– Article by Bob Ricard for UConn Extension Approximately 85 tree wardens, deputy tree wardens, urban forestry volunteers, and others gathered in Glastonbury, March 20th, for the Tree Wardens’ Association of Connecticut, Inc., 22nd Annual Dinner Meeting. The primary purpose of the meeting was to conduct the business of the state-wide organization, founded in 1992 […]
May is for Mowing and More!
May is for Mowing, Dividing Mints & Marsh Marigolds! Photo and Aritcle: Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Extension Time to Start Up the Lawn Mower! We New Englanders have had a long, cold winter through early spring. The plentiful moisture and chilly temperatures these past few weeks have stimulated growth of our cool season turf grasses […]
UConn Extension Recognizes Award Winners
Each year the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and the College’s Alumni Association host their annual Awards and Honors event. This event has a long history of recognizing outstanding and distinguished alumni, faculty, staff and supporters, including outstanding individuals of UConn Extension. Excellence in Outreach Award –The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program […]
Making Choices
By Diane Hirsch – Extension Educator Food Safety Local, Organic, Sustainable? How many of us really have the ability to grow all the fresh produce we need for a year? Just having a back-yard vegetable garden can be a luxury. Some of us don’t have the yard, the time or maybe even enough sunshine, to […]
10 Tips for the May Gardener
1. Thin or compacted turf will benefit from core aeration and overseeding. 2. Mow your lawn any time the grass is 1 ½ times the normal height, For example, if you mow at a 3-inch height, don’t let the grass get longer than 4 to 5-inches. 3. Remove spent blooms on tulips, daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs. […]
Danbury PEP Graduates
On Friday, April 11th, 17 Danbury parents graduated from our People Empowering People (PEP) parent leadership program. At left are the graduates and their children who performed at the graduation held at Hatter’s Park. Many of them also traveled to Hartford in March for Early Childhood Advocacy Day, where they spoke with State Representatives Bob Godfrey […]
Farming with Technology
UConn Extension has taken delivery of a new manure spreader. This spreader is not your typical manure spreader. This spreader has gone hi tech with integrated scales, computer and GPS. Unlike a typical spreader which requires the farmer to guess how much manure is being loaded, and keep handwritten records of how many loads went […]
Hartford Urban 4-H Program
The Boys and Girls Urban 4-H club of Hartford came to UConn for Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton’s visit.
Be A Scientist for a Day
UConn Extension is hosting a large-scale statewide science project on May 8th On May 8, 2014, UConn Extension is asking the public to join our faculty, staff, 4-H volunteers, and master gardeners in a vast science project across the state, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of UConn Extension. One hundred years ago on […]
April Showers Awards on Healthy Environments for Children Initiative
April has brought not only showers (rain and snow) to Connecticut but also a bouquet of awards to the Healthy Environments for Children Initiative (HEC, www.hec.uconn.edu), staffed by Joan Bothell and Mary-Margaret Gaudio, of UConn Extension. First, the National Association of Environmental Professionals awarded HEC its 2014 Environmental Excellence Award in Education for the initiative’s Susie […]
Pesticides and School Athletic Fields
Jason Henderson talks to NBC news about pesticides and school athletic fields. Watch the video to understand more about the current laws and what goes into maintaining an athletic field.
