UConn Extension Master Gardeners in Fairfield County demonstrate how to harvest potatoes out of a bag.
Gardens
10 Tips for the December Gardener
Check for spider mites on houseplants by misting plants. If mites are present you will see water droplets clinging to the mite’s webbing. Control them by misting daily to keep humidity high after giving them a thorough drenching in the sink. Store your opened bags of fertilizer in a sealed plastic bag or plastic waterproof […]
Saving Digitalis Seeds
Learn how to save seeds from your Digitalis with our UConn Extension Master Gardener program volunteers from Fairfield County.
Fermentation: Preservation with Benefits
By: Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD Senior Extension Educator – Food Safety Believe it or not, winter is coming. This is a good time to think about preserving some of the vegetables that you may find in your cold cellar or at the fall farmers’ market. Cabbage, of course, but really, that is just the […]
Sustainable & Climate Smart Agriculture
The White House recognized UConn Extension educator Jiff Martin as a Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate Smart Agriculture in October. The program features individuals who are doing extraordinary things to inspire and empower members of their communities, Martin was one of 12 individuals from across the country selected for this honor. Jiff reflected […]
10 Tips for the November Gardener
Drain hoses and sprayers before cold weather sets in to prevent them from freezing and bursting. Wait to spread winter mulch until after the ground has frozen. Mulching beforehand can delay dormancy and makes a good home for voles. Do not store apples or pears with vegetables. The fruits give off ethylene gas which speeds […]
Pledge to go 10% Local
The Live Local! App invites consumers to discover and experience Connecticut’s local food and agriculture. Take the pledge to spend ten percent of your food and gardening dollars on locally grown products. With the Live Local! App you can: Find out the season’s top ten Get the lowdown on food and farm events Share […]
10 Tips for the October Gardener
All houseplants need to be brought inside before the first frost. Connecticut had a frost over the weekend; if your houseplants aren’t inside, make a note on your calendar for next year. Pot up tulips, hyacinths and other pre-chilled bulbs and store in a cool, dark place until ready to force. Rosemary is not […]
Pumpkin Season
Not only is it pumpkin flavor season….it’s real pumpkin season By: Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD Senior Extension Educator/Food Pumpkin flavored lattes, candy, breads, donuts…just about everything seems to be available in the pumpkin variety at this time of year. But what if you are craving the real thing? Yes, the flavor […]
Is Home Vacuum Packaging a Safe Way to Preserve Food?
By: Diane Wright Hirsch, Extension Educator/Food Safety Whether you are someone who wants to store away a cache of food in case of an emergency or weather disaster or if you simply want to preserve some green beans from your garden or freeze some chicken from the farmers’ market, you may have considered purchasing […]
Squash Problems Gone Wild
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 problems […]
New Greenhouse Teaches Science of Gardening
New Greenhouse helps 4-H Center at Auerfarm Teach Youth the Science of Gardening By Sarah Bailey, Master Gardener Coordinator, Hartford County Extension Center Winter may have been unusually cold and long this year, but there was a sunny and green oasis at the 4-H Center at Auerfarm. Spinach and herbs grew throughout the winter, […]
International Experience at Auerfarm
UConn Students from UConn’s Study of the U.S. Institute for Student Leaders on Social Entrepreneurship and participants from either North or Sub-Saharan Africa came out to 4-H Education Center at Auerfarm camp in July. After a morning in the garden, everyone ended up in the shade sharing information about themselves and showing the campers where they came […]
Post-Harvest Handling Workshop
In June, UConn Extension hosted a Small-Scale, Low-Cost Facility Design for Post-Harvest Handling, with Robert Hadad, Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Specialist. Connecticut and Rhode Island farmers from smaller fruit and vegetable operations learned low-cost ways to address food safety of fresh produce through cooling, washing, use of sanitizers and packing area sanitation. Robert is shown with his […]
10 Tips for the September Gardener
1. Remove bagworm egg masses from evergreen shrubs to eliminate the spring hatch from over-wintered eggs. 2. If rain is lacking, continue to thoroughly water trees, shrubs, planting beds, and lawn areas. It is especially important to keep newly planted evergreens watered. 3. Plant shallots and garlic outdoors. 4. Use a mulching blade to finely […]
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 […]
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 […]
10 Tips for the August Gardener
Remove non-productive plants from the vegetable garden and sow cool weather crops for fall harvesting. Renovate strawberry beds by mowing to a height of 1 ½ inches, thinning plants and side-dressing with a balanced fertilizer. Stop pruning evergreen trees and shrubs to avoid promoting new growth that will not harden off by the first frost. […]
Late Blight Now in CT
Article and update by Joan Allen for UConn Extension. Tomato and potato growers and gardeners: Protect your crops NOW from late blight infection. The disease has been reported in Litchfield County, Connecticut on July 18, 2015. With moist weather conditions the pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, will sporulate prolifically and spread rapidly on wind currents. Fungicide products can […]
10 Tips for the July Gardener
Do not prune rhododendrons and azaleas after the second week of July as they will begin setting their buds for next year’s blooms. Put netting on fruit trees and bushes a few weeks before the fruit begins to ripen to protect it from birds and squirrels. Fertilize roses for the last time in mid-July. Pinch […]
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 Untimely Death of a Worm
By Catherine Hallisey Connecticut FoodCorps As I was kneeling by a raised garden bed, planting snap peas with a couple of students, I heard a third grader scream “NOOOOOO!” from the other side of the garden. An array of thoughts immediately sped through my mind in the split second it took me to get over to […]
Deformed Spinach? Could be Crown Mites
By Joan Allen for UConn Extension Some spinach cultivars are expected to have pretty bumpy, puckered leaves. If your plants are not that type, but the leaves look like that or have small holes in them when they expand, crown mites (Rhizoglyphus sp.) are a possible cause. Conditions that favor mite activity and damage are […]
Common Blue Violet: Wildflower or Weed?
