Your garden is growing like crazy as we head into summer. Is it time to feed the lawn, the tomatoes and veggies, roses, and other flowers? Before you haul out bags, boxes, or bottles of plant food and sprinkle, spread, or pour them on, consider whether you really need to. Are the products beneficial to …
National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26. Fourteen years ago, the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration, promoting the valuable ecosystem services provided …
Grrrrr – while merrily tending my roses, I’ve come across another victim of the dreaded beast – the gopher. If this is not one of the gardening challenges you face, you can stop reading now. Since I live in gopher heaven, each season I have to deal with the damage from this voracious pest. And …
Traps are the Most Reliable Way to Manage Gophers Read More »
One of the unwanted visitors to the spring garden arrives just about now. That pulsating mass of tiny pests that cloak the new growth on your roses, viburnums, or peach trees are at best an unsightly nuisance and at worst, creatures that can damage tender new growth on plants and spread disease. Welcome to the …
No need for a calendar to tell you that spring has arrived. Days are longer and warmer, trees are bursting with brilliant blossoms and tiny leaves are emerging from vegetable seeds you carefully planted last month. Along with the wonders of the season are the challenges – weeds, insect pests, and maybe even rats! Before …
If your last crop of apples featured a worm inside that big, juicy fruit, it likely was the larvae of the codling moth, a serious pest of apples that also attacks pears, large-fruited hawthorns, and walnuts. This insect pest can be a bane in the home orchard. The moth larvae tunnel into the fruit and …
Earth Day is April 22, with this year’s theme, Invest in our Planet. Since the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, it has generated public support for the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Check out …
You’ve got weeds taking over your yard, and you’re about to pull out the weed killer spray to knock them down. Before you do: Stop. Before taking any action. Think. What do you know, and should you know about this product? Before using any pesticide it’s a good idea to understand the product and any …
You don’t need a calendar to tell you that spring has arrived, and along with it – bugs. A portion of a tree, suddenly stripped of its leaves that’s now home to a wiggling clump of fuzzy caterpillars. A pulsating mass of tiny pests cloak the new growth on your roses, elderberries or peach trees, …
Marin’s watersheds include more than 3,000 miles of creeks. Some of these water ways flow into our lakes for storage, while others feed into San Francisco Bay and on to the ocean. The Mt. Tamalpais Watershed is one of county’s most valuable natural resources and the source of domestic water for the majority of residents. …
