Southwestern Deserts
January, 2012
Regional Report
National News - From NGA Editors
Boost your Nutrition
Eat a rainbow! That's the advice that nutritionists give us for choosing the most healthful produce. Richly colored fruits and vegetables -- bright reds, vibrant oranges, deep greens -- are not...
Can You FreezePruf Your Plants?
It sounds like a gardener's dream -- a spray that will safely make plants hardier. And that is exactly what researchers at the University of Alabama and Miami University in Ohio have developed....
Take a Sunset Cruz
If you are looking for a ″knock-your-socks-off″ plant for a container or hanging basket this summer, look no further than the arching form and dangling, fiery orange bells of Begonia...
The Value of Urban Trees
What is a tree on a city street worth? More than you might expect when you take into account all the benefits that trees provide in the urban landscape. This is what Alejandro Chiriboga, an Ohio...
In the Garden
Cochineal Scale
Have you noticed a white, cotton candy-like fluff spreading on your prickly pear or cholla cacti? This substance is the waxy protective secretion of a very tiny cochineal scale insect that is only about the size of a pinhead.
Cochineal scale...
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Resources
Books
Cochineal Scale and the Color Red Red. It is hard to imagine now, but during the Renaissance, something as mundane as the color red...
Favorite or New Plant
Indian Fig If you want to grow and harvest cochineal scale for your own natural dye projects, try...
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Regional Reminders
- Thin Wildflowers
- Plan for Rainwater Harvesting
- Fertilize Annual Flowers and Vegetables as Needed
- Harvest Peas Regularly
- Sharpen Pruning Tools
