Gardenig in state Wisconsin. Tips & Guides

Almost every house has a foundation planting, something that should help the large, man-made structure somehow blend with the natural landscape it was dropped into. More often than not, the foundation planting is done by the builder, who adds a line of common, usually evergreen shrubs to make things seem not so out of place in the hope that the buyer will be much happier with the property. The plantings are often bland and not in scale with the house. Even worse, these humdrum plantings are often ignored until they become so large that making changes is more of a job than one is willing to take on.

At the end of February, the town board of Lind, Wisconsin voted against changing the zoning laws to allow a nearby 600-cow dairy to install an anaerobic digester. These digesters are becoming more common, particularly at larger dairy operations housing thousands of cows, called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This is partially because they have been included as a key ingredient in the Biden administration’s pledge to reduce methane emissions in animal agriculture.

The winter doldrums are a reality in the Midwest, especially for gardeners, but an immersive plant adventure at your local conservatory is a sure way to lift your spirits. Fortunately, midwestern cities and towns are blessed with many gardens under glass where visitors can experience the warmth and color of the growing season any time of the year. For me, an annual winter trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, just a two-hour drive from my home in southern Wisconsin, is the perfect way to get my plant fix and keep my sanity.

When I moved to my current apartment I had windows along the south wall perfect for a winter garden, but no patio or yard in which to put my compost. The solution? A compost column built from two recycled two-liter plastic bottles, an idea from the University of Wisconsin’s Bottle Biology Resources Network.

The holidays are here, and everyone is busy in the kitchen. Recipes are being dusted off and shared with friends and family, young and old. This year, it was my turn to try making the cornbread dressing for our Thanksgiving dinner; it was no light task. I pulled out my grandmother’s recipe card to review what ingredients I needed and became stumped when I saw it called for “sweet milk.” What is sweet milk?

Landscape plants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan are plentiful. Choosing the best shrubs, trees, and perennials can be overwhelming. Here are some of the best options for upper Midwest gardens based on attractiveness, ease of maintenance and appropriateness for the climate.

Several times a year a visitor to our garden is shocked to find a rogue steak knife pierced downward in one of the beds, as if it were an escapee from our kitchen knife block. I’m always quick to tell them that it’s indeed where I meant to place it, and that I haven’t found any tool as great as a serrated knife when it comes to removing grass or root systems. It’s perfect for edging small areas or pulling up entire sheets of grass; all I have to do is start on one side and pull up as I carefully saw back and forth. It can be a cheap purchase from a thrift store—or in my case, the way I finally convinced my husband that we needed a new set of kitchen knives.

THE QUESTION “What do I do about the Asian jumping worms that are destroying my soil?” has outpaced what was the most common thing I was asked, year in and year out, for decades as a garden writer—the relatively simple challenge of “How do I prune my hydrangea?”

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Welcome to a special Valentine’s edition of Gardeners off World, where love is definitely in the recycled air!

An uncrewed Blue Origin New Shepard flight with plant experiments onboard suffered a launch anomaly yesterday. A booster failure triggered the emergency escape system, which ejected the payload capsule and allowed it to make a safe landing. The FAA will now investigate the incident, and assess any risk to public safety, before New Shepard is cleared for launch again.

NASA has announced grants or cooperative agreements for seven exciting new space biology investigations to advance our understanding of how plants respond, acclimate and adapt to the space environment, in support of human space exploration.

It’s Valentine’s Day on Earth, and love is definitely in the recycled air in the Orbital Garden! Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores the history of roses in space, and an art project that imagines a future for roses on Mars.

Everyone loves falafel—it’s a year-round staple, and the frozen options at Trader Joe’s make it incredibly easy to prepare. But today, you should probably rid your freezer shelves of any Trader Joe’s falafel: In the company’s third food recall this week, on July 28 Trader Joe’s recalled its fan-favorite Fully Cooked Falafel after being informed by the supplier that rocks were found in the food.

It is the time of year to start thinking about home food preservation projects for the spring and summer. If you plan to use a pressure canner for safely preserving low acid foods like vegetables or meats, consider scheduling a canner inspection soon. For dial gauge pressure canners, the gauge should be checked for accuracy annually. The gauge should also be checked if it has been dropped, soaked in water, or shows any other signs of damage. If the gauge is off more than 2 pounds at the pressure used for your altitude, replace it. Make pressure adjustments for the difference up to 2 pounds. Food Systems and Safety Agents commonly perform these tests in their office. At this time, our offices are closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Until we are able to see you in person, canner dial gauges can be tested by Presto®.

