Urban

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A close up of narrow, long green leaves of a peach tree. Some leaves have curled and are red and distored from peach leaf curl.
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Peach leaf curl spray timing

November 14, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease that only affects peach and nectarine trees. The fungus causes distorted, reddened leaves to appear on the tree in the spring.
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A green backyard lawn surrounded by small shrubs.
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Killing Your Lawn?

November 8, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Kill your lawn! has become a popular phrase and landscaping trend in recent years. Whether you are looking to completely remove your lawn or just renovate it, this article will give you useful information to help you decide how best to do away with your existing lawn and prepare for your new design.
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A person wearing a black shirt scratching their forearm.
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What's Biting Me?!

November 6, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Do you feel like something is biting you? Have red swollen spots on your skin? There are many biting and stinging pests that could cause such reactions, such as mosquitoes, ticks, mites, bed bugs, fleas, and head lice. But sometimes it can be the result of an allergic skin reaction.
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A close up of a brown mouse in a kitchen sink, with dishes in the background.
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Prevent rodents from overwintering in your home!

October 26, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Most people don't think about rats or mice until they become pests in or around the home. But with experts predicting that these pests will be particularly bad this upcoming winter, you might want to spend some more time rodent-proofing your home and other buildings.
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Green feather-like leaves and white flat, clusters of flowers.
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Poisonous Plants in the Landscape

September 19, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Plentiful rainfall in California this spring created an ideal environment for many plants to thrive, including wildflowers, trees, and shrubs that desperately needed the water. However, other potentially harmful species also benefited from the unusually wet weather.
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Several plastic bottles of cleaning solutions and a blue microfiber towel.
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Disinfectants and Sterilizers: The Lesser-known Pesticides

September 18, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
Did you know that disinfectants and sterilizers are pesticides? Any substance that claims to kill, destroy, prevent, or repel a pest, including germs, is considered a pesticide. So cleaning products that claim to sterilize or kill germs on surfaces or be effective against bacteria like E.
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A landscape photo of an oak tree with dying, leafless branches in a meadow of dry brown grass.
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Sudden oak death: what is it?

September 11, 2023
Sudden oak death (SOD) is a disease syndrome that has killed millions of native oak trees (Figure 1) along the west coast of the United States, from Big Sur in California up to Southern Oregon.
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Close up of a green sycamore tree leaf with irregular brown spots.
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Defoliated Sycamore Trees?

September 7, 2023
By Belinda Messenger-Sikes
Have you been seeing a lot of defoliated sycamore trees recently? Sparse foliage and early leaf drop on sycamore trees might be due to anthracnose. The cool, wet spring in many parts of California provided the perfect conditions for this disease.
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Fuzzy-like white spots all over the green pad of a prickly pear cactus.
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White After Labor Day?

September 5, 2023
By Lauren Fordyce
It may be after Labor Day, but some of your plants may still be wearing white, breaking that long-standing fashion rule! While many of us don't adhere to this old rule for our wardrobes these days, you may care about white stuff on your plants this time of year.
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