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How Pollinators Help Your Garden Grow

How Pollinators Help Your Garden Grow

Pollinators play a vital role in gardening and ecology, one that’s often overlooked yet crucially intertwined with the health of our environment. These industrious creatures, such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and moths, play a pivotal part, the process that...

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European Buckthorn

European Buckthorn

This invasive plant has been around for quite some time.  This plant was brought here from Eastern Europe and was used as a hedge and for landscaping.  There was a well-maintained hedge of this shrub on West Fourth Street in Spencer for years that...

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Ornamental Asparagus

Ornamental Asparagus

Asparagus is an amazing plant.  It abounds along fence lines and in prairie areas and seems to be resistant to any chemical drift it may get in the country.  It produces a yummy crop of spears in the spring that can be harvested and lightly boiled,...

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Is it Safe to Eat Garden Produce After a Flood?

Is it Safe to Eat Garden Produce After a Flood?

We have had a call about eating garden produce regarding the recent flooding. Attached below is link to an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach article dated June 25, 2024, answering this question. Due to the amounts of contamination with the June 2024...

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Tree Resilience to Inch Worms

Tree Resilience to Inch Worms

I enjoy mowing the lawn!  I can experience nature from the seat of a riding lawn mower.  I’ve seen newborn fawns, rooster pheasants, wildflowers, bird nests and Baltimore Orioles while mowing.  The last two times I mowed the lawn I found that I was covered in green...

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The Spikenard Population is Increasing!

The Spikenard Population is Increasing!

Should you be worried about this plant?  Heck no!  This tough perennial plant is finding a home all over the Iowa Great Lakes!  Golden Spikenard is being planted under the Burr Oak canopy in the Okoboji area and is becoming a common landscape plant.  Also known as...

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