gardening

No Mow May is coming to a close and hopefully its impact is just beginning. The movement is intended to help pollinators like native bees, but where there are pollinators there are also pests that threaten plants and the beneficial bugs we hope to encourage. Gardening expert Melinda Myers shares tips on how to get rid of pests without hurting pollinators.

Spring has officially sprung. With the vernal equinox, many of us are looking forward to the mild, albeit wet, weather to come. Gardeners are already preparing themselves for the growing season ahead and while it’s too early to do a lot of planting, there are many things that still need to be done.

Many gardeners take winters off, but they may not know what they’re missing. New research suggests gardening can have a lot of health benefits and not just for gardeners, but the entire community. Melinda Myers talks about the health benefits of plants, including those we keep indoors.

Most of us have already put away our gardening tools for the season. But there are still great ways to get fresh, local produce and continue using it throughout the winter season. Every month, Venice Williams, the executive director of Alice’s Garden, shares tips for our series called Dig In! which is all about gardening and healthy cooking.

Venice explains the importance of thanking your garden while also offering tips for future harvesting and books every garden lover should have on their reading list.

It’s slowly but surely cooling off in Wisconsin. As we enter into fall there are a lot of things left to be done in our yards while the soil is still warm and plants can begin to take root - including adding new shrubs and trees and moving around some of our existing plants.

As the seasons change from summer to fall, the waning days of summer signal the end of the growing season to many. But fall can be one of the busiest seasons for planting and preparing your garden and yard for the upcoming year. Expert Venice Williams gives her tips on what to do in the garden this year.

Gardening is a great way to learn about a lot of things. Like, where your food comes from, the work it takes to get a vegetable from seed to plate, and even how ecosystems work. But these are lessons best learned in a hands-on environment which can be inaccessible for a lot of city dwellers.

Venice Williams says growing plants in isolation is not a natural practice and is something that was created to create uniformity in commercial farming, which is why gardens that implement companion planting see numerous benefits.

Lake Effect gardening contributor Melinda Myers shares her tips and tricks for kicking off a summer garden right.