‘TIS THE SEASON to be jolly, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be giving thanks. How about sending your Cooperative Extension’s staff a holiday greeting? A recent opinion piece on the state of Extension (which celebrated its centennial in 2014) got me thinking about agents and specialists who have made a difference to me, and feeling grateful to them. It also heightened my concern that the consumer-facing role of Extension I have many times benefited from as a gardener may be at risk.
“Extension is that part of academia tasked with delivering research based information to those who can use it,” Jeff Gillman, who was an Extension specialist for 15 years, writes in “Some Thoughts About Extension” on the Garden Professors blog at Extension.org.
It’s an important function, he adds, “because it provides a link between us and the people who do research that impacts us.”
Now here’s the big-deal part, again in Gillman’s words:
“Extension personnel are usually non-biased individuals who deliver research-based information…. If you aren’t getting your information from someone in Extension, then you’re probably getting it from someone who stands to profit from whatever information they provide. This alone makes Extension important.”
Do you want to get all your advice from advisers with a vested interest in the subject at hand—from manufacturer-funded “research,” or even from sales staff at a big-box store whose training will have at least in part come from the manufacturer reps of the products for sale there? I’d prefer to learn from someone who puts the practices and products to the test in a more neutral environment.
WHEN RICHARD WEIR of Nassau County Extension on Long Island taught me decades ago to water a newly planted tree,
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‘What else did the Romans do for us’ asks Monty Python. ‘All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? ‘ Well if you include Latin as a language they gave us modern gardening nomenclature.
You’re not the only one who dreams of a Clueless-inspired bedroom closet. To create an oasis of organized outfits though, you have to clear out the dusty boxes full of childhood photos, bridesmaid dresses you cringe at the sight of, and that stack of shirts you intended to return. Here’s the hard truth: your closet is finite, and if you keep unnecessary items in there, it can quickly turn into a chaotic abyss. To make Cher Horowitz proud, we tapped three organizational experts—who have all seen their fair share of cluttered closets—to reveal eight things you shouldn’t keep in your closet. Read on for their advice.
If everything you need to complete your dream home improvement project seems more expensive than ever, that’s because it is—and it’s stopping people from paying more money to have those projects done by professionals. Instead, they’re turning to DIY.
As winter gives way to spring, gardeners get that familiar itch to get outside and begin preparing for the coming growing season. With so many tasks to do, it is easy for well-intentioned gardeners to succumb to the marketing of fertilizer products that contain pre-emergent herbicides. Why not combine the two jobs of fertilizing the lawn and applying pre-emergent herbicide to control those pesky summer weeds in one fell swoop?! As is often said, ‘If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ Such is the case for pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer combination products.
During the holiday season, we have high expectations for a time of joy and connection with others. What happens when these expectations are not met? Unpleasant feelings can settle in and leave you feeling anxious, sad, overwhelmed, or not quite like yourself. However, research suggests something simple we can do from our minds’ comfort to lift our spirits – practice gratitude.
“I recently made homemade dill pickles by my grandmother’s recipe; I have made pickles by this recipe for a very long time. This year the pickles were bubbling when I opened them. There is a white film in the jars. They taste just fine, but I am wondering if they are safe to eat. Here is the recipe:
A. gigas is a star of high-to-late summer, with 6-to-8-inch domed flowerheads of the darkest wine color in much of August or longer. But for me the show begins them those insane-looking buds form, always prompting garden visitors to ask “What’s that?” Indeed.This most dramatic of angelicas wants moist soil, and is adaptable in my area to sun or shade, but seems happiest in bright shade (the old happy medium of gardening conditions).To have a successful colony, as with any biennial, you need to be vigilant and not accidentally weed out your self-sown babies each spring. You also will need varying generations of plants: some at blooming age (one year old) and some babies (to bloom next year). So I suggest to get started you buy yourself some p
A WAY TO GARDEN turns 5 months old this week, and as if to celebrate it reached a milestone: our first 100-comment post (about equal to the number of frogs who share the place with me). No-no surprise for me that it was the post about Garden No-No’s (aka The Complaint Dept.) that took the prize.
I was trying to repair a failed de-icer in the pool. All that’s missing from his latest doodle: the flashlight I had in one hand, and the hammer (to crack the ice and save the frogs from suffocating) in the other. (Not the same tools I’d used earlier that day to dislodge ice dams from the roof.) I repeated the hammering periodically throughout the night to protect my beloved amphibians; who needs beauty sleep, when potential princes are at risk? A girl must be versatile, well-equipped, and ever-ready.When does spring begin?Tagsandre jordan
NOW THEY’RE SAYING NOT JUST THE F WORD BUT THE S WORD, TOO: snow. It finally frosted here last night, but don’t we get a moment to adjust to that before you-know-what begins? Last year the first snowfall came October 28, as I noted then; this year the Almighty NOAA (the national weather guru) says snow the end of this week.