Mid-summer is an especially nice time to start a garden journal. Your what-to-do-in-the-garden-today lists have shortened and everything is just so beautiful. It can be helpful to make notes of particular diseases or pests that may haunt your yard year after year....

written by Lisa Briggs
Before their accidental importation to the United States, probably as grubs in the soil of imported iris, Japanese beetles were found only on the islands of Japan, isolated by water and kept in check by natural predators.

by Lisa Briggs
Fireflies are not flies. Nor are lightning bugs, bugs. And no one would think that a glowworm is actually a worm.

written by Lisa Briggs
Although June often ushers in a gentler garden, the kaleidoscopic colors of May might linger with us a bit longer.

written by Lisa Briggs
May is usually a gardener’s favorite time, and this year even more so! The seesaw spring had spring flowers developing in fits and starts, but the warm temps late last week pushed many plants hard, all at once.

written by Lisa Briggs
Did you read the book, The $64 Tomato… by William Alexander? Written in 2006, it was a tongue-in-cheek treatise on vegetable gardening, bemoaning the money spent to get one ripe tomato.

written by Lisa Briggs
April’s crazy temperature swings have had gardeners racing from the urge to get tomatoes in the ground and the scrambling to dig up floating row covers from the back of the garage.

written by Lisa Briggs
There are many commonly-planted trees, shrubs and perennials that are slow to emerge in the spring, especially after this spring’s roller coaster.

written by Lisa Briggs
It seems miraculous that fragile perennial plants and very early blooming trees and shrubs can survive the onslaught of the weather extremes in our very fickle springs. And some of the most delicate and dainty-looking of them all, are really among the toughest and most tenacious plants in the garden.

written by Lisa Briggs
The past few really warm days have given us a taste of the summer to come, but the unseasonably high temps should moderate for the weekend. I’ve always maintained that gardeners are the most optimistic folks on earth and, no matter what the weather is like, will be making their lists and checking them twice.