According to a proverb attributed to ancient Greece, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit.” The proverb is a favorite of mine, not just because ...

As we move inside for the winter to cozy up to the fireplace, we need to remember our smooth-barked and young trees. Using a tree wrap on the trunk of your tree from late fall when tree growth slows ...

The trees in our yard seem so self-sufficient that we take them for granted. That is unless we lose one; then, we notice it quite quickly, and we end up berating ourselves for neglecting it. Owners of ...

Most species of woodpeckers that reside in Missouri do little or no damage to living trees, preferring dead standing trees or dead limbs as they search for insects to ...

One of the things I've never understood is why so few landscape contractors and nursery workers wrap the trunks of newly planted trees. It could make a giant improvement in the survival rate of their ...

Having a fruit tree in your yard is the gift that keeps on giving. Every year, you can enjoy its edible bounty — it always seems to taste a little bit sweeter than grocery store produce. Growing fruit ...

Q: This is the saddest Ficus I’ve ever seen. I bought it in August and thought I followed instructions but now most of the leaves have fallen off. What should I do now? The bare branches seem kind of ...

If you have ever seen aluminum bands, hardware cloth or some other type of metal wrapping the trunk of a tree, you might have wondered about its purpose. It’s not to help the trunk grow straight, nor ...

My biggest garden surprise this year was a lack of Japanese Beetles. I’m not complaining, of course, but totally surprised. I saw three, that’s it! Normally, there were hundreds swarming on my grape ...