If you’ve never heard Doug Tallamy speak you should take advantage of your next opportunity. You won’t be disappointed. We recently got the chance to meet him and hear him speak again at Christ & Holy Trinity Church in Westport. The event was sponsored by the Aspetuck Land Trust and we were invited by Don Hyman, one of its former presidents. Tallamy is a professor in the Dept. of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He has authored 95 research publications and taught insect-related courses for 39 years. His research focuses on the interaction of insects with plants and how they impact the diversity of animal communities.…

NEW HAVEN, CT, Nov. 13, 2019 – Scientists from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) have discovered a highly invasive and noxious species of pigweed in Connecticut. The weed, identified as Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) is widespread and damaging in the southern U.S. and can be toxic to livestock. It was found this fall in two pumpkin fields in East Windsor. The weed is highly aggressive and can outcompete many crops, causing dramatic losses in yields. It has also been shown to be resistant to many of the commonly used herbicides used to control weeds in crops. Experiments are now under way to screen this population for herbicide resistance. Growers…

We’re pretty excited to announce that the digital-only November/December issue will be complemented with a printed version starting in 2020. Since 2015, when we began offering digital versions of our issues, we’ve run the final edition of the year only in a digital format. After signing on with a new printer, we’re happy to announce that all five Connecticut Gardener issues will be printed and digitized, allowing our readers — many of whom are hard-core print lovers — to settle in for the winter with their print issue. November/December will become November-February, straddling the new year and containing content and advertising relevant to the gardener’s dream time, when we let…

Our May-June 2019 issue is out. It features “Bring Out the Begonias” by Tovah Martin, “Covering Ground” by Nancy DuBrule-Clemente from Natureworks, “A Little Known Native” (Lysimachia lanceolata) by Stephanie Cohen, “Custom Raised Beds” by Selma Miriam at Bloodroot, Nicole Christensen – Getting Her Bugs in a Row by Anne Rowlands and “Connecticut’s Historic Gardens, Part III.” It also includes our extensive calendar of gardening-related events and What To Do in the Spring Garden. We had so much content we had to hold our regular highlight on an invasive plant for the next issue.

By Will Rowlands SEPT-OCT 2014 – The way Brad Nichols tells it, there was an building boom after World War II and landscapers found themselves working straight through the hot summers. If necessary, of course, one can transplant shrubs and trees in July and August, but it can get hot so you need to consider a plant’s water requirements. In response, Luther von Gartner invented Wilt-Pruf, the world’s first anti-transpirant (some call it an anti-desiccant). The original version was rather goopy and sticky, according to Nichols, now president of Wilt-Pruf Products Inc. Nichols says the product really took off about 60 years ago when Joe Hartman purchased the company. The…