Squash Problems Gone Wild, Or yes, Scouting in the Garden Matters By Joan Allen This week’s blog photo is from my vegetable garden. I give lectures on the fundamentals of integrated pest management (IPM) and one of the first practices on the list is to scout or monitor your garden or field frequently to catch […]
Gardens
Blossom End Rot of Tomatoes
By Carol Quish for UConn Extension August is supposed to be the month of non-stop tomatoes. Occasionally things go awry to interrupt those carefully laid spring visions of bountiful harvests, sauce making, and endless tomato sandwiches. Blossom end rot can appear to put an end to the crop production by damaging the ripening and developing […]
Home Canning, Food Safety, and Botulism
Home canning, food safety, and botulism—don’t freak out, but do process safely By Diane Wright Hirsch As an Extension educator, I have been teaching folks how to can for more than thirty years. And still, what worries folks the most is botulism poisoning. While it continues to be very rare, when it does occur, it is […]
UConn Extension Interns Tie Research to Real Life
Each year, UConn students apply and compete for paid internship opportunities with UConn Extension, whose mission is to connect the power of UConn research to local issues by creating practical, science-based answers to complex problems. This summer, 13 students are tying research to real life in our UConn Extension offices across the state. Santiago Palaez […]
The Season for Strawberries
Photo and article by Susan Pelton for UConn Extension We moved into our home in December of 1996 and by June of 1997 I had broken through the sod, tilled the soil, fenced in an area, and planted a new garden. One of the first additions to that garden was a strawberry bed. Even though […]
Grow a Safe Salad
By: Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator – Food Safety Year round farmers markets are already selling early spring greens to those of us who have been craving the fresh, locally grown stuff during the long winter months. The use of greenhouses, cold frames and hoop houses and other season-extending contraptions make it possible for […]
Winter Survival of Insects – the Right Stuff
Photo and article by Pamm Cooper for UConn Extension During the cold New England winter months, we are blissfully ignorant of all the survival drama going on in the natural environment, at least as far as insects are concerned. Out of sight, out of mind, so to speak. While we have heated homes, running water […]
Gardens, gardens, everywhere…
….be sure to grow with food safety in mind By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator – Food Safety It is hard to believe that spring is just around the corner. Though we in Connecticut were all teased with 35-degree temperatures, we are quickly back in the deep freeze, surrounded by ugly, dirty […]
Plant Defenses Against Insects
By Pamm Cooper for UConn Extension Historically, insects have been the most important bane of the plant kingdom. The fatal attraction that exists between plants and insects has woven an intricate balance between good and evil, survival and devastation, and benefits versus harm. While insects play a significant role in pollination, and while over 90% […]
Master Gardener Signature Outreach Projects
The UConn Extension Master Gardener Program is an educational outreach program that started in 1978 and consists of horticulture training and outreach component in the community. Master Gardeners are enthusiastic, willing to learn, and share their knowledge and training with others. What sets them apart from other home gardeners is their special horticultural training. In […]
Master Gardener Volunteer Wins Award
Congratulations to Advanced Master Gardener Ken Sherrick named “Outstanding CFPA Volunteer” for his work on the Connecticut Forest and Park Association grounds and gardens in Rockfall, CT.
Master Gardener Project at Natchaug Hospital
Working With the Land Provides Solace, Sustenance Staff and volunteers throughout the Behavioral Health Network are always volunteering discretionary effort, and campus beautification has been one area of focus. At Natchaug Hospital, the Master Gardener Garden Improvement Team was started in April 2009 by Edward Sawicki, MD, a retired member of the Board of Directors. […]
Make Your Landscape Sustainable
By Joan Allen – Assistant Extension Educator – UConn Home & Garden Center A sustainable landscape incorporates a holistic approach of functionality, environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic sensibility. These principles are tied together in the design and maintenance of a landscape in order to maintain and preserve natural ecological habitats. Your Landscape Impacts The […]
Is your garden bursting with fall tomatoes?
