-
Redford home features decorated giant skeleton all year in front yard
You may well consider men and women say the huge, 10-foot-tall skeleton in their entrance lawn is an eyesore. But you would be mistaken. “Skelly Boy,” the significant, pumpkin-faced skeleton on Alicia Bonanno and Donavan Richardson’s assets in Redford has turn into a well-known selfie and community tourism spot given that Richardson gifted Bonanno, his fiancé, the monster just just before Halloween last year. “Her most loved vacation is Halloween, so I received it as kind of a surprise for her,” he reported. As opposed to all those who go away the huge skeletons outside 12 months-round for lack of storage area, Bonanno and Richardson continue to keep Skelly Boy outside simply simply…
-
YARD AND GARDEN: Get ready for spring with Master Gardeners | Home & Garden
Join Master Gardeners for a fun morning of door prizes and engaging speakers both beginning and expert gardeners will enjoy. The new year seems to be going by fast and I realized this week that the 12th annual Spring into Gardening Conference is just around the corner. The University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners of Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Moultrie, and Shelby Counties will present this conference from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at Broadway Christian Church, 1205 S. Ninth St., in Mattoon. The doors will open at 8 a.m. for check-in. The cost for the workshop is $30 per person. YARD AND GARDEN: A gardening project for…
-
YARD AND GARDEN: A gardening project for February | Home & Garden
February is just a few days away. And while it’s still too early to be doing anything in the garden, we can be planning ahead and probably have more time than usual with the pandemic to do some craft projects. Consider refurbishing the harsh-looking red appearance associated with modern terra-cotta pots that have been made by machine or even the real terra-cotta pots which have seen better days. You will nee to plan ahead as to where you want to place them and the affect you would like them to achieve. Of course, our planters have to be clean and one can hope you did that last fall. If not,…
-
IN THE YARD: What can gardeners do in January? | Home & Garden
STUART SUTPHIN Contributing columnist The temperature we have experienced for the past two weeks has designed it tricky to go outside and do everything in the back garden. It is just as well considering that there genuinely is not significantly we can do with our crops in any case. So what do we do to get rid of time until finally we can get back again out there and get some soil beneath our fingernails? I read or read through a statement recently that would seem acceptable: “Gardeners can shell out this time dreaming and preparing.” This can be time very well put in or at least time spent on…
-
YARD AND GARDEN: Controlling the “bad guys” on your houseplants | Home & Garden
Yesterday, when I watered my plants, a small cloud of minute black insects ascended, reminding me of a scene from a Harry Potter movie. If you have those black things hovering ‘round your plants, see fungus gnats below. Healthy houseplants usually don’t have problems with insects, but I don’t know a single indoor gardener who hasn’t had problems, so feel no angst. A good organic potting soil, the proper amount of light and water, and regular feedings with a good liquid houseplant food will go a long way toward keeping your plants healthy. NOTE: Winter is resting time for plants, so don’t fertilize then. Check new plants for insects before…
-
YARD AND GARDEN: Some real information about artificial Christmas Trees | Home & Garden
Master Gardener Darla Chouinard talks about the history of the Christmas tree. Christmastime. It is one of the busiest times of the year! At our Youth Gardening home school workshops last week we read the book “Maple Syrup Season” by Ann Purmell and talked about maple syrup is in a plant part category of its own. We often discuss the six plant parts we eat and it was interesting to make a whole new category, tree sap. We also made festive decorations from gourds and wooden ornament birdhouses that were generously donated to us. We painted the small gourds to look like snowmen. It’s always amazing to see the creativity…