We have seen an increase in deer damage along our back gardens over the last few weeks. Deer move most often and for the greatest distances during spring and fall. In late spring, does travel in search of fawning sites, yearlings explore their territory often with less fear than adult deer. Travel increases in fall… Read more »

The feathered kind, not the drinking kind. Now that our landscape is maturing, we are seeing an increase in the amount and variety of wild life directly in our back yard. While we could often hear Wild Turkey calls, this has been the first year we have seen them wondering our lawn. The turkey is… Read more »

My dad made me a new birdhouse for Christmas this year. It was originally to be mounted on a tall post left over from a tree cut down in our front walkway unfortunately the post did not make it through this past winter well. Not to be deterred, I found a cool wood stump out… Read more »

I noticed one mugho pine about two weeks ago fully covered in white specks which are the eggs of the European Sawfly. I first noticed this pest last May when the eggs had already hatched and they had begun to do some damage. This year I checked my plants earlier, in the hopes of catching… Read more »

The Fall Webworm (Hypantria cunea), a native pest found throughout North America, is now upon us. The fall webworm forms a large web sometimes one metre long over the ends of branches of birch, ash, Manitoba maple, flowering crab, and many other deciduous trees. The webs are can easily be seen during August and September… Read more »

We are definitely approaching the peak of the Japanese Beetle season. In our area, just north of Brantford, Ontario adult Japanese Beetles start appearing in early July but their peak season is from around the last week in July to mid-August. The Japanese Beetle is a serious problem for both turf and ornamental plants. Grubs… Read more »

I came home today to my new Kitchen Patio garden and looked out hoping to find some birds on the feeder only to find our resident chipmunks chowing down on the new bird seed I just put in. Now don’t get me wrong, these guys are cute and relatively harmless. However I put up the… Read more »

I discovered another bug to contend with this year. Just as my mugho pine were putting on their new growth and I went out to clip back some of the candles I discovered these 1 inch long grey-green striped caterpillars with a small black head in masses throughout the pines. It was clear that they… Read more »

The forsythia have been in full bloom for about a week now, brightening up the spring garden. Sunny yellow blooms of the forsythia are not the only reason to have this shrub in the garden however. Forsythia can be used as an indicator plant for the eastern tent caterpillar. Indicator plants are often used to… Read more »

They say necessity is the mother of invention and this morning I discovered my own need. Yesterday I removed the greenhouse lid on my yellow pepper starts as I had 11 beautiful 1 inch plant seedlings. I took a look this morning and something had eaten the tops off all the new seedlings. Needless to… Read more »