If you knelt down and gave this mushroom a sniff, I can promise you would not take a bite out of it. This mushroom belongs to a group known as stinkhorns.

(Note on Gallery: Clicking on a thumbnail gives you a large, higher-quality image.)Winterberry hollies are native to swampy areas from Canada south to Florida, from Wisconsin and Missouri east.  Despite their heritage in wetlands, I grow my plants in normal to dry soil, at the edges of my hilly outer fields. I just don’t have wet lowland to offer on my windy hillside.Though they’ll fruit much better in a moist year than a dry one (as with all fruiting plant

It seems that dame’s rocket, a short-lived perennial and prodigious sower, is taking up more than its share of the natural spaces it spreads itself into (read: becoming invasive). In my area it is common along roadsides and woodland edges, in the filtered light of those spots, and really breathtaking at its peak. My plants blew in from across the road. But some states, such as Wisconsin, are noting its invasive tendency: the fact that it “escapes cultivation” so easily and takes up space that natives then must yield. Dame’s rocket has been on our shores since the 1600s, so it is no newcomer, but it is not a native American species, hailing from Eurasia. It’s often sold in “wildflower” seed mixes, and in packs by itself.What do you think about our responsibility as gardeners when it comes to growing plants that are non-native, and this enthusiastic? It’s a subject I have a fair degree of knowledge about, having collaborated on “The Natural Habitat Garden” with Ken Druse some years ago and pondered many times since. Including just the other day on this blog when H

I SAID IT A FEW WEEKS AGO, when I saw a change of the guard at my feeders a couple of weeks ahead of “normal”–do the birds know something I don’t yet? Seemed to me then that winter’s first teases must be close at hand. And now the National Weather Service says it may drop to 33 one night this week, slightly higher the others (not as scary as parts of Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, where I see–egads!–winter weather advisories and freeze watches and warnings).

I’VE BEEN TAKING WALKS lately, relishing the extended fall I know can’t last, enjoying the press of sole to soil before it gets slippery out there—before it’s winter. A handsome stand of mushrooms has been catching my eye the last few weeks, and you know me: always curious.

Its native range, says the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, is New York and southern Ontario to Wisconsin, and northeast Iowa to Maryland, also appearing in the mountains from Georgia to Tennessee.  Depending whom you ask, twinleaf is hardy in Zone 4 or 5 to 7 or 8.The New England Wildflower Society’s Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts, was the first place I saw it in profusion, though it is apparently not technically a

Lately I have a lot of little fuzzy black and white creatures eating the leaves of my cannas (above), which is what got me started wondering who’s who. Turns out that’s the larval form of a hickory tussock moth, I think, whose usual diet is ash, elm, oak, hickory, maple, willow, and other trees.Though he looks velvety, look but don’t touch, apparently: The long “lashes” of the hickory tussock moth, Lophocampa caryae, are hollow tubes connected to poison glands, and can give susceptible people a stinging nettle-like rash or other reaction. The rest of the bristles, or setae, may also be irritating.This extensive University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee article offers a full portrait of the life of the hickory tussock moth, which apparently will spend the winter in a silk cocoon under tree bark or on the ground, then eventually works its way gradually n

Maybe the variety description says something about a pledge, and makes a comparison to open-source software–the non-proprietary kind that doesn’t require a license to use.Welcome to the world of “freed seed,” a concept inspired by the open-source software movement, but aimed at insuring that the genes in at least some seed varieties can never be patented and otherwise restricted, and thereby locked away

Organic seed commands a premium price, and limits my choices of vegetable varieties, but as regular readers know, I prefer it. I believe seed bred and raised under organic conditions is the best match for my organic garden’s conditions, and also want to vote with my dollars of demand to help create supply.Having the right seed can provide farmers with the genetic tools to confront day-to-day challenges in the field, so to organic farmers, limited selection and higher prices in organic seed represent a far greater obstacle than to a gardener. Despite the phenomenal growth of the org

