with Teri Knight
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Self-watering systems
Asking family and friends to take care of your place when you’re on vacation is always one of those tasks you sort of dread.
Pick up the mail, stop by to see the cat, make sure it hasn’t shredded the curtains, flip the lights on and off and water the plants. Some of this can now be don remotely, but not so much the plants. Remember all those “As Seen On TV” ads for Aqua Globe? … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Re re re Repot!
reDuce, reUse, reCycle,….. NOW rePOT
Now’s a good time of year to repot those houseplants that have outgrown themselves. If their roots are coming out the bottom, or have circled around so many times they’ve formed their OWN pot, it’s time!
As you can see from the above picture some of those roots have circled around themselves and are of no benefit to the plant. They’re actually strangling it. There are plenty of healthy … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Growing avocados in the North
I had a listener ask me about growing avocados in Minnesota. He’d taken some pits and put them in water. One sprouted. After months and months of sitting in water, it’s started to sprout leaves along with those roots. The question from there was what to do with it!
A How-to guide on sprouting an avocado seed/pit at Inhabitat
I did some research and found that, based on the pictures and the information … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Social network for the garden – 2018
What’s trending? Ever get tired of these new digital phrases? I do, but I’m a bit old school! That said, plants have been “social networking” for, well, just about forever.
They recognized early the importance of each other. Social networking is now a term for the garden as well. It’s a 2018 trend, according to landscape architect Thomas Rainer.
I’m always curious to give something a go! Instead of seeing your … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Palmer Amaranth
All above and below ground parts of the plant must be destroyed. Additionally, no transportation, propagation, or sale of these plants is allowed. Failure to comply may result in enforcement action by the county or local municipality. Whoa, what’s THAT about?
The dreaded Palmer amaranth, a runaway weed threatening ecological systems. Palmer amaranth is an annual plant native to the arid southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
It is a traditional food of Native Americans including … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Let’s go googling and why does “Days to Harvest” matter?
Floating in a sea of catalogs, immersed in a maze of vegetables and perennials SHOUTING at you to buy them, try them, eat them! While these companies are reputable, because most of my audience hales from the colder climate zones, I suggest googling! I KNOW, there’s a lot of bunk on the internet, however, check your sources and take a peek at how these new plants grow in … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Rusty patched bumblebees
Yesterday I talked about the endangered dwarf trout lily, today, I’ll take you back to the rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis). Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the bumblebee is now protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Over the past two decades its population has declined 87 percent. Once common and abundant across 28 states from Connecticut to South Dakota, the rusty patched bumble bee has experienced a swift … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Dwarf trout lilies
Last weekend I had the opportunity to walk in the Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand, MN. The frozen tundra that the Upper Midwest was locked in, gave us a glimpse of warm weather! WHEW, we needed that respite!
While there, a friend who lives in the area told my husband and I that the roped off areas were to protect the Minnesota dwarf trout lily, an endangered species. Now, the regular trout lily is … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Cultivar wishes and Spring dreams
I can’t hardly contain myself as I peruse my plant catalogs! I fold over so many pages as I see plants I want to try. Now, there’s no way I could possibly put all of those in my yard. I call it “cultivar wishes and spring dreams”, if you ever watched Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, you’ll understand.
I found a really wonderful new dogwood shrub called ‘Neon Burst’. That should … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Conservation Districts – why are they important?
The United States has 3,000 Conservation Districts. Many are called Soil and Water Conservation Districts. They work with millions of cooperating landowners and operators to help them manage and protect land and water resources on private and public lands in the United States.
The association was founded on the philosophy that conservation decisions should be made at the local level with technical and funding assistance from federal, state, and local governments … [Continue reading]