Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: Soil Conditioning and Fertilization
This blog post is about the earth. It all starts there. I know, I know, you are thinking it is all about the sun. But that comes later. Plants start
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Joe’s Journal
Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: Soil & Plant Health, pH & Mineral Availability, and Carbon & Nitrogen Cycles
To grow and keep plants healthy, we need to consider the soil environment. The soil-root interface is called the rhizosphere. In this section, we will discuss soil health as it
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: When Plants Go Wrong
Some plants just take over the world! Most are non-native plants that were either intentionally or inadvertently introduced into cultivation. Many have become invasive and widespread, and without naturally occurring
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: Rhizobial Associates of the Legumes: When Microbes Do Right!
Rhizobia are bacteria that have the super power of capturing atmospheric nitrogen and converting it to a source useful for plant growth. These bacteria make their homes on the roots
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: Shade Trees of Summer, Part 2
In this second part of the series of the Shade Trees of Summer, we’ll consider five additional trees worthy of consideration including black walnut, red maple and sugar maples, chestnut
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: On Weather & Plant Resiliency, Part 1
“The severe winter of 1737 and the drought over the previous months had left the…box hedges that bordered the flower beds looking brown and parched. Even though…three had watered the
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: The Shade Trees of Summer, part 1
This is the first part of a two-part series of the shade trees of summer. In this post we'll discuss honey locust, American sycamore, willow oak, tuliptree, and Weeping Purple
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Joe’s Journal, Summer Edition: On Mulches and Mulching for Improving Plant Resiliency
(or, Mulch Ado About Nothing!) A mulch is a material that covers the earth. In woodlands, fallen leaves form an organic mulch. Organic mulches are food for “worms”, which here
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Joe’s Journal, Spring Edition: Pruning Shrubs that Flower on New Wood
How to know whether or not a shrub blooms on new or old wood? Shrubs that bloom on old wood form flower buds the previous season. Spring flowering trees and
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Joe’s Journal, Spring Edition: When Bugs Go Wrong – Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
The hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) is an insect native to Japan. It was first detected in the U.S. in Virginia early in the 1950s and now covers the entire
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