Lawn, Gardening & Pests News

Peaches are a favorite fruit of many, but growing a peach tree from seed is not the easiest or best way to add this fruit to your home orchard. Vegetative propagation is more common and reliable to ensure that the new tree has the desired characteristics, such as bloom time, disease resistance, cold-hardiness, and the color, size and flavor of the fruit. 

Blackberries and raspberries spark memories of picking with grandma and mashing them to make a pie. Brambles, which include blackberries and raspberries, are easily grown, and with some care, those memories can continue.

When talking about heirloom tomatoes, West Virginians cannot help but mention the Mortgage Lifter – one of the favorites in the state.

Rhubarb is a venerable garden crop in West Virginia, but it is becoming a forgotten vegetable. Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that can produce for more than 10 years. The rhubarb plant has very large leaves with thick leaf stalks. The leaf stalks can be red or green and are typically harvested when they reach a length of 12 to 18 inches in mid- to late spring in West Virginia. While red stalks are slightly sweeter, green stalk varieties yield more.

Ramps announce the arrival of spring in the woods. Many folks eagerly anticipate using the savory plants as a spring tonic to get them out of the winter blues. Ramps are known as wild leeks, which are native to West Virginia. They belong to the lily family and are close relatives of the onion and garlic. Ramps take advantage of the early spring sunlight to grow before the trees leaf out. The foliage remains green for approximately six weeks, turns yellow and then disappears. The bulbs, like onions, remain in the soil.

Elderberries are native to eastern North America and have many essential nutrients for health. To grow wild elderberries from your own land, identify a healthy wild plant that produces abundant fruit. Then, follow one of the three methods below. 

The 27th annual Master Gardener Conference will be held on April 8-10, 2022, at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Garden enthusiasts and beginner gardeners from near and far are invited to join us this year! To register for the conference or find more information about the schedule and speakers, visit the Master Gardener Conference page.

Dear Gardening Enthusiasts, 

Vegetative, or clonal, propagation is the only way to get genetically identical copies of an individual plant.