Controlling Field Ants- Tutorial

How to control ants in your yard or sports field organically. Managing field ants on your farm, and how to organically manage ants as pests. Normal Earth is a Consulting Agronomist, Sports Turf Manager, and Gardener offering insights, tips & tricks for Lawncare, Golf Courses, Sports Turf, and Farms.

Wisconsin agronomy, lawncare, landscaping, and cutting-edge organic gardening science.

Integrated Pest Management helpful tips and tricks for organic controls from a trained Turf Manager and Agronomist. At Normal Earth, we empower farmers, ranchers, and gardeners in our community to foster collaborative thinking to further drive agronomy innovation.

By providing passion, knowledge, and ethical farming methods, we help businesses grow organically and nurture a healthy world-first mindset.

Blog at www.NormalEarth.com

Non-Sponsored links and Sources:

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/files...

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/artic...

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/files...

https://physicalplant.wisc.edu/servic...

https://ipcm.wisc.edu/ https://schoolipm.tamu.edu/forms/pest....

https://www.insectidentification.org/...

https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-ant-...

https://www.pestworld.org/pest-guide/....

https://www.pexels.com/search/field%2...

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/...

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/m/pn7411-5.html

https://www.pexels.com/search/field%2...

https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up...

Planning a Garden in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison Garden Styles and Guide for Choosing the Perfect Plants

Madison, Wisconsin, is home to some of the most stunning perennial gardens. Olbrich Botanical Gardens is a 16-acre campus that houses garden styles from around the world.

The average last frost in Madison is April 15, but we should be planning our gardens now and deciding which style and plants to have our landscapers put in. Along with new designs, Normal Earth manages gardens that may have become overgrown, removes and replaces plants that suit our style better, allows us to spend more time in the garden, or even eliminate gardening altogether.

Meadow Garden

Meadow Garden at Olbrich is a beautiful mix of wildflowers, daffodils, and perennial grasses. A meadow garden is a low-maintenance option for designs. Madison homeowners and businesses rely on Normal Earth to design and build these beautiful and trouble-free gardens. Not only do meadow gardens only get mowed twice a year, but they also provide habitat for wildlife and have a gentle, calming presence in the neighborhood.

Rock Garden

Rock gardens are a xeriscaping design employed in many parts of the western United States. They are a low-water option for Madison gardens. With the proper design and build, a rock garden will have few inputs over the year and require minimal upkeep and hand-weeding to control stubborn weeds. Normal Earth puts down a geotextile fabric and clean rock fill around plants. We like to use ornamental grasses of differing sizes to provide a visual line that draws the eye to the front door, offering an attractive and low water option for gardens. Other rock garden features can be birdbaths or sculptures to improve the aesthetic of a home garden.

Use sandhills around your house to create vertical gardens. Normal Earth can plant hardy grasses to protect the hills from erosion. Vertical garden elements can be placed anywhere, whether it's at the top corner of your backyard or just behind the sidewalk outside. They create beautiful shapes between trees without cutting into hardscape vegetation. In addition, sandbanks increase plant cover from deep cuts within tree roots through leaf trunks undergrowth while providing plenty more room than regular landscaping. It also allows you to keep areas clean.

Rose Garden

The rose garden is wonderful and fragrant. Stunning varieties do well in Madison, and Olbrich Gardens has over 700 varieties and another 125 cultivars. Roses come in many shapes and sizes, from tall and slender to short shrubs with petite blooms. Madison is well-suited for roses since we sit in zone 5. Frequently, rose gardens are interspersed with other beautiful perennials such as peonies and smaller ground cover like black-eyed susans, better known as rudbeckia.

Herb Garden

We at Normal Earth have a sprawling herb garden that surrounds our back patio and, down the hill, serves as a border to our raspberry patch. Herb gardens are a delicious and wonderful way to always have herbs and spices on hand. For those with children, an herb garden is a wonderful teaching tool for touch and smell gardens where kids can learn where food and spices come from and help out in the kitchen. In addition, a strong foundation of gardening promotes healthy eating and teaches children about the importance of a healthy earth. Not only do herb gardens provide food, but they can also have medicinal properties.

Zone 5 Perennial Medicinal Plants

Link to free textbooks about plants and gardening!

