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Spring/Summer 2008

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Find fresh ideas for your garden online

Stop dreaming about what you could do with your garden—Extension’s new Gardening Information website will help you make it happen

Getting a late start on your garden this year? Not to worry. Garden centers are still flourishing with healthy, well-developed perennials and annuals—even vegetables—ready for transplanting.

Looking for gardening tips? Extension’s Consumer Horticulture Team has organized a fresh resource featuring useful, research-based information in a gardener—friendly format, at www.extension.umn.edu/GardenInfo.

Screen shot of garden info site

The website offers easy-to-identify enchanting flowers and the sweetest fruits that will work in your outdoor space. Add a twist to those practical tips in the online Yard & Garden News with the section, “Weird Stuff and Fun Facts from the Gardening World.” If you still have questions after perusing the many online fact sheets, summon the wisdom of a Master Gardener with a quick click of the mouse.

If all of this gardening education leaves you with a little too much knowledge to keep to yourself, simply follow the link on how to become a Master Gardener. All the inspiration you need is right there, just waiting for you to dig in.

What’s key to growing a healthy lawn?

lawn mower cutting grass

Just in time for summer, Extension horticulture educator Bob Mugaas shares his top lawn-care tips:

  • Test your soil to find out what lawn nutrients may be needed. To find out how, visit http://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu.
  • Remember, state law prohibits anyone from applying fertilizer containing phosphorus to Minnesota lawns except as indicated by a soil test or at the time of establishment.
  • For an average home lawn, maintain mowing heights at 2.5 to 3.5 inches. Leave short clippings on the lawn to decompose naturally and provide nutrients.
  • Regular watering of about an inch per week, including rainfall, is needed to keep Kentucky bluegrass lawns green all summer.

For more information on lawn care, visit www.extension.umn.edu/GardenInfo and click on “Lawns”

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