Ah, spring! What a wonderful time of year. With it comes the sights and sounds of nature’s long-awaited return. Birds flit and sing and hurry about finding nesting sites. Spring’s flowers color in drab winter landscapes and trees push forth blossoms in delicate pinks and whites and yellows I…

Bald eagles are conservation darlings.

April is one of my favorite months of the year. The days become longer, the temperatures are typically in the 60s and 70s, and we are blessed with April showers. The birds serenade one another, and the peepers provide a chorus of chirping to welcome spring. After seeing the whites, grays, an…

(StatePoint) Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. A leading cause of disability and death in the United States, more than 12.5 million people have been diagnosed, and millions more may have the disease without even knowing it…

Want to feel like a gourmet cook? Tuck a couple nasturtium flowers into your salad, or serve an hors d’oeuvre on a nasturtium leaf. Nasturtium is a very easily recognized edible flower. It’s a very pretty, simple flower. Its leaves are also very attractive having a rounded, scalloped-edged s…

The Gettysburg Garden Club through its Garden of the Month committee presented April’s Garden of the Month award to John and Kathy Stewart at 195 Ridgewood Drive, Gettysburg.

Oh, the excitement of vegetable gardening! Seed companies are selling out of seeds, and questions on growing vegetables are beginning to filter in.

Whether you are a new homeowner with a wide expanse of unplanted yard, or a long-time resident with a collection of shrubs that we master gardeners like to refer to as “meatballs” and “cubes,” please keep reading.

With the warmer than normal winter, many plants are emerging early, especially weeds. What is a weed? Is it a plant merely growing where unwanted, or is it an undesirable foe to be removed?

The Franklin County Conservation District (FCCD) is now taking orders for its annual tree seedling sale.

My love of Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) began last summer when I purchased it at a local greenhouse as an annual for a container. I was immediately attracted to its delicate pink blooms and unique structure. It found its new home in a container on our patio. To my delight, it bloomed al…

Spring is near, and the Gettysburg Garden Club is preparing for its Spring Plant Sale at the Gettysburg Fire Hall on May 20.

When I was a child, I was quite the “tomboy.” I lived on a farm, and my favorite playground was the woods, climbing trees, building forts, and exploring. To me all insects were bugs, simply an annoyance and something to be ignored, sometimes feared, but mostly stepped on, squashed, or annihi…

Spring is right around the corner and, if you are like most gardeners, you have anxiously awaited this time all winter long. Your seeds are waiting for sowing, your bulbs are beginning to pop up, and the warmer days confirm that gardening season is almost here.

For many people, the term bulbs means daffodils and tulips. These are definitely worth all the attention they receive, and they are also two of the few true bulbs. A true bulb contains all the flower parts within it. But, did you know that there are enough different types of “bulbs” to suppl…

Most gardeners have favorite go-to plants that perform well in their climate and simply make them happy. For me, those are coneflowers, catmint, liatris, alliums, daylilies, black-eyed Susans and oh so many tomatoes.

What looks pretty in the landscape, and what we determine is good or bad changes all the time. As a young girl growing up in middle school and high school in the late 70s and early 80s, our landscapes looked green and tidy.

In 1973, my fiancé (now husband) and I bought our first plant, a jade (Crassula ovata) for $0.79 at K-mart. All I knew was that it needed water and sunlight. Somehow that plant lasted for 46 years before mealy bugs, and perhaps an overzealous use of pesticides, killed it.

Last November the Land Conservancy of Adams County (LCAC) partnered with the owners of Kuhn Orchards to permanently preserve nearly 10 acres of rural land in Franklin Township.

Last year didn’t seem to be a good year for butterflies in my garden, and there seemed to be fewer bees, too. I never made complete or accurate counts of animals of any sort over the years, but last year felt different. The overall population of insects is declining, and more of the benefici…

Insects! People have many different reactions to insects, everything from creepy-crawlie (cringe) to way cool! From “How do I get rid of them?” to “Beautiful!” and “Fascinating!” From “Ick!! Get it away!” to “I’m glad I have this beneficial garden helper.” I imagine the reaction has more to …