By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Vegetable gardening is an iterative experiment. Every year, I plant my seeds and seedlings, observe what happens, learn from mistakes and try again the following spring. You would think by now I would…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Most insects could be described as carefree parents. They lay hundreds of eggs but leave their young to fend for themselves. In their unpredictable world, the odds of offspring living to adulthood are…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener When my family bought our home almost 25 years ago, a friend made a prophetic comment. “Good luck with that hedge,” he said. In retrospect, “that hedge” was probably why no one else…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Here is something to think about the next time you are out pulling weeds: unlike the soil on this planet, Martian regolith, the rusty-orange dust that blankets Mars’ surface, is completely sterile. The…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Of all the creatures that live in a healthy garden, arthropods are by far the most common. This phylum includes a diverse array of animals, from the six-legged insects and the eight-legged arachnids…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Compare a caterpillar to a butterfly or a maggot to a fly; newly hatched insect larvae don’t appear to be remotely related to the adults they will become. Not only do they look…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener One of my favorite parts of being a WSU master gardener is participating in our virtual plant clinic via Zoom. People from Chelan and Douglas counties send us emails and photos with questions…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Successfully starting a lawn mower’s engine requires a full-body effort. Pulling on the starter cord must be done at just the right speed to start the series of events that bring the engine…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener There are three main ways to be a bee. Honeybees live social lives and share the work of raising young and gathering food to sustain their colonies. Queens lay eggs and workers divide…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener For years, I dutifully raked the leaves that fell in my yard, and, after stuffing my compost bin with as many as I could, carried the rest up to the road. Until yard…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener There is probably no sound more unwelcome in summertime than the high-pitched whine of a mosquito. This is especially true when there is work to be done in the garden. In the quest…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener From tip to tail, the tubular body of an earthworm is devoted to digesting organic matter. Bits of decaying plants or animals go in one end, then are ground up, broken down, and…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Vespid wasps don’t often make it onto anyone’s list of favorite insects. Like fighter jets on a mission, they fly with purpose, and their bold aposematic colors warn that getting too close could…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Insects are the silent champions of the ecosystem. They pollinate flowering plants, decompose organic matter and sustain countless animals above them in the food chain. To label only a lucky few of them…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Hardiness, as gardeners define it, is a plant’s ability to withstand cold temperatures. Leave a poinsettia outside overnight in Eastern Washington at this time of year and it will be obvious that it…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener How do you decide which plants are best suited for your landscape? Wandering through the rows in a nursery in spring can enchant a gardener into choosing a plant for its beauty. Familiarity…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Last month, when my son and I were harvesting our potato crop, we were surprised to dig up a bright yellow bumble bee. Bumble bees are known as creatures of the air, not…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener It’s not news that plants start from seeds, but where do the plants themselves actually come from? For centuries people assumed that plants ate soil. In 1634, a Dutch chemist named Jean Baptiste…
By Julie BankenWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener In late spring, when the light lasts longer and the days and nights warm up, aphids begin to emerge from their eggs. These aphids are all females. Once they reach adulthood, they disperse…
