon State University Extension Service master gardener who commends the rich nutrition of red-worm manure, also known as castings. “I started with
– A voracious insect – the bronze birch borer – is picking off beloved birch trees throughout Oregon. Common for many years in Eastern Oregon, the hard-to-control beetle first showed up west of the Cascades in 2003 in Portland, where it has killed hundreds of trees. It slowly migrated and is now found in abundance