Joseph Tychonievich, author of, “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener: How to Create Unique Vegetables and Flowers” (affiliate link), says that just a little knowledge of the basics of breeding and genetics might help you shop with new discernment–with the eye of a breeder–from that heap of catalogs on the bedside table.Joseph, former nursery manager at Arrowhead Alpines, the venerable rare-plant nursery in Michigan, was named one of “six young horticulturists who are helping to shape how America gardens” by “Organic Gardening” m

WHY ARE bluebirds blue? The obvious answer seems to be, “Because they have blue feathers,” but that’s not it, says a recent segment on the public-radio show BirdNote. It’s all about the feathers’ structure—and the light trick they create right before our eyes.Listen in to learn what’s going on. (Tom Grey photo from BirdNote.)ticks arrive earlier, plus an avian connectionAS THE WORLD WARMS, life cycles shift—including those of disease-bearing ticks, which are awakening earlier and spreading into new areas. Recent research from Cary Institute warns Northeasterners to be vigi

Brad Herrick is Arboretum Ecologist and Research Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, where the staff first noticed the destructive handiwork of Asian jumping worms in 2013. He’s been studying them ever since. Though our understanding of these organisms is in the very early stages, we talked about their biology, their impact, and what control tactics are being explored by scientists seeking a solution. (Photo of Brad, below, by Eric Hamilton, UW Communications.)Update: In 2019, a year after this introductory interview, I got updates from Brad on research into the impact of heat on the embryo-filled cocoons that contain next year’s worms-to-be–that may in time help lead to answers in some situations. That newer story includes corrective tactics you can try to reduce the p

Phil Simon has been breeding carrots for more than 40 years. He holds a joint position with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Horticulture Department. More likely than not, you’ve eaten carrots with genetics that have come from his breeding work, which today focuses on challenges including tiny pests called nematodes, and breeding varieties with more vigorous tops to stand up to weed pressure.We talked about colorful carrots–orange wasn’t always the standard issue–and why a successful harvest of carrots starts with the same critical first step: cultivate, cultivate, cultivate that soil deeply.Read along as you listen to the February 1, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future edit

But through a friend I learned recently about another UW-Madison feature called the Allen Centennial Garden, and about its director and his passion for perennials that don’t just flower and then sit there unremarkably, but earn their keep beautifully through more than a single moment or season—and without excessive maintenance, either. (Above, an example is bowman’s root, or Porteranthus.) The Allen Centennial Garden’s director Benjamin Futa told me about the garden and also about great plants we should been keeping an eye out for as we shop the catalogs this winter—perennials that really perform. He even confessed to having a touch of color-blind

Now I know that was a mouthful, but it’s a brave new increasingly virtual world out there. And I want us to get in on the ground floor and learn more about the promise and potential of a newish entity called SeedLinked.com that a number of expert friends are part of.One who is participating tipped me off to a selection of curated seed collections that are part of the bigger digital undertaking. To learn more I called Bjorn Bergman, who curated the SeedLinked lettuce collection and is also part of the SeedLin

To find out what scientists know so far, I called researcher Brad Herrick of University of Wisconsin-Madison, who gave us a 101 last year on these destructive worms, and has since published some new insights–specifically about the impact of heat on the embryo-filled cocoons that contain next year’s worms-to-be–that may in time help lead to answers in some situations.Brad is Arboretum Ecologist and Research Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, where the staff first noticed the destructive effects of Asian jumping worms in 2013. He’s been studying them ever since.Learn how to diagnose the presence of Asian jumping worms; what corrective tacti

That first gravel garden at Olbrich Botanical Gardens that Jeff Epping and his team created wasn’t the last. There have been three more since, and gravel gardens created elsewhere for clients. Jeff, who lectures regularly to garden audiences around the country about his passion for gravel gardens, even transformed the front yard of his home to one in 2018, and he explained to me why and how.Read along as you listen to the May 9, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).gravel gardening, with jeff eppingMargaret Roach: Hi, Jeff, how is spring unfolding in beautiful Madison—which is the land of many gardens, as I remember having

A dusty Nick Stanek stepped off his tractor after an evening of round baling hay.

Clemson Extension does not make recommendations for pressure canning on smooth top ranges. We do recommend that consumers with smooth-top ranges contact their range manufacturer for recommendations regarding pressure canning.

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The Lily Tiger Woods,  big, bold, colourful, reliable and a right show off.