Article Archives
Houseplant benefits: air- purifying, happiness
BY LINDA SCHREIBER In Iowa, gardeners turn their attention to houseplants when the temperatures drop during the long winter months. If you are searching for a new plant, consider those that improve the air quality.…
Keep reading
Musings on the Garden, Part 2
BY DOUG GERAETS In my first installment of Musings on The Garden I wrote about not using traditional composting techniques but instead a method of trench composting. Composting in trenches is little more than digging…
Keep reading
Free Nectar? Don’t Mind If I Do!
BY MELISSA SERENDA Most people are familiar with the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and pollinators: plants offer up nutritious nectar or pollen to entice insects, birds, or small mammals to assist in their (ahem)…
Keep reading
The Plants We Eat: Seeds
BY MARY LOU MAYFIELD Seed: A plant embryo encased in a seed coat and containing an energy source. SNAP educational resource, “Growing Healthy Habits: Parts of the Plant We Eat.” Pg. 67 You can see…
Keep reading
Musings on the Garden
BY DOUG GERAETS Now that the growing season is over, reflecting on the past year in the garden is fun and informative. The calendar said the season started but warm weather and plant growth were…
Keep reading
Learning Opportunities
The new year will bring several opportunities to learn about gardening, both in person and online. ISU Master Gardeners Home Gardening Webinar Series The ISU Master Gardener program is hosting a series of free webinars…
Keep reading
Tubers Highlight Holiday Dinners
BY LINDA SCHREIBER Did you know the two dishes that share a name and a spotlight at Thanksgiving aren’t related? Both are root vegetables, and both are native to Central and South America. Sweet potatoes…
Keep reading
Book Review: Locust
BY MELISSA SERENDA You’ve probably heard of biblical plagues of locusts, and recurring devastation wrought by the supercharged grasshoppers that comprise the arthropod mob, devastating crops in swathes covering huge areas of land. Maybe you’ve…
Keep reading
Hügelkultur: We did it!
BY JOHN WEEG Master Gardeners are a breed apart. What other group could you ask volunteers to dig five tons of compacted soil out of a hole and then put it back—and get all the…
Keep reading
Canna Storage
BY LINDA SCHREIBER As the self-appointed queen of cannas, here are some of my storage tips to ensure you have these tropical-looking plants year-after-year for your garden. It’s actually pretty easy to winter canna rhizomes…
Keep reading
It’s Thyme To – November
BY MELISSA SERENDA AND LINDA SCHREIBER Fall is a great time to clean the garden and dream of spring. If you are lucky enough to have strawberry plants, mulch them with 3 to 5 inches…
Keep reading
It’s Thyme to … October
BY MELISSA SERENDA AND LINDA SCHREIBER As we transition from summer to the cooling days of early fall, it’s time to begin putting our gardens to bed—while also thinking ahead to next year. Tender perennial…
Keep reading
Leave the leaves please
Instead of raking leaves in the fall – recycle BY LINDA SCHREIBER There is so much more to leaves than just a pretty face or laborious fall work. It’s a big, big job to rake,…
Keep reading
Native Plants Bring Balance Back to Nature as Iowa City Strives for Climate Success
This article, by JCMG LINDA SCHREIBER originally appeared in the Iowa City Press Citizen on August 16, 2022. The most recent program in the Green Plant series, Human Worlds (episode 5), narrated by Sir David…
Keep reading
How to Establish a No Mow Lawn!
by Joel Wells I have an area in the yard that is fairly steep and can be challenging to mow. I did not want to have to mow it so I decided to try growing…
Keep reading
The Plants We Eat: Fruits
BY MARY LOU MAYFIELD When is a fruit a vegetable? Fruits: the plant part that contains seeds. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and eggplant are the fruit of the plant, although they are designated as vegetables…
Keep reading
It’s Thyme to …
BY MELISSA SERENDA AND LINDA SCHREIBER The heat of July and August seems to have passed. The calendar says September and fall is in the air. It’s still not time to clean your tools just…
Keep reading
Early September is NOT Too Late to Plant
BY LINDA SCHREIBER My gardening guides and prompts indicate it’s not too late to plant. You can plant lettuce heads, arugula and mustard greens, baby leaf salad greens, radishes, salad turnips and spinach. The spinach…
Keep reading
JCMG offers a flower fundraiser on Aug. 14
Johnson County Master Gardeners’ growing garden success will be available to the public on Sunday, Aug. 14, when the group will offer cut flowers for sale from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Johnson County…
Keep reading
The Plants We Eat: Flowers
BY MARY LOU MAYFIELD If eating flowers presents visions of the pansy hors d’oeuvres on the Iowa State Extension calendar, we eat much more than that! After all, there’s a reason why we call it…
Keep readingLoading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Follow JCMG
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Johnson County Master Gardeners of Iowa 