Paul Pugliese.

  • Avoiding Vegetable Problems

    On Tuesday, August 6th at 7pm, the Bartow County Extension office will be hosting a free seminar on “Troubleshooting Vegetable Garden Problems.”  This is a great opportunity for backyard gardeners and local farmers to bring plant samples for diagnosis and discuss common vegetable problems this season.  We will also have several door prizes to give…

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  • Hazardous Trees

    Whenever powerful storms blow through north Georgia, tree removal services and insurance companies often have plenty of work to do.  When a tree branch fails or a tree becomes uprooted, clients often call the Extension office wanting to know why it happened and what went wrong.  Examining storm-damaged trees can provide many insights into why…

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  • Slippery Lawns

    With the recent dry weather encouraging the use, and possible overuse of irrigation systems, and then the recent tropical conditions (high rainfall and humidity), we have had several pictures and questions about a jelly-like substance growing in lawns.  The jelly-like “stuff” is a Nostoc algae, a type of cyanobacterium formerly classified as blue-green algae.  It…

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  • Mushrooms on Trees

    Question: Should I be worried about fungi growing out of the side of my old oak tree? Drought stress, construction injury, soil compaction and girdling roots will injure tree roots and provide an entry point for wood decay fungi. Storm damage, improper pruning, and wounding of trunks and branches also lead to wood decay fungi entry…

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  • Ugly Tomatoes are Still Good on the Inside

    This Saturday, July 27, is the annual celebration of the Tomato Festival at the Downtown Cartersville Farmer’s Market. Activities will begin around 10am and will include a tomato contest for local farmers. The festival has become a favorite event among locals that love to sample different tomato varieties. There are literally thousands of tomato varieties…

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  • Black Twig Borers

    Over the last two years, we’ve received a number of calls from local clients concerning landscape trees that have a lot of branch dieback. Black twig borers or other ambrosia beetles are often involved in these cases.  Stunted or delayed leaf development and rapid wilting in the spring are classic symptoms of these borers. They…

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  • This presentation is geared toward certified arborists, landscapers, master gardeners, and home gardeners that commonly use phenoxy herbicides for lawn weed control. This particular presentation focuses on the potential for phenoxy herbicides to affect non-target trees and woody ornamentals in landscape settings due to poor application choices by professionals. This is an issue that is…

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  • Ground-nesting bees and wasps may alarm people, but they are actually “good bugs” that are busy doing their jobs as pollinators or serving as useful predators in controlling harmful insect pests.  Read More

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  • Kill weedy grasses with mulch and herbicides

    Many clients contact their local University of Georgia Cooperative Extension office frustrated with grasses taking over their flower beds or vegetable gardens.  A common phone call might involve Bermuda grass taking over a bed of juniper ground cover or daylilies. And, if you’ve ever tried to pull Bermuda grass out by hand, you quickly learned…

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  • Annual Tree Checkups

    Maintaining trees is a lot like getting a routine dental cleaning—good, bad, or otherwise.   If you don’t maintain your teeth or have them checked periodically by a dentist, then you run the risk of your teeth having major problems in the long term. Trees share many similarities to teeth. Older trees, especially, should be checked…

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