Windham County Skill-A-Thon
By Marc Cournoyer, UConn Extension 4-H Program Coordinator 16 4-H members from around Windham County gathered together on Saturday, April 12th to explore STEM through a series of exciting and fun experiential activities. They participated in three workshops that were facilitated by UConn staff and students. In the first workshop, 4-H program coordinator Maryann Fusco-Rollins taught participants how to […]
Sustainable Pest Control in Home Gardens
By Joan Allen – Assistant Extension Educator, UConn Home & Garden Center Insects and pests are a fact of life in the home vegetable garden, but sustainable practices can keep them at tolerable levels. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the use of a combination of tools to manage pests while minimizing the use of chemicals. […]
Annual Benefits
By Dawn Pettinelli for UConn Extension While there are many spectacular perennials that come back year after year, I really love annuals for that splash of long-lasting color they impart to the landscape. Fiery salvias, soft celosias, autumnal hued sunflowers and brilliant white cosmos are just a sampling of the huge selections of annuals […]
Soil Testing
By Dawn Pettinelli – Extension Instructor Plant Science & Landscape Architecture Saves Money & The Environment! A soil test is an inexpensive and valuable tool to help determine what will grow best in your soil, and what it might need to boost its fertility. It’s a smart decision to test the soil every three to […]
Saving for a Rainy Day
By Faye Griffiths-Smith Extension Educator, Family Economics and Resource Management Though we can’t accurately predict the future in detail, we can anticipate that there will be events in our lives that will be challenging. The loss of a job, home repairs such as a leaky roof or the need to replace a furnace, major car […]
Rain Forests, Intelligent Consumption
By Thomas Worthley-Assistant Extension Professor, Forestry Stewardship Recently an article on the environmental information website Environmental News Network caught my attention because it advocated the slowing of tropical deforestation as a key action to “significantly cut the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere”. As a professional forester, I am always heartened […]
Mayor’s Day of Recognition
UConn Extension’s AmeriCorps VISTA Alison Shea was recognized by New London Mayor Daryl Finizio on April 7th for Mayor’s Day of Recognition for National Service. Along with Senior Corps members, they heard the Proclamation from the City of New London at the City Council Chambers. The City Council members and the AmeriCorps Supervisors also extended […]
Create a Worm Farm
Photo and article by Carol Quish for UConn Extension The basics of keeping a worm farm are easy. Explaining why you would want to have one is a little harder to justify to people, particularly family members. Having been a worm farmer for over twenty years, my family finally just accepts and then ignores the fact […]
Collegiate 4-H Program
The Connecticut 4-H youth program prepares youth to meet the needs of a global economy, while learning new skills, meeting new friends and discovering new things about themselves and the world through UConn Extension’s research-driven programs. Whatever your interest, 4-H has a place for you. 4-H programs offer youth fun, hands-on learning activities that foster skills and character […]
10 Tips for the April Gardener
1. Choose planting areas based on exposure to sun, shade, wind and distance from water source. 2. Purchase onion sets for planting and set 1 inch deep and 4 to 5 inches apart when soil can be worked. 3. Get the jump on weeds in garden beds by pulling out any that overwinter and applying […]
Touring UConn’s Green Infrastructure – From Your Desk!
Anyone who has been to the UConn campus in the last few years has likely noticed a lot of changes. Beautiful new and renovated buildings are remaking the campus. Along with those changes are a lot of more subtle changes that you might not notice – namely the integration of green infrastructure. As discussed in previous […]
Monitoring the Weather – For More than 125 Years
By Sheila Foran for UConn Today Every day at 8 a.m. for the last 45,625 days (give or take a day or two), weather information at UConn’s Plant Research and Education Facility on Agronomy Road has been recorded and sent to the National Weather Service. That’s every day for 125 years. It’s a long time […]
Is It Time for a Rain Garden?
Jen McGuinness who blogs at Frau Zinnie wrote an excellent blog post about the rain garden presentation Dr. Mike Dietz of UConn Extension presented at the Master Gardener Symposium in March. In Jen’s words: MANCHESTER, Conn. – With April showers imminent, you’ll soon be reminded of how much stormwater leaves your property. Water rushing through […]
Egg Safety
Take Care With Eggs—No Matter Where You Buy/Gather Them By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety Spring is here (at least officially) and it is always a good time to remind ourselves of how to safely handle eggs. Whether you are hard-boiling them for an Easter or Passover celebration, or looking forward […]
A Climate Adaptation Academy for Connecticut
Modeled after CLEAR’s highly successful Land Use Academy, we are embarking on a new forum for land use officials and other interested professionals, a Climate Adaptation Academy (CAA). The CAA, sponsored by Connecticut Sea Grant and CLEAR, will serve as an outreach arm of the recently announced Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation. We […]
