Welcome to a new gardening blog for Lake County. This blog will offer two things to gardeners. First, there will always be gardening tips and information appropriate to both the season and the gardening needs of Lake County. Second, the blog will let you know about services to gardeners offered by the Lake County office of University of Illinois Extension. Postings to the blog will be on a regular, but not daily basis.

Let's start with that dreaded topic, RAIN. Many areas have certainly had too much of it and it is causing problems not only in the home, but in the garden as well. We have had enough rain that some plants have simply turned completely brown. These plants may be best served by cutting them back. With the amount of rain we have had and the ongoing nature of the rain, fungicides really will not help. So cut brown plants down and get them out of the garden.

Soils are saturated and in that state roots simply have trouble functioning. This is not the time to fertilize. Either the rain will wash a lot of it out of the soil, or the roots won't be able to function well enough to take it up. Try to avoid working the soil (rototilling) as working wet soil can really destroy the structure and make it difficult to plant later. Less is more at this time. You may want to limit your garden activities until things have time to dry out a bit.