• Agrimony

• Angelica

• Anise hyssop

• Catnip

• Caraway

• Chives

• Clary sage

• Comfrey

• Costmary

• Echinacea

• Chamomile (depends on variety)

• Lavender (depends on variety)

• Feverfew

• Sorrel

• French tarragon

• Garlic chives

• Horseradish

• Lemon balm

• Lovage

• Marjoram

• Mint hybrids (chocolate, orange, apple)

• Parsley (depends on variety)

• Peppermint

• Rue

• Salad burnet

• Spearmint

• Sweet Cicely

• Oregano (depends on variety)

• Thyme (depends on variety)

• Savory – winter
  

Self-seeding Annuals

*Note, these can get out of hand quickly year over year

• Borage

• Calendula

• Chervil

• Cilantro/Coriander

• Dill

Controlling Weeds in Gardens

Selective herbicides target specific weeds. It's a great approach to apply herbicide for a particular weed that's causing your lawn to be unsightly. Selective herbicides sprayed on each individual weed avoids over spraying for weeds that may not be in your yard. It's not ideal if you don't have the time or inclination (read: money) in this small community near Madison. We need better ways than chemical sprays — alternatives like mulch and composting in the garden! We'd strongly recommend starting by picking out soil amendments from local nurseries & garden centers instead of spraying complete spray programs every year when appropriate.

Normal Earth offers mulching services along with hand-weeding at an hourly rate.

In order "to plant properly," I believe some basic ground cover is necessary where possible. Whether the ground cover is mulch, rocks, ferns, or grasses, the ground cover helps gardens retain moisture and crowds out weeds. Ideally, all areas should be planted 3-6 weeks before the Fall and Spring Equinox when plants do well to begin reaping their rewards from sun exposure.

Designing for Curb Appeal

When creating your project or office landscape, consider how it'll affect neighbors and look attractive for families looking at homes while on walks or looking to buy a home. Gardens and lawns boost green space with an open field that creates shade and a space for relaxing. In addition, vegetable and herb gardens provide seasonal produce as needed throughout the season (this can cost around $10 per head), stimulating outdoor recreation opportunities.

Normal Earth is run by Ben Carlson, a consulting agronomist who offers landscaping, pesticide, and herbicide services for Madison and Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Contact us today for garden design, planting, fertilizer, and weed control

Visit our one-click services tab for quick purchases

Madison Snow and Ice Melt- Home and Businesses In Madison, Wisconsin!

When it snows in Madison, who do you call to melt it away? Normal Earth!

Within the city limits of Madison and Stoughton we apply rock salt ice melter to melt away snow on walkways. It is is economical and effective after a snow event.

We offer Commercial and Residential application on walkways and drives, with careful attention to application rate and ice will not be spread on grass.

It’s snowing in Madison! Hire us to come melt the snow off your driveway and walkways. Professional snow removal with ice melting pre-treatment and rock salt is a safe and effective way to remove ice from your steps, walkways, driveways and parking lots.

We bill at time of service, so no need to pre-pay. Just fill out our form or email us to schedule a service call!

We hand-apply rock salt ice with broadcast spreaders to control snow and ice in Madison and Stoughton.

Schedule us now to be on call for you!

Herbicide and Weed Control in Madison, Wisconsin. Why you Need an Expert

When you’re searching for the best lawn care service near me, you may ask yourself, what is the best weed killer for my lawn? How do I get started with weed control, and should I hire a weed control service?

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DIWhy?

There are so many different options for weed spray and weed treatment for lawns it’s best to consult with an expert who can guide you through the process quickly and make life simple. So let’s look at what it takes to do it yourself and how I can help you navigate all the ins and outs. If you want me to call and discuss lawn weed control services, I’m more than happy to help.

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We’ve all had a lot more time at home this year to stare out the window fondly of the before times, and often times I find myself looking at the lawn wondering, where did THAT spot come from? Is that ANOTHER dandelion? What do my neighbors think? And on, and on...

Why Would I Hire a Local Expert?

