From the category archives:

Pests, Plagues, and Varmints

Late Blight in Our Garden

August 4, 2009

Friday the garden looked fine. Saturday we were gone, Sunday it rained. On Monday I asked my husband to dig up some new potatoes for our supper, and he discovered the garden was infected with Phytophthora infestans, commonly known as late blight.

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Endless Summer Hydrangea: Where’s the Blooms?

July 14, 2009

Almost exactly a year ago, my ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangea was blooming. This year, as you can see above, it doesn’t even have buds.
What Went Wrong?
Okay, I forgot to feed it. Does it completely fail to make buds without fertilizer? I think not. It may not flower as profusely, and the blooms may not be as [...]

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Basil Decimation

June 24, 2009

My daughter just went out to her garden and found all her basil seedlings snipped off and left. Not eaten and not even wilted yet.

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The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug: What You Need to Know

April 19, 2009

Most of you don’t realize it, but Cold Climate Gardening is host to a secret club, the Stink Bug Haters Club. It all started innocently enough with this post. But as more and more stink bug sufferers found the post and took advantage of the Subscribe to Comments feature, it started to take on a [...]

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Three gardening books for children

November 18, 2008

Many gardening books for children take what I think of as the art project approach: here’s what you need, this is what you do, isn’t that cute?, now show it to Grandma. Very few books out there take children–or a child’s interest in gardening–seriously.
I prefer to regard children as apprentice gardeners, gradually acquiring more skills [...]

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Goldenrod: This native plant should be kept out of the garden

October 9, 2008

Goldenrod is my enemy
There, I’ve said it. I don’t care if goldenrod is a native plant; it is no longer welcome in my gardens. I tried to be understanding, truly, I did, but it just did not want to play nice with the other plants. It did not want to play at all: total garden [...]

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Frost Damage–or Disease?

May 6, 2008

These plants don’t look too happy, but I’m not sure if it’s the cold that put them in a snit, or a viral infection. Left to right: Daylily 2E, Colchicum giganteum, Daylily 4B, C. ‘Harlequin,’ Daylily 4C, C. speciousum

After nearly two weeks of warm, frost-free weather in April, my garden got socked with a 22 [...]

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Mike Cherim of Green Methods: Ensuring that good bugs rule!

November 8, 2007

New Hampshire resident Mike Cherim is in the business of putting bad bugs out of business. I first contacted Mike because he offers a very secure contact form for WordPress. I later used his theme for my Blogging Art and Practice site. Then I discovered that before he started designing websites, he sold–and continues to [...]

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Colony Collapse Disorder: Bee Virus Strongly Correlated

September 6, 2007

Update: Bee Virus Story Breaks
Earlier this week I brought two informative articles about Colony Collapse Disorder to your attention. Both alluded to a study that scientist Ian Lifkin was involved with, which he was confident would be considered a breakthrough when released. The study that Lifkin referred to hit the news stands today. Here are [...]

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Colony Collapse Disorder: Are there any facts out there?

September 2, 2007

This looks like a bee visiting a corn poppy, but really it’s a fly. This comment explains.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve noticed there haven’t been as many bees flying around this year. If you’re the sort of person who gets nervous around bees, this might even seem like a good thing to you. But perhaps, like [...]

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Poison ivy and jewel weed

June 27, 2007

A reader wrote last night
I would very much like to purchase Jewell Weed Seed. I live on 47 beautiful acres, that is infected with poison ivy. I am VERY allergic to poison ivy. Can you help me?
I don’t know of a source for jewel weed seed. If anyone does, please comment. But I think [...]

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Canada thistle, the plague of my peonies

June 23, 2007

Canada thistle weaves throughout the peony bed

Observant readers may have noticed the prickly-leaved weed sidling up to ‘Rozella’ in my last post. That dastardly villain is Canada thistle, aka Cirsium arvense, and it is one nasty customer. According to the University of California Cooperative Extension,
Once established, Canada thistle spreads rapidly by horizontal roots, up to [...]

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Ug99: No more cheap white bread

April 7, 2007

According to the Cereal Disease Laboratory, there is an emerging virulent stem rust race that is infecting supposedly rust-resistant strains of wheat. It is called Ug99 because it was first discovered in Uganda in 1999. SeedQuest says that
About 70 percent of U.S. wheat varieties are thought to be susceptible to Ug99. Between 70 and 75 [...]

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