Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard

Question: My vegetable garden is overwhelmed with voles. They are living in three of my four raised beds. I’ve tried Mole Max repellent to keep them out of the garden but they are still coming in. What can I do to get rid of them? Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional I’m very sorry […]

Question: I have two 20-year-old lilac trees that have a gray-white fungus all over it’s bark, both old and new growth. It is silky to touch. I have taken out some dead branches and it seems as though some of the foliage is dying in places. Is this something I should be concerned about? Is […]

Question: How do you deal with June bugs/asiatic beetles? They’re targeting our basil, and any fresh transplants in our garden. We have made light and soapy water traps, but curious if there are any organic methods for getting them at the larval stage so they don’t emerge and cause damage? Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture […]

Question: Some branches of leaves are turning brown on my Sunburst Locust tree. There are no webs so I’ve kind of ruled out the webworm. What could be causing the problem?  Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional There are a number of reasons why tree leaves can brown, both biotic (e.g., pests and pathogens) […]

Question: I had a tomato plant that I pulled with strongly suspected fusarium wilt (yellowing leaves on one side and when I cut open the stem it showed the brown striping along the outer ring). I have a couple of questions: – is fruit from fusarium infected plants safe to eat? Most of what I […]

Question: We have noticed that the pine trees have had an unusual amount of tags falling especially in the last three weeks. We are looking for a remedy or if he needs to remove a tree. Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional Unfortunately, this is something of a known issue at the moment. There […]

Question: There are yellow dots on the leaves of my Turtlehead plant. I sprayed neem oil solution but not sure if that will prevent more from spreading. Should I prune infected leaves? Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional I’m sorry to say I don’t immediately recognize these spots, nor did a quick bit of […]

Question: I had a mint plant that was spreading and I noticed that all of it seemed to have black speckles on it. I think it might be rust? So I pulled up what I could, bagged it and threw it away. Could it have been something else? Should I be concerned?  Answer: Jonathan Foster, […]

Question: Many of my pine trees and many others in the area have turned unusually yellow and are dropping huge amounts of needles. I don’t remember ever seeing it this bad. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional There are numerous reasons why a white pine […]

Question: My usually healthy lilac has been wilting. It flowered as usual, but the wilting is getting worse. Do you have any ideas what would cause this and how to treat it? Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional I’m sorry to hear your lilac is under the weather. Unfortunately, there are a number of […]