With this cooler early fall weather, I just had to get out and do some pruning, which I typically do not do this time of year. I pruned my Curly Willow (Salix matsudana ‘Tortuosa’), a tree with curly, tortuous stems perfect for flower arrangements.
You might ask, “Why do we not prune trees and shrubs in the fall?” Because woody plants will soon be going dormant for the winter, pruning now encourages new growth, which is tender and easily injured if we get an early frost.
When I was almost done gathering my bundle of the wonderful wavy flower-arranging sticks, I encountered a beautiful, large caterpillar — bright green and covered with sinister-looking spines. Fortunately, I saw it first before being stung by the larva of the Io Moth (pronounced “Eye-oh”), which is a large, beautiful yellow/gold moth with huge eyespots on its wings.
Sometimes called “cats” by entomologists/insect experts, caterpillars are the immature stages of butterflies and moths. Several species of stinging caterpillars start showing up this time of year. Some are covered with pointed or barbed hairs or spines for defense against predators. Others look fuzzy and cute, or brightly colored. So, please be careful when doing any yard work in the fall around trees and shrubs. These caterpillars’ interesting appearance may hide a painful surprise if you bump into them accidentally, as they hang out on a stem or the underside of a leaf. A pretty nasty (but temporary) rash or painful raised bumps can result.
Most stinging caterpillars belong to three groups: Puss Caterpillars, Slug Caterpillars, and Giant Silkworm Moths (like the Io Moth). Usually, they are solitary, quietly feeding on the leaves of smooth-leafed shrubs and trees.
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Bloomcore, also known as flowercore, is an aesthetic trend that is just right for gardeners. It embraces the natural world, and most importantly, flowers. Putting nature first, it creates a pretty, flowery look both indoors and outside in the garden.
A cherry plum, sweet, thin-skinned and very prolific (you’ll also find it sold under ‘Red Grape Sugar Plum’). It was in the top three of our recent taste test and everyone liked it for its strong tomato flavour that’s sweet but not overly so, and its firm not mushy texture. It has a slight acidity running through it which all sweet tomatoes need. It ripens quite late compared to ‘Sungold’ and produces for a long period of time. It’s lovely in a mixed salad with the larger varieties.
Welcome to the wild ride known as parenting teens! If you’ve ever found yourself caught between eye-rolling moments and heartwarming instances of wisdom, these quotes about parenting teenagers will definitely hit the spot.
No food signifies summer more than watermelon. We’re so sweet on the hot pink (or yellow) fruit that we designed an entire watermelon bar party showcasing the many ways to snack on, sip, and even centerpiece-ify the hydrating produce item.
As someone both blessed and cursed with a keen sense of smell, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to lose it. To never again inhale, for example, the sweetness of a rose. To be forced to go without the spicy, spring perfume of witch-hazel, or the fresh-earth scent of newly dug potatoes, or the sharp, vegetal tang of tomato plants softly baking in a hot glasshouse in high summer.
It’s well known that the housing market is so competitive right now, but prospective home buyers aren’t the only ones hurting—renters are, too. According to personal finance website WalletHub, inflation has impacted rental prices, and 2022 saw the second-highest price growth in decades with a 6.2% year-over-year increase.
A: As much as wild ivy provides a very important habitat for birds and insects, and the arboreal form (the older, shrubby growth which produces flowers), and is a really valuable source of nectar, it can also be problematic in established gardens where it can damage built structures as well as some established, older trees such as your apple tree. With the latter, very heavy ivy growth can eventually cause death by overburdening the tree’s leafy canopy, which in turn can result in (a) broken branches, leading to an increased risk of disease and (b) destabilising of the tree’s root system, increasing the risk of it falling in a storm. Very heavy ivy growth in the canopy of a fruit tree can also reduce the amount of light needed for healthy growth, interfere with blossom set and slow down ripening of the fruit.
I picked a small bunch of sweet pea flowers from the garden today, snipping off their stiff, slim stems with a scissors and shaking the rain from their soft, ruffled petals before bringing them indoors to fill the house with their distinctive scent, a cloud of perfume that never fails to seduce.
No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.