Help for Your Garden
Published: Jun. 4, 2008
URBANA - If you're having trouble with your garden and home landscape, consider help that is a mouse click away courtesy of University of Illinois Extension.
"We have a number of helpful websites that can help with plant pest and disease problems, picking out the right trees for your home, designing a perennial garden, growing roses, and other topics," said Jane Scherer, U of I Extension urban programs specialist and director of web programming.
Information about garden plants and their problems is available at Hort Answers (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/hortanswers/), which Scherer described as "a wonderful compendium of information."
Trying to make a decision about what tree to add to your home landscape? Selecting Trees for Your Home (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/treeselector/) might be a good place to start.
"The site has information about various types of trees, including their culture, the soil conditions they need to thrive, what each tree will tolerate, the best uses, sun exposure needs, and any pest or disease problems they are susceptible to," she said. "You can search the site by tree.
"This is a great site to visit before going to a nursery to pick out a tree."
Those wanting to do something special with their perennial garden should check out Stepping Stones to Perennial Garden Design (http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/gardendesign/).
"This is a thorough guide to planning and establishing a perennial garden," said Scherer. "It includes information on plant selection, placement, and site assessment.
"A good companion site is Gardening with Perennials (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/perennials/). It features information on 40 of the most popular perennials."
Roses are a standard garden favorite. Our Rose Garden (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/) features information about how to select and plant roses as well as the many different types of roses available on the market today.
"If you want to generally browse for information about all sorts of garden/landscape questions, go to Extension's Hort Corner (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/hort/index.html) web page which is a directory for a number of sites," she said.
-30-