It doesn’t have to be a mystery or difficult to control the pesky weeds that pop up in your lawn, and no, it’s not your fault. Weeds are designed to be tough, bothersome, and hard to remove. They grow three times as fast as other plants and set thousands of seeds each year. Some of those seeds can last decades, even hundreds of years in the soil, waiting for just the right moment to ruin your beautiful lawn.

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Weed companies near me are quick to sell a heavy cocktail of chemicals that are impossible to pronounce and don’t have you or your family at mind when they arrive. Giant national chains send out workers who may be licensed but don’t get to know you and ask what kind of lawn weed control you want and how you use your lawn. Often, it’s a one-size approach handed down from corporate, and they don’t care if you and your family have picnics in the backyard and set up tents for campouts as you and your family search for ways to enjoy being at home a little bit more.

It’s all About Timing- and Prescribing a Treatment Plan

Weed removal is a tough job, and as a person who’s had two back surgeries, the last thing I want to do as an agronomist is end up spending time bent over in the garden pulling weeds. There are so many things that can be done to make life easier, but it just takes a bit of planning.

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Let’s talk about weed treatment. We can do two kinds of treatments for our lawns, pre-emergent and post-emergent. But what’s the difference? Isn’t weed killer all the same? Actually, no. Each one is a precise lawn care weed control formulation that either stops the weeds from growing in the first place or halts them in their tracks before they get out of control. In addition, each herbicide has a time of year, temperature requirement, and weed growth cycle that has us jump into action.

How do I know what herbicide to use?

I control weeds based on if they’re a grassy weed or a broadleaf and then dive deeper to find out precisely what weed it is and what the science says I should do and when. So many factors go into it when spraying and controlling weeds, such as: What time of day am I applying? Is there rain expected? What’s the wind speed? How many ounces per gallon? Do we need to split the treatment into a few smaller rounds to ensure we get all the weeds? Do we put out granules or dust or liquid spray? Am I applying fertilizer with the herbicide, is it recommended?

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My professional background

My time working on a PGA Golf Course has taught me a lot about what’s needed for the perfect putting green, but unfortunately, it’s not as easy as a one-shot approach to diagnosing weed control needs. Every patch of grass is different, and there’s a prescription we must write for each of them.

Do I need Chemicals or can we use Organic?

Some people ask if chemicals are the only way to control weeds, to which I answer, NO! I absolutely LOVE organic weed control and could spend hours talking about strategies for tackling even the toughest weeds. There are so many options, from organic fertilizers to mechanical systems.

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Ready to book an appointment with your personal agronomist?

The Robots are COMING

Scientists are developing exciting new technologies and have designed laser robots that can scan and zap weeds run by an automatic A.I. system synced to a satellite and talks to a server halfway around the world. Terrific technologies and tools are being developed to keep organic weed control a viable option for homeowners. I even mow my own personal lawn with an all-electric mower, edger, trimmer, and blower.

More on the FUTURE of Robotic Agronomy to come in a later post!

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Let’s talk Organic

Organic weed control is often a bit more expensive than traditional options, but it’s a great way to give back and make your lawn beautiful and sustainable.

Lawn Care Costs- It’s not that Simple

Lawn service costs vary based on the type of control and how much is needed to get things back to beautiful. Non-selective herbicides do not target certain weeds and are used to clear old vegetation and start with new seeds or sod. I like to use them along fence lines and in really weedy areas. A fresh start with good soil and seed are great ways to tackle challenging problems.

Selective herbicides kill specific weeds. It’s a great approach to target a particular weed that’s causing your lawn to be unsightly and can be used for dandelion, creeping charlie, clover, and other weeds that take control of a lawn.

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Speaking of clover, broadleaf weed control for clovers and other big-leafed weeds varies depending on selectivity but isn’t much more expensive than other weeds we need to address. Perennials and grassy weeds are often similar in price to annual weeds and cost $120 per ¼ acre for each treatment, with organic treatments running $165 for a similar-sized yard.

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Weeds are not the Cause of a Bad Lawn; They are a Symptom.

Grass feed and weed killer combined at the appropriate time is key to promoting healthy grass to crowd out the weeds we want to control. Grasses grow in either bunches and spread by seed, rhizome, or stolon.

If we know what type of grass we have, we can better manage how they grow by giving them the best grass fertilizer and weed killer in a measured balance to have a beautiful lawn.

