There are two areas on my property where I am hoping to kill existing vegetation (weeds and grass) and establish low maintenance ground cover. The first is a slope at the front of my property, full sun, where I would like to establish ivy or a similar low height plant. The second is an overgrown garden bed in the rear of my house, partial shade, where I would like to establish wildflowers what are self maintaining. In both cases I would lean towards killing vegetation by smothering with black plastic, likely laying it down in the fall and uncovering it in the spring when I’ll remove debris and plant desired vegetation. Wondering if you have advice on what to plant, along with feedback on my planned strategy and timing or alternative advice. Thank you!

We have a pine tree that is dying and now the one next to it is dying. I’m worried it has some disease.

Hi I have cucumbers growing and they were doing well and I went out to pick them and was surprised to see the cucumbers all white on one side. No idea what it is mold? animal eating it? Any idea what this is? I look forward to hearing from you.

The tree in the picture has been dying slowly for years - wilted graying leaves that eventually fall off and

This yellow fungus grows in shady areas, mainly in our mulched beds. The bright yellow will last for a day or two and then turn to brown for about a week and then turn into a white mold. It does not appear to kill the plants that it grows on. I am curious to know if this Fungus is toxic in any way or if I should be concerned about it around my pets and children. Specifically chickens. Thank you.

Hello! I bought a home about a mile west of Shadow Mountain Lake in Grand County. I have owned it for one year and I live there part time. I'm trying to repair some damage done to the yard. There are literally thousands upon thousands of these weeds in the yard. *Mayweed chamomile -- # 1 problem ranked in order *Oxeye daisies -- #2 problem *Spurge - #3 problem *Bull thistle - #4 problem All together I have hand-pulled about 32 bags worth of weeds out of my yard, but I have hardly made a dent. Please give me some advice. Here is what I am looking for: 1) Recommend a liquid solution that I can spray right on top of the weeds to kill them and avoid spraying the native plants nearby. I do not want to affect the growth if native plants. Do you mix something I can purchase from you? 2) Recommend a large (gallon or more) spray or squirt bottle that will help me get the job done efficiently. Those cheep small bottles at the hardware store don't seem to work. Do you sell something I can purchase from you? 3) Recommend multiple seeds and native plants that I can plant in the yard that will hopefully take over the yard. 4) I have a very large space that should really be covered in a tough grass that I don't have to mow like a long fescue. Where is the best place to buy seed? 5) Where can I rent a tiller to till this area for better laying of the fescue grass seed? 6) Recommend a mulch to cover the dirt for better growth of the fescue grass seed. 7) Please advise me of anything you can think of. I am totally brand new at this and I do not know what I am doing. Thank you!

Good Morning, I recently moved to a beautiful plot just north of Duluth with an established orchard (primarily apples, plums and other small fruits). There is something funky going on with the plums, and daddy Google has not been up to the task. I have three tightly clustered plum trees (pictured below). The stunted northern one looks to have died and regrown from the root and is the worst affected. One to the south is less affected and the easterly plum appears not to be affected at all and gave a small delish harvest last year. No plums from either affected, the northern one did not flower, and the southern plum flowered but I see no fruit forming (to be fair the unaffected one is not fruiting this year- bad pollination climate this year). Best guess so far is galls or some virus, but I do not see any little eggs/larvae at the attachment points. Hard to get a good picture. My question is- what is this? And how can I assist the affected trees? I will not spray any -cide on them. I rotate my little hen flock through here. Part of me just wants to coppice/ plant new plums (or something else), but need to know that is affecting them so I don’t plant cultivars that will be similarly affected. Sorry for the longwindedness. I shopped this at the farmer’s market master gardeners and they encouraged me to submit this mystery. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Hope everyone is having a great growing season so far! Ps- are the pictures showing up?

HOW CAN I GET GARDEN SOIL TESTED?

I have started Formic Pro treatments. I have noticed the Api-Bioxal lable states: "This product can also be used as a 'clean up' Varroa treatment following the application of a different acaricide where Varroa infestations continue to be problematic." Does this seem like a good idea? If so, how would you implement it? How long would you wait after removing the current Formic Pro treatment? (Sorry if you have already answered this and I missed it)