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What’s bugging you? Prepare for National Invasive Species Week
There seems to be a day, a week or a month to celebrate everything, from pie to ice cream, and from friends to presidents. Now more visible than ever thanks to social media, different groups use these...
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Why sing the blues when you can plant them
Blueberries are popular. Next time you are at the grocery store, look in the cart of someone who is a millennial (in their 20s or early 30s); more often than not, there will be blueberries in there....
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Take a leap: plant something new this year
The garden catalogs are filling mailboxes, seed racks at the garden center are festooned with bright, colorful packets and many gardeners are planning and dreaming of the garden year ahead. These are...
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Keep your finger on the pulse
The year 2016 has been designated as the international year of the pulse by the UN General Assembly. Just what on earth are pulses? You probably eat them often without knowing what they are called....
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Spring Forward in the Garden
This weekend we celebrated that time-honored tradition that most of us hate: changing the clock. For me the change usually takes a few days to get used to — I’m particularly sensitive to light levels...
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Daffodils: Harbinger of Spring (and Doom?)
Harbingers of spring are those little symbols that show that spring has sprung (or is at least around the corner). Time has sprung forward, robins are out getting the early worm and blooms are starting...
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Consider the Lilies
The Easter lily is a recognizable symbol of one of the most holy days of the year. I know that my church will be filled with these beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers that seem to announce both the Easter...
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Spring Forward in the Garden
This weekend we celebrated that time-honored tradition that most of us hate: changing the clock. For me the change usually takes a few days to get used to — I’m particularly sensitive to light levels...
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The cicadas are coming! The cicadas are coming!
By now you’ve probably heard that a large portion of the state will be beset with the 17-year periodical cicada. Before you run for the hills in fear, let’s take a moment to look at these six-legged...
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Give Your Sweet Potatoes the Slip
Ask most people about sweet potatoes and they’ll tell you they are just like potatoes. Or even worse, they’ll call them yams. The truth is, they’re sort of in class of their own in the vegetable...
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Garden and food labels: Fact or Fiction
As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day on Friday, many take time to celebrate a more earth-friendly garden practice. Many garden products claim their contents are “environmentally friendly,” and many...
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Celebrate Gardening on May Day
Most of us who have watched old movies may have heard the term “mayday” being used as a distress call. While the pure, unending frenzy of spring and the beginning of the garden season may have this...
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Perennial vegetables: long-lasting flavor for the landscape or veggie garden
Most of the vegetables we grow at home are annuals (tomatoes, peppers, corn) or biennials (kale, beets, cabbage), plants that have a one- or two-year life cycle and must be replanted on an annual or...
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Gardening for big flavor in a small space
When I first moved to Charleston seven years ago to take the job as a WVU agriculture extension agent, I had high hopes of finding a small house outside the city with enough land for a small farm or at...
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Sometimes late bloomers are the best
Flowers are wonderful. They fill our lives with color, help provide us with food and ensure plants can reproduce. Gardeners, whether they grow ornamentals or vegetables, try to encourage flowers on...
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Tropical vine adds taste to plate and landscape
This past week, while I was working in the garden, I noticed a whole bunch of little sprouts in a clump beside one of my raised beds. The red stems of the little plants made me first think that I had...
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Little Lawn of Horrors: Mystery plant spooks homeowner
Imagine Sarah Ramsey’s surprise when she stepped out the front door of her St. Albans home to find a monster lurking in the bushes beside the door. Was she scared? No. Was she bewildered? You bet! The...
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Squash family provides harvest for summer and fall
We are at the point in the year where activity in the vegetable garden has reached a fever pitch. It is likely to remain busy for some time through the summer. We are actually at a point where we are...
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Teaching kids about the birds and bees (and butterflies, etc)
This spring I’ve been teaching kids the importance of pollinators at various educational events. Last week at our Kanawha County 4-H camp, my students constructed a model flower and discussed...
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Extend harvest season by replanting now
Now that summer has officially arrived after the summer solstice, it is time to once again look forward to your garden’s future and plan for a bountiful late summer and fall. A few weeks ago I shared...
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