Gardening in the Panhandle: LIVE !
During these unusual times, the Gardening in the Panhandle Team has been working to bring you quality remote content through this online newsletter. In that vein, we have developed some new educational programming for our loyal readers. Our next Gardening in the...
Home Grown Food – Les Furr’s Fruit Trees
Les Furr, Master Gardener, UF/IFAS Extension in Jackson County, Florida shares the different fruit trees he grows in his yard to feed his family and share with neighbors. Les grows figs, soft pears, loquat or Japanese plum, pomegranate, and blueberries. These are all...
Magnolia Tree Buzzing with Insects?
Do you notice a large number of bees or wasps visiting your magnolia tree? Do you see “bumps on the twigs”? Are the leaves and branches turning black? It is probably Magnolia or Tuliptree scale. These scale belongs to a group of insects referred to as soft...
Rescue Your Summer Garden with Heat Loving Tropicals
The dog days of summer are here with high temperatures and humidity. While this sultry weather forces humans to retreat to air conditioning, our gardens suffer because the high night temperatures cause temperate plants to stop flowering, lose vigor and pause growth....
What are These Bugs in My Sod?
On a daily basis, it is not unusual for our Extension Office to get calls, emails, and walk-ins with questions about insect identification. Sometimes we even get questions about imaginary insects! The overwhelming opinion by our clientele is that the insects in...
Mysterious Chinese Seeds Show Up on Your Doorstep? Here’s What to Do
If you’ve paid attention at all to the news recently or been on social media, you’ve no doubt seen the flood of stories about mysterious seeds arriving in thousands of Americans’ mailboxes from various addresses in China. The packages may be labelled as jewelry or...
Home Grown Food – Blueberries and Satsuma
There are a number of plants that are adapted to the climate in the Florida Panhandle. Some can be grown in your yard to provide fresh, nutritious food for your family. In this episode of Home Grown Food, County Agent Doug Mayo, UF/IFAS Extension in Jackson County,...
Leon County’s Seed Library Program Continues On
Leon County’s Seed Library Program Continues On The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives. In Extension, we have learned new ways to be innovative in our programs, and we have made adaptations to continue to reach the community through technology....
How to Store Leftover Seeds from the Summer Garden
I enjoy starting my garden from seeds. Ordering seed opens so many more options relative to the limited old-fashioned seed and transplant selections that line garden shelves. Picking newer, improved varieties has several other advantages as well, including increased...
Add a Pop of Color to Your Landscape with ‘Gold Mound’ Duranta
Flowers can often be fickle in the landscape, so, this year, I decided to add a shot of no-maintenance color to my landscape with foliage plants! The benefits of ornamentals that don’t need flowers to put on a show are many. Their water and fertility needs are often...
Spider too Close for Comfort
A number of years ago a gentleman told me about an orb weaver spider that was living by his front door. He said that it had been there for about two months and that it was interesting to watch the construction of the intricate “bug catching” web. However, he explained...