Yellowstone County Master Gardener Association

07/09/2025

07/09/2025

Please join the gardeners of Broadwater County for the their Backyards of Broadwater self-guided yard and garden tour. The tour highlights community members with unique and innovative landscapes and gardens, and provides an opportunity to network with others and share the lessons learned along the way. 🌼🌼🌼

07/04/2025

Vegetable gardening expert Susan Mulvihill discusses and demonstrates how and when to harvest your broccoli for the best results. She also explains how to en...

07/04/2025

Oak Leaf Blister
Taphrina caerulescens (fungus)
Symptoms appear early in the summer as blisters, bulges, or depressions on the upper leaf surface. The blistered areas may merge and change color from yellow to brown over time. Infection may also result in leaf distortion.
The fungus overwinters in infected buds, bud scales, and leaf debris. Spores are dispersed in spring and infect newly emerging leaves just after bud break. Infection is most severe under cool, wet conditions. Blisters form on the leaves and produce new spores by midsummer.
This disease may be unsightly, but it typically does not cause severe damage. Fungicides are not usually recommended unless the disease is a continuing problem.
For more detailed information.
https://www.montana.edu/extension/Full_HTML_Pubs/a-guide-to-pests-problems-and-identification-of-ornamental-shrubs-and-trees-in-montana/diseases/oak-leaf-blister.html

07/04/2025

06/28/2025

06/15/2025

It is National Pollinator Week, June 16-22, 2025.
Did you know that Montana has approximately 450 currently identified bee species, including the most bumble bees (28 species documented) of any state in the U.S.? Here are a few ways that you can support native bees in your landscape. To maximize food resources for native bees, plant native flowers of various colors, textures, shapes, and sizes with a diversity of bloom times. Create nesting habitat for bees by leaving small, undisturbed areas of bare soil in a garden to accommodate nesting habitat for ground-nesting bees.

To read more on Native Bee Conservation for Montana Landscapes of Abi Saeed, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Montana State University
https://apps.msuextension.org/magazine/articles/5504 #:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20number%20of,bee%20faunas%20in%20the%20country.

To find out more about Sweat bees Montana Bee Identification Guide
https://urbanipm.montana.edu/resources/mt-bee-id.html

Sweat bee with some major pollen-carrying hind legs.

06/09/2025

06/04/2025

Non-native Dame's Rocket is blooming
Hesperis matronalis
A.K.A. Sweet rocket, dames-wort, damask-violet, mother-of-the evening
Dame’s rocket was brought to North America from Europe as an ornamental in the 1600’s. It escaped cultivation and has been here so long that people assume it is a native wildflower. It is not.
It is not considered a noxious w**d in Montana, but it is a non-native species that out competes native plants. It is suspected that “wildflower” seed mixes have contributed to its dispersion across North America.
To read more about Dame’s rocket
https://www.montana.edu/extension/invasiveplants/extension/monthly-w**d-posts/2016_july.html

05/30/2025