At least 25 million cut evergreens will end up in American living rooms over the next 4 weeks. Some of them will look nicer, hold ornaments better and keep their needles longer than others. Which type makes the best choice? That’s open to some interpretation, but here’s a comparison of 8 species […]
Here’s what questions I’m getting lately, along with my Twitter-version answers in case the same issues are on your mind… Q: My butterfly bush/lilac/oakleaf hydrangea/etc. lost a lot of branches in that Halloween snow. Am I going to lose it? A: No. Prune broken branches back to the first uninjured branch (or back […]
Another week, another weather calamity. This time it was a record-setting October snow – one that tore the branches off trees and shrubs that hadn’t even lost their leaves yet. Most of the damage I saw was to the fastest-growing, weakest-limbed species, especially flowering pears, willows, silver maples, elms and poplars. But that snow was […]
…The end of the growing season, that is. We’re already at the point where, in an average year, we’d have had a killing frost already. But since this has been anything but an average year, who knows what’s in store for the year’s final two months? You really should have your houseplants […]
You’re probably getting ready to pick a peck of petered-out petunias from your pots and pack the pots away for winter. Did you think about converting at least of couple of them for winter interest? The quick-and-easy way is to just take cuttings from around the yard and stick them into the soil in whatever […]
Your lawn should be looking pretty good after all of the rain this year (one of the few positives from the incessant deluges). The one bugaboo that might get you, though, is beetle grubs. Take a good look at the lawn to make sure you don’t have patches that are noticeably thinner […]
A side effect of all the rain we’ve had lately is the unusually diverse bloom of fungi all over the landscape. Most of these common “lawn mushrooms” thrive in wet weather and are non-poisonous. But err on the side of caution because a few poisonous species look like the harmless ones. I’ve been seeing […]
People have been ruefully joking in this disaster-filled year that the only thing we haven’t seen yet is a plague of locusts. Stink bugs come pretty darn close. These shield-shaped invaders have been getting worse every year, and central Pennsylvania is at the national epicenter. Some locals get them inside by […]
I hate to tell you, but if your fruits, vegetables and herbs got submerged in last week’s flooding, most of it is probably too risky to eat. Even if it just got splashed by flood water, some of it could still be contaminated. A few things factor into this – especially what […]
I was admiring a new back-yard waterfall in South Hanover Twp. the day it flooded last week. The only problem was that the couple who just moved there didn’t build it, plan it or want it. This waterfall was an impromptu one that cut itself into the bank coming down from their […]