Jennifer Fishburn

One of the biggest joys of summer is eating a juicy ripe tomato. Nothing beats the flavor of a garden fresh tomato on a hamburger, on a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, or cherry tomatoes in a salad. Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow, but sometimes it’s a challenge to produce the picture-perfect fruit. They […]

The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced on July 18 that the emerald ash borer had been spotted in McLean County. In the past six years this pest has killed millions of ash trees in Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, as well as Ontario, Canada. Since the emerald ash borer began knocking at […]

It is hard to believe that children will be going back to school in less than three weeks. Every year it seems like summer goes faster, but I guess it’s just because we are busier. Summer baseball, camps, swim lessons . . . the list goes on and on. What’s missing? Some time for relaxation. […]

Untitled Document Japanese beetle adults are munching on roses, lindens, raspberries, and apple trees in your neighborhood. These voracious foliage and fruit feeders, which dine on nearly 300 species of plants, are busiest from late June until mid-August. The Japanese beetle, Popilia japonica Newman, is metallic green with coppery wing covers. The half-inch-long beetles chew […]

Untitled Document The tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and green beans in my vegetable garden are in bloom, and I’m excited. It won’t be long before my family’s meals will consist primarily of garden-fresh produce. In recent weeks my children have enjoyed eating sugar snap peas fresh from the plant. Soon they will be just as excited […]

Untitled Document One of my favorite flowers is the rose. Roses are beautiful, but they require a great deal of time and maintenance. Growers must spray for diseases and insects, prune, water, fertilize, and provide protection during the winter. For this reason, the only rose I have in my landscaping is the Knock Out rose, […]

Untitled Document Gardeners are encouraged to mulch around their plants to conserve moisture, moderate soil temperature, reduce weed-seed germination, and beautify the landscape. With the recent heavy rainfall, however, many gardeners are finding unwanted guests in their mulch. Wood mulch, bark mulch, and other organic matter can be a source of interesting fungi and funguslike […]

Untitled Document Drive through town, and you might get confused about the seasons. Under some trees, it looks like fall. Other trees seem to be just getting started on spring. Most sycamores, for example, have lost their mature leaves and are now producing new ones. The cause of this odd phenomenon is anthracnose, a group […]

Untitled Document We’ve all heard of the three R’s — reduce, reuse, and recycle — but many people have added a fourth R: rot, the recycling of food waste and other organic material through composting or vermicomposting. When these products are allowed to rot into compost, they are cycled back to the earth, thereby keeping […]

Untitled Document In the past couple of years we’ve begun hearing such phrases such as “Think local, eat local,” “Buy local, eat healthy,” “Buy fresh, buy local,” “100-mile diet,” “Eat-local challenge,” and “Eat close to home.” Essentially they’re all saying the same thing: It’s good to buy and eat locally grown produce. There are many […]

Untitled Document If you are like me, you still haven’t decided what to get your mom for Mother’s Day. By far the most cherished Mother’s Day gifts are ones that young children make at school. They don’t cost much, but time and love go into these cherished gifts. As an adult, how can you make […]

Untitled Document The recent warm temperatures, it seems, have caused all of our spring-blooming plants to flower at once. Some of the most noticeable bloomers right now are the crabapple, flowering dogwood, and redbud. These trees are showstoppers, adding splashes of brilliant color to the landscape. Although it is tempting to select a tree on […]