The saying goes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you’ve seen a toad ambling around your garden, most likely, beauty isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind. Many think these bumpy, jumpy, lumpy-looking creatures are just plain ugly. Yet they’re incredibly beneficial creatures – a toad or two in …
Seeing leaves on your fruit trees rolled up like a sandwich wrap? Could be leafrollers, a family of insects that attack the leaves of fruit trees like apples, pears, and peaches. They also target some ornamental trees like ash, poplar, and oak. Leafroller larvae feed on tender, new leaves, giving them a ragged appearance; they …
With more than 70 inches of rainfall recorded on Mt. Tamalpais this season, the deluge may be more than some yards can handle. Did you experience torrents of water pouring off your roof and pooling around your treasured shade trees? Puddles spotting your lawn or ponding in your veggie garden? Why is too much of …
The incredibly wet winter behind us, though you may now be dealing with some of its impacts. Time to get ahead of the curve with preventing pest problems:
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. This video highlights a news broadcast on the first Earth Day more than 50 years ago. While the message is bleak for the time, the good news is that a lot of progress has been …
Beneficial insects aka natural enemies or good bugs are predators that help control pests. Some common ones you’re likely to see in the spring garden include: Green lacewings – recognizable with their slender pale green body, delicate gossamer wings and immense golden eyes. The adult consumes only pollen and nectar; it’s the young form that …
Are your roses sporting new leaves that glisten in the sunlight and are slightly sticky to the touch? See a trail of ants crawling up the trunk of your plum tree? How about powdery black stuff on your camellia bush or the garden furniture next to it? All are indicators that sucking insects may have …
Seeing mounds of soil, or open holes in your grass or flowerbeds? Could be a gopher or a mole. Both of these critters create tunnels and are active underground, improving the soil by aerating it and mixing nutrients. But they are otherwise very different. Gophers are rodents that eat only plants, favoring bulbs and roots, …
What happens when you combine mild weather, a rain that lasts for a day or two and rapidly growing plants fighting for space? Nature has provided perfect growing conditions for the disease rust. One of the most common fungal diseases of garden plants, there are thousands of different species of rust that infect trees, shrubs, …
A fast and easy way to get rid of weeds is to use one of the popular weed killers – just spray it on and the weeds die within days. But what if that same product contacts desirable plants, like your roses, vegetables, or fruit trees? You certainly don’t want them exposed. Herbicides, aka weed …
