Lawns, Gardens & Landscapes

Your landscape includes your lawn, trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetable garden, and groundcovers. The lawn is likely a prominent part of your landscape. While the lawn may need watering and frequent care, it adds beauty to the community and a well-maintained lawn offers many benefits:

absorbs rain water runoff
decreases soil erosion
promotes neighborhood pride
reduces the urban heat island effect
increases property values
provides space for recreation and relaxation

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Become a Groundwater Steward

National Groundwater Awareness Week is March 6–12, making it the perfect time to talk about groundwater in Nebraska! What exactly is groundwater? It is the water below the earth’s surface that fills the interconnected voids and cracks in and around soil particles, sand, gravel and rock. Groundwater is the most abundant supply of freshwater in the world and is the water source that private drinking water, irrigation, livestock and many public water supply wells draw from.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Lawn Fertilizer and Pest Control Products in 2022

The past 22 months have brought a tremendous burden to the U.S. and other countries around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the unforeseen issues is the spillover effects that the supply chain problems and worker shortages have had on the lawn and landscape industries. While this post is not intended to encourage hoarding of products along the lines of buying up all the toilet paper in sight, it is helpful to be aware of potential price increases and product shortages at the garden center in 2022.

Monday, December 13, 2021

UNL publications can help homeowners design and install a rain garden in their landscape

With time on your hands this winter you can dream about creating a beautiful and functional rain garden in your landscape this coming spring. A rain garden helps conserve water, reduce runoff pollution, and adds an aesthetic landscape feature to your home. You can do more than dream, you can use UNL Extension publication resources to design and install your rain garden.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Winter Plant Care

It’s definitely getting colder outside. Winter isn’t officially here yet, but it is on its way. This is the time of the year where we give up on plants, but there are some things to consider prior to winter to ensure their survival.

Winter Care of Turf

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Anti-Transpirants Help Prevent Winter Drying Damage

Winter desiccation of white pine, Pinus strobus, needles.

In spring 2021, many gardeners and landscape managers in eastern Nebraska had severe plant damage to boxwood shrubs. In many cases, entire plants were dead. In others, all branches above the protecting snow line were brown, dried and dead. Although boxwood was not the only type of plant showing damage in spring 2021, why was the damage so widespread on this species?