January 23 begins Salt Awareness week. With the recent snowfall, you may be using de-icing salt products to keep driveways and sidewalks clear. Excess de-icing salts can damage soils, plants and water sources. It just takes one teaspoon of salt in a five-gallon bucket of water before it starts to create problems. It also is […]

If your ground has not frozen yet, it is not too late to put protective fencing around trees and shrubs that often experience damage from deer, rabbit, vole, or mouse feeding over winter. Fruit trees, crab apples, burning bush, forsythia, dwarf Korean lilac, shrub hibiscus, low-growing junipers, and arborvitaes are among the plants that are […]

‘Winter burn’ refers to a type of damage to evergreen foliage that typically occurs over winter. Common symptoms are browning and dying from the tips of the foliage inward. Several factors cause winter burn on evergreens, including winter ‘thaws’ while the ground is frozen, dry soil in autumn, a long period of very cold temperatures, […]

Lawns really benefit from fertilization at least once a year with nitrogen-containing products to maintain turf density, shade out weed seedlings and prevent runoff. If you only do it once, it is best to do it now, between Labor Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 10.  Apply no more than one pound of actual […]