Mulching around trees, especially newly planted ones, is a good thing. It keeps down weeds and eliminates competition for nutrients and water. It protects roots from heat in the summer and keeps the ground frozen in the winter. Organic mulch breaks down and provides added nutrients to the soil. It slows the evaporation of water...

Bananas are weird! That yellow curved thing that you eat in your Cheerios or cornflakes is actually, by botanical definition, a berry. A berry is “simple fruit having seeds and pulp produced from a single ovary.” Examples are grapes, tomatoes, peppers and avocados.  Keep that in mind: one flower, one ovary producing a fleshy seed...

To accommodate the early birds this year the Down to Earth Garden Club will be gift-wrapping at the mall on Friday, Dec. 12th through Tuesday December 16 near the front entrance. The group will be back to accommodate the late comers on Tuesday, December 23 and Wednesday, December 24. The gift-wrapping station on those two...

We used grasses this year instead of corn stalks due to a crop failure. They are pretty but don’t hold up as well.