Local Interest

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator (Week of April 19, 2021)

Summer’s first tasty bite of fresh ripe strawberries is enough to convince many to try their hand at growing this delicious fruit for themselves.

The first consideration—what type of strawberry to grow—depends on your picking preference. June-bearers produce a bounteous crop in June and July. Ever-bearers can have multiple crops depending on your location and the growing conditions—one in spring with the possibility of several more crops through the season. Day neutral strawberries like cool moist conditions and will yield fruit regularly when these conditions are met. Of these 3 types, June-bearers have the best overall yield each growing season.

Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator in Dodge County (Week of April 12, 2021)

Confusion surrounds the healthiest way to stake newly-planted trees to stand up to fierce winds while fostering good root growth. The old method, seen much too often still, of snaking wire through a section of garden hose to wrap around trunks and branches is highly injurious to trees. This ill-advised technique digs into tree conductive tissues and, left in place too long, shuts down sugar transport from the leaves to the roots. Roots then become starved of sugars necessary for certain functions, like existing.

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator in Dodge County (Week of April 4, 2021)

Spring’s re-birth of all that is green is a good time to assess how trees and other landscape plants made it through winter. Many evergreen trees, such as spruce, are exhibiting signs of winter burn, with browning and bronzing of needles.  Winter’s deep cold and strong winds dried out plant tissues, resulting in loss of evergreen needles and dieback of branches in deciduous trees. This dieback is a function of the tree’s survival mode, allowing needle loss and twig dieback so that the rest of the tree may survive.

Tasks tree owners can do to help trees, both evergreen and deciduous alike:

Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator (Week of March 29, 2021)

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator (Week of March 22, 2021)

Spring’s welcome temperatures give us a chance to walk the landscape, checking to see how our trees and shrubs weathered the winter. Rabbit feeding damage on burning bush, vole paths over the lawn, and browning of evergreen needles are some of the things you will notice.

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator (Week of March 15, 2021)

“What are these trails in my lawn?”  This is a common question once snows recede.  Pathways interspersed throughout the lawn are an indication of the presence of voles. What are voles, you ask? Voles are rodents with an appearance very similar to mice except for their tails which are about 1 inch long.  Voles are granivores and paths may be more apparent around bird feeders, where fallen seed attracts them.

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