Landscaping
Tree Removal Rules – Metro Atlanta
Removing a tree is not as simple as hiring a tree company or buying a chainsaw and seeing a pile of chips the next day. Counties and cities across the Atlanta metro area have adopted tree ordinances that determine whether...
UGA Downloadable Plant List Publications
Finding the right plant for the right place can really be a chore! Fortunately, there are several excellent references that will help you find what you need. Try these University of Georgia publications first: Landscape Plants for Georgia a great...
Microstegium (Basketgrass, Stiltgrass, Eulalia) – Identification and Control
This grassy weed is common but it doesn’t yet have a widely accepted common name. Most gardeners refer to it as “That summer weed that I can easily pull out by huge handfuls but it still comes back!” Eulalia grass...
Garden Coach – Finding
Sometimes you just want someone to come over and suggest ways you could be a better gardener. You want someone to identify plants and give you ideas on other plants you could use. That person is called a garden coach....
Plants for Shade
These plants tolerate some amount of shade but a host of other factors (soil type, exposure, soil moisture, etc) determine long term success. Do research before you plant. Shrubs: azalea, aucuba, mahonia, Japanese plum yew, hydrangea, fatsia, cherrylaurel, corylopsis, mountain...
Crabapples – Resistant to Fireblight
Q: Our favorite crab apple tree has finally succumbed to fireblight. We will be cutting it down and looking to replace it with another tree. Due to the difficulty of getting rid of the blight, is it safe to replace...
Jewels of Opar – Identification
Q: Can you identify this plant? A: Garden coach Daryl Pulis says Jewels of Opar: Talinum paniculatum. Generally considered a nasty weed unfortunately sold as an ornamental. Jewels of...
CD’s Yield 3.5% – Plants Yield 400%
My mother explained it to me carefully: I should give her my newly earned $5.00 and we would open a savings account for me. In nine years (double my age at that time!) it would “grow” and I could use...
Why I Weed By Hand
(written in 1993) Those warm days around the first of March nearly killed me! I raked leaves, mowed the lawn, dug a carrot bed, pruned figs, sprayed weed killer, spread fertilizer and planted raspberries – all in one weekend! Those...
Mulch – More Myths
It is hard to mess up making macaroni and cheese from a box, but somehow I did it. During a recent kitchen foray, I mixed in a handful of my son’s other favorite food, bacon. This immediately rendered the entree...
Drought – A Brief History in Georgia
Each year that Georgia suffers through a dry summer, we proclaim that it is an unusual occurrence…a “Drought of the Century”! Would you believe that we’ve had five “Droughts of the Century” since 1924? Master Gardener Maria Helena Dolan collected...
Mulch Myths
One day he’ll finally crack. My across-the-street neighbor, Carl, has a roof covered with pine needles. I need pine needles right now to mulch my newly-planted shrubs, trees and pansies. My hope is that Carl will make the decision to...
Rat – Chewing Tree Bark
Paul H. solved his own tree mystery. I’ll allow his words to tell the tale: “In August I sent you an e-mail concerning a problem I was experiencing with my Yoshino cherry trees. As I explained, the bark was being...
Extension Offices – Odd Questions
University of Georgia Extension offices are sometimes the place of last resort for people with odd questions. Extension agents and their assistants sometimes, however, get questions just a bit beyond the pale. Aaron Lancaster, Extension agent in Bibb county, posed...
Mysterious Clay Particles – Reader Theories
Reader theories on the origin of clay particles from the sky. Scroll to the bottom to find an answer.—————– Dirt rain. Gotta be. Amelia P.————– * red dust from comet/meteor tail, red due to charged particles of iron oxide -occurring...
Best Management Practices to Protect Water
Georgia will have to make some hard choices about water management in the next several years. We have plenty of water – it’s just the location and distribution that gives fits to water planners and water system operators in the...
Mysterious Clay Particles Conclusion
I LOVE IT when science and personal observation prevail! Initially I theorized that cicada killer wasps were dropping the mysterious dirt balls. They certainly excavate holes in the ground in July! But when I presented the situation to University of...
Mysterious Clay Particles
This garden mystery started innocently enough. In July, I got an email from M. D. in Hall county: “We are totally stumped by something that’s happening at our house and hope you can help us understand what’s going on. “We...
