Grow

Trees are a beautiful and practical way to screen your property from the wind.

Summer is slowly winding down, and with the approach of autumn it's time to make plans to transplant trees and shrubs in your yard. Host Patrick Murphy has this advice.

You can add some serious beauty to your yard and not have to worry about watering or fertilizing. Adding rocks to the landscape is an ancient tradition that first caught on in Japan. Japanese garden arts can guide you in the selection and placement of rocks and stones in your landscape. Smooth river rock can be used to simulate a creek bed running through your property. Be sure and select stones that have a darker, blue or black color to best simulate water. Let nature be your guide when placing

White pines in America are vulnerable to several diseases.

For every iris, lily or rose that you plant in your garden, you put out a welcome mat for bunnies and other critters to come and dine at the leisure. Rabbits gotta eat! And sometimes they eat what you have carefully planted and cultivated. And if the bunnies in your yard start doing what bunnies do best, (ah-hem!) then you could soon be overrun with hungry, hungry rabbits who think nothing of denuding your favorite plants. Don't trap rabbits. In many communities that is illegal. But you can

Stress is not only bad for humans. It can have a negative impact on your trees as well. Marilyn in Normal is concerned about her flowering crab tree, which began showing what she believed to be signs of stress when the leaves started turning brown and red. The heat of summer and lack of rain can trigger a stress reaction in plants. Heat stress is very common. A tree planted in the wrong place (too much sun, or poor soil) can cause stress. Right tree in the right place is the Grow mantra. The

When the heat is on and the rains are not, lawns can shut down. But does dormancy mean death for your grass?

Impatiens downy mildew is a growing problem in gardens across America. Defoliation and flower dropping are two signs your plants are infected.

Karen in Normal bid farewell to a massive old maple tree on the west end of her house. Now that all remains is a stump, she wants to select something new.

Here's a nasty relative of the tick that you don't want in your yard: the spider mite. It's hard to fight a battle against something you can barely see!