Photo and article by Joan Allen for UConn Extension The common blue violet (Viola sororia), also known as common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, or wood violet, is a native perennial plant found throughout eastern North America. Some references give woolly blue violet (a variety with fuzzy leaves) its own species name but […]
Build a Rain Garden
Want to build a beautiful garden that also helps to protect local waterways? Let the NEMO Rain Garden App show you how. Spring means the urge to create gardens. Spring also means rain and polluted runoff flowing into the street, down the storm drain, and into the local brook or wetland. Why not solve both […]
10 Tips for the June Gardener
Control and reduce aphid numbers on vegetables, roses, perennial flowers, shrubs and trees with a hard spray from your garden hose or two applications of insecticidal soap. Plant seeds of bush beans every three weeks for a continuous harvest. Heavy rains encourage slug problems. Check for slugs during rainy periods and hand pick the pests. […]
Barnum School in Bridgeport
Barnum School 4-Hers in Bridgeport celebrated Earth Day on April 25th. Parents, students and community volunteers celebrated with a Garden clean up. Twenty-seven beds were cleaned, wood chips laid, and eight new beds were built.
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 […]
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 […]
Volunteers Needed for Research Project
Lily Leaf Beetles – UConn Looking for CT Volunteers to Assist with Biological Control Study Just last week, as I peered into my tiger lily bed, a splash of red caught my eye. Even though I squashed every lily leaf beetle and larvae I found last year, some had apparently been missed and they overwintered to […]
10 Tips for the May Gardener
Thin or compacted turf will benefit from core aeration and over-seeding. Keep new seed moist until germination. Remove spent blooms on tulips, daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs to focus its energy on growing new bulbs rather than producing seeds. Plant tomatoes, peppers and melons after the danger of frost is past and the soil […]
Connecticut 4-H Citizenship Day 2015
By: Marc Cournoyer UConn Extension 4-H Program Coordinator Approximately 100 4-H youth and adults converged on the state Capitol in Hartford on Wednesday, April 15th for the annual state 4-H Citizenship Day. Representing all corners of Connecticut, these individuals came together to meet with legislators, explore our state Capitol, learn a bit more about […]
Don’t Be Too Eager to Work That Soil!
By: Penn State Extension Working soil that is too wet results in soil compaction. Learn how to test your soil to see whether it is too wet to till or plant. As I write this, we’ve had some substantial rain lately, with more forecast in the near future. This time of year, everyone is ready […]
10 Tips for the April Gardener
Purchase onion sets for planting and set 1 inch deep and 4 to 5 inches apart when soil can be worked. Early spring is a great time to spot spray or hand-dig dandelions. If spraying, choose a product that won’t kill grass. If digging, wait until after a rain, when soil is soft. Apply […]
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 […]
Winter Vole Damage to Trees and Plants
By Joan Allen for UConn Extension A lot of snow cover during the winter can be both good and bad. Good because it’s beautiful and nice for winter sports. It also insulates overwintering perennial roots from temperature fluctuations and extremes. One of the negative impacts is that the snow provides cover for the activity […]
How to Help the Bees and Other Pollinators
By Carol Quish for UConn Extension Bees are extremely important and responsibly for 75% of the foods we eat every day. There are more than 4,000 species of bees in North America, and about 350 in the Northeast. They include honeybees, bumble bees, mason bees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, orchard bees, and the list goes […]
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 […]
Creating a Birdseed Bag Tote
Photo & Article: Susan Pelton for UConn Extension This has certainly been a very cold winter and so many of the feathered species that remain in Connecticut rely on backyard feeders for a good amount of their nourishment. If you are providing for the birds in your yard (as we are) you are probably […]
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% […]