By the time you put a seed or transplant in the ground you are already 75% of the way to success or failure. You’ve already chosen a well-adapted or poorly adapted species or variety, a sunny or shady spot. You’ve either amended the soil or not, and if surface or internal drainage is poor created a raised bed…or not.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map has been updated after over 10 years. This new version is based on 30 years of climate data, drawn from over 13,400 weather stations (5,400 more stations than the previous version). You can quickly determine the hardiness zone of any location using its zip code.

We’ve had our first bout with cold weather and more is ahead, perhaps even some plant killing freezes. When cold weather threatens, there are things we gardeners can do to protect our plants from freeze injury. I co-authored a free, 9-page publication which sheds some light on frosts and freeze events, and provides a lot of great tips on what to do to protect your plants from damage from the next really cold spell.

I receive many calls about fruit trees not performing as hoped. Almost always the cause is a failure to follow some basic steps in planning, selecting, and caring for the trees. These problems can be avoided! Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension Fruit Specialist  provides some excellent info on the basic what, where, when, how, and why basics for fruit tree success. Read this before you purchase and plant your fruit trees and you’ll be well on your way to a bountiful harvest!

After a brutal summer of drought and excessive heat our lawns need some TLC as they attempt to recover. Here are a few tips including when chinch bugs and take-all root rot add insult to injury!