By: Diane Wright Hirsch, UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety It has been a great year for growing tomatoes in Connecticut, but the season is rapidly coming to an end with the change to cooler temperatures. As much as we love our delicious vine ripened summer-red tomatoes, it is time for a reality check—summer is over. If […]
UConn Extension Centennial Video
UConn Extension Ties Research to Real Life for citizens of Connecticut every day. Join us as we take a tour of some of our UConn Extension programs.
Save Summer Flavor: Freeze Fruits and Vegetables
How to save summer flavor for winter: freezing fruits and vegetables By Diane Wright Hirsch UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety It has been a wonderful year for growing fruits and vegetables in Connecticut. A trip to your backyard vegetable garden, local farmers’ market or maybe the nearby pick-your-own orchard, even late in the season, will […]
The Basics of Composting
By Dawn Pettinelli – Extension Instructor Plant Science & Landscape Architecture Did you know that almost 25 percent of a typical household’s waste can be recycled right in the backyard? Recycling reduces the amount of solid waste being trucked and dumped into landfills, and the end product of this process, compost, is beneficial to the […]
Should I eat that?
When what your garden produces is less than perfect: Should I eat that? By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety It is common practice for the supermarket shopper and the farmers’ market customer to pick up every pepper and head of lettuce for closer inspection. When we buy produce, we do not want […]
Squash Will Come…
Photo and Article By Carol Quish for UConn Extension Where are all my summer squash? Why do my plants have many blossoms and not squash? These are a few of the questions I hear about yellow and zucchini squashes when the squashes look like they should be setting fruit. Be patient, gardeners, squash will come. […]
Bringing Some Green to Our Big Cities
By Michael Dietz, UConn Extension When people think of Hartford and New Haven, “green” may not be the first thing that jumps to mind. However, recent efforts of the UConn Extension Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program are helping to make these cities a little bit greener, both figuratively and literally. This past June, NEMO […]
Eat Seasonally: Enjoy Nature’s “Fast Food”
Originally Posted by Danbury News Times Heather Peracchio of UConn Extension is a registered dietitian who lives in Brookfield. But she’s happy to travel if there’s a chance to spread the word about healthy eating. This past Monday she gave two nutrition/cooking lessons, one in Bridgeport and one in Norwalk. Among her messages — the importance of eating seasonally. […]
House Sparrows
By Carol Quish for UConn Extension Photo: Illinois Extension Recently we’ve received quite a few questions about house sparrows nesting in inappropriate places, such as under awnings or in the rafters of a porch. Our experts at the UConn Home and Garden Education Center offer the following advice. House sparrows are non-native birds to the U.S. […]
Where’s Your Garden’s Water From?
By Karen Filchak – Extension Educator – Residential Environmental & Water Quality Water for farms and gardens can come from several possible sources, including wells, municipal sources, ponds and rain barrels. Some water sources are more likely than others to be harboring harmful pathogens that might contaminate your garden goodies with salmonella and E. Coli […]
Plant Diseases & Sustainably Healthy Plants
By Joan Allen – Assistant Extension Educator – UConn Home Garden Education Center Plant diseases can have a devastating effect on your garden or landscape, and on your wallet! You may have invested in new cultivars of a favorite plant, only to watch them wilt away. A large tree can add thousands of dollars in […]
Making Fruit Jams at Home
By Diane Wright Hirsch, UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety One of the best things about June in Connecticut is strawberry season. And we have been waiting a long time for strawberry season this year in Connecticut! Most farmers will tell you that the cold spring and delayed picking as much as 2-3 weeks. Even now, the […]
Seeds Sprouting Inside a Tomato
By Carol Quish for UConn Extension Have you ever cut into a tomato and found white squiggly looking things inside? These are not worms or aliens that made their way to the center, but rather seeds of the fruit that have begun germinating. It is called Vivipary, Latin for Live Birth. It is the […]
Sustainable Pest Control in Home Gardens
