Save the Rainy Day
A great way to save money on your water bill and reduce the amount of water withdrawn from the aquifer is to use a rain barrel. The water savings from using stored rainwater rather than municipal or well water can be substantial over a period of time. A rain barrel...
Fruit Thieves: Roof Rats
We often think of plant pests to be only insects. However, plant pests can also be fungal and bacterial diseases, weeds, and even rodents. That's right, rodents, like squirrels, mice, and rats! One particularly annoying rodent pest of the garden is the roof rat...
Prevent Pests Later With Dormant Treatments Now
During cold winter weather, one doesn’t often think about spraying fruit trees and ornamental shrubs for spring insects and diseases. It’s just not on the radar, but it turns out that January and February are the best time to apply dormant sprays to combat insect and...
More Gardening Tips for February & March
Are you “chomping at the bit” to get started gardening this year, but not sure what you can do at this point? Well, good news, there’s plenty of things that can be done whether landscaping or vegetable gardening is your passion. Temperatures can drop significantly in...
Meet the Agent – Donna Arnold
Donna Arnold is the Small Farm and Residential Horticultural Agent for the Gadsden County since January, 2022. Her main role as an agent is to provide educational programs, related to sustainable agriculture to farmers in Gadsden County north Florida. These programs...
Leon County’s Spring Seed Library Program Starts February 12
Believe it or not, spring is right around the corner! For gardeners, this is the time to start thinking about our spring season garden plan and starting seeds. Many spring vegetables, such as tomatoes, benefit from an early start indoors or in a greenhouse, planted in...
Chill Hours: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
For being in a place known as the Sunshine State, the Panhandle has been mighty cold and dreary to start 2022! With all the recent bitterly cold weather that’s rolled through our neck of the woods over the last month or so, you may be asking yourself “Is this just a...
February Gardening Dos and Don’ts
February can be a confusing month for North Florida gardeners. Winter isn’t over. So, don’t let spring fever cause you to make some gardening mistakes. Let’s take a look at some dos and don’ts of February gardening. Despite colder temperatures that we can...
Video: Container Planting Tips
At one time or another, we have all added rocks or broken pieces of clay pots to the bottom of a container to improve drainage. This practice can actually have the opposite effect, causing the potting soil to stay too moist. Since many container-grown plants like good...
Flip My Florida Yard
Working in Extension has given me a lot of interesting opportunities. On the job, I’ve found myself leading kayak trips all over Florida, building a two-story bat house, and wearing a Mr. Peanut costume while talking about agriculture. But I never really imagined...