Environmentally Friendly Lunches
by Sherry Gray – Extension Instructor Nutrition Educator, EFNEP Supervisor Foods and Nutrition They’re Healthy & Affordable With a little thought and preparation, it’s not hard to pack an eco−friendly lunch from home. You’ll end up with less waste and a healthier lunch. You don’t need to spend a fortune on expensive lunch containers. Pack […]
Community Gardens
By Jiff Martin – Extension Educator Sustainable Food Systems All this talk about checking out the latest seed catalogues, de-wintering the garden and predicting the date of the last frost can be frustrating for the land-poor gardener wanna-be. If you are an apartment dweller, a condo resident or simply garden-plot deprived, you may not be […]
Bluebirds
By Julia Cencebaugh Kloth for UConn Extension Beautiful and beneficial the population of the Eastern bluebirds declined in numbers from the late 1800s through the 1980s. One significant contributing factor to this decline was the lack of suitable nesting cavities. Competition for nesting cavities from introduced European starlings and house sparrows, the loss of open field […]
A New Focus on Communities & Climate Change: CIRCA 2014
January saw the announcement of a new institute at UConn dedicated to providing answers and assistance to the state’s communities as they struggle to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Connecticut Institute for Resiliency and Climate Adaptation, or CIRCA, is a partnership of UConn and CT DEEP, and its creation is in direct response […]
UConn Extension 4-H Partners with UConn Engineering Ambassadors
By Marc Cournoyer, UConn Extension 4-H Program Coordinator Two undergraduate students from the UConn Engineering Ambassadors stopped by the Extension Center in Brooklyn, CT on February 22nd to assist members of the Windham County 4-H Saturday Science club in exploring some of the science required to colonize Mars. Participants had an opportunity to create their […]
10 Tips for the March Gardener
1. Make plans to attend the UConn Garden Conference on March 21, 2014. Go to www.2014garden.uconn.edu for more information. 2. Carefully remove winter mulches from planting beds as snow melts and temperatures warm. 3. Add limestone, fertilizer or organic materials as recommended and incorporate into planting beds. 4. As ground becomes workable, de-thatch the lawn if you find an […]
Pest Forecasts Come to Connecticut
It hurts when codling moths riddle your apples, powdery mildew blasts your grapes, or anthracnose takes over your turf. But it’s really nettlesome when growers or groundskeepers mere miles away get off without a snag. Blame it on the weather: on a multitude of variables that we barely notice. Sophisticated weather stations can pick up […]
Wash Your Veggies (And Fruits)
By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety In recent months I have been reminded again that there are still many eaters and handlers of fresh fruits and vegetables who still do not take the risk of foodborne illness from these foods very seriously. Despite the fact that produce accounts for nearly half […]
2014 Albanian People Empowering People – Now Accepting Applications
Join Waterbury’s inaugural UConn Extension Albanian PEP (People Empowering People), a FREE, 10-week parent leadership and advocacy program. The program builds on individual life experiences and strengths to encourage growth in communication and problem solving skills, parent/family relationships and community involvement. Limited to 20 participants, it includes dinner, childcare and transportation assistance. The class meets weekly, […]
LID versus Green Infrastructure
If you deal with stormwater issues or land use planning, chances are you have heard the phrase “green infrastructure” mentioned a lot recently. It is rapidly replacing “Low Impact Development” (LID) as the phrase du jour in the stormwater biz. But before we all go willingly adopting this into our lexicon, we must first ask some pertinent […]
Build Your Network, Grow Our Future Event
How do we build our networks and help grow the potential for success in the future food economy? By bringing together farmers and service providers to meet each other, ask questions, listen and discuss. On February 19th, the New CT Farmer Alliance (NCTFA) did just this, in collaboration with several organizations and agencies: UConn Extension, […]
Eat Like A Bird
As a life-long New Englander I find that one of the most enjoyable parts of the winter season is watching birds at the feeder. We all know the importance of providing easily available food sources for the many avian species that remain in the area during the cold winter months but there are also species […]
Eat locally grown, even in winter….
By Diane Wright Hirsch, MPH, RD UConn Extension Educator, Food Safety Photo: Tomatoes at Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford. Credit: Jude Boucher, UConn Extension After a food-filled holiday season (including, I must confess, raspberries, grown somewhere in South America, in a fruit salad…), it is time that many of us resolve to eat healthier and, perhaps, to attempt […]
Pruning Blueberries
By Mary Concklin, Visiting Associate Extension Educator – Fruit Production & IPM I have heard the question many times, when is the best time to prune blueberries – fall, winter or spring? To answer that question let’s take a look at what is going on with the plant at these different times. I am […]