By Joan Allen – Assistant Extension Educator, UConn Home & Garden Center Insects and pests are a fact of life in the home vegetable garden, but sustainable practices can keep them at tolerable levels. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the use of a combination of tools to manage pests while minimizing the use of chemicals. […]
Annual Benefits
By Dawn Pettinelli for UConn Extension While there are many spectacular perennials that come back year after year, I really love annuals for that splash of long-lasting color they impart to the landscape. Fiery salvias, soft celosias, autumnal hued sunflowers and brilliant white cosmos are just a sampling of the huge selections of annuals […]
Soil Testing
By Dawn Pettinelli – Extension Instructor Plant Science & Landscape Architecture A soil test is an inexpensive and valuable tool to help determine what will grow best in your soil, and what it might need to boost its fertility. It’s a smart decision to test the soil every three to five years and it’s particularly […]
Create a Worm Farm
Photo and article by Carol Quish for UConn Extension The basics of keeping a worm farm are easy. Explaining why you would want to have one is a little harder to justify to people, particularly family members. Having been a worm farmer for over twenty years, my family finally just accepts and then ignores the fact […]
Community Gardens
By Jiff Martin – Extension Educator Sustainable Food Systems All this talk about checking out the latest seed catalogues, de-wintering the garden and predicting the date of the last frost can be frustrating for the land-poor gardener wanna-be. If you are an apartment dweller, a condo resident or simply garden-plot deprived, you may not be […]
Bluebirds
By Julia Cencebaugh Kloth for UConn Extension Beautiful and beneficial the population of the Eastern bluebirds declined in numbers from the late 1800s through the 1980s. One significant contributing factor to this decline was the lack of suitable nesting cavities. Competition for nesting cavities from introduced European starlings and house sparrows, the loss of open field […]
Eat Like A Bird: Feeding Birds During the Winter Months
As a life-long New Englander I find that one of the most enjoyable parts of the winter season is watching birds at the feeder. We all know the importance of providing easily available food sources for the many avian species that remain in the area during the cold winter months but there are also species […]
Eat locally grown, even in winter….
By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety After a food-filled holiday season (including, I must confess, raspberries, grown somewhere in South America, in a fruit salad…), it is time that many of us resolve to eat healthier and, perhaps, to attempt to eat more locally grown foods. It sure can be difficult […]
“Shape” Up On Your Winter Woodland Walk
Lori Ann Trovato, a UConn College of Agriculture and Natural Resources student posted these great ideas for enjoying your next winter woodland walk. An unseasonably warm winter day has boosted your energy level and a woodland walk is in the course of events for the day. Surely a hike is great for shaping up, but […]
Barnum 4-H School Garden
This was originally posted by Organic Gardening 365. Question: What do you get when you cross the savvy leadership training skills of 4-H with a Bridgeport, CT school that wants to teach kids responsibility through gardening? Answer: The Barnum School 4-H Garden. The Barnum School 4-H Garden is a display of hard work and great […]
Pantry Pests and Their Control
Pantry or kitchen pests infest dry or stored food products in the home. Most are either beetles or moths. Infestations occur when these insects are found in some products, but more commonly when the adults are seen crawling or flying about the kitchen or pantry. The insects live and breed best under warm, humid conditions […]
Vexing Voles
I’ve always rather liked most rodents. There’s a shy rabbit that we see in the back yard at times and sometimes I find a white-footed mouse or two in the garden shed or in a birdhouse. As both a child and a mom, I was charged with taking care of several guinea pigs and found […]
Mulch Volcanoes: A Growing Problem
UConn Extension has noticed a growing problem in Connecticut landscapes – tree volcanoes. A tree volcano occurs when mulch is piled around the base of the tree and climbs up the trunk. The shape of the mulch resembles a cone or a volcano. Mulch volcanoes waste money and damage trees. Mulch is useful at the […]
Trees in Bushnell Park
I recently went to Bushnell Park for the first time in my life and was glad I tagged along. My favorite plants since childhood are trees, especially the kinds you can climb up into and take a seat on a limb broad enough to provide a comfortable seat so you can view the world around […]