“I’d like to visit the swamp.” My parents thought this an odd request when I visited my home state of Minnesota last week, but I’d recently learned that I’d grown up literally next door to one of the most unique plant communities in the world, and I had never appreciated it. So I set out to rediscover the peat bogs of… Read more →
So the other day I noticed my Tonto crape myrtle had this crusty white stuff on it. Not powdery mildew, which sometimes appears later in the year on crape myrtles. Mildew looks like white film on the leaf’s surface. Mine had white stuff on the tips of the leaves. My first thought was woolly aphids or cottony scale, but it… Read more →
Your backyard should be your sanctuary, your playground, your own intimate connection to natural beauty and the rhythms of life. When we bought our current house a year ago, it wasn’t any of those things. Years of neglect had left the backyard in a sorry state. The lawn was lumpy and compacted. The only tree, a 50-plus year old Norway… Read more →
