The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
Sorted by date Results 1 - 6 of 6
"It looks like an onion," said a friend. "I can promise you it isn't," I replied. The plant in question was an amaryllis. I recently picked the bulb up from the local garden store and put it into a pot. In my friend's defense, the bulb does look like an onion. Amaryllis are quite popular for holiday gifts. The wax-covered bulbs seen in garden catalogs will only bloom once because the bulb exhausts most of its nutrients producing the flower. The wax on the bulb helps maintain moisture....
How did your garden season go? This summer I participated in three different NDSU Home Garden Variety Trials, and planted nine tomato plants, potatoes, beans, melons, cucumber, different squashes and much more. As I start to pull out plants and clean up my garden area, I cannot help but compare this season to the previous and how it helped prepare me for this year. Now it may seem early for planning next year's garden, but while the garden season is fresh in my memory, I jotted down some notes...
"You'll never guess what I found behind the shed ... another peony," I shouted to my husband. This makes the tenth peony we have found in a random location around our backyard. Considering the peony is growing right next to my compost bin, I am not planning on keeping it there. Add that to the lilies I found along the fence line, the iris in the middle of the yard and the surprise tulips that popped up this spring in the front of the house, I have enough flowers to fill in some of the bare...
"I need to plant a hosta under my tree, which variety is your favorite?" This innocent question to one of the NDSU Extension Master Gardeners in Ward County sent me down a rabbit hole learning about this beautiful shade-loving plant. Hostas are a member of the asparagus family and are native to Asia. With over 2,000 different cultivars, there are many different leaf and flower colors, and variegations. Common flower colors are white, lavender and purple. The bell-shaped flowers may be fragrant...
There is a song going viral right now on social media about a woman named Barbara who is famous for her rhubarb pie. The entire song is a German tongue twister and catchy. Rhubarb is also trending due to a trend of people “forcing” rhubarb, a growing technique that is used for an earlier and tastier rhubarb harvest. I guess rhubarb is a pretty popular plant worldwide. Growing rhubarb is a widespread practice in most North Dakota gardens. This plant can grow quite large and take over an ent...
My 98-year-old great aunt always says that spring is here when the mesquite trees start to bud and the bluebonnets bloom. That works fine in Texas where mesquite trees and bluebonnets are common, but here in North Dakota, there are other signs that point to spring. To help this native Texan understand what the signs of spring are in North Dakota, I did an office poll. Birds returning and singing, trees starting to bud, the smell of the soil, bulbs emerging and crocus blooming were the common...