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Lawn care costs are a part of life, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult task to have the best-looking and performing lawn on the block. Perhaps there’s compaction in part of the lawn that’s stunting the grass from being able to grow, or pets have gifted the yard with damaging organic chemicals. Nevertheless, a beautiful lawn is achievable, and I’m the one to help you figure out what you need to do to either build it back to beautiful yourself or have me come and help you along the way.

Book an appointment now! I’m more than happy to talk about helping you have a beautiful lawn this year.

Episode 1- Two Million Wolves Inside Us

America once had 2 million wolves. Unfortunately, we’ve almost wiped them out. In order for us to understand the anthropogenic affects of colonizing a continent, I’ve put a few resources together. This is in the hopes that you’ll spend some time pondering what’s normal. If you’re interested in learning more about North American wolves, try visiting Gray Wolf Conservation’s site.

Here’s a list of U.S. City sizes if you’d like to find a new place to live. There’s a lot of great information to be found over at the Center for Biological Diversity who have been fighting the current administration’s attempts to remove protections for our devastated population of wolves. Some of the information used in this podcast relating to range estimates were found at Wolf Worlds.

World population explosion is staggering when put into relative terms of the geologic timescale. While there are thousands of contributing factors to our success and dominance of our Normal Earth, it’s a sobering realization that our success is directly related in many ways to the suppression of other species.

Courtesy of OurWorldinData.org

In the abundance of our normal earth’s pre-industrial resources it was believed that forests were inexhaustible and thus were cut down at unfettered rates. In the wake of our technological prowess, we now have inherited a world densely packed and is on the verge of climactic change. OurWorldinData.org

By 2088, it’s estimated that we’ll have another 3 billion people on Earth, or equal to the world’s total population in 1927 added to our numbers. A question I ask myself is why Jeff Bezos is building a bunker inside a mountain, with his space ship parked in the driveway?

To quote from a 2011 Wired Article,

Over the lifetime of this clock, the United States won’t exist,” Bezos tells me. “Whole civilizations will rise and fall. New systems of government will be invented. You can’t imagine the world — no one can — that we’re trying to get this clock to pass through.

Take some time to focus on the natural world around us, not mindlessly consuming it. If we’re going to survive the next hundred years there have to be drastic changes to how we treat the natural world. Below are some of the resources I suggest reading and exploring as we talk about how much humans have contributed to our world in good and bad, and what we can do to learn from the past.

Reading from the firsthand accounts of Spanish colonization shows not only the resource destruction, but also of civilization collapse.

America : being the latest, and most accurate description of the New World : containing the original of the inhabitants, and the remarkable voyages thither : the conquest of the vast empires of Mexico and Peru, and other large provinces and territories, with the several European plantations in those parts : also their cities, fortresses, towns, temples, mountains, and rivers : their habits, customs, manners, and religions : their plants, beasts, birds, and serpents : with an appendix containing, besides several other considerable additions, a brief survey of what hath been discover'd of the unknown south-land and the Arctick region

John Ogilby & Arnoldus Montanus-1671

READ ONLINE FREE

DOWNLOAD FREE KINDLE BOOK HERE

Possible Target Corridor for Sustainable Use of Global Material Resources - Stefan Bringezu

In order to understand some of the policy issues surrounding global consumption, the research done by Wuppertal Institute and Center for Environmental Systems Research is a good starting point for anyone wishing to know just how much we consume, and where we need to be in order to maintain homeostasis of our available resources. To read the full article, click HERE

With headlines such as:

Earth has lost half of its wildlife in the past 40 years, says WWF

we find ourselves in a precarious situation. Emotional responses to reports like these swing wildly in both directions, with dissent dismissing human impact freely and openly on the 24-hour news circuit. Pulling from the article, we read statements such as:

A second index in the new Living Planet report calculates humanity’s “ecological footprint”, ie the scale at which it is using up natural resources. Currently, the global population is cutting down trees faster than they regrow, catching fish faster than the oceans can restock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them and emitting more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oceans and forests can absorb.

And so for now, dear friends, I leave you with the “Last Will and Testament” of a prolific social scientist Mayer Hillman in his final article, titled:

‘We’re doomed’: Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention