Eupatorium purpureum patch showing serious effects of this summer's drought. As I have noted in previous posts, the plants in many areas at Pleasant Valley Conservancy have remained surprisingly robust…

Bluegrass (Poa pratensis), an undesirable component of prairies, is much more sensitive to drought than prairie grasses. Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie has areas where bluegrass is still prominent, a legacy…

At Pleasant Valley Conservancy we missed some of the rains that passed through southern Wisconsin but we did get about 1.5" total spread out over about a week. This helped…

Spotted knapweed (Centaurea biebersteinii) is a nasty invasive weed that competes well in sandy areas. Although we have not generally been plagued with it at Pleasant Valley Conservancy, it has…

Back in 2002 I published a short article on the "Bradley Method" for invasive plant control in Plants out of Place (PooP), the newsletter of the Invasive Plants Association of…

In my last post I published a graph of the Palmer Drought Index for southcentral Wisconsin. This index reflects precipitation but includes other factors as well. The graph in the…

We are now "officially" in a serious drought and who knows how long it will last. I find it useful to look at an overview of the drought history of…

I had a conversation at the Farmer's Market today with a distinguished meteorologist whose explanation of the drought led me to conclude that it might be September before the weather…

This may be a year for the ages as far as drought effects are concerned. However, I keep thinking back to the "dust bowl" period of the 1930s, and John…

Aureolaria grandiflora, the large-flowered yellow false foxglove, is now in full bloom. This species (C value of 8) is parasitic on roots of oaks and